[844] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: building an interstate (data) highway with no roadmaps
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Quarterman)
Mon Jun 17 16:54:56 1991
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 91 15:42:03 CDT
From: jsq@tic.com (John Quarterman)
To: emv@ox.com
Cc: com-priv@uu.psi.com, jsq@tic.com
>who is going to provide the moral equivalent of the rand-mcnally road
>atlas, the texaco road maps, the aaa trip-tiks?
Some of my favorite analogies.
No single organization is likely to be able to solve all the problems
you mention. However, there are a number of organizations that are
capable of funding coordination work for it. In addition to ANS,
whom you mention, there are CIX, CNI, and NSF, at least. NSF recently
held a NIC Workshop on this question, and CNI discussed it at their
recent directory services workshop.
The real solution is probably going to be in the privatization of the
networks themselves. Network providers will provide networks. They
will probably also run NICs for their own networks, but they will
likely buy broader information and directory services from other
organizations.
Most directory information needs to come from primary sources (the
actual person listed or the author of a software package). This
requires incentive for such people to be listed. That requires
somebody to go out and penetrate that market, just as telephone
directory personnel will call people to confirm or request listings.
Knowbots are Nice, archie is amazing, WAIS is wonderful, and something
like them is necessary. But software won't solve all our problems:
we're not talking about directing bits; we're talking about informing
people. We need to get information from people and present it to
people in ways that they can use readily. And we're not just talking
about roadmaps: we're talking about historical atlases, guidebooks,
and restaurant ratings. Not just Rand-McNally, but also Frommer's
and le Guide Michelin.
These are labor-intensive tasks. Money will be required to pay
researchers, editors, and others. The total will be larger than,
e.g., NSF, is likely to be willing to pay. Charging will be necessary,
even though that's not the tradition of the Internet.
The CNI and NSF NIC workshops are discussed in the current issue
of Matrix News, the paper newsletter of Matrix Information and
Directory Services, Inc. (MIDS). (Why paper? How do we recover
costs if we distribute over the networks? We're working on it....)
This issue also contains comments on the relations of existing
services such as archie and the Internet Resource Guide to organizations
that might be able to fund them (the next issue will go into more
detail on that subject). This and other issues have references
to many of the existing guidebooks (IRG, UDCN, ER&DEMD, !%@::,
The Matrix, LITA and NREN) and network information projects
(IRG, archie, netfind, and WAIS). There is discussion of policy,
boundaries, and legal issues. The guest editorial this month
is by Mitch Kapor.
Anyone who wants a free sample copy of Matrix News can get one
by sending a request and a paper post address to mids@tic.com.
Thanks,
John
--
John S. Quarterman
Matrix Information and Directory Services, Inc. (MIDS)
701 Brazos, Suite 500 jsq@tic.com
Austin, TX 78701 +1-512-320-9031
U.S.A. fax: +1-512-320-5821
