[8824] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Imminent Death of the Net As We Know It (was Re: One-way Internet?...)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sean mclinden)
Mon Dec 6 10:30:06 1993
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1993 10:16:01 -0500 (EST)
From: sean mclinden <sean@dsl.pitt.edu>
To: stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <9312042322.AA02403@spare-parts.crd.Ge.Com>
On Sat, 4 Dec 1993, Dick St.Peters wrote:
> He [Karl] had a press release or some such about a new access approach
>'Spry' from Sprint that appears to put people on the net at very low cost
> without providing them anything else, something that had the potential
> to create legions of new users of existing free services without
> contributing anything to the services pool. I think a rough statement
> of principle here is that if you create users who use my free services,
> you should add value by providing free services that my customers can use.
> I was trying to argue, much too obliquely I guess, that if Karl is right
> about what he described, this community principle is breaking down.
>
> I wasn't intending to argue anything about monopolies or government
> structures, only that given a choice between supporting a business
> that is community spirited and one that costs less, eventually people
> choose the one that costs less.
Dick:
My thesis is that if your window is big enough, you come to realize that
what you observe is one point in a cycle.
For example, a number of businesses (Ford, Motorola) have returned to the
concept that consumer-supplier relationship depends upon both recognizing
the needs of the other. It may not be in Ford's best interests to buy
from the cheapest supplier because the more expensive, longer-term
relationship may yield more benefits. Similarly, I buy many of my books
from the local bookseller because he'll make more of an effort to find me
an out of print book than the Barnes and Noble Superstore. I ride Amtrak
(at almost twice the rate of discount plane fares) because I want to do
what I can to keep these guys in business. I patronize the local grocery
store (for which I pay a premium price), because they got me masa harina
when the local chain just laughed.
Of course, in order to make such choices, I need to be educated as to the
future value and benefits of the service and provider; I need to have a
long term objective and strategy not simply a short term demand.
And therein lies the problem. You don't know what you got 'til its gone.
We (Americans, anyway) don't spend enough time learning history and we're
too focussed on the short term gain and not enough on the long term
objective. But most of all, we don't give a darned about the
"environment" whether it be the streams and lakes or the information
infrastructure.
Is that our nature, our fate, or the failings of our educational system?
Sean
