[9439] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
What is the glue? (was: Re: Aikens last ...)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ed Levinson)
Wed Jan 5 11:51:14 1994
To: Stef=ietf@nma.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com, ietf@cnri.reston.va.us, isoc-trustees@cnri.reston.va.us
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 05 Jan 94 00:08:24 PST."
Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 10:45:17 -0500
From: Ed Levinson <elevinso@accurate.com>
Stef and Noel,
Your question of the composition of the Internet glue
Stef posits that the glue holding the Internet together is the
economic self interest of its independent members. And, I suggest
and perhaps implied by Stef the personal satisfation of the players.
Noel points to the "character" and "good will" of the players.
Economic interest alone is not sufficient, nor is character and good
will.
Some parties may be short sighted and view individual, short term,
gains as most important even at the expense of long term group gains.
That is, just make my slice bigger, don't worry about the whole pie.
People with a long term view have reasonable concerns this may occur
especially as the Internet pie grows larger. Can character and good will
alone deal with those without these attributes effectively, I think
not. Those with good will, character and intelligence just get
frustrated and eventually shift to more rewarding arenas.
But Stef's paradigm of many one-ended providers trying to provide arbitrary
two-ended service provides an inkling of what really makes "cures" the
glue. I suggest that providing two-ended service creates a feedback
mechanism that rewards long-term economic players and those of good will.
It is the feedback which is necessary and the economic, personal
satisfaction, and good will together are sufficient.
The idea that feedback is the curing agent suggests that we look at
the mechanisms of that feedback so that as the organization of the
Internet enterprise evolves we not weaken the feedback but strengthen
it. Perhaps it is those mechanisms which underly much of what we do
today. Creating common protocols and public domain implementations
occur to me as feedback processes. There must be much, much more.
Best.../Ed
someone care to ana
will motivations
both of these views as two sides of the same coin,
To borrow from Stef's paradigm, the Internet provides quality service
