[9541] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Internet in a box
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dick St.Peters)
Sun Jan 9 18:15:53 1994
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 94 18:09:22 EST
From: stpeters@spare-parts.crd.ge.com (Dick St.Peters)
To: jrg@galloway.sj.ca.us
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Reply-To: <stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com>
> 2) Once the end user has this (or any other IP) capability what purpose
> does the BBS serve?
None, one hopes. (Well, I hope.)
Along the same lines, I think a recent comment of mine about the
desireability of bringing IP to the BBS crowd in order to bring them
into the fold was misread by some. The idea isn't to bring the BBS's
to the Internet; it is to make a better alternative available to the
"unwashed masses" ... to get them to take a bath in real networking
before they become entrenched in the BBS world.
The message being sent to the vast majority of the people in this
country/world is that they don't belong on the Internet yet. The
implicit subtext is that they should go play with BBS's - with everyone
assuming that when providers are ready to offer them IP, they'll line
up for it in droves.
I'm not so sure. The way BBS's are being linked, it could turn out
to be they who decide they don't need us.
Beware the killer micros?
--
Dick St.Peters
GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com
