[9548] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Internet in a box
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Clay Shirky)
Sun Jan 9 23:15:16 1994
From: Clay Shirky <clays@panix.com>
To: jrg@galloway.sj.ca.us
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 23:13:50 -0500 (EST)
Cc: bmanning@is.rice.edu, stpeters@dawn.crd.ge.com, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <199401100309.AA14964@bolero.rahul.net> from "John Galloway" at Jan 9, 94 07:09:40 pm
> I'm not so sure. The nationwide or regional provider will be able
> to reap economies of scale the local shop will not, and the answer
> for support is making the technology support itself, not to provide
> nearby humans. After all when was the last time you needed help in
> configuring your telephone or water/power utility service?
These are relatively stable technologies compared to the net. Furthermore,
people rarely take it upon themselves to write custom scripts for their
kitchen sinks. The scale, rate of change and degree of customizability all
make human support invaluable. As someone noted here, people want to buy
technology off the shelf right up to the moment where they need help.
--
Clay Shirky
