[9587] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Gore Speech & Bell Atlantic Reply (Attn. Ray Smith)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Eric Rabe)
Wed Jan 12 22:42:26 1994
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 22:39:50 -0500 (EST)
From: Eric Rabe <rabe@ba.com>
To: David Rothman <rothman@netcom.com>
Cc: com-priv@psi.com, COSNDISC <cosndisc@yukon.cren.org>,
In-Reply-To: <2967420372.4.p00997@psilink.com>
Thanks for your thoughtful message. Of course, Bell Atlantic cannot
provide all the solutions to the challenge of connecting schools to the
vast range of information available electronically. We do believe as
we've said that our offer to provide a connection that shcools can use to
reach various electronic sources is an important first step. We hope you
agree.
Eric Rabe
Bell Atlantic | Internet: rabe@ba.com
On Tue, 11 Jan 1994, David Rothman wrote:
> >FROM: Eric Rabe <rabe@ba.com>
> [Eric Rabe is with Bell Atlantic, of which Ray Smith is chairman]
> >
> >*********************************************************
> > RESPONSE STATEMENT TO VICE PRESIDENT GORE'S SPEECH
> > ON THE ADMINISTRATION'S TELECOMMUNICATIONS INITIATIVES
> >*********************************************************
> [...]
> > Bell Atlantic and TCI announced
> >yesterday that we will provide free connections to
> >K-12 classrooms in our service areas. This is just one
> >example of the benefits telecommunications service
> >providers can offer. We believe the possibilities are
> >virtually limitless in an open market where all can
> >compete fairly.
> [...]
>
> Eric, I downloaded your news release and read the following: "The
> companies also explained that, although the Basic Education Connection
> is free, many service providers who offer educational products over the
> information superhighway are likely to charge for those products."
>
> You, of all people, know how true those words are. Bell Atlantic and
> other corporations are not going to give children all the e-books and
> educational software they need. Not even your employer can afford it;
> ditto for private people like Walter Annenberg.
>
> Instead, then, we should establish a comprehensive National Library
> online--full of affordable e-books and software, and cost-justified to
> the taxpayers. I suggest a three-part program, which has already been
> endorsed by people ranging from Afro American activists to William F.
> Buckley, Jr.:
>
> 1. The federal government would encourage the production of
> sharp-screened, low-cost computers optimized for reading, writing, K-12
> networking, and other worthwhile purposes. Washington wouldn't get
> computers for every child. Instead it would buy portables for schools
> and libraries to loan out, thereby creating a core market, which in turn
> would drive down the costs for private citizens. Remember how the
> government unwittingly helped the laptop industry grow through
> procurement for Treasury, the military, and the rest? Same idea.
>
> The needs is clear. Dartmouth University has 8,000 computers for 5,000
> students; on the other hand, the student-computer ratio for American
> public schools is 16-1, and most of the machine are too fuzzy-screened
> to be book-friendly. Besides, portables, not the regular desktops, are
> the best solutions here. Like 30-inch HDTVs, desktop computers aren't
> the coziest machines for a child to read with.
>
> 2. The National Library would work toward a comprehensive collection of
> e-books and educational software for rich and poor alike. Subscriptions
> would be free or for small fees based on family income. Many librarians
> in many cities would have purchasing power to avoid domination by
> Washington or New York. If encryption were used in a way I describe in
> my TeleRead proposal, the National Library could also buy free books for
> *local* libraries to distribute. Books could reach readers via phone,
> cable, cellular, and otherwise.
>
> Publishers and writers would receive fair compensation and, in fact, do
> better than under the present system, in which printers and book chains
> siphon away all too much. Telcom companies could be publishers with
> fewer anti-trust problems since the National Library would be the main
> distribution system. Every now and then I hear that Ray Smith wants
> children to keep reading. ; Here's a chance for him to speak up and
> prove it.
>
> As long as U.S. schools are becoming more segregated, rich and poor
> children should be able to dial up books from the same national
> library. Knowledge stamps won't do. We know the money just is not there
> for the children of the inner city and our rural areas.
>
> Al Gore can talk all he wants about the little girl in Tennessee dialing
> up the Library Congress, but will she be able to retrieve *every* book
> or program there? Shouldn't she have the same chance as a doctor's
> daughter in Beverly Hills? If you at Bell Atlantic spoke up now, I
> suspect that you'd find the White House most open minded. To use a word
> popular in D.C., Bell is a "stakeholder." Why not insist that Al Gore's
> neighbor be one too?
>
> Significantly, even with an online National Library as a goal, there
> would still be an opportunity for private industry and people like
> Walter Annenberg to help if they wanted. They could fund demo projects.
> But, please, let's realize that *tax* money is the only way to assure
> enough resources to wipe out the proverbial "savage inequalities."
> Raymond Smith needs to do his civic duty and speak his mind if he truly
> believes in well-stocked electronic libraries for rich and poor alike.
>
> As Andrew Carnegie once write, "I think that an institution has not
> taken root and is scarely worth maintaining unless the community
> appreciates it sufficiently to tax itself for maintenance." The same
> principle would apply to a national library of e-books and ed software.
>
> 3. The U.S. would cost-justify the above by way of smart electronic
> forms for transactions with local, state and federal government,
> especially the IRS. Right now we're spending hundreds of billions of
> dollars a year on government-related paperwork, according to the U.S.
> Chamber of Commerce. If smart electronic forms drove down the costs by
> just a fraction, the forms would cost-justify themselves; as you know
> the cost of government isn't just in taxes per se but in paperwork.
> Besides, wouldn't e-forms be yet another opportunity for Bell and the
> like? Why not work to speed up and expand the existing government plans
> in this area?
>
> Coincidentally, during the Electronic Media Summit in LA, the woman with
> Nickelodeon said she hoped that the new technology would reduce
> government-created paperwork; here's a direct way.
>
> We could phase in the electronic forms as the same time we did the
> e-books so that if anything, the taxpayers would come out *ahead* as
> the program grew.
>
> The latest version of teleread.txt (170K) is available to you or anyone
> else via e-mail to me at rothman@netcom.com.
>
> For the sake of your stockholders, you might take a look. Al Gore is
> calling for universal high-tech service in all areas, but what happens
> if you build the service and then the customers don't come? Here's a way
> to stimulate demand in a way that serves the public interest *and* helps
> you raise capital.
>
> **************************************************************************
> David H. Rothman "So we beat on, boats against
> rothman@netcom.com the current...."
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