[9588] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Gore & Bell At.: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington? Why Not?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Rothman)
Thu Jan 13 02:07:22 1994
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.85.9401122249.G5538-0100000@ba>
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 02:03:32 -0400
To: "Eric Rabe" <rabe@ba.com>
Cc: distribution.@netcom.com@worldlink.worldlink.com; (see end of body)
From: "David Rothman" <rothman@netcom.com>
Reply-To: rothman@netcom.com
>DATE: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 22:39:50 -0500 (EST)
>FROM: Eric Rabe <rabe@ba.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 schools can use to
>reach various electronic sources is an important first step. We hope you
>agree.
Greatly appreciated your note, Eric. Yes, the Basic Education Connection
is a *start*; but will Ray Smith the book-lover strive for more? Will he
remind the White House that even Bell Atlantic can do only so much--that
user-to-user subsidies for information can go only so far without
turning rich against poor and vice versa? And will Mr. Smith ask
Washington to start a program to drive down the cost of sharp-screened
computers optimized for reading, writing, K-12 networking, and other
worthwhile endeavors? Too, how about use of the same portable computers
for smart e-forms to reduce bureaucracy's burden on us taxpayers--and
cost-justify a comprehensive national library online?
All those measures would help schoolchildren and others, while sending
more money in your employer's direction. In fact, if I happened to be a
shareholders rights advocate and owned Bell Atlantic stock, which I
don't, I'd ask exactly the same questions. Can't Bell Atlantic resist
well-meant but mistaken efforts to divide up the information pie?
Instead shouldn't Washington use cost-justified means to enlarge the
pie?
Besides, mightn't you pick up more than a few allies, not only other big
communications companies but also educators? Please note that an older
teleread.txt is on the CoSN gopher (I hope it'll be updated). That's not
an endorsement at this point, necessarily, but shows that some savvy,
school-type folks are open to alternatives to the old panaceas.
Can't Bell Atlantic help here? Wouldn't Ray Smith like to be an Andrew
Carnegie of the new era and get worthwhile projects started but tell
politicians, "It's up to you folks to finish the job, but of course
we'll support you when you fight for Al Gore's little neighbor-girl"?
Can't this Mr. Smith go to Washington? Who says populism cannot be good
business? Your Mr. Smith needn't run for Congress; he need only realize
that there was more than a little of the movie Smith in Carnegie at his
best.
How could your Mr. Smith lose? Mr. Gore himself has talked of the
Tennessee girl hooking into an electronic Library of Congress. All you'd
be doing would be to help him live out his original dream. If we rely on
user-to-user route, the little neighbor-girl either won't be able to
dial in, or will be able to call up far, far fewer books than rich
children can. I couldn't believe that Mr. Gore is oblivious to that. A
dash of encouragement from Mr. Smith and other "stakeholders" could work
wonders.
I'd most appreciate your conveying the TeleRead proposal to Mr. Smith;
encouraging him to study it at length; passing on his reactions; and
continuing the present dialogue. I can e-mail you--or anyone else
reading this message--the latest teleread.txt (170K) in a flash.
Thanks,
David Rothman
**************************************************************************
David H. Rothman "So we beat on, boats against
rothman@netcom.com the current...."
805 N. Howard St., #240
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with unnecessary restrictions on the flow of knowledge!
**************************************************************************
>
>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...."
>> 805 N. Howard St., #240
>> Alexandria, Va. 22304
>> 703-370-6540(o)(h)
>> NOTE TO PEOPLE REPLYING *PRIVATELY* TO MY LIST POSTINGS: PLEASE DIRECT YOUR
>> RESPONSES ONLY TO ME (ROTHMAN@NETCOM.COM) RATHER THAN
>> TO THE ENTIRE LIST. BE CAREFUL THAT YOUR SOFTWARE DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY
>> SEND YOUR NOTE TO EVERYONE ELSE, TOO.
>> I *encourage* online reproduction of my public postings.
>> Permission hereby granted--implicit, explicit, whatever. Down
>> with unnecessary restrictions on the flow of knowledge!
>> **************************************************************************
>>
>>
>>
>
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