[9752] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Sizing the Internet market
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (James Gleick)
Wed Jan 19 15:31:49 1994
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 94 15:30:20 EST
From: gleick@pipeline.com (James Gleick)
To: com-priv@psi.com
Cc:
Lloyd Brodsky asked:
>3. To what extent is the legendarily difficult
character-based
> VT100 Internet interface you get with almost all dial-up
accounts
> a genuine bar to access? Put another way if, say, a
Mosaic-style
> GUI interface were operable over an ordinary dial-up
account how
> many more people would sign up that would not otherwise? I
might
> also ask, since a SLIP connection would permit the use of
Mosaic,
> if it would make a big difference why don't providers hand
out
> SLIP-preconfigured copies now?
I can tell you (self-servingly--caveat emptor) that it makes an
enormous difference. We have just begun offering a Windows
interface, and it is absolutely clear that we are drawing a
customer base for whom the interface is not just a bit of added
value. Rather, it is the difference between using the Internet
and not using it--period.
(I should say that this is not Mosaic, and doesn't even include
HTML support for now. It is a unified interface combining mail,
News, gopher, FTP, archie, etc.)
Another indicator: our only dialup numbers are local to New
York, but we are drawing a substantial number of customers who
live out of town--some out of the country--and are now
maintaining double accounts, one for their local dialup and
ours for the interface. (That is, they dial their local service
and then log in here remotely.)
SLIP is a different story, in my view. It just ain't easy
yet--requires too much responsibility and knowledge on the end
user's part, no matter how attractive Mosaic is.
James Gleick
The Pipeline
