[1293] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Are all public-access resources public?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (PEMMONS%WCU.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu)
Wed Sep 23 12:48:25 1992
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1992 11:18:23 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
From: PEMMONS%WCU.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: Your message of 09/21/92 13:38
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Is it possible to distinguish between formal and informal sharing of
information in the Internet context?
Yes: Formal sharing acknowledges the importance of the information, i.e. what
you know. Informal sharing acknowledges the importance of the old-boy network,
i.e. whom you know. Is the Internet supposed to be a network of the old-boy
type?
Time only will tell what is least realistic; (1) Believing that information is
property which can be locked up like silver bullion; (2) Believing that
information is produced out of the kindness of heart of people who don't have
to eat; (3) The continued survival of a modern democracy. As an academic
librarian, it becomes increasingly apparent that the needs of young students
for information necessary to their education (or at any rate, what they and/or
their instructors consider necessary) are not being adequately supported or
subsidized. While bending the rules devotedly to try to make it available to
them "informally" may seem the charitable way to go in the short run, it
papers over an unsatisfactory state of affairs with which the public might
better be confronted at every opportunity.
