[1399] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Settling of Internet: with a smile, please!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (JUDYK@LIB.TECHNION.AC.IL)
Tue Oct 6 11:25:03 1992
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 10:20:02 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
From: JUDYK@LIB.TECHNION.AC.IL
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I found the pioneers/settlers analogy both amusing and thought-provoking.
I was a bit sorry, then, to see Claudia Lynch's reaction to one
phrase of it:
(The original:)
>> Last summer saw the passing of the era of the wild, wild
>>Internet. It is now up to those of us who have settled these new
>>territories to develop rules, regulations, and guidebooks that
>>will make information available equitably for everyone.
(The reaction):
>Wow, I guess all those "rules, regulations, and guidebooks" that I have
>been consulting for quite some time now (before the "historical" last
>summer) were just a figment of my imagination. I am SO thankful of your
>existance as an "information organizer" -- I will sleep better with this
>knowledge :/
I get the feeling Claudia meant this to be funny, but to me it came
over as uncomfortably sarcastic. Such preventable things are flame wars
made of. I should know, I've made the same mistake myself...
A smiley :-) would have helped.
PS: just in case it was meant the way it sounds: surely Internet
country is still far from that late stage of settlement where you
have to watch out in case an army of lawyers rebukes you for having
used the words "last summer" to refer to any time before June 23rd...?
Or for talking of developing rules, regulations and guidebooks without
specifying in the small print that some do indeed exist, but the
first 2 are too complicated (//DD etc.) and specific and there are not
enough of the third...? Legalese goes very ill with the joy of
discovery, which is what I thought we were talking about.
Ah well, takes all sorts to make a world. Even lawyers. (*Now* am I
gonna get flamed!! :-) )
-----------------------------------------------------
| Judy Koren, |
| Head, Technical Services, Elyachar Central Library, |
| The Technion -- Israel Institute of Technology, |
| Haifa, Israel 32000. |
| |
| Email: judyk@lib.technion.ac.il |
| or: lbjudy@vmsa.technion.ac.il |
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