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On Fri, 14 Apr 1995, Tristan Bostone wrote:

> 
> I think you're right on target with your e-mail. Very well
> written.
> 
> I'm probably one of the few people on this list whose
> paycheck is paid primarily with money from "information
> superhighway tools", thanks to UUNET's service fees.
> I guess that makes us a "toll road".

I was responsible for "Alternate distribution" of Dow Jones news, 
including Sattellite and Internet.  I did succeed in putting up a server, 
and setting up the necessary structures for charging through WAIS.
The "free trial" period lasts a short time and once your hooked, you are 
willing to pay.

> I usually tell people that the Internet is like the phone
> system, except there's competition, and the "answering
> machines" are a lot more interesting.  There's no TV
> guide to the internet and there can't be.  There are lists
> of registered domains, which is the equivalent of a
> telephone number.  But what content is available at those
> nodes?  Who knows?

Some companies want you to know everything about some of their servers.  
Sunsite or TSX-11 or CICA are "wide open".  Others, only send out 
encrypted feeds through a non-standard port through fire-walls and 
tightly filtered routers connected directly through common carriers.
Can you guess which is more expensive?

> The internet is very narrow in terms of what it will support
> and what it won't.
Actually there are different "cities" within the internet.  A newsgroup 
is more volitile than a mailing list (Like Jersey City or Newark).  A
Web Page, found through an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal
can be blatenly commercial.

> Somewhere in or on the edges of this
> are profitible niches.  The internet is a seller's market,
> because it's free and largely volunteer.
It is a true "free market" of information.  Some sources are free and 
worthless (alt.bizarre, alt.flame,...), others are ego trips for the 
writer and priceless campaign fodder to the readers on congressional 
staffs (alt.child.support, talk.politics.republican...).
Some are valuable for the dialogue (comp.arch, comp.os.* 
comp.ms-windows-nt.bugs).  And some are informational to the reader and 
valuable to the poster (comp.sun.announce, PR-NewsWire).  Some are only 
valuable for a few minutes (stock quotes), others are only valuable as 
archives (wais.net).

> As a "buyer",
> I have absolutely no ecominic power to "demand" anything
> on the net, because its all free and there's no way to pay
> for it.
Correction, there are MANY ways to pay for it.  Some servers may not take 
your version of a credit card.  FirstVirtual, Digicash, CheckFree, and 
NetScape all have their own way of processing "payments", and only one 
(First Virtual) is available under general public license.

>  (And I probably am not willing too.)  So providers
> have both the incredible freedom of content, and the
> straightjacket of not being able to charge a dime.

Again, this only partly true.  The ability charge is a function of 
agreement between the clients and the servers.  If there are 1 million 
clients that can't use the "secure sockets" feature of NetScape, the
$25,000 entry price for the server is pointless.

The ultimate server would let me use it for a few weeks and let me 
negotiate a price with it.  Most would be "health club memberships" anyway.
You know, you look in the mirror, decide you should start working out, 
and 3 weeks after you joine the gym, your at the beach, beer belly and all.

	Rex Ballard
	(non-drinker)


From rballard@cnj.digex.net Mon Apr 24 22:14:52 1995
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