🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1992Sep3.103330.1@cc.newcastle.edu.au> sysnet@cc.newcastle.edu.au (David Morrison) writes:

>I have to wonder what it is that the small sites actually value from an AARNet 
>connection?  Is it mail access?  Is it news?  Would they want a connection if 
>they could send and receive mail but not get news?  How much would they be 
>prepared to pay for a mail-only connection?

For me, I value news more than mail, because of the information I get from
it and the possibilities for contacting people on the other side of the world
who have similar interests.  I still have use for mail though.  Some people
may find a mail-only connection attractive if they wanted to communicate with
fellow researchers, friends, family, business partners, etc overseas or in
other parts of the country.

I can't give you exact costs for what people want, but maybe comparisons should
be made to other conventional services.  e.g. the telephone service, to compare
the cost of the (voice) information that can be sent in a 5 minute phone call
to somewhere overseas to the same information sent to the same destination via
the net.  Similarly for sending a 2 page letter via postal mail, compared with
the equivalent on the net.

Cheers,

Rhys.
--
Rhys Weatherley, University of Queensland, Australia.
rhys@cs.uq.oz.au  "I'm a FAQ nut - what's your problem?"