🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <442g14$p3a@giga.bga.com>, bladex@bga.com (David Smith) wrote:

>Oh, Sue Beckwith.  I didn't recognize what you were referring to under 
>the universal access tag.  I am sure Gene Crick will pontificate greatly 
>when he returns from vacation, as he has had much more experience and 
>contact with her than I have.  I've briefly met her once, and read a 
>press release, but what I know is that she is working as a liaison from 
>the City of Austin to make Internet access outlets available where they 
>are not now.  Carver Library, in East Austin, is the first location I 
>believe.

----> Actually, both Gene & I know Sue rather well as we (Gene & I) are
active members of  the Metropolitan Austin Interactive Network (MAIN). 
MAIN & the Austin FreeNet are working toward the same goal.  MAIN is
entirely privately supported while FreeNet has City funding.

BTW, it is MAIN (not Austin FreeNet) that is installing internet service
at the Carver and Dove Springs libraries.  That's really my point.  Why
should taxpayer dollars be spent on initiatives that are being undertaken
by private citizens (and corporate donors like AMD, Applied Materials &
Sun Microsystems)?

>Were you at that meeting at La Madalein two, three months ago?  I opened 
>a volley of questions from ISPs about the extent of providing free access 
>to the Internet, and the general consensus in the room was that the 
>project did not offer much of a threat in terms of competition.  These 
>outlets are in places serving people who would not otherwise have access. 
>Plus they are limited by having a 20 minute time limit.  The thinking was 
>that people would look at the Net, get a sense of what it was, use it a 
>bit, and then seek out a commercial ISP.

-----> Yes, I agree entirely.  I'm not worried about competition from the City.

>But I guess your point is whether this is something the City of Austin 
>really needs to be doing, or whether the natural cycles of implementing 
>technology will adequately address.  Or that perhaps Ms. Beckwith's
>salary and skills as a librarian could be put to use some place else.

-----> Exactly!


Mike Byrnes

-- 
Mike Byrnes
mbyrnes@tpoint.net