🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <WORLEY.91Jun21102706@sn1987a.compass.com> worley@compass.com (Dale Worley) writes:

   Up until now, The Net has been like the Hippie Movement.  We get a
   great playground, while businesses and the government pay for it.  The
   trouble is that The Net is not just a plaything anymore.  If we want
   to have it become an "information infrastructure" for the country,
   it's got to grow much, much larger than it is now, and it won't be
   able to live as a parasite.  It's got to go commercial, and that means
   that people are going to have to pay for their usage.

You mean we don't pay for it now?  Does that mean somehow we're not paying
$20,000/year to NYSERNet?

Ahhhh, you mean pay-per-usage.

set Pontification-mode=on

    When a shared resource is not being overused, flat rates work fine.
    People prefer flat rates.  When that resource becomes scarce,
    either the flat rate must rise to increase the resource, or
    pay-per-usage becomes necessary.  The timing of the transition
    from flat rates to pay-per-usage is difficult.

    Whole books have been written to explain the previous paragraph, so I
    don't expect you to absorb it all at once.

set Pontification-mode=off

Now, when you decry those who think information should be free, you
are partly saying that you don't like flat rates.  That's fine, but I
think you'll find yourself in the minority.

--
--russ <nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu> I'm proud to be a humble Quaker.
I am leaving the employ of Clarkson as of June 30.  Hopefully this email
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