🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <ELI.94Jun2003407@wheat.cisco.com> eli@cisco.com (Steve Elias) writes:
>giving internet access to Joe on the Street or Joe in the Slammer or
>the Single Welfare Mom needn't be a negative situation like our
>current welfare setup is.

Do we actually want Joe in the Slammer's drivel adding to the noise
level on the net? It is not just a matter of cost, but a matter of
overall value of the traffic.

>John! *you* could do this too with all your telecom resources
>yet another way to save taxpayer money for other tasks or less
>taxes.  are you spending any of your own time or money helping any
>schools in your area with computer/network/telecom expertise? will
>you wait for the govt to throw in some $$ before you step in as a
>consultant perhaps?!!!  ;) 

What makes you think that I do not already? In addition to supplying
news and mail to a number of BBSes in the area and actively
contributing resources to a community network, I supply connections to
a school district in the central valley, plus carry all of the traffic
to and from a high desert learning center complex fully AT MY EXPENSE.
I provide the resources and I pay the phone bills. The government gets
no bows for any of it.

>while you argue about whether it is a good idea to get the internet
>into poor neighborhoods as a potential positive & learning influence,
>others can applaud that such is now planned regardless of your
>argument.  thanks partly to Clinton and Gore.  unfortunately, Tipper
>might want to censor it all...

I don't suppose that those who are all for this "network populi"
approach to the ISH have ever considered that what the government
funds, the government controls--no exceptions. So while the Internet is
possibly described as "anarchistic" today, when the government starts
picking up some of the tab for the "offramps", it will also be a little
selective about what travels thereon.

>personally i have pen pals under the age of 13 in Russia.  i would
>like to email the students and computer staff across the
>street in East Palo Alto - they across the street.  

In many schools, like the ones that I provide service to, international
pen pals are common.

-- 
 John Higdon  |    P.O. Box 7648   |   +1 408 264 4115     |       FAX:
 john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407