🚀 go-pugleaf

kenji@tom.astem.or.jp (Kenji Rikitake) writes:

>I respect Prof. Jun Murai and other founders of WIDE/TISN/JAIN and
>JUNET projects too. They are getting their money mostly from
>non-governmental organizations so that they keep themselves free from
>gov't policies. But what I'm saying is something different -
>piggying-back to an academic link to perform not-exactly-academic
>communication WITHOUT paying money is indeed UNFAIR.

Perhaps. But other countries are moving in that direction as it is
simply too expensive for the country as a whole. Governmental,
academic, and profit-making organizations are coming together (not
without some friction).... 

>I see many organizations who are violating the usage rule of Japan-US
>academic link - the link is only for academic and WIDE-supporting
>organizations (such as mei.co.jp and astem.or.jp). I insist that those
>who want to join and support Internet culture MUST have international
>reachablity by their own money - since it's technically very expensive
>and time-consuming to make international email UNreachable. Just
>paying some ten-thousand-yen bills to InetClub or subscribing UUNET
>will solve this problem peacefully.

I'm not sure what usage rule of Japan-US you are speaking of. 
It used to be that "commericial" networks (like CompuServe) were
prevented from using the "academic" networks, but nowadays this
is idea has lost favor and links are being built up all over.

If Aegis were to use InetClub it would cost the ~30 members a about
10,000 yen/month/person or 120,000 yen per year using InetClub rates
of 30 yen/K. There are few members who could afford this in addition
to the 20,000 yen/year membership feees.  Of course this would be
"fair" as they aren't associated with any company or eductional
organziation. But consider the fact that if they were in the bay
area in the U.S. this would run them about $18 = 2,250 yen and would
include line charges. 

>Their have to be some kind of borderless economy and agreements
>between nations on the Internet - otherwise somebody will pay too much
>and somebody will pay too less.

I've read where the underlying transport mechanism of the Internet
doesn't lend itself to charging according to who uses how much of
what. One analogy is the national highway system (not the toll roads
but that regular national highways). Commerical trucking pays more
than passenger cars but nobody pays by the mile as it would too
expensive to keep track of how many miles each vehicle went.

While Japan's system may be "fair" it will also be much more
expensive. And because of that expense only large companies or
Mombusho-supported universities will be able to use the Internet
which is the hidden agenda: keeping the information in the hands of
those in power. Not that this is said, or even thought of, but this
cultural assumption can be easily observed by just looking at the
structure of Japanese society. 

Instead, according to a recent paper I read, those countries
(like Japan) who don't join in the free and open dissemination
of information may find themselves cut off from the countries
(like the U.S. et al.) who are forging open networks.

IMHO, Japan is at a crossroads. For the past 50 years it has gained
immense economic power and part of this has been to have lots of
information come in, and very little leave. But I think those days
have come to an end, and either Japan will need to become a fully
equal partner in sharing information or it will be seen as getting a
free ride and cut off. 

If somebody was really interested, I could post "Will Japan Jack
in?" article by John Perry Barlow from the October, 1992 Electronic
Frontier column Communications of the ACM. I've read other things
along similar lines but this is well written and summarizes the
situation quite well. Long though: over 300 lines!

Dave

--
Dave McLane  davidg@aegis.or.jp
You're free to copy/quote/translate as long as credit is given. 
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087