Hi there,
Recently, Chuq Von Rospach <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> what about people who prefer their black and white TVs?
>
> To be honest, you're an increasingly rare breed, compared to the
> internet users who never even knew there was a time when TV was black
> adn white only.
>
It seems to me that there is an important issue that is being overlooked
here, namely the issue of backward compatibility. Sure, having access to
and using all the latest bells and whistles is fun, but it can also have
the effect of excluding users who do not have access to the appropriate
technology.
Believe it or not, there are still some incredibly antiquated systems
out there -- for instance there is one mailer that I know of, which is
located at a major US research university which cannot handle 8-bit
MIME.
One of the problems I face with my list (PHILOSOP) is that the list
serves individuals from all over the world (every continent is
represented, except Antarctica). Most of the individuals are in academic
environments and thus often do not have access to the funds to pay for
the latest and greatest computational toys. For this reason, there is a
great deal to be said in favour of old fashioned, simple techniques over
technological wonder fixes. I think the analogy between the rotary dial
phone and a modern PBX may be a little misleading, for this reason.
As an example, I had some communication with a subscriber a couple of
years ago who was located in one of the states of the former Soviet
Union. This subscriber had no www access at all and had his e-mail
uploaded and downloaded only once a day, due to the cost of his
institution having to make a long distance call to do this. I personally
believe that individuals such as these are those most likely to benefit
from lists such as PHILOSOP. (PHILOSOP is one of the largest and oldest
lists in the world for professional academic philosopher -- most traffic
is job notices, conference announcements and requests for particular
information).
Do other list-owners have similar experiences of 'information
have-nots', or is this just a peculiarity of my corner of the net world?
All the best,
Istvan
PHILOSOP Moderator
--
Istvan S. N. Berkeley, Ph.D.
Philosophy & Cognitive Science E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette
[Formerly, The University of Southwestern Louisiana]
P.O. Box 43770 Tel: +1 318 482-6807
Lafayette, LA 70504-3770 Fax: +1 318 482-6195
USA http://www.ucs.usl.edu/~isb9112
