>Date: Tue, 09 Feb 1999 00:40:23 -0800 >To: "John D. Goodspeed" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >From: Bill Lovell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: ICANN / DNSO: Internet Service Provider (ISP) Membership I note this was not sent to the list, so here 'tis. Bill Lovell > >At 01:07 PM 2/5/99 -0500, you wrote: >>Thank you for your comments. I present the following food for thought. >> >>ISP's are the Internet. No connection is possible without them. No website >>is possible without them. The Internet as we know it today is no longer >>possible without the ISP. The Internet of today is primarily commerce >>driven. The Internet is bought and paid for by ISP's. > >Not to raise a hackle here, but my ISP gets its money from folks like me. >> >>Business is what pays the bills on the Internet. For all of the talk of an >>egalitarian Internet shared equally by all the fact remains that commerce >>picks up the tab. > >As with everything else in life, the customer pays the tab. > >The Internet is provided by and for business at this >>juncture. > >That is utterly absurd. Business is a latecomer to the net, and saying >that suddenly the net is now "for business" does not make it so. I like the >post earlier which spoke of the needs of the nonprofit in Ethiopia or >wherever it was that wants to maintain a page about AIDS. You seem >to be dumping them, the American Association for the Advancement >of Science, Physics Today, an excellent Shakespeare page at MIT, >etc., etc., etc. > >So please don't imply that business is evil. Business is what >>brings the Internet to the world. > >The Internet as it now exists pays for >>itself through commerce, this is no longer a free Internet access society >>nor should it be. > >Internet access was never free -- Uncle paid for it at first (and to a large >extent, still does), and since then it is all those great unwashed users >who are paying for it. What business does (or at least tries to do) is >extract a profit from the expenditures of its customers -- that's the good >old capitalist way. But suddenly to put "business" up on some pinnacle >as the savior of the internet is utterly ludicrous. With apologies to USBank >which uses this as its slogan, "Without You There's No US," wherein >"you" is obviously the customer. >> >>Average Internet users have next to no interest in the Internet per se, in >>fact they could not care less about "The Internet Society" as it exists on >>this list or within our lofty professional organizations such as ISOC or >>DNSO or ICANN etc. all they really care about is Who Do I Call to say "Hey >>mister, how come I can't get that latest Microsoft patch downloaded" or "I >>was just visiting the CDNOW site and got no response to my mouse clicks, >>does this mean I just got ripped off? What do I do now? Can you help me?". > >As to all but the first phrase, so? As to the first phrase, it will be noticed >if DNSO, ICANN and the rest of the alphabet soups screw things up. >> >>ISP's are at the very center of the Internet universe (hurricane?) as far as >>the average user is concerned the ISP actually is the Internet.... >>responsible for EVERY aspect of their Internet service. It is just the >>nature of retail sales. Customers want service, excellent service, and the >>ISP is the first one to be called when they need service, this is pure human >>nature, it is not going to change. > >So? >> >>I don't understand who this list thinks the average Internet user would call >>in a magical utopian world that had no ISP's? Do you suppose that we could >>also do away with all customer service in all industries? Remember that >>ISP's are also the center of the computer universe for most average Internet >>users, that is to say that the ISP is the first one who gets called when the >>user has any computer question or problem. ISP's will probably be on the >>front line from now on. > >Last I looked, "ISP" meant "Internet Service Provider." The preceding >paragraph is a tautology, meaning that it is true by definition and hence >signifyeth nothing. >> >> >>The bottom line is that out of our thousands of Internet end users hardley a >>one of them participates in this or similar lists, nor will they ever. They >>have far more important things to do with their time and I can't blame them >>for that. Remember, they, like all of us, are suffering from information >>overload. Therefore it is going to be up to the ISP's to determine the best >>Internet policy for their own constituent users. > >So? >> >>Simply put, ISP's already represent the vast majority of Internet users and >>therefore we shall be the ones to determine to the greatest extent the >>future of the Internet. > >ISPs don't represent squat. They provide a service. >> >> >>The bottom line is, in the real world, without ISP's, there ain't no >>Internet. > >Which is akin to saying that without electrons, there ain't no Internet, >to which I again ask, so? >> >Bill Lovell
