On 29 June 1999, Gene Marsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>Rhonda,
>
>You may be missing the point.
>
>The Internet is not a merket, any more than the Interstate Highway system
>is a market. It IS, however, a market-enabling technology, just as the
>Interstate Highway system is. Without it, our economy would not be nearly
>as robust as it is.
>
>In a similar manner, the Internet is poised to become that market-enabling
>infrastructure. The parallels are not all perfect, but the analogy is
>still accurate. Without either, there is the potential for market collapse
>or diminishment.
The net is no more a market-enabling technology than the phone is. I mean
that literally. As in, the phone enables me to make more effective use
of vendors, but that's it. I don't want people selling me things over
the phone in an unsolicited manner. I don't want people 'narrowcasting'
products to my phone based on my demographics. I'll decide how, and when,
and with whom, I use my phone. And I'll decide who my carrier is. And
I'll decide, to a certain extent, how my phone number is to be used.
We've already seen 50+ years of commercial interests trying to co-opt our
personal information. I won't sit idly by and let them subsume this
particular technology to suit their ends.
--
Mark C. Langston
