Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Is USENET stagnating?
Message-ID: <40506@looking.on.ca>
Date: 30 Oct 89 05:25:49 GMT
References: <40056@looking.on.ca> <313@6sigma.UUCP>
Reply-To: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 18
Class: discussion

Oh, USENET's size is part of the cause of its stagnation.  But it
doesn't have to be so.

The other big nets -- Compuserve etc. -- are doing new things all the
time.  Yes, many of those new things are stuff that you can only do
with a non-distributed net -- but they are doing things.

Ah, you say, CIS has central control, they can mandate innovation.
USENET can't.   This is true, but the anarchist in me has always hoped
that less structure can mean more room for innovation.  If things like
CIS are doing a better job, we have to rethink what we are.

In some ways, the commercial nets are way behind USENET and don't intend
to catch up.  In other ways USENET is left in the dust.   When was the
last time you saw something on USENET that excited you as a new development
in computer networking?
-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473