Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rphroy!ox.com!math.fu-berlin.de!opal!tmpmbx!scuzzy.in-berlin.de!src From: src@scuzzy.in-berlin.de (Heiko Blume) Newsgroups: comp.archives.admin Subject: Re: History repeats itself Message-ID: <1991Jun22.121736.29359@scuzzy.in-berlin.de> Date: 22 Jun 91 12:17:36 GMT References: Organization: Contributed Software Lines: 29 worley@compass.com (Dale Worley) writes: >Up until now, The Net has been like the Hippie Movement. We get a >great playground, while businesses and the government pay for it. The >trouble is that The Net is not just a plaything anymore. If we want >to have it become an "information infrastructure" for the country, >it's got to grow much, much larger than it is now, and it won't be >able to live as a parasite. It's got to go commercial, and that means >that people are going to have to pay for their usage. well, not really commercial, but it must become self-financing. i received quite some flames when i started selling free software on tapes to finance my archive, but that's the way to go for individual's projects, since one won't get enough donations. keeping the net (news & mail) going, however, is surprisingly cheap if enough individuals get organized: i now pay ~$14 for a full news feed and mail plus local phone call charges. through a sort-of semi-commercial thing a 64Kbit isdn line to the german backbone will be installed soon. several project like that are currently active in germany and are in the process of conglomerating into a whole organizational unit. not bad for a bunch of (mostly) private people, eh? -- Heiko Blume <-+-> src@scuzzy.in-berlin.de <-+-> (+49 30) 691 88 93 [voice!] public UNIX source archive [HST V.42bis]: scuzzy Any ACU,f 38400 6919520 gin:--gin: nuucp sword: nuucp uucp scuzzy!/src/README /your/home