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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!houxm!ihnp4!ihuxx!ignatz
From: ignatz@ihuxx.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.general,net.misc
Subject: Observation on Europe and USA
Message-ID: <594@ihuxx.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 12-Nov-83 20:24:45 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxx.594
Posted: Sat Nov 12 20:24:45 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Nov-83 06:17:47 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 25

Gosh, I've seen this kind of thing before--"I don't want to hear
your trivia" vs "I'll say what I want, and...".  I think that this
reflects the birth pangs of the 'world community'...and it is painful.
The biggest pain, apparently, is the cost of sending items of marginal
interest to Europe/Australia/etc.  There are thousands who could care
less about many of the things on net.general, net.misc, or (Ghods
forfend) net.tv; but since phone charges are (relatively) trivial
within the continental US, they just 'N' those groups.  Obviously,
this doesn't work when going over the Big Water.  This issue, I think,
is one which is greater than the immediate issue.  If we're going to
see a real worldnet, then some way of getting from here to there--
affordably.  How about suggestions for the proper group, and maybe
some comments occasionally to the other major groups (net.misc?) on
any conclusions?  For instance, there must be some hams on the
net--how impossible would it be to digitize and use one of the OSCAR
satellites to skip the expensive trans-(Atlantic|Pacific) phone costs?
If hams might object to the monopolization of their transponder, how
about a data-communications satellite?  If amateur hams could plan and
finance one, couldn't we do it?  There's probably a thesis in just
planning such a project...

				Blue-skying it,

				Dave Ihnat
				ihuxx!ignatz