Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!SCRVMSYS.BITNET!702WFG
From: 702WFG@SCRVMSYS.BITNET (bill gunshannon)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Networks considered harmful
Message-ID: <8912190403.AA05387@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 18 Dec 89 16:02:01 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 61

<John Nagle>
>      Well, in the real world, I understand that electronic mail is
>on the decline, and is being replaced by fax.

<Barry Margolin>
>That was precisely the point McCarthy was making in his article.  He said
>that fax has become popular because it works with the current home
>communications network (the phone system).  For email to become popular it
>will have to fit in similarly, rather than requiring users to have an
>account on a computer connected to an email network.

<Roy Smith>
>	A year or so ago, some people here had need to establish regular
>communications with somebody at Monash University in Australia.  We proved
>that email worked in both directions but then the guy at the other end
>insisted we switch to fax.  Seems that he gets charged for both incomming
>and outgoing email and fax was cheaper!

I have seen comments like this before.  And I have attempted to answer
them before.  It is a shame to see supposed experts on communications
who are apparently as ignorent of what is really available as the general
public.  I personnaly intend to write a letter (or maybe just send a
copy of this message) to the ACM and see what kind of hornets nest it
stirs up.

The only reason that FAX is more popular than Email is "PR".  You cannot
watch TV without seeing/hearing about FAX.  It is in the programs as well
as the commercials.  You can't drive down town without hearing it on the
radio, seeing it on billboards, and seeing banners in the stores all
pushing FAX.  They sell them in the MALL and in Radio Shack.  Before
long there will be a guy on the street corner holding his coat open
and whispering "Hey Mac, you want to buy a FAX real cheap!!"

If you have any doubt of this, try a little experiment.  Ask a couple
of your neighbors if they know what FAX is and then ask if they know
what Email is.  The try it on the local kids.  My 10 year old daughter
knows what FAX is and yet claims to not know what Email is even though
she has used it herself (on my home UNIX box) and she sees me using it
every day.  It's all a matter of PR.

But the truth is, FAX offers nothing that can't be done with the PC sitting
on your desk. And the PC can even do it better.  You can send Email from
PC to PC or PC to "Real computer" or "Real computer" to PC.  The softtware
and hardware already exist.  In fact they have been around for years.
The hardware we all have and the software doesn't even cost anything!!!
You can send text, you can send pictures, you can even send color pictures.
And you can do it the same way you do with a FAX.  You can call the addressee
on the phone and send it to him directly.  As a matter of fact it has probably
reached the point where you can buy all the hardware necessary to do this for
about the same price as one of those full featured FAX machines.
Interestingly enough, the Email scenario has numerous advantages over the
FAX scenario.  I can move more data quicker.  I can manipulate the data
easier when it arrives.  And if the number is busy, I don't have to stand
around and wait.  The PC can do it for me.

So, someone please tell me "What is so great about FAX?" and why can't
those of us who use Email all the time convince the rest of the world
how much better it really is??

                                          bill gunshannon
                                       702WFG@SCRVMSYS.BITNET