Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!lakesys!jtk
From: jtk@lakesys.lakesys.com (Joe Klein)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Networks considered harmful
Message-ID: <1450@lakesys.lakesys.com>
Date: 21 Dec 89 07:02:18 GMT
References: <8912190349.AA22939@cheetah.nyser.net> <22979.630044353@cheetah.nyser.net>
Reply-To: jtk@lakesys.UUCP (Joe Klein)
Organization: Lake Systems - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Lines: 43

In article <22979.630044353@cheetah.nyser.net> tcp-ip@nic.ddn.mil writes:
>What is great about FAX is really simple:
>
>Reason 1:	FAX is turn-key in every aspect: any office person can
>		install and use a fax machine without any serious training.
...
>Reason 2:	FAX uses an already existing, global infrastructure.
...
>Summary:	FAX is a wonderful example of an 80-year old technology that
>		is technically indefensible but has the world's best
>		user interface: no training needed.
...
>Having said all that, how can e-mail start competing?  Well, marketing
>is a small part, but it's a second-order thing.  We need: a global,
>e-mail infrastructure that is as ubiquitous as dial tone.  To do this,
>we need to patch together all of the existing e-mail systems, make the
>gatewaying transparent, adopt a global addressing scheme, and then start
>making the technology accessible and usable by ordinary people who had
>normal childhoods.
>
>/mtr

A freely distributed e-mail interface with a nice GUI would help. Perhaps
ELM with a PM/Motif interface. It would be nice to draft a standard for
encapsulating FAX bitmaps as well as other graphic formats. A freeware
conversion of e-mail to FAX would be nice.

Proposed e-mail fixes.

	1. FAX <=> e-mail gateways.

	2. Develop a global addressing scheme.

	3. Develop a simple user interface.

	4. Intergrate graphics, (voice?, vidio???) etc.

Can't be that hard.

-- 
 jtk@lakesys.lakesys.com               : "I'm not a nun,
 Joseph T. Klein                       :  we all know that."
 "No mom, that's UNIX not eunichs.     :                - Cher