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Shareware Supreme Volume 6 #1
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FTUR06.TXT
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1993-09-30
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By Michael Hagerty, President, MBUG
Much has been written recently about the "high speed network
(HSN)". The Vice President (and even the President) have endorsed
the idea of a government-sponsored development effort to put this
concept on-line.
While this idea does have a lot of support in the computing
community, there are detractors. The detractors include privacy
advocates, those who are opposed to the expense, and those who
want the entire network set up by private industry and run like
the phone company was or cable TV franchises are now. That each
of these groups will be lobbying hard is an indication of how
important the issued is viewed.
Since politicians are, by and large, wholely ignorant of advances
in computer technology while you, our subscribers, are (or are
becoming) more knowledgable, I want to point out where we are now
vis-a-vis public data networks. I hope that an educated
electorate would be able to educate our leaders so that wise
choices can be made.
In the last decade or so, the Department of Defense, through its
research arm, funded the development of Internet. The purpose of
this venture was to permit researchers at universities and
government facilities to interact via an electronic mail system.
Internet has been, I believe, much more successful than was
originally anticipated. That universities and government
researchers would be connected was expected. What was not
anticipated was that Internet would take on a life of its own,
independent of it original funders, and would connect companies,
foreign governments and individuals from every walk of life.
Let me digress by pointing out that Internet is really the system
of interconnection, more or less the hardware and the supporting
network software, and that Internet provides the mechanism of
addresses, etc. One can, if someone's Internet address is known,
send a message directly to that individual, regardless of where
they may be. As to how, I prefer John Campbell's observation
that, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable
from magic." To a large number of people, this is magic. Over
the years, "gateways" have been introduced which connect Internet
to other networks. It is possible, therefore, to send a message
on one network to an individual on yet another network, just as
you might call someone who has a phone serviced by Japan
Telephone & Telegraph from a phone serviced by PacBell. The HSN
is rather like Internet on steroids, much much faster and
reaching many many more sites.
Just having the network is rather like having a cable TV system
with no stations or carried programs. Kinda like a computer with
no software... It is the software which is "secret sauce" to
make this HSN valuable. Most BBSs have message conferences, in
which users are encouraged to engage in public discussion on
particular topics. Many BBSs subscribe to networks (such as
RIME, FidoNet or Ilink) so that a larger audience can participate
in these discussions. A fairly large number of shareware authors
take advantage of these networks to support their products in
specialized "conferences" or "newsgroups".
Commercial vendors (CompuServe, America On-line or Prodigy) do
this same thing and may view the interconnection of networks into
the HSN as detrimental to their continuing success. Each of
these services is selling a public newspaper to which all of the
posters represent their (paying) reporters. They may exercise
control over content and have in the past become embroiled in
vitriolic debates over perceived censorship.
BBSs and the commercial vendors are beginning to take notice of
Internet and its "newsgroups". There are some 10 million people
connected via Internet and the Usenet newsgroups carried on it
cover over 2,000 different subjects, including subjects as
diverse as field hockey, aviation, beer-making, English usage,
and virtually any computer, technical or scientific area of
endeavor. Nitelog provides access to these newsgroups via
Internet, as well as access to many newsgroups from other nets of
interest to its subscribers.
Where does this lead us? I see that in the very near future, we
will have access to a specialized magazine, delivered to us
electronically which will include only articles of particular
interest to its reader. These articles will be drawn from a vast
array of different sources and will include "books", multi-media
presentations and, yes, raging debate. This will be the
customized newspaper dreamt of in science fiction. We will also
have access to materials on virtually any subject of interest to
the individual.
In our daily paper would be study materials, supplementary
information, comics, entertainment, our personal mail, reports on
our bank account and bills due and, of course, junk mail. The
possibilities are only limited by the human imagination. That
there will be a network to which we can connect is a certainty;
the questions remaining to be answered concern the speed,
security, privacy, access fees and content.