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Cyhist Sep. 17, 1997 F
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========================================================================= Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 10:35:10 -0500
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: "John S. Quarterman" <jsq@MIDS.ORG>
Subject: Re: history of acceptable use policies
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 16 Sep 1997 17:24:11 EDT."
<199709170129.UAA01621@xfrsparc.tic.com>
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
>I don't have the actual answer to your question David, but I do have an impression.
>It was the web protocol that changed everything.
>
>a) The web is non-intrusive in that you get nothing unless you ask for it. Using email
>or Usenet protocols for commercial purposes, by contrast, were very intrusive and
>annoying. Note that spamming is still hotly opposed,even today.
Spamming is a new development of the past two or three years. It developed after the web, not before.
Using electronic mailing lists with voluntary subscribers was not intrusive then and is not now.
Anonymous FTP was never any more intrusive than the web, and is not now.
The issue in the era of AUPs was not the delivery mechanism: it was content. As the editor of the first for-pay non-academic newsletter distributed over the Internet (Matrix News, http://www.mids.org/mn/), I recall these issues quite well.
Yes, the web changed everything, but not in the way you suggest. The most basic way it changed everything was by making the Internet readily usable by a wider range of people, and thus causing an explosion of new Internet users outside the old realms of academia and research, and thus fueling the growth of commercial Internet providers to connect those new users.
However, that process had already started before the web. AlterNet and PSINet were the first commercial IP providers, starting in 1991. Quite a few others were in operation before 1994. By 1994, NSFNET was already only one among many wide area carriers, and plans for phasing it out entirely were in progress.
The web has been very influential, but let's not rewrite history to say that the web drove all network history.
>b) It became rapidly apparent to everyone using the web that the commercial content on the added substantially to the value of the Internet.
There are a lot of people who still don't believe that; witness Internet II, which is driven by a perception that the commercialization of the Internet has degraded the performance of the Internet for big universities, and therefore a faster academic backbone is needed. Whether that perception is accurate or not is not the point: the point is that the perception exists.
>Whether commercial or non-commercial uses are premier today can be a matter of fireside debate. The point though,
>is that we can no longer imagine the net without both sectors.
I don't know what you mean by premier, but we can demonstrate the proportions of commercial vs. other domains, hosts, and to some extent users. The Internet is mostly commercial now (at least in the United States and most other long-connected countries) but academia still has quite a bit of influence on Internet development and performance.
>Together, these two factors made opposition to commercial use dissolve naturally.
The growth of Internet providers that were not supported in any part by tax money is what made opposition to commercial use dissolve.
Thanks,
John
--
John S. Quarterman <jsq@mids.org>
Editor, MIDS Internet Weather Report, Matrix Maps Quarterly, and Matrix News President, Matrix Information and Directory Services (MIDS) mids@mids.org, http://www.mids.org, +1-512-451-7602, fax: +1-512-452-0127 1106 Clayton Lane, Suite 500W, Austin, TX 78723, U.S.A.
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: "John S. Quarterman" <jsq@MIDS.ORG>
Subject: Re: history of acceptable use policies
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 16 Sep 1997 17:24:11 EDT."
<199709170129.UAA01621@xfrsparc.tic.com>
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
>I don't have the actual answer to your question David, but I do have an impression.
>It was the web protocol that changed everything.
>
>a) The web is non-intrusive in that you get nothing unless you ask for it. Using email
>or Usenet protocols for commercial purposes, by contrast, were very intrusive and
>annoying. Note that spamming is still hotly opposed,even today.
Spamming is a new development of the past two or three years. It developed after the web, not before.
Using electronic mailing lists with voluntary subscribers was not intrusive then and is not now.
Anonymous FTP was never any more intrusive than the web, and is not now.
The issue in the era of AUPs was not the delivery mechanism: it was content. As the editor of the first for-pay non-academic newsletter distributed over the Internet (Matrix News, http://www.mids.org/mn/), I recall these issues quite well.
Yes, the web changed everything, but not in the way you suggest. The most basic way it changed everything was by making the Internet readily usable by a wider range of people, and thus causing an explosion of new Internet users outside the old realms of academia and research, and thus fueling the growth of commercial Internet providers to connect those new users.
However, that process had already started before the web. AlterNet and PSINet were the first commercial IP providers, starting in 1991. Quite a few others were in operation before 1994. By 1994, NSFNET was already only one among many wide area carriers, and plans for phasing it out entirely were in progress.
The web has been very influential, but let's not rewrite history to say that the web drove all network history.
>b) It became rapidly apparent to everyone using the web that the commercial content on the added substantially to the value of the Internet.
There are a lot of people who still don't believe that; witness Internet II, which is driven by a perception that the commercialization of the Internet has degraded the performance of the Internet for big universities, and therefore a faster academic backbone is needed. Whether that perception is accurate or not is not the point: the point is that the perception exists.
>Whether commercial or non-commercial uses are premier today can be a matter of fireside debate. The point though,
>is that we can no longer imagine the net without both sectors.
I don't know what you mean by premier, but we can demonstrate the proportions of commercial vs. other domains, hosts, and to some extent users. The Internet is mostly commercial now (at least in the United States and most other long-connected countries) but academia still has quite a bit of influence on Internet development and performance.
>Together, these two factors made opposition to commercial use dissolve naturally.
The growth of Internet providers that were not supported in any part by tax money is what made opposition to commercial use dissolve.
Thanks,
John
--
John S. Quarterman <jsq@mids.org>
Editor, MIDS Internet Weather Report, Matrix Maps Quarterly, and Matrix News President, Matrix Information and Directory Services (MIDS) mids@mids.org, http://www.mids.org, +1-512-451-7602, fax: +1-512-452-0127 1106 Clayton Lane, Suite 500W, Austin, TX 78723, U.S.A.
______________________________________________________________________
