Issues in the Development of Community Cooperative Networks

Networking will enable citizens and their local businesses to create and pursue entrepreneurial opportunities through global niche markets. The Internet will accelerate the evolution of an electronically-connected global economy … Global niche markets will become accessible even to individual entrepreneurs. Small manufacturers will have the option to contract with other manufacturers and to co-market products with unprecedented flexibility. The emerging telepreneurial potential is limitless.

Issues in the Development of Community Cooperative Networks

The industrial age blossomed through diverse innovations of tens of thousands of garage tinkerers. Here, at the emergence of the information age, the need exists, nationally, for a similar renaissance of widespread inventiveness, spurred by personal global communications systems, home PC’s and communicating notebook computers, and local networks, beginning with the most affordable. Federal funding for grassroots innovation is necessary to reach our national goal of an NII based on practical applications: “Value-pull, not Tech-push.”

Issues in the Development of Community Cooperative Networks

The federal National Information Infrastructure (NII) initiative has recently been reinforced by several announcements of major corporate investments totaling billions of dollars. This combination of public and private actions is moving us closer to the vision of public participation in widespread global networks, rasing questions as to the potential economic benefits of networking. Prominent among these questions is the extent of inconsistency between the corporate and individual visions of the potential benefits of an NII. Are these visions the same, or mutually exclusive? Is economic freedom for individuals the goal of the huge corporate initiatives? Or do they aim to secure billion-dollar contracts providing entertainment services rather than the services in support of individual and community economic benefit? What should be the leading vision? Reflection on the history of cable television reminds us there is good reason for concern about these inconsistencies.

Public Access Issues: An Introduction

Introducing regulated prices would likely skew competition between platform technologies and create disincentives for investment and innovation … To maintain the growing usage and usefulness of the network and to fulfill the visions of connectedness … will require the adoption of new operating regimes and systems. These will include new access methods, pricing schemes, and network architecture.

Public Access Issues: An Introduction

To respond to the increased demand for Internet service among small and individual users, a number of new access models have arisen … The FreeNet model … has been implemented successfully in about 20 communities in the United States… Each FreeNet provides free dial-up e-mail service and access to a variety of local and national information, through voluntary labor and donated equipment and operating funds. The FreeNet model demonstrates the low cost at which BBS-type access can be provided … Like many aspects of the Internet, however, it is unclear how it will hold up in the future. Volunteer and philanthropic support may not be able to meet increases in demand. Also, in some cases commercial Internet service providers have been unwilling to allow customers to use their connections as access points for FreeNets, perceiving them as threats to the market for fee-based services.

Public Access Issues: An Introduction

The question of what has promoted the cooperative nature of the Internet is an important one for planners and policy-makers. Even beyond the issue of maintaining this cultural component of the Internet, there may be a potential model for community development or organizational design … Some factors that have contributed to the culture of the Internet will surely change; an example will probably be the pricing structure. One characteristic that will help maintain the village-like character of the Internet after it has expanded far beyond its original close-knit membership is the ability to define and redefine virtual places and entities … Planners must pay careful attention to maintaining the many positive elements of Internet culture.

Public Access Issues: An Introduction

While free services are a defining feature of the Internet, from an economist’s perspective they may encourage inefficient use of resources. As there is no direct monetary charge for utilization of many information resources, their value will be reflected in the time users are willing to invest in waiting due to congestion. It can be assumed that users will invest time in trying to gain access to a service up to the point that their time plus the cost of the service equals the value of the service. Waiting is a non-productive investment of resources. Perhaps if this value was captured by information providers through fees, it could be applied to upgrading equipment … We are just now getting to the point that congestion is causing significant consumption of resources; whether this becomes an increasing problem will be a function of both technology and pricing policies.

Public Access Issues: An Introduction

The Internet has a culture of sharing that is unusual in the private sector. The technology that drives the Internet was largely developed in a voluntary and cooperative manner. The mere fact that it functions is remarkable … An important and difficult question is how to capture the values of cooperation and shared experience in an increasingly commercial Internet … As usage increases and commercial opportunities rise, it will be increasingly difficult to rely on informal rules of netiquette to maintain good citizenship.

Public Access Issues: An Introduction

Usage pricing and service classes should make the Internet attractive to many new users. Some casual users will find it more affordable and business users may find a more stable environment on which they can trust mission-critical applications. However, one of the defining norms of connecting to the Internet will be changed, a fact that should be weighed into any decision to implement new pricing practices … Usage-based pricing … may actually cost more on a per transaction basis than the underlying cost of the transport. In other words, counting a packet may cost more than sending a packet … For the Internet to succeed as a fully developed information resource, value-added service providers must have an easy means of being compensated for their services … Having this capability embedded in the network will lower barriers of entry for small, in some cases home-based, services. It can also provide a neutral source for billing verification.

Public Access Issues: An Introduction

The viability of real-time interactive applications such as video conferencing will demand guaranteed bandwidth availability and the ability to synchronize packet delivery, requirements not necessary for e-mail or file transfer. At the same time, casual use is increasing, and many individual users are seeking low-cost access and will tolerate lower quality-of-service parameters. To achieve its growth potential the Internet will require a new pricing model that meets the needs of an increasingly diverse user community.