On a level playing field (i.e., equal access), the entry of the Microsoft Network into the market would be the single best thing that’s happened to the industry – for everyone … Without a level playing field, I fear that Microsoft will become the pre-divestiture equivalent of AT&T. Since that battle has already been won once, I am hopeful, that with time, it will be won again.
The only things that will not be free are the things created by people who are doing it precisely because they want to put out a product and want to make money off of it. And the copyright system does a very good job of supporting that, and leaving the rest of the stuff basically in the public domain.
This [computer] would be a no-brainer, $500 or $600 information appliance designed to do a few common tasks really well through tremendous integration of hardware and embedded software and a terrific user interface customized for the job at hand. One such machine might, for instance, be great for word processing, sending and receiving electronic mail and faxes, and printing up newsletters, fliers and form letters. Another might be tuned for personal finance, home banking and spreadsheets. Those machines would trade the promise of unlimited flexibility for the reality of simplicity, reliability and robustness.
[While the Information Superhighway is a bad name, it could be a great acronym, standing for] Interactive Network For Organizing, Retrieving, Manipulating, Accessing, And Transferring Information On National Systems, Unleashing Practically Every Rebellious Human Intelligence, Gratifying Hackers, Wiseacres, And Yahoos.
When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl!
The number one anagram for “Information Superhighway”: New utopia? Horrifying sham.
“Consumer espionage” … is threatening our right to privacy merely because of what we buy or don’t buy. “[Data] is used primarily as a marketing tool, although we’ve seen technology has a way of being applicable to many fields at once,” says Erik Larson, who recounts questionable uses of marketing data. “The secrets prospectors are everywhere.” … The Internet has proven to be a mixed blessing … With all the media hype, home computer hobbyists as well as businesses are rushing to access the Internet. But they do so at their own peril.
“We continually betray secrets about ourselves, and these secrets are systematically collected by the marketers’ intelligence network,” … Erik Larson offers four laws of data … First, “data must seek and merge with complementary data” – that is, everything you reveal may be used against you. Second, “data always will be used for purposes other than originally intended.” Third, “data collected about individuals will be used to cause minor or major harm to one or more members of the group who provided the information.” Finally, “confidential information is confidential only until someone decides it’s not.”
Our determinations of policy and regulation governing the operation of these industries should be determined by first making explicit the long-term goals and objectives of networking technology within a societal context. What are the benefits that this technology can offer the society in the future? What are the dangers to our democratic values posed by the technology? How do our decisions aid in encouraging the realization of the benefits and the avoiding of the dangers? … We need to be anticipatory as opposed to being reactive … Current regulatory mechanisms may not be the ones that will allow us to realize some of the more desirable benefits of networking technology.
There are two areas that we believe are critical for the future of the society. The first is the introduction of truly free and open-access information marketplaces in the electronic networking environment. If, as a society, we truly believe in the free-enterprise system, then this becomes an obvious normative objective for the society. Along with this is the obvious need to make sure common-carrier pricing for digital-data transmission becomes independent of volume discounts. The second area is the potential this technology holds for education, training, and life-long learning objectives. It should go without saying that the functioning of a democracy is related to the educational level of its citizenship.