Elon University

Subtopic: General

A Normative View of Networking Applications

The cost of distributing information will become much less than the cost of creating it. The value of fixed information will decline greatly. Those individuals and organizations that are responsible for creating the information will have more direct control over the distribution and obtain a greater share of the value. The cost of distribution will become less than the cost of production of the information … In the near future there will be a new cottage industry in the creation, organization, and distribution of information.

A Normative View of Networking Applications

It is [the] expansion of our personal and working relationships that leads to the significant impacts on individuals, groups, and organizations with respect to both the quality of the results and the speed at which human networks can form and act within the technology of networking. This ability to “network” among larger groupings of individuals and to make any link available when needed is the heart of the idea of “superconnectivity.” However many people a person can communicate with as part of a working group through the use of face-to-face meetings and phones, the introduction of CMC potentially expands the size of the coordinated group effort by fivefold to tenfold, or more.

A Normative View of Networking Applications

The users of a networking service should have all the facilities to perform as information providers … Given a true free-enterprise structure with no economic inhibitions to entry, the information industry in this country could become a major cottage industry … Even though the economics of distribution in a digital communications network are largely insensitive to economies of scale, the market mechanisms offered by service providers practically prevent individual entry into the marketing of information. This is a classic example of how our traditional understandings of the publication process are completely at odds with the opportunities offered by digital communications.

A Normative View of Networking Applications

Networking is a technology for citizen and public utilization. Today’s environment is largely characterized by commercial applications of the technology and not by public ones. It is like trying to understand the implications of the impact of automobiles on society by studying the role and function of trucks and buses. One has to start with an assumption that in the long run the principal application of networking will be for the average citizen and the public at large. Digital-based networking will become as widespread as the phone. It will be viewed as necessary for a citizen in a democratic society, as the telephone and television are viewed today.

A Normative View of Networking Applications

There is considerable danger in attempting to extrapolate the future from existing institutional viewpoints when there is every reason to believe there will be major changes in current industry structure and in the requirements for policy and regulation. What is needed is a view of what should be as opposed to what has been.

Universal Access to E-mail: Feasibility and Societal Implications

[There is a] need for a simple e-mail address system that gives every U.S. resident a “default” e-mail address by which they can be reached. Such a development would “jump start” a universal access system, because governmental and other organizations could then assume that “everyone” was reachable by this means and design procedures and systems accordingly … A simple e-mail address provision scheme should be developed giving every U.S. resident an e-mail address, perhaps based on a person’s physical address or telephone number.

Universal Access to E-mail: Feasibility and Societal Implications

With only about half of U.S. households containing personal computers by the year 2000, a robust set of alternative devices and locations is needed, including keyboard attachments to TV set-top boxes and video game machines, and extended telephones providing e-mail (and likely integrated voice mail) access. Public access is vital, with libraries, post offices, kiosks, and government buildings each playing a role. There might well be a market for “pay” terminals analogous to the ubiquitous pay telephones.

Universal Access to E-mail: Feasibility and Societal Implications

Policy interventions should give priority to widespread home access [for participation in online communications]. In addition, and not as a substitute, multiple options for network access located in convenient places (including, for instance, libraries, schools, public buildings, hotel lobbies, business centers, and the like) are important auxiliary access sites. Such common facilities could be considered good locations for help or training centers as well … Specific policies might be designed to facilitate and support the development of online civic activities offered by government agencies and nonprofit organizations.