Subj : z1b link
To   : TODD COCHRANE
From : Lawrence Garvin
Date : Wed Apr 18 2001 03:06 am

TODD wrote to CARL at 14:34 16 Apr:

-> Hopefully sysops know better now than to give anyone such a monopoly.

 TC> Past history they had a monopoly and now that monopoly has bought
 TC> new houses and cars and retired :)

Todd, I think its irresponsible not to pay heed to the fact that at that time 
the technology (as in data communications) and the expense (as in long distance 
telephone charges) were only available to a few (who could/would afford it).

I, for one, despite my occasional disagreements with the methodologies, are 
grateful to George Peace, John Souvestre, Ken Wilson, Bob Seaborn and perhaps a 
couple of others that need to be mentioned but I'm not recalling, who put their 
wallets on the table several years ago and ponied up a fair amount of bucks to 
provide a distribution system for echomail (and filebone/filegate) that we all 
benefitted from at the net level by being able to share costs and get our feeds 
for a few bucks (or less) per month.

They weren't a "monopoly" because they imposed that on us.. they were a 
"monopoly" because they volunteered to be part of the few who WOULD do it.

Today things have radically changed. A significant percentage of us can put up 
dedicated 'high speed' Internet connections for less than what the average 
sysop paid in long distance charges in the mid-90s. Personally, I pay less for 
my full echomail/filebone feed today than I paid in long distance charges just 
to crash netmail in 1995.

We have a much wider and flatter distribution heirarchy today than six years 
ago, almost exclusively because more people can afford less expensive and more 
efficient data communication technologies. What existed then, existed out of 
necessity; what exists today, exists out of availability.

I appreciate that you operate a rather extensive ISP operation and can afford 
to provide free feeds. That is a benefit to all of Fidonet as well. George, 
John, Ken, and Bob, and others worked the system the other direction though. 
Each of them was Fidonet distributors long before they were ISPs. Their Fidonet 
developments evolved into Internet Service Providers and providing 
free feeds was not an economically viable option for them, at that time.

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 * Origin: lawrence@eforest.net | The Enchanted Forest (1:106/6018)

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