Internet 2000 The Year

Free And Easy
The Web's Promise

Monty Keeling
March 23, 1999

Well, maybe more like a vision statement. You, know those scriptures and tightly worded sentences which have been the rage among church planners for the last 20 years. Congregations were told they just had to have one to stay on track and get their ministry done.

In the web's case "Free and Easy" has been its guiding mantra since the beginning. (About three years ago.) "Free" as in without cost, or much cost, and as a root word for freedom. "Easy" as in simple and without difficulty to accomplish. More progress has been made with the free than the easy. But that's not the web's fault so much as it is the fault of computers. But the web has made a difficult medium, the Internet, a lot easier to use.

Today we'll look at the web's promise of "free" and take up "easy" next time.

If you're American you got to appreciate what the web is doing for freedom. Actually the web has just further empowered what the Internet has already accomplished. Politically it's pushed totalitarian states like China to the edge, and the former Soviet Union over the edge. Now the web is threatening some of Capitalism's biggest fat cats like the recording industry and, yes, even telephone companies.

Like the original American dream, the one the founding fathers set out for the United States, the web is at the same time a giant power, and also an endless group of cooperating businesses, public organizations, and individuals, with no real centralized guiding power to force subservience.

We can thank the cold war for that. (Well, it wasn't much good for anything else so let's be glad something came out of the trillions of dollars tossed down the drain. ) The internet came into existence because the American government felt the need to develop a communication system with no central headquarters that could be nuked out. So a bunch of scientists, made happy with a lot of tax dollars, developed systems using telephone lines and computers which were so decentralized that you could knock out a thousand centers and the thing would just keep on going.

......................................................................................................

UPDATE

A more recent article from USA today that interviews four of the founding fathers of the internet discloses that they were in no way involved in military research. They net's birth was not born out of the cold war. Who Really Invented The Net.

From the first the real internet ethic has been to supply this communication at below real operation costs. At first the government picked up the tag with tax dollars and today commercial companies with advertising and dreams of billions in future profits are picking up most of the tab. OK, so it's not really free, but hey, advertising is valuable not only for business but for consumers. So stop complaining.

Why do you think the kindly telephone companies are killing themselves offering rates of 5 and ten cents a minute for long distance calling when ten years ago, when the dollar was worth a lot more, they were charging 25 to 50 cents a minute? Don't worry they're still make lots of money. Thank the web.

How about the outrageous price for CD music disks? Within the last few months something called MP3 has been developed which allows anyone who downloads the free software to record and play music over their computers for, shall I say it, free. With added hardware MP3 music can be burned into regular disks. There is some evidence that MP3 may be cutting into commercial CD sales. Yes it's not nice to illegally record copyrighted material. But how come it's legal for recording companies to rack in billions selling CDs for $15 or more when they cost $5 or less to make? And, by the free way, the recording industry has been ripping off not only music customers, but it's own artists, for years. The biblical "Day of the Lord" talked about in our first Net Prophet column may indeed be at hand for these kindly folks.

In England free net service is being successfully offered by a number of companies. Here in the states NetZero has become the fastest growing Internet Service Provider (isp) in America by offering free service in exchange for personal information and advertising. The same company recently offered 10,000 free PCs with hard drive stored advertisements for free. Over a million people applied with a couple of days.

Now PC Free has entered into a partnership with Compaq Computers to provide a complete computer system and net connection service for $40 a month. You can cancel the net service and keep the computer. The catch? No matter what isp you use the computer is rigged to log on first to Compaq's Portal AltaVista. Also, surprise, you have to put up with advertising connections built into the computer.

Another new company Buy.Com offers merchandise at their costs over the web. Buy.Com hopes to make a profit through advertising.

Just this week a company in the New England area is offering a computer with one year's net service for $255. That means the computer costs about $50. Several media heavyweights, including Intel executive Paul Otellini have predicted that computers, ala cell phones, will soon be offered free for those who pay for isp service. By the way, in about two years or so cell phones will include computers, more powerful than today's desk tops, with web connection capabilities.

Finally, at least for the next two years, there is no sales tax for anything purchased over the web. Don't expect this to last for long. Some local cities are already feeling the stress of revenue loss because of this tax loophole made official for three years by congress last year.

How long can this last? Who knows, but just remember there really is no free ride. Before buying that low cost computer over the web be aware that customer service almost universally stinks on the net. Getting your purchase is a lot easier than returning it or getting help when it doesn't work right. This applies for most web purchases. And a lot of the web's free offers come at the cost of personal privacy and a hard sell ethic which mixes advertising so completely with information and other web activities that it's hard to tell where one stops and the other begins. This is especially a problem right now with childrens sites.

Hopefully as the web grows and matures sites will become more responsible as competition and visitor tolerance weed out the worst offenders.

Search The Web
google
alltheweb.com
snap

Search CStation

About Us
...................................................