In retrospect, we dodged a bullet when the Internet developed the way that it did, in an open fashion, at Universities, largely by hippies (and, later, furries).
Remember Compuserve? And early AOL? I remember Quantumlink (Steve Case’s company that eventually turned into AoL) and how my parents had to pay for it by the hour.
Tech Companies wanted to erect tool booths on computer communication, just like the phone network, but the Internet (and it’s open architecture) beat them to the punch. They’ve been trying to fix that bug ever since. But they figured out that if the interconnect is open, they can still charge a toll if they have root access in the hardware at both sides. Once TVs became computers, it became so much easier.
In retrospect, we dodged a bullet when the Internet developed the way that it did, in an open fashion, at Universities, largely by hippies (and, later, furries).
Remember Compuserve? And early AOL? I remember Quantumlink (Steve Case’s company that eventually turned into AoL) and how my parents had to pay for it by the hour.
Tech Companies wanted to erect tool booths on computer communication, just like the phone network, but the Internet (and it’s open architecture) beat them to the punch. They’ve been trying to fix that bug ever since. But they figured out that if the interconnect is open, they can still charge a toll if they have root access in the hardware at both sides. Once TVs became computers, it became so much easier.