WindoWatch                 The Electronic Windows Magazine of the Internet
Volume 1  No.2                                               January 1995

              An Editorial (c)1995 by Lois B. Laulicht

             Pot Holes and Detours on the Electronic Highway

 Let's stop kidding! The so-called Electronic Highway is in practical
 terms just a two mile stretch of interstate leading to nothing better
 than a cart path! In terms of the diversity of tools, formats, and
 operating systems, this electronic roadway which is encapsulated by the
 term Internet, is going to require a mammoth overhaul to have utility
 for garden variety computer users. Further, to believe that the ordinary
 user is unimportant until that user takes the time to learn esoteric
 operating systems, is a worn out and self-serving ethic.

 Until very recently, the Department of Defense and the National Science
 Foundation have been picking up the Internet tab using public funds.
 However, the rules and ethos of the Internet have changed and there is a
 new power structure in charge...with still another waiting anxiously in
 the wings.  The newest computer users are flocking onto the Internet in
 ever increasing numbers in search of their electronic Nirvana.  Too often
 they find traffic jams slowing down fast 14,000 modems to a crawl or the
 unexpected no carrier message dumping them back into unpleasant reality.
 As a result, their stay can be frustrating, hence disappointing, and
 therefore brief. The unfriendly language of UNIX is not only cryptic and
 unintuitive but can effectively keep the new computer user on the
 outside frantically trying to get in. The response from business
 identifying  a full blown gold mine in this unregulated information
 bonanza is generating new business ideas and strategies, an instant
 demand for shells and friendlier front ends, ong with the  newest status
 symbol, the Internet address!

 The Internet has been characterized in positive terms as a natural
 anarchy where insiders protect the ethic of freedom of speech to a point
 where offensive speech, not tolerated in most social groupings, is
 ignored.  When experienced Internetters discuss Federal regulation of
 the Internet there is rarely a middle position where compromise is
 possible but rather a vehement chorus to keep the federal rascals out.
 In fairness, any rational person has to agree that the Fed has done very
 poorly in these areas.  The Internet is a microcosm of the greater
 society - with all the ills!  In the United States, deregulation led to
 the greatest bank robbery in history while regulation rarely works
 because the people who are to be regulated too often own those
 monitoring their activities. In spite of the rhetoric and self interest,
 the institution we call the Internet is being examined, dissected, and
 reassembled in ways that were unthinkable a few years ago.


 The final form it will take is still evolving as the giants of
 commerce and capital reshape the focus. Insiders debate the changes to
 come with poorly concealed anxiety.  The elitism of the chosen few has
 given way to making money. Given the potential power for easy(?)
 Internet access,  what we do has enormous implications for
 democratizing the net as an inclusive institution. There exists an
 obligation to protect with vigilance the rights of those not yet ready
 to go on-line!

 Because vast numbers of people do not yet have substantial presence on
 the Internet does not negate their substantial interest. Those
 interests  must not be diminished or finessed away during the coming
 gold rush!