re: different views

[Michael Dillon <michael@memra.com>]

On Tue, 10 Dec 1996, Marty Modell wrote:

>> > Let us start with some assumptions:
>> 
>> > The Internet has become highly commercial
>> 
>> I do not agree with this. It is true that commercial use of the
>> Internet has become highly visible and gets a large amount of coverage
>> in the press however I have not seen any study which measures how much
>> Internet use is commercial use as opposed to personal use or
>> educational use. I find that a lot of the people who have signed up
>> for accounts with commercial Internet providers over the past couple
>> of years are doing so because they value the access to information,
>> i.e. they have personal educational goals. Of course this is only my
>> personal observation.
> 
> MEM replies - Unless you live in cave these days it is impossible not
> to see the overt signs of Internet commercialism.  Almost every
> printed advertisement has a URL associated with it, as to almost all
> TV shows.  

That's because printed advertisements and many TV shows are 100%
commercial activities.

> Almost any site you go to has at least some ad banner, or button
> pushing some product or other.  To me that is commercial.

Maybe this is true of the sites *YOU* go to but not of the sites *I* go
to. You cannot generalize about this without hard data.

> How can you possibly contend that the Internet has not become
> commercial.

Because I use the Internet every day and have done so for the past 4
years. It is not unusual for me to spend 12 hours a day online when I have
the time free. I haven't had a TV since 1981 and for the past three years
I haven't read any printed publications other than the local smalltown
newspapers and some technical magazines. So I don't see URL's in ads, I
find them by running through search engines lookig for information on a
specific topic. Most of the websites I use are not commercial and do not
have ads. In addition I use many other Internet services that are
non-commercial such as email, USENET, IRC, ftp. I use the Internet as a
communications tool and as an educational tool. Many others do the same.


Michael Dillon                   -               Internet & ISP Consulting
Memra Software Inc.              -                  Fax: +1-604-546-3049
http://www.memra.com             -               E-mail: michael@memra.com