Vigdor Schreibman quoted Rol Fessenden
>> .... I am not particularly comfortable with business driving
>> Internet development, but I am less comfortable with the notion that
>> someone actually thinks they know and can implement what this thing
>> ought to look like for the good of all of us. Too paternalistic, too
>> controlling, and too unlikely to be true -- at least for me.
>
Vigdor Schneiderman replied
> Now we both also feel no comfort from looking for that uniquely gifted
>"someone [who] actually thinks they know and can implement what this thing
>ought to look like," because we capitalists and the socialists and
>communists, as well, have been down that road also, and that is really the
>pits. So what shall we do, during the fundamental transformation of our
>civilization, which is now under way, just throw our hands up in the air,
>allow some sort of irrational technological imperative to wag our
>collective tails, or take command of our destiny in the way we know works
>the very best?
>
> We are planners and builders, are we not? The very best!
>
> Altogether we could build one utterly magnificent, democratic Global
>Information Infrastructure (dGII), directed by shared values. With the
>genius of John Warfield, Chris Argyris, and Peter Senge, and the
>meaningful participation of tens of thousands of others, perhaps millions,
>who are at our very finger tips, across the Planet Earth, we can have it
>all!
I am very uncomfortable with the notion that American or international
business can build an infrastructure for civilization. The motives of
business are not always congruent with civilization. One of the founding
philosophies of Warfield, Argris and Senge is the open sharing of
information -- business is not going to do that.
I would rather turn the development of the internet to the same kind of
community that built the first one. People who wanted to work together in
an almost altruistic community. Some of them were not democrats, some of
them exhibited anarchistic behavior. They collaborated where they found
need to collaborate to attain mutual goals. In fact the money came from
American taxes but the government pretty much stayed out of the way. It
was not a democratic effort or even a federalistic effort -- we let a
collaborative community do it's thing.
The business community does not have a collaborative ethic, nor does a
large government program that is in the public limelight. Perhaps the
current Internet II effort underway in universities should be allowed to
show the way to develop a more competent network resource.
--"William J. Hobler, Jr" <bhobler@worldnet.att.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>