Hi, Bill, and elmatador, good to hear from you again! -
Bill, in qualified support of your statement, 'I find the tone to be haughty and rude to newcomers' I'd like to offer some observations. To some extent, elmatador's recent post on mobile figures in here too.
I have heard the same reaction as yours from a number of others; I have found it to be true, myself, on occasion.
But I think it derives, in part, from the unwillingness of many of the 'regulars' to step beyond the area where they feel comfortable in their knowledge. I'm not so sure that it is caused by haughtiness. Generally speaking, if there is a clear line from where we are, to where we're going, participation seems to be good.
When you step beyond that line, however, to discuss new concepts, and the embodiment of those concepts in the business plans of new companies, I'll agree with you: the board can get kinda stodgy. Sometimes, the beady-eyed, suspicious view is one I share: the recent TerrorBeam discussions would be a good example.
I still believe, for instance, that we will soon see the appearance of competing networks, almalgamated on fiber, encompassing a designed-in mobile/fixed wireless solution, with fiber backhaul. These networks will constitute a 'domain' and within these domains, differentiated and intermediated service, with QoS and VOIP will be present. There will eventually be competing networks, aligned with competing network 'visions'. These networks will be discontinuous with old models, and will only meet the old models at the cross-connect.
The resistance to the idea came with trying to figure out how the model would evolve from present structure. The responses missed the point: they will not evolve. They will be discontinuous. They will appear, offering superior service, and superior bandwidth. Setting up an office in Seattle? Fine. Here's your wireless LAN, at T1 capacity. Here's QoS, VOIP, and full-motion videoconferencing, on our fibre net, to New York, Dallas, San Francisco. Here's database management, POS transactions, inventory control, here's everything, anywhere you are on our domain: just sign on the dotted line.
However, the idea foundered on 'How would we migrate?' The answer was: 'We won't'.
I got one PM from someone who got it.
Others have PM'd me on the things you have noted. My own observation is that it's not rudeness, it's something else.
OTOH, the regulars on this board are responsible for the fact that it exists, at all. They do run, at regular intervals, into posters like me who ask really dumb questions, as they try to move up the learning curve: it must, at times, try their patience.
In the final analysis, I think it's a question of human nature. Most of the regulars come from the direction of their own expertise, or their investment philosophy, which can be extremely conservative. Quite often, a non-response is caused by nothing more than a post which goes over a line that newcomers cannot see. These guys have been here a long time.
JMO, and no offense intended to anyone.
Regards,
Jim |
