SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Technology Stocks : MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator

 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: Gerald R. Lampton who wrote (19133)5/17/1998 1:10:00 AM
From: Charles Hughes  Read Replies (1) of 24154
 
>>>The Internet is the Big Kahuna of networks. What might network externalities theory say about such an environment?<<<

The Internet was created by the same folks that are in the open source movement, to a great extent. They are part and parcel. That's what SGML is all about, and open standards for TCP/IP, and much else including the new public domain graphics standards.

In fact without this culture the Internet as it is could never have been created. Whatever externalities theory might say. Some good things just require a lot of people and interacting ideas to keep rolling, because they are too big for any one coherent theory to control. They are too complex to manage without both cooperation and competition of ideas in the mix in a fertile ground of open standards and equal access.

Now Microsoft and others threaten it with proprietary standards like Active-X. Microsoft is not the only one. Half a dozen sites still vie to be the gatekeepers for what you can find. Others have their schemes to turn this into another zero-sum-minus game. Currently they are being beaten back, and the open source and standards movement and the battle against Microsoft are all parts of the fight to preserve a free and both socially and economically valuable Internet.

Chaz
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext