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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ftth who wrote (14700)	4/20/2006 4:55:43 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 46821

ftth and Jim, you've highlighted a couple of side effects of network growth by citing the tragedy of the commons, whether the first such tragedy could be pinned down to the time of the printing press or to pastureland in New England, centuries later. The way that many wireless architectures stand today, for one thing, suggests that things could be a lot better. And secondly, tragedies often occur in many ways. They are not always focused merely on the depletion of raw commodities. Other attributes suffer in ways besides the availability of a basic resource, in other words, e.g., by spoilage and misuse, as Peter Sevcik illustrates in the following article in the March 2006 issue of Business Communications Review: --- Tragedy of the Commons Net Forecasts – Peter J. Sevcik BCR Volume 36, Number 3 March 2006 We depend on the Internet for social, educational, and commercial endeavors. It is becoming as essential as municipal water systems and the electricity grid. Yet it suffers from a destructive phenomenon known as the “Tragedy of the Commons.” The tragedy of the commons was first described by William Forster Lloyd in 1833. The villages of both old and New England were built around a central public area of land referred to as the commons. He observed that when the commons are used as pastureland available to all, cattle-owners have a short-term interest in increasing the size of their herds. But the size of the herds on the commons will soon exceed its carrying capacity. The commons will be doomed by overgrazing. Eventually, the cattle-owners suffer, abandon the commons and find a way to ensure a sustainable source of pastureland. We have many examples of depleted or spoiled commons in the world today. There was an excellent discussion of this phenomenon by Garret Hardin in the December 13, 1968 issue of Science. The global resource depletion and pollution expansion he described a quarter century ago are even more serious today. So there is something wrong with the Internet, and it has some relationship to the spoiling of the commons. But just what is the Internet commons and how is it being spoiled? The often cited commons is freedom--freedom to say what you want to anyone you like. Complete freedom of expression without the need of a printer, publisher and distributor. This is a good aspect of the Internet, but it is not a commons that can be depleted. You can always have more ideas to post on a website or blog, and many people behind you will do the same. The ideas are not limited, nor is the canvas upon which they can be painted. Yes, some governments limit freedom of speech on the Internet; they are keeping some people from accessing the commons, but the commons is still there. Continued at: netforecast.com ------ FAC