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To: Bearded One who wrote (21993)	12/7/1998 4:43:00 PM
From: Keith Hankin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

The Best Internet Software and Sites of 1998 zdnet.com This list includes Netscape Communicator 4.5 and Netscape Enterprise Server Standard Edition.

To: Bearded One who wrote (21993)	12/7/1998 11:04:00 PM
From: DJ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

I'm wondering whether a distinction can be drawn between customer complaints and customer harm (or welfare). Maybe I'm too focused on my own industry -- academe -- where students (usually the marginal ones) can rant and rave about the "products" we produce (courses and degrees). Of course analogizing software consumers to students is far from perfect. But the question remains: is the economists' concept of consumer welfare best defined as a longer-term phenomenon of, or mainly by the bitches and moans of the moment? If not the latter, then what do we use as intelligent criteria to see if consumers are harmed or benefitted? One fall back on President Kennedy's 1962 speech which became the "Magna Carta" for consumers, the prelude to the massive statutory shield enacted in the 1960's and 1970's. While Kennedy's list of principles focused on the basics such as information and safety, I'm left searching for better metaphors to define consumer harm than "customers complaints" or "sucks less" (sorry, Dan .. I do mean this to be a serious discussion). What would be some useful terms to add fresh approaches to address the problem of consumer welfare in PC software, especially given the "natural monopoly" arguments coming out of Stanford and the Santa Fe Institute? For my part, I am, over all, impressed at what the software industry has delivered in the last decade -- although I do get frustrated (at the margin) with the all-too-frequent problems of service availability and growing complexity. Thoughts?