Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] internet slippery slope was Re: Yahoo Groups Problems?????

> Hello all,
>
> While I don't believe the internet will "die", we certainly must
> expect it to become "subscription based". At least those parts which
> are deemed by SOMEONE to have "paid for" value to others...

Ballendo,

I share your fear that much of the internet will become subscription
based, but I think that some of the most valuable parts will not -
or when they do, free alternatives will arise.

Our discussion group here is an example of that - the content is
created by some company with bills to pay, it is created by us. All
yahoo does is distribute and archive it for us, which is something we
are perfectly capable of doing ourselves if need be. Yes, bandwidth
costs some money, but distributing plain text email takes a lot less
bandwidth than serving up all they eye candy and pop up ads that
dominate the commercial web today. The files area is nice, but there
is also the dropbox at metalworking.com to fall back on.

Another thing I hope will remain free is manufacturer and supplier web
sites. I remember in summer of '95 when the semiconductor industry
was just starting to put data sheets online. Some have recently taken
to making you jump through registration hoops, but I think most will
realize that making engineering data available without a membership
fee sells parts.

There are also some positive trends like google aquiring the defunct
dejanews usenet archive, and presenting it in a much more usefull
format than the later days of deja itself. Google probably won't make
much money on the archive, but they know this and are presenting it in
a way that doesn't cost them that much either.

You speak of professionals paying for content - take a look at what is
happening with scientific journals. Scientists do the research, write
the articles, review each other's articles, and then their
institution's libraries pay astronomical fees to access the very work
of their own faculty. The result is that there is now an open revolt
in some disciplines, with scientists threating not to publish in
journals which do not permit an independent, free repository to make
archives of several-month-old articles available. I would not be
suprised if in the end many traditional journals get replaced by
low-cost internet-based methods of publishing the material.

So, if the bloated pop-up commercial internet eventually reaches the
point where creating, serving, and transmitting banner ads costs more
than the miniscule revenue they generate, maybe we can go back to the
proven model of content created by ordinary users. Until then, look
into something like junkbuster to kill those popups.

Chris