Brad McCormick replied:
> I long ago concluded that all analogies are flawed, and that
> a good analogy is one which at least sheds some light without
> doing too much distortion. ^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Your telephone analogy isn't a good analogy by this criterion.
> Who will find "your" website if it's not listed
> in the top 10 or 20 for some search string that persons
> are likely to enter into a search engine?
Search engines aren't the only way to find sites (some engines are biased/
"hand-picked") -- links and webrings are often a better clou. I.e. if you
are looking for a topic, go to similar sites or webrings on that topic and
follow the links to related sites. There, the best wins, not the richest
wins.
> Yes, cc: and mailing lists can spread anyone's message
> to a lot more persons easier and cheaper than just about
> any other medium. But who reads what is thus sent? One
> of my relatives sends out e-feuilletons to all his
> friends and family in the self-conceit that each of them
> is going to individually read what he has pseudo-personally
> addressed to them. When his "news" makes the AP, then I'll read it.
The point is that e-mail *increases* your relative's power to publish
(compared to publishing on paper) -- I didn't say e-mail puts him on
equal footing with big corporations. OTOH, there are examples such as
Randy Cassingham, a single person who makes an e-newsletter that is
now being distributed to zillions of readers in 183 countries. Try
that with any 'traditional' medium.
> One thing seems fairly certain, to me, however. Insofar as the medium is
> the message, Intel and Dell and AOL and Microsoft and MCI-Worldcom
> and Consolidated Edison, etc. are the medium. Never has a "populist"
> phenomenon been so massively dependent on such big business.
Funny, but I (and many others) have been on the Internet for years *without*
using products from "Intel and Dell and AOL and Microsoft and MCI-Worldcom
and Consolidated Edison". Let's face it, their stuff is for dummies, and
M$ has "slept" the Internet for years. It's pretty easy to avoid their stuff
(in fact you're better off without it), as the Internet is largely based on
GNU software and "any" hardware. Never has a "populist" phenomenon been
so massively **INdependent** on such big business!
Chris
