BKPBACIN.RVW   990207

"Public Access to the Internet", Brian Kahin/James Keller, 1995,
0-262-61118-X, U$20.00
%E   Brian Kahin kahin@harvard.edu
%E   James Keller keller@ksgrsch.harvard.edu
%C   55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA   02142-1399
%D   1995
%G   0-262-61118-X
%I   MIT Press
%O   U$20.00 800-356-0343 fax: 617-625-6660 www-mitpress.mit.edu
%P   390 p.
%T   "Public Access to the Internet"

Perhaps not quite addressing the current discussion of "public
access," with its heavy emphasis on subsidized access for the poor and
those in rural communities, the papers in this book were written at a
time of initial reaction to the commercialization of what had, up
until then, been primarily an academic and research network.

The first part looks at the US public access agenda of the day.  Brian
Kahin's paper starts off by noting that the National Information
Infrastructure plans misunderstood the nature of the value of the
Internet by seeing it as some kind of inexpensive carrier, when it
was, instead, the access to information that was of value, in the
model of the public library.  The tension between commercial and
public access interests is noted by Lewis Branscomb, with the poignant
metaphor of television pointing to past failures.  A number of public
access issues are raised, but not addressed in detail, by James
Keller.

Sociology and culture are unfortunately not dealt with well in part
two.  The WELL is an interesting success in online history, but Cliff
Figallo's paper does not relate closely to public access overall.  (As
only one example, the essay cites numerous cases where direct public
meetings with participants helped to resolve problems.)  Sproul and
Faraj try to look at the social technology of the net but do not
present any significant findings.

Part three tries to look at the establishment of network communities. 
Beverly Hunter presents a lot of educational theory, a few limited
anecdotes, and not much relation to public access.  Using Big Sky
Telegraph as an example, Frank Odasz makes a good case for low cost,
efficient, BBS based community networking models of public access, and
presents one of the high points in the book.  George Baldwin's look at
public access for Native Americans is unfocussed.  A look at the
provision of service through libraries, by Carol Henderson and
Frederick King, is anecdotal and lacks analysis.

Part four discusses new classes of users.  Richard Civille uses
statistics to show that the gap between rich and poor is widening, and
implies that the poor will be increasingly disadvantaged, but cannot
either strongly support his position or articulate remedial actions. 
A list of what people "want" from Internet access is Daniel Dern's
contribution.  Miles Fidelman looks briefly at various technologies
for "local loop" access.  Although it purports to look at
architectural and policy implications of the variety of new users on
the net, Terrence McGarty and Carole Haywood produce only a confused
overview of telecommunications uses.

The final section deals with pricing and service.  Jeffrey MacKie-
Mason and Hal Varian use tables of prices and graphs and economic
formulae to support a middle of the road non-recommendation that
everyone be involved.  Scott Shenker at least provides one new factor,
quality of service, for his limited proposal.  A telephone network
model is the basis of Michael Einhorn's paper.  Hans-Werner Braun and
Kimberley Claffy call for more study and data.

What is most disappointing is to see how little progress has been made
in the past four years.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1999   BKPBACIN.RVW   990207