Bill Frantz wrote:
... He noted that new data showed that 40% of US Internet traffic was flowing through America OnLine's network and that together with Netscape the two companies would effectively control the technology now shaping the global network - "And then Microsoft would be left without an Internet standard,".
Perry sent me a polite note asking why I had posted the original post, and I replied:
(1) I thought it was of interest to people on the list, and not yet generally available information. ... (3) It speaks to the issue of whether there is a danger of oligopolistic control of the net. Cypherpunks will, of course, work on technical solutions to that danger.
He suggested that in the future I make it clear why I think my posts are relevent to the subject of the list. At 7:44 PM 2/13/96 -0500, Deranged Mutant wrote:
I dunno. The World Wide Web Consortium supposedly exists to prevent corporations from controlling the technology and standards.
I agree that keeping the cost of market entry low, by having the technical standards freely available at no cost is an excellent way of furthering this goal. (The IETF has a similar policy.) In addition, free software (in the sense of the Free Software Foundation) will help. BTW - I do not consider oligopolistic control of the net of the net to be a serious danger in the five year time frame. I am less sanguine about the 30 year time frame. Bill