On June 26, 2003 at 18:40 vjs(_at_)calcite(_dot_)rhyolite(_dot_)com (Vernon
Schryver) wrote:
From: Barry Shein <bzs(_at_)world(_dot_)std(_dot_)com>
What if such an account as you describe, honestly, would cost $100/mo
or more, w/o connectivity fees?
The email will end. Fortunately, we both know that such a number is
silly nonsense.
Let's see. I've been president & CEO of an ISP since 1989.
Are you sure you want to dismiss my comments about the costs of the
email business as nonsense off-hand?
Maybe you don't understand to what exent email is being subsidized by
other revenue streams and how that subsidy is becoming unbearable
mostly due to the personnel strain being created by spam.
Email is and has been the killer app of the net (in more ways than
one.) Now what happens when something gets people through the door? It
becomes a loss leader, you charge as little as possible in the hope
that once inside they may buy more profitable goods and services.
Well, it's a little more complicated than that but you'd have to pay
me the big bucks to explain it fully.
But unless you work the spreadsheets for a living don't be too sure
that you can extrapolate from what it takes to set-up sendmail and pop
on a linux pc for a few people to what it takes to run a professional
organization with service and customer support staff etc for many
thousands of people. Remember Brooks' constant carping about the N!
nature of organizational endeavors.
Because it is impractical to charge the mailers that cause problems.
Why? Because you can't think of a way to do it off the top of your
head?
But you can't think of a way to stop spam by any other means off the
top of your head either. Neither can anyone else, apparently.
Which is the justification for a research group. To try to tackle
problems which don't have obvious answers.
I wouldn't necessarily start with a sender-pays business plan as a
problem to solve here, maybe later, but I've seen some which are quite
plausible and nothing like what usually gets suggested by people who
aren't in the business of creating new business models.
But I bring it up because I think it's a reality we're going to have
to face, like it or not.
--
-Barry Shein
Software Tool & Die | bzs(_at_)TheWorld(_dot_)com |
http://www.TheWorld.com
Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202 | Login: 617-739-WRLD
The World | Public Access Internet | Since 1989 *oo*
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