"Hope is brightest when it dawns from fear." . . . Sir Walter Scott
#111
Fear for the Web
Last month I asked if anyone had any thoughts about the 'new' InterNIC (now adorned
"NetworkSolutions") Some of you may remember the early days of the Internet.
The 'keeper of the gates" was a government branch that ruled the administration
of URL (Unique Resource Location) DNS (Domain Naming System) addresses as a public
utility. If you wanted a Domain (dot/com, dot/net, dot/edu, etc.) you registered,
and if the name was available you claimed if as your unique address. Period.
. . . Some of you also may remember that there was a
community of Internet users were who riled when the Gov decided it was in best interest
to bestow the keeping of the internet gates to a private company, InterNIC. There
were no bids -- no fanfare -- no public debate. The papers were signed and the switches
were flipped. Then they began charging for the service. Everyone got over it -- except
me. . . . But people said "Stop complaining, Fred,
it's no big deal."
. . . As the ever-quickening years screamed by Madison
Avenue swept across the web, the big-time corporate community discovered there are
real viewers on the web with real dollars with a real hunger to spend those dollars.
Quietly the game began to change. The "level playing field" is somehow
not so level anymore.
. . . Early this year during my usual registration of
new domains for clients I watched another rather disturbing transformation looming
over InterNIC. With the name change to "Network Solutions" (NetSol) and
the ensuing website renovation, suddenly the 'NIC" was no longer "one of
us," but now one of them. No more hooks for ISPs to quickly register names.
No more back-room automation. Suddenly everyone is a shopper in the shopping cart
of Web addresses. Ads began glaring their pitches, spam began to seep and now what
was once a trustworthy purveyor of "level" has become another money grubbing
spam purveyor.
. . . Am I being too harsh? I've been reading a lot
of complaining in the lists. We were even contacted this month by an ISP whose clients
had begun receiving postal junk mail and faxes of various advertisers. Interesting
that the junk mail should say that it was referred by the ISP. One credit card
scam even named the ISP as a credit reference. Hmmmmm. Connecting an ISP with the
end user is a relatively complex challenge if a spammer was looking for bulk. I dare
say they wouldn't bother. However if somehow the spammers could get a list of all
an ISPs clients, whhhhellll -- that would be quite another thing. What information
should be purveyed to spammers?
. . . Now try this: set up a new URL with unique names
and addresses attached to the three positions required by NetSol. Create a unique
new email address at one of the freebie email sites. Will spam come within hours?
Did I try it?
. . . If you're not an ISP or a web participant other
than surfer, you probably don't care about this. You're out to get all you can from
the web and that's about as far as your community concerns will go, so long as the
spam doesn't get much worse. Right?
. . . But consider who is the keeper of the gate and
what grave responsibilities rest in their hands. Ask whether or not thousands of
registrations per day at 70-bucks a pop (then $30 per year for life) should be enough.
Ask if all those people simply wanting to register a domain should become the target
of advertising and marketing schemes to further extort money for already-rich, over-greedy
big business. Who would you rather have guarding the gates to the Internet? What
do we have to fear?
I welcome your comments, and insights.
Fred
"There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest." Napoleon
I
Fred Showker is director of The Design & Publishing Center on the web at http://www.graphic-design.com/, and is a co-founder of both The User Group Forum on America Online, and The User Group Network at http://www.user-groups.net/. He has been a user group activist and supporter since 1984.
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