Book details of 'Public Access to the Internet'

Title	Public Access to the Internet
Author(s)	Brian Kahin, James Keller
ISBN	026261118X
Language	English
Published	August 1995
Publisher	MIT Press

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Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
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
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Book description:

This well-balanced collection takes up the important issues in enabling widely available access to the Internet at a time of rapid commercialization and growth. The seventeen contributions present material that network managers, politicians, and other professionals need to know in order to ask the right questions and properly analyze the various proposals that are being considered for the future of the National Information Infrastructure (NII). Chapters are grouped in five parts: The Public Access Agenda, The Sociology and Culture of the Internet, Establishing Network Communities, Accommodating New Classes of Users, and Pricing and Service Models. A Publication of the Information Infrastructure Project at Harvard University