Tom replied:
>Yes, they do try to promote discussion groups for users. ...
Wow.
I guess that means that newsgroups, e-lists, IRC and web-chat have just
passed into history, made irrelevant by the demonstrably more pleasant
walled city of AOL (where A stands for whatever you want it to).
Everything Ramin, Tom and Stewart have said confirms the impression in my
mind that the difference is in image not substance. Yes, I acknowledge
that this may be precisely what the market of 'newbies' will buy. Yes, I'm
still hopeful that even this market may be sceptical.
On the subject of nationalism, Ramin, I wasn't *really* attacking AOL just
because the A originally stood for America (although of course my
anti-American-culture biases are pretty difficult to entirely suppress
...). I agree that the market will mature to be trans-national or
supra-national. And I don't think I've ever been caught defending Telstra
or Ozemail (in fact, I declined to sign up with ANU's chosen ISP, Ozemail,
because of the extremely consumer-unfriendly terms and the excessive
pricing. When I'm interstate and need my mail, I dial in to my Canberra
ISP by STD, and end up well in front financially).
Roger Clarke http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/
http://www.etc.com.au/Xamax/
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916 mailto:Roger.Clarke@anu.edu.au
Visiting Fellow, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 AUSTRALIA
Information Sciences Building Room 211 Tel: +61 2 6249 3666