The way of all dot coms?

The dot com crisis, serious as it may be, isn't responsible for my compatibility problems, or the distressing losses of information I've encountered. Even I have to admit that much. Still, there's a connection. Many of the services these swiftly disappearing start-ups offered promised us something for nothing, and most of us of course believed them. But though it didn't cost us monetarily, it's costing us dearly informationally.

I've rather consistently steered clear of the economic aspects of the internet, though of late these seem to occupy the general public much more than the sorts of issues with which I ordinarily choose to deal. There seems to be a point, however, at which those rather basic economic aspects trickle up into the superstructure of our cultural lives. Perhaps that means that a future column will have to be devoted to them. We'll see.

Go to: When it rains, it pours, or
Go to: The Promise of Ubiquitous Access.