December 23, 1997
Rein in the Net, Canadians say
by Chris Cobb, Southam News
- SOUTHAM-GLOBAL POLL -
OTTAWA - Canadians are growing increasingly suspicious of the
Internet and favour government regulation of cyberspace.
Women, especially mothers of young children, are leading the call for
Internet control, according to findings of a yearend Southam-Global poll
of adult Canadians.
Better we teach the women to use the net to show thier
children the "right from wrong"
When asked whether they favoured government passing laws to regulate
the Internet, 66 per cent of Canadian adults said yes. Among women in the
35-54 age group, 80 per cent favour regulation.
A new wave of Internet users has joined the original users, said Duncan
Mackie, senior vice-president of Pollara, the national polling firm that
surveyed attitudes toward the Internet and other high-tech products.
"We have gone beyond the trailblazers, or first wave of users, who
typically would not favour any regulation," he said. "The trailblazers
were predominantly young, affluent, middle-class males, but the second wave
is more likely to consist of families using the Internet for information
and entertainment.
"They are sensitive to such things as violence and pornography in
other media, so it isn't surprising they would be sensitive to it on the
Internet."
The fact it is technologically impossible to fully regulate the World
Wide Web is no deterrent to those who want regulation, Mackie said.
"There's a moral imperative at play. People might know there are
technical obstacles but they want somebody to keep trying anyway."
David Jones, president of the anti-censorship group Electronic Frontier
Canada, said the poll result is disappointing, but suggested people will
change their minds about regulation the more they use the Internet.
"The more experience people have on the Net, the more they appreciate
its openness," said Jones, a professor at McMaster University in Hamilton,
Ont. "They come to realize that they can make choices themselves and
they don't need some bureaucrat to decide what they can see or not."
There are too many myths about the Internet, Jones added. "The truth
is that the vast majority of content is not porn," he said, "but
if you want adult content, you can find it. It's really more reflective
of the individual than the Internet."
Despite concerns over the seedier side of cyberspace, 52 per cent of
Canadians say the Internet contains useful information and services. Another
33 per cent are more skeptical and say material on the Net is either useless
or questionable.
"The Internet has been incredibly hyped and oversold," Mackie
said, "and that adds to people's disappointment and frustration. They
have to wait a long time and wade through a lot of junk to find something
meaningful. Many are saying they might as well go back to books."
Yes the NET is slow, slower than it can be.. than it will be
but never as slow a a walk to the book stalls!
This story talks about SPEED
http://www.businessweek.com/1997/49/b3556069.htm
WHEN THE WEB GETS TOO STICKY
Remedies are emerging to speed Internet traffic--but none is perfect
"Internet-by-satellite is available to anyone who can position an 18-inch dish with a clear view of the southern sky. I tried Hughes Network Systems' DirecDuo, which combines DirecTV and U.S. Satellite Broadcasting (USSB) television service with DirecPC. The service offers
download speeds up to 400 kbps--and it delivers, especially on file transfers and big graphics."
It cost... but it is fast ... in the US The CRTC will not let Canada use it!!??
Chris Goodfellow on speed
Yeah....I've used it in Charlotte North Carolina... it is fast...most of
the time but again depends on whether the file you are trying to
download is located on a server that it itself has a fast net
connection! I like DirecPC better than both Cancom and Telsat here but
again you are dependent on return land lines fopr packet requests. The
REAL solution will be when we have cheap BI-DIRECTIONAL satellite and I
think it will come David...perhaps sooner than we think. McCaw and Gates
have a joint venture for multiple low altitude (not geostationary) sats
(108 for global coverage) to bounce signal.
Cable service like Videotron's and Cogeco's Wave are good too but same
problem if they are trying to retrieve a packet off a congested
server...I have often gone to Videotron's head office and played with
the system and yes off some major servers you get great speed but most
of the "public" internet web pages are not stored on high speed servers
connected by uncongested bandwidth. Most pages are on pentiums all
around the world with slow connections.
BUT the internet is such an anarchic structure even now...you could see
fragmentation into many different hi speed commercial networks and all
"amateur" and small business pages may end up being served over lower
speed networks. I bet on fragmentation as big business cannot be
dependent and be exposed to the growing security security problems and
possible gridlock that's going to happen as more and more come online
to this "public" internet.
You have to view AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy and MicrosoftNetwork as
essentially very large networks in themselves which are connected to the
internet...but don't kid youreself...none of these guys want YOU on the
internet...they all want you to use the internally generated content...
Microsoft Network may very well operate a bi-directional sat network of
its own open only to its members or those willing to pay to get in...it
won't be the public internet as we know it but it will be a high speed
network with the most important content of the present internet and
quite possibly small sites like yours or mine could apply to be
"mirrored" on their high speed servers for a fee...
Most people haven't figured out that with W95 you can have as many
dial-up connections as you wish configured in your system... so why not
many private networks? ... You will not connect only with an "internet"
service provider...i.e. a world wide wait provider... in the future but
you will connect with specific niche market networks that will emerge to
take care of speed, security and other issues to satisfy specific
demands of customers. The "public" internet may not get much better than
it is now... the emerging "private" intranets and extranets will become
more and more important....
Another reason why a municipality like Westmount should have its own
dial-up server with information specific to Westmount available on it.
Merry Christmas...and don't send Christmas cards as e-mail attachments!
|
The Pollara poll shows that most Canadians do not have access to the
Internet. Sixteen per cent have access at work, 13 per cent at home and
10 per cent have access in both places. Of those Canadians without a home
computer, 22 per cent say they intend to buy one in the next year.
The number of Canadians with home computers now 20 per cent will probably
be at 30 per cent by the end of 1998, Mackie said. But computer ownership
is still confined to high-earning Canadians.
A remarkably high number of Canadians in all age and income groups are
obviously frustrated with voice mail and say it influences where they take
their business.
Eighty-nine per cent said they find voice mail less efficient than a
human receptionist and 87 per cent said they are more likely to do business
with companies employing humans to answer the phone.
Siva Pal, a Carleton University business-school professor, said Canadians'
resentment toward voice mail is symptomatic of a larger problem: technology
is changing faster than people's ability to adapt.
"When we make a phone call and hear a robot talk to us," Pal
said, "we not only have to deal with the aggravation of something devoid
of social intercourse, but often the delays cost us money."
The Southam-Global survey of 1,410 adult Canadians was
conducted by Pollara between Nov. 28 and Dec. 2. Results are considered
accurate within 3.4 percentage points, 19 times in 20.
See also please "Internet use up 78%"
McGill student a victim of high-tech harassment
Many more secrets on ths subject