Theos-Talk Archives (August 1998 Message tl00074)

Whether one recognizes or not, Internet is revolutionizing the field of
communication. In a recent report in Computerworld, US is planning to
provide a e-mail addresses for all Americans. This is similar to a proposal
made in U.K some time ago. We can look for very unusal opportunities for
communicating with everyone in the world in the future.

Upsides:

Instant communication with large numbers of people around the world.
Extremely low cost of communication.
Increase in the volume of communication.
Increase in the velocity of communication.
Unfiltered/uncensored instant communication.
Ability to present Theosophy to a large number of people at very little cost.
Instant distribution of information about the happenings in one part of the
world to all parts of the world.
Breaking the strangle hold on the communication by established organizations.
Leveling of the field between the haves and have-nots. An individual can
have the same communication power as a multimillion dollar organization.
Leveling of the field for people with a variety of backgrounds and beliefs
and opinions.
Leveling of the field without any discrimination of caste, creed, sex,
color or national origin.
Interested individuals have immediate access to information at no or very
little cost. No admission or donation needed to access information.
And more...........

Downsides:

Organization which have thrived on controlling the channel of communication
between it and its members, clients, customers will lost the control.
Organizations which have thrived on censoring and editing of the
distributed messages, will no longer be able to do it.
Organizations with large budgets have to compete with poor-man/woman who
are fired with enthusiasm for cause.
Organizations find it difficult to silence its critics.
For some organizations, the very purpose of their existence will evaporate.
Individuals may have to face messages not to their personal liking.
International organizations no longer will be able to limit the knowledge
of the happenings in one country from getting broadcast to all other
countries.
Need to read messages not to our personal liking due to their contents or
the vocabulary.
And more........... 

Look for exciting developments inthe near future,

mkr

===============================================

Clinton backs universal e-mail plan 
August 7, 1998  Web posted at: 10:50 AM EDT by Tom Diederich 

(IDG) -- The Clinton administration wants all
Americans to have an e-mail address to go
along with their street address and is asking
the U.S. Postal Service to deliver the project's
backbone. 

The idea is to connect physical and electronic addresses
using the nation's Internet "country code" -- the top-level 
".us" domain. Then a company or
government agency, for example, could send bills or bulletins to your
electronic mailbox as well as your home. 

The administration said the move would
"accelerate and universalize the growth of
electronic commerce," according to the
Postal Service. 

Every country has a top-level domain. In
many countries, such as Japan, companies
and other organizations incorporate their
nation's top-level domain into their Web site addresses. 
..
The administration is looking ahead to the
day when most Americans have access to
the Internet or at least e-mail from their
homes. "Everybody would have an e-mail
address, and for those who cannot access it
right now, it would be downloaded and sent
to them through the mail" so that they could
use it at a library or other facility with
Internet access, Brennan said.