Internet Access: Flat Fee Vs. Pay-Per-Use

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come from
following unknown routes, bumping into things we weren't looking for. (Indeed,
Thomas Kuhn makes the claim that, even in the hard sciences, real breakthroughs
and interesting discoveries only come from following these unconventional routes
[Kuhn, Thomas, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1962]).

And people who have to pay each time they use a piece of information are
likely to increasingly rely upon specialists and experts. For example, in a
situation where the reader will have to pay to read each paragraph of background
on Bosnia, s/he is more likely to rely upon State Department summaries instead
of paying to become more generally informed him/herself. And in the 1970s and
1980s the library world learned that the introduction of expensive pay-per-use
databases discouraged individual exploration and introduced the need for
intermediaries who specialized in searching techniques.

Producers vs. Consumers

On the Internet ...

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be made accessible and what will not. This kind of model
resembles broadcast or cable television much more so than it does today's
Internet.

The scarcity of outbound bandwidth will discourage individuals and small
groups from becoming information producers, and will further solidify their role
as information consumers. "Interactivity" will be defined as responding to
multiple-choice questions and entering credit card numbers onto a keypad. It
should come as no surprise that some of the major players trying to build the
Information SuperHighway are those who introduced televised "home shopping".

Information vs. Entertainment

The telecommunications industry continues to insist that ...

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