Sender: •••@••.••• (David S. Bennahum) On november 11, Philip Stills wrote: >Using Sonic.net, I contacted numerous people individually by e-mail after >finding their unique postings in Newsgroups which reflected their specific >interest in the subject of my book [~snip] > and encouraged them to >get more information by visiting my WebSite. [~snip] >You can Read or Print Chapter One Part of the power of cyberspace, perhaps one of the most significant parts of it, is the simple fact that I can reach 1 person as easily as 100, 10,000 or 10 whatever. As we've all said many times before, this is a fundamental shift of power (Assuming in today's world information is a large part of power) from what had been a limited pool of elites to individuals. Having put in this bit of context let's look at the case of this Philip Stills guy. In the case of this guy sending out unsolicited email to plug his book, he toed that offensive line we're all so wary of -- unsolicited email junk. But at the same time, hey, this is part of the deal of cyberspace: sometimes I get unsolicited email that turns out to be *extremely* worthwhile, even leading to a story idea, etc. So how do we balance between protecting ourselves from truly vile spam without losing the seredipidy of unsolicited information? In this case, this guy Philip Stills, offered something in return for your attention: a free look at the first chapter of his book. I think that actually makes a difference, he is giving us free information in return for what cannot be more than a 30 second email hiccup. Is that automatically vile, wrong and contrary to all rules of netiquette? I think it is not. There has to be some sort of barter system on the Net (your time for free information), otherwise why bother being on the Net, if all we want to do is control every last bit of email that crosses our door? Isn't this an acceptable by-product of having this power to contact 1, 100 or 10,000,000 people -- that some stranger is going to show up on your electronic doorstep and say, "hey, pay attention to this"? best, db -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= David S. Bennahum 632 Broadway, 6th Floor New York, NY 10012 Voice: 212-674-8107 Fax : 212-505-8520 http://www.reach.com/matrix -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The Economist * Wired * New York * NetGuide The New York Times * Harper's Bazaar * Lingua Franca -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Check out MEME, my net.newsletter on cyberspace and social change. Meme propagates bi-weekly. You can subscribe to Meme directly via email by emailing •••@••.••• with a message that reads "subscribe MEME firstname lastname" where firsname is replaced by your first name and lastname by your last name (do not include the quote symbols.) Visit the WWW home of Meme at Into the Matrix: http://www.reach.com/matrix Back issues archived at http:// www.reach.com/matrix/meme.html -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Andrew Oram - •••@••.••• - Moderator: CYBER-RIGHTS (CPSR) You are encouraged to forward and cross-post messages for non-commercial use, pursuant to any redistribution restrictions included in individual messages. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
