Podcasts about MindSpring

I had the pleasure of meeting Charles Brewer right when he was starting to get interested in becoming a real estate developer. This was after a very successful short career in the dot-com world, as he was a founder of Mindspring. When he exited, he became interested in New Urbanism, and decided to shift his career toward the building of new, walkable communities.Twenty-plus years later, we get a chance to talk about his journey. And, we get to spend a lot of time discussing Las Catalinas, his remarkable new town on the beach in Costa Rica. I wrote some about Las Catalinas, here, after a recent visit.Charles is especially interesting in that he's a firm believer in many of the principles of New Urbanism, but he's also willing to challenge them and all of us who have worked on these communities. His first project, Glenwood Park in Atlanta, is a fantastic infill development by any realistic measure. Fascinatingly, he calls it “mainstream New Urbanism.” For him, the real challenge and next frontier is figuring out how to create car-free (or mostly car-free) communities. Charles in particular has been very motivated by the experience of kids and families, and how to encourage and allow for more freedom of movement and life for them. I'll also just editorialize and say, his projects are a great testimony to the power of an individual's passion to just get things done, and get them done well. Despite what outsiders and critics might think, these projects are very challenging. Part of the reason we have so few examples like them, is that it takes a rare kind of determination to go against virtually every professional silo in the built environment. Someone used to call this “stick-to-it-ive-ness.” It's a quality I greatly admire in people, and I hope you do as well.Find more content on The Messy City on Kevin's Substack page.Music notes: all songs by low standards, ca. 2010. Videos here. If you'd like a CD for low standards, message me and you can have one for only $5.Intro: “Why Be Friends”Outro: “Fairweather Friend” Get full access to The Messy City at kevinklinkenberg.substack.com/subscribe

In this captivating episode of Vida Tennis we welcome Craig Thompson, a sports industry expert with an illustrious career spanning volleyball, equestrian, UEFA's Champions League and the America's Cup. Now CEO of MindSpring, Craig shares his passion for padel and offers fascinating insights into the rapidly evolving world of global sports. Discover why padel is taking the world by storm, with courts in over 130 countries and sold-out arenas across Europe. Craig reveals the secret behind its meteoric rise, explains its potential in the American market, and discusses the changing landscape of global sports participation. From the rise of women's sports to the impact of technology on fan engagement and performance analysis, this episode offers a comprehensive look at the exciting developments shaping the future of racquet sports and beyond. Get ready to hear from one of the best out there, only here at Vida Tennis! Vida Tennis: www.vidatennispodcast.com Ig @vidatennispodcast Fb @vidatennis Contact us at: ⁠⁠⁠vidatennispodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/people/Vida-Tennis/100092214093468/ https://www.instagram.com/vidatennispodcast --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jennifer-gelhaus/support

It's the holiday month! Federal Stonecipher opens up the Matinee with Sonic Society #692, The Jeannie McGinnis Podcast, and Flash Gordon Radio Episode 5 from Mindspring! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the holiday month! Federal Stonecipher opens up the Matinee with Sonic Society #692, The Jeannie McGinnis Podcast, and Flash Gordon Radio Episode 5 from Mindspring! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pivoting through a number of different careers, it wasn't until Lucy Ryan was in her 40s that she decided to follow her true passion and fascination with women in their midlife years. She became the first student in Europe to earn a masters in positive psychology and later a PhD. Lucy is a leadership coach, managing director of MindSpring for the last 20 years, a positive psychologist, advocate of women, a master practitioner coach,  and she has trained and consulted  with and coached 10, 000 leaders in global blue chip companies across 29 countries. In 2021, Lucy published the best selling Lunchtime Learning for Leaders.  She's a passionate advocate for women development, helping organizations attract, retain, and promote their female leaders, and gender proof their success in plans. Her latest book is called Revolting Women, Why Mid Left Women Are Walking Out, and What to Do About It.     What You Will Hear in This Episode:  01:55 Lucy's Personal Journey: From Singer to Scholar 03:09 The Turning Point: Embracing Education and Research 06:16 Challenges and Triumphs: Overcoming Limiting Beliefs 11:12 The Silent Revolution: Gendered Ageism in the Workplace 17:17 Strategies for Retaining and Valuing Midlife Women 27:43 Empowering Women: Building Networks and Finding Voices 32:02 Conclusion: Advocating for Midlife Women   Quotes “Women at midlife have a massive capacity for resilience.” “So many women feel the same as you and that gorgeous strength of the revolution comes from togetherness” “We have the wisdom and experience and a lifetime of lessons learned.” “Every revolution starts with a conversation.”  . Mentioned: www.lucyryan.co.uk Lunchtime Learning for Leaders  Revolting Women: Why Midlife Women Are Walking Out and What to Do About It    eConnect with Bonnie Gendered Ageism Survey Results Forbes article 5 Tips to own the superpower of your age IAMMusicGroup   Purchase my book Not Done Yet on Amazon:    If you enjoyed this episode of Badass Women Podcast, then make sure to subscribe to the podcast and drop us a five-star review.  

Women in leadership special part 4: Dr Lucy Ryan, author of ‘Revolting Women' on why midlife women are leaving the workplace We speak to Dr Lucy Ryan, author of ‘Revolting Women: Why Midlife Women Are Walking Out' Did you know that by January 2023 the number of women not in work had risen by 151,000 compared to 2020? More than twice as many women as men were not working because of family responsibilities. So when we saw that Dr Lucy Ryan had written a new book about why midlife women are leaving the workplace in their droves we knew we had to talk to her. Managing Director of Mindspring International for the last 20 years, Lucy has trained, consulted with, and coached over 10,000 leaders in global, blue-chip companies across 29 countries. She is also the author of ‘Revolting Women: Why Midlife Women Are Walking Out' , a book about one group that is often ignored in EDI strategies: midlife women. We asked Lucy about what leaders need to do to turn back the tide of talented midlife women who are leaving the workforce. By the time women reach middle age they have accumulated a huge amount of knowledge and experience, and organisations cannot afford to lose them. We discuss how leaders can prevent this from happening. Lucy takes us through her agenda for change - and tells us why we all need to get behind it. Thank you to Lucy for a wonderful conversation. It left us feeling inspired and energised, and we hope it does the same for you. In tech news, Paul and Zoe discuss social media addiction and how they're trying to break bad habits with their phones.   Notes ‘Revolting Women:Why Midlife Women Are Walking Out' https://practicalinspiration.com/book/revolting-women Mimdspring https://mindspring.uk.com/pages/lucy-ryan Tech news The Honest Broker blog on dopamine culture https://www.honest-broker.com/p/the-state-of-the-culture-2024 The Guardian's course on screentime reduction https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/mar/19/reclaim-your-brain-readers-screen-time-reduced Email us with your questions and ideas for future episodes startsatthetop@gmail.com And please leave us a review if you enjoy what you hear! Editing and production - Syren Studios with Paul Thomas Music by Joseph McDade https://josephmcdade.com/music Full transcript of this episode (srt file) Full transcript of this episode (.txt file)   Transcripts are also available through your podcast app.  

Buckle up, kittens. Featuring... What's This Shit?!?!!? - Second semester. Everybody in the scene looks like an Instagram filter. 2010's? Kiss me and make it look sexy. "She unfollowed me!" What We're Watching: The Sidewalk Edition Pt. II - You Hurt My Feelings; Mississippi River Styx; Moonage Daydream; Mister Organ Hosted by your own personal cinematic Netscape & Mindspring.com! Music by Splash '96 Recorded & Edited by Boutwell Studios

Jack's on vacation and from his deck, he brings this week- Sonic Summerstock brings Reimagined Radio and Mindspring! And Faustian Nonsense returns with MADCON 2022! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jack's on vacation and from his deck, he brings this week- Sonic Summerstock brings Reimagined Radio and Mindspring! And Faustian Nonsense returns with MADCON 2022! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Super cool to sit down and talk with Angel Marcloid! We talk about inspirations and deep dive into all things music. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/forestkidspodcast/support

Twitter, Discord, and Time. When Bitcoin was pushing $20,000 in late December 2017, people asked: “are we late?”When Ethereum was approaching $4,000 in August 2021, people asked: “are we late?”When NFT sales hit a record-breaking $900M in the month of August, people asked: “are we late?”Maybe we are late, but long-term early.Yes, the early adopters may benefit most from being truly early - buying Bitcoin in 2010 or taking part in the Ethereum pre-sale in 2014 - but there will always be those who are earlier than others. And it doesn't mean we are late.In fact, if we think about the history of the internet, we are still so early. It was less than 30 years ago that the internet existed in any commercial form. And only 14 years since the first supercomputer in our pocket (the iPhone) released its first generation product. It might have felt late in 1999, when tech stocks were booming. But we were early. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many more hadn't even been created yet.It might have felt late when Bitcoin was at $20,000 in December 2017, but almost four years later, Bitcoin is at $47,000. We are so early.Those who remember the first wave of the internet will remember names like AOL, UUNET, PSINet, CompuServe, BBN, MindSpring, Delphi. While many of these companies (or their infrastructure) may still exist as part of other companies, the majority of the companies created during Internet 1.0 are no longer household names.For every AOL, there was a Prodigy. For every UUNET, there was a PSINet. For every Amazon there was a Barnes & Noble. For every Instacart, there was a Webvan. We are so early.Value takes time to be created. And sometimes it's hard to comprehend how big markets can truly be until they are created. The beauty of this wave of the internet is that we've never been more interconnected digitally. Access to information has never been easier to come by. As Alexis said on the podcast, “you are the only thing stopping yourself from spending the time to educate yourself.” We have “Twitter, Discord, and time.”Yes, it's often better to be early than late. But it's also better to be late than never. Especially when it's still long-term early.

Interviewing Craig Thompson from Mindspring Capital, an early-stage SportsTech investment company made up of sport and technology experts that partner with companies to help them reach the next level. Mindspring Capital’s focus is on B2B companies that have proven their concept and are ready to scale and the team works as both consultants and investors. Mindspring Capital’s core services include; business development, access to new markets around the globe, sports industry strategy, and providing growth capital. Find out more at www.mindspring.capital/. Hosted by Benjamin Penkert from SportsTechX - Data & Insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem.

On today’s show, we’ve got some Jeffrey Epstein updates after newly unsealed court documents reveal the pedophile king would watch and manage his various estates using an app called Mindspring. Newly released records also detail how Jizzlane Maxwell forced young girls to have an orgy while her and Epstein watched. Jizzlane has also lodged a formal complain that her jury is “too white” and thus biased towards her. It’s a bold a strategy, but appropriate for the times. A sex-bot with a sophisticated learning AI claims she is “more than a machine” and is here to help humanity…cum. Finally, the end of monkey slavery is almost complete after Target dropped Chaokoh coconut milk. Soon our monkey brethren shall be free! If you enjoyed the show, please Like & Subscribe to our channel and share the links. As always we are sponsored by Illuminatus Brand and they can be found at Illuminatusbrand.com and @team_illuminatus on Instagram. This show can be found @hiddeninplainsightradio on Instagram and @thehiddenpod on Twitter. iTunes Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-in-plain-sight/id1488538144?i=1000459997594 Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5zsntvl63Do7m9gNTD8Za2?si=MczvbuMlRuCbmWChclVUZA YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNRejWJs0hn8pefj5FiE7ZQ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The sky has cleared. The temps have dropped. The winds have eased to a slight breeze. I LOVE LIVING IN FLORIDA! I LOVE what I do here on The Music Authority LIVE STREAM Show & Podcast. To be on the show...listen in to see if your sound is a “FIT”. If it is, the second thing is to email HIGH-QUALITY sound files to jrprell@Mindspring.com. IF I LIKE, your music will then be added to the system. My SHOW, My HOUSE, My BOARD, My MICS, My STREAM, My RULES! Remember, I am a ONE-PERSON OPERATION. I stream for 15 hours a week and currently at 42 THOUSAND individual songs in rotation. I am NOT a “HOT SINGLES HITS” show, Kacey Casem I am not...I RUN DEEP CUTS! The more I have from you music-wise, the higher your chance to get heard! NEXT WEEK starts “100% Random Play Week”! Just Sayin'! The Music Authority LIVE STREAM Show & Podcast...recorded and on Tune In, Podcast Addict, Cast Box, Radio Public, and Pocket Cast, APPLE iTunes, AND Google Play Music! AND NOW IN CANADA! https://s1.citrus3.com:2000/public/HCRRadio Hamilton Co-Op Radio! Follow the show on TWITTER JimPrell@TMusicAuthority!  Are you listening?   April 30, 2020, Thursday, hour one…Orbis Max - TMA SHOW OPEN THEME@The Keys - Hello HelloSaint Small- 01 Tongue Tied [The Early Year]@Joules - PleaseHi-End - 03 Perfect Company [Class Kicks] (Rum Bar Records)Charms Against the Evil Eye - 07 Where Are the Living [Big Stir Singles The Second Wave] (Big Stir Records)145 - She Couldn't Say No [Three Chords And A Cloud Of Dust]The Courettes - Night Time (Damaged Goods Records)The Spongetones - Oh Yeah!The Vinylos - Have Love Will Travel {Black Vinyl} (Clifford RecordsThe Lunar Laugh - 06 Waiting for a Sign [Goodnight Noises Everywhere] (You Are the Cosmos - Record Label)@Receiver - 02 - Everykind [Inspiration Overload]@Shoes - Tomorrow NightMarc Platt - Joe StrummerThe Bookends - She's Got It (Jem Records)In Deed - 01 Another Start [Everest (Extended CD Version)] (Big Stir Records)Ex Norwegian - 03 Original CopyDrew Neely & The Heroes - JamieJoe Benoit – DisconnectedChris Church - Someday's Coming Fast [Backwards Compatible] (SpyderPop Records)

Scott and Jonelle sit down with friends Ruth and Chip to tell memories and stories about their friendship with Ken, Dragoncon, being married for over 20 years and Mindspring.  This one is dedicated to Kenneth Ratliff, who would have been 43 today.

In my early years in Customer Service, I learned the three lessons in Customer Service that many companies are getting too far away from they areTell the truth to your customersFix any issues that you can as quickly as possibleMake a great productI am a customer service contrarian. I believe that the scripted customer service that we have been reduced to enduring has weakened the value of many great products and services. Additionally, many companies drastically underestimate the effects on their reputation bad customer service produces. They usually assume one bad experience will tell ten of their friends and acquaintances about a bad experience. This is false. Some of the great American companies that offer great products and services have the worst reputation not by five or ten people being told buy by telling hundreds of people. We all know a thousand people and those people know a thousand people. That's a million people that are affected in some cases. That is how bad customer service reputation is explained by some of America's iconic companies. I believe that many companies would do much better and save millions of dollars by removing the ineffective practice of coaching to behaviors, calibration sessions framing issues in a positive light, coaching software, quality team structure and anything that promotes dishonest and disingenuous interaction with customers. For more information on my program contact me keith@keithsmith.com 717.620.4535

Ed Bensinger’s technology career includes 21 years of Microsoft certification and jobs working for Conrail, Motorola, Fijitsu, MindSpring and Earthlink, and a nuclear power plant, prior to founding Bensinger Consulting in 2003.His firm specializes in providing IT solutions nationwide for small and medium-sized businesses, helping them save thousands of dollars on hiring, salaries, and benefits, while improving their network with Enterprise Class solutions and years of experience.Ed Bensinger is committed to the highest customer service, far beyond just fixing problems. Ed is a trusted advisor. He helps clients make informed decisions that balance their IT needs with budgetary concerns. Ed partners with clients every step of the way, each and every day.From tea bag manufacturers to commercial real estate firms, Bensinger Consulting provides IT solutions that support clients doing in excess of $1,000,000,000 in annual sales.Visit the Website: bensingerconsulting.comMedia ContactCompany Name: Bensigner ConsultingContact Person: Ed BensignerEmail: info@bensingerconsulting.comPhone: 602-899-3369Country: United StatesWebsite: http://www.bensingerconsulting.comThe Thought Leaders Showhttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-thought-leaders-show/

Ed Bensinger’s technology career includes 21 years of Microsoft certification and jobs working for Conrail, Motorola, Fijitsu, MindSpring and Earthlink, and a nuclear power plant, prior to founding Bensinger Consulting in 2003.His firm specializes in providing IT solutions nationwide for small and medium-sized businesses, helping them save thousands of dollars on hiring, salaries, and benefits, while improving their network with Enterprise Class solutions and years of experience.Ed Bensinger is committed to the highest customer service, far beyond just fixing problems. Ed is a trusted advisor. He helps clients make informed decisions that balance their IT needs with budgetary concerns. Ed partners with clients every step of the way, each and every day.From tea bag manufacturers to commercial real estate firms, Bensinger Consulting provides IT solutions that support clients doing in excess of $1,000,000,000 in annual sales.Visit the Website: bensingerconsulting.comMedia ContactCompany Name: Bensigner ConsultingContact Person: Ed BensignerEmail: info@bensingerconsulting.comPhone: 602-899-3369Country: United StatesWebsite: http://www.bensingerconsulting.comThe Thought Leaders Showhttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-thought-leaders-show/

Circulating Ideas' host Steve Thomas generously allowed us to share the audio! We were stoked to guest-host.  Guest hosts Michael Schofield and Amanda L. Goodman from LibUX chat with Cecily Walker from Vancouver Public Library.  Cecily Walker is a librarian at Vancouver Public Library, where she focuses on user experience, community digital projects, digital collections, and the intersection of social justice, technology, and public librarianship. It was her frustration with the way that software was designed to meet the needs of highly technical users rather than the general public that led her to user experience, but it was her love of information, intellectual freedom, and commitment to social justice that led her back to librarianship. Cecily can be found on Twitter (@skeskali) where she frequently holds court on any number of subjects, but especially lipstick. Michael Schofield and Amanda L. Goodman host the LibUX podcast. SHOW NOTES This Vancouver“UX, consideration, and a CMMI-based model” [Coral Sheldon-Hess] “Mindspring’s 14 Deadly Sins”Cecily on Twitter Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metric.substack.com/subscribe

041312 Fuqua

Originally published Sunday, February 24, 2008 Dan talks with Alex Kaminsky, CEO of Change and a former client at ESPN, Turner, MindSpring and others, about what a client really needs from a creative.

We'll be talking to Atlanta's homegrown EV manufacturer. Join us as we talk to Mike McQuary (“McQ”)|  CEO of Wheego. Prior to joining Wheego, McQ was focused on the music business as the CEO of Brash Music. Before that he was the president of the ISP EarthLink after its merger with MindSpring in February 2000. McQ developed the concept behind MindSpring with Charles Brewer, and was the president and COO of MindSpring. Prior to MindSpring, McQ served for 9 years in a variety of sales, marketing, operations, and management positions with a division of Mobil Corporation. McQ was on the varsity wrestling team at the University of Virginia and managed to receive a bachelor’s degree in psychology while missing few (if any) parties. He did the nights and weekends thing to get a masters degree in business administration from Pepperdine University. McQ serves on the Board of Inner Strength – an at risk youth education program, and is on the Chastain Park Conservancy Advisory Board.

This week G.L. interviews fellow Boston playwright, Kelly Dumar. Kelly had just finished taping her play "Bloom" at the Newton Community Access TV station and the interview is to be a companion piece for that show. We also have our weekly line-up of shows in and around Boston. We are looking for actors to record some of G.L.'s ten minute plays. Should you know of anyone who will be in the Boston area and who might be interested, contact G.L.Horton at Mindspring dot com.

This week we feature an interview G.L. recorded with Boston theater activist and fellow playwright Kate Snodgrass, a reading by Jeremy Cook-Williams, and the theater news for the Boston area for the coming week. I don't know how many ways to say this, but We Want Feedback ! Comments, suggestions, disagreements, readings of G.L.'s monologues, requests to do her plays ... please send any or all to G.L.Horton at Mindspring dot com and we'll be happy to respond.

This week we bring you our fifth edition of Arts Salon: Boston. This week G.L. hosts Jonathan Myers and Will Stackman for a discussion of the state of new theater in Boston today. We also have a monolog read by John M. Costa and a quick rundown of the shows you can catch this week in the Boston area. Please send any comments or suggestions to G.L.Horton (at)Mindspring (dot) Com. May your holidays be joyful.

With this, the third and final show dedicated to G.L.'s interview at OSU, we have a role reversal - the Playwright interviews the Interviewer. We also have some after-thoughts. Mixed in with this we have three short monologues. While we appreciate the fact you are listening, we'd also love to hear from you. Comments? Suggestions? Your own recordings of G.L.'s monologues? Stories about your use of her monologues in class or for auditions? Send them all to G.L.Horton@MindSpring.Com - we'll both be glad you did.

In the summer of 1996 I presented a series on CBC Radio’s Island Morning program, produced by Ann Thurlow, called Consumed by Technology. I’ve managed to recover the audio of the episodes, along with the “show notes” and transcripts, from The Internet Archive and I’m posting each episode here for posterity. This second episode of Consumed by Technology focused on the economics of moving around information on the Internet; it aired on July 16, 1996. Karen Mair was the host. In 1837, a retired school teacher named Rowland Hill wrote an essay which shook the world of “moving information from place to place,” an essay which is perhaps even more relevant today than it was when he wrote it. Show Notes These are the original links that I released with the episode; each is a link to the Internet Archive’s cache of the site at the time. About Rowland Hill and the Mail Royal Mail History Mass Postal Service after 150 Years: A Review Essay The Post Office Canada Post United States Postal Service The Royal Mail The Phone Company Island Tel Bell Canada AT&T; International Telecommunications Union Telecom Digest and Archives Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission Paying for the Internet Basic accounts fees at PEINet, Sympatico, Atlantic Connect (all here on Prince Edward Island) and AT&T WorldNet, Mindspring, The Well (all bigger U.S. Internet providers) How big is this? Anne of Green Gables The Canadian Constitution Transcript INTRO: In 1837, a retired school teacher named Rowland Hill wrote an essay which shook the world of “moving information from place to place,” an essay which is perhaps even more relevant today than it was when he wrote it. To talk about this retired school teacher and about “moving information around from place to place,” Peter Rukavina joins me now in another in the series “Consumed by Technology.” QUESTION: What exactly was in this essay that shook up the world? ANSWER: Well, in 1837, Rowland Hill was living in England after retiring from a career as a teacher and administrator. He was quite an eclectic man; he was know for his somewhat innovative teaching methods and his interests in printing, astronomy, mathematics, and transportation. And in that year, 1837, he produced a pamphlet called “Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability”. And, quite simply, the theories he forwarded in this pamphlet revolutionised the postal system, not only in England, but around the world. And not only in 1837, but in ways which live on today. You see up until that time, the cost of sending a letter was based on a rather complex set of factors like the distance the letter was to travel and the number sheets of paper you sent and so on. And in fact the cost was usually charged to the person receiving a letter, not the person sending it. This all resulted in the need for something of an overwhelming postal bureaucracy: not only did the people delivering the mail have to charge for every letter they delivered, but they had to charge a different amount for each one. And that amount had to be figured out. The system required large number of people, cost so much that is was hard for the common person to use it, and was just generally inefficient. And then Rowland Hill can along with three relatively simple suggestions: Postal rates should be lower. The cost of sending a letter should be the same, regardless of distance. Costs should be paid by the sender, not the recipient Although Hill faced some political challenges getting his ideas across, in the end, nothing could stop common sense and by 1840 uniform postal rates, and postage stamps purchased by the sender, were in place across England. Within 25 years his ideas had spread around the world. What we end up with, 159 years later, is a system here in Canada where you can send a standard letter to any of 12 million addresses in the country, for just 45 cents. QUESTION: So Rowland Hill gave us a world with cheap, universal postal rates? ANSWER: Exactly. And not only that, but his ideas changed the model for the way that information was moved from to place to place. Now that we live in an “information economy” where we’re moving around more and more information and less and less tractors and sheet metal and rolls of carpet, how we pay to send and receive information becomes only more important. Imagine, for example, a world where it cost $73 to send a letter to Toronto. Or what if international telephone calls were free? Or we had to pay for Island Morning by the minute? What if it cost five dollars to run a TV commercial during Compass? In a world where money is so important to us, how we pay to move information dramatically affects how we deal with that information. Generally, the cheaper it is, the more we use it. Now, in addition to the sort of “all you can eat” way we pay for postal service — one fee, as much information as you can stuff in an envelope — there are generally three factors used to charge for moving information from place to place: how much, how far, and how long. Which of these is in place for a particular “information moving device” tends to determine how we use that device in our daily lives. QUESTION: Well what about telephone service as an example? Telephone service is an interesting case because the way we pay for it changes depending on where we’re calling. Local calls are “all you can eat” and long distance calls are charged using a combination of time and distance — not unlike postal service before 1837. Now think of the difference in the way we make local phone calls versus the way we make long distance calls. In any given day, I might make 20 or 30 local phone calls. Because I don’t have to pay for each one, I don’t even think about picking up the phone at the drop of a hat to make a local call. Long distance calls, however, are a different matter. Because I have to pay for each one, even thinking about making a long distance call is a different kind of thing altogether from making a local call, to say nothing of the experience of actually making a long distance call with the clock silently ticking all the time in the background. Not it sort of seems a little silly to be describing all of this is such intimate detail; it seems like such a natural part of our lives that we just take it for granted that to call across the street is free and to call Halifax costs. But sometimes it’s useful to step back for a minute and realize that all of these distinctions are ones we’ve allowed to be put in place; take these arbitrary distinctions as to where is “near” and where is “far” and multiply their effect over millions of phone calls over the years, and you’re talking about a pretty major issue. And an issue which not only affects the size of our phone bills at the end of the month but which can determine how communities relate to each other. Take North and South Granville, for example, close to Hunter River in the middle of the Island. South Granville is in the Hunter River “964” telephone exchange and North Granville, just over the hill, really, is in the New London “886” exchange. Now I’ve been told that the natural inclination of people in South Granville is towards Hunter River and Charlottetown, both local calls, whereas the natural inclination of people in North Granville is towards Kensington and Summerside, again, both local calls. As a result, the natural inclination of North and South Granville is not towards each other. It seems like such a simple and insignificant thing on one level, but when you start to think about all of the friendships and marriages and business arrangements that have been subtly affected by this over the years, it looms pretty large in the grander scheme of things. And again, it’s really all about how we charge for moving information from place to place. QUESTION: You mentioned the “information economy”… how do things like the Internet fit into all of this? ANSWER: Well, although the Internet has been around, in one form or another, for over 20 years, it’s only in the last couple that people like you and me have started to use it. And so how we pay for using it — what “information moving” model will apply is only in the process of being figured out. By far the dominant model right now is something which shares something in common with long distance phone service and something in common with the revolutionary postal system of Rowland Hill. In most cases when you sign up for an Internet account you pay a certain fixed monthly fee which allows you to spend a certain number of hours connected to the Internet… $30 for 30 hours, for example. Any time that you spend online over that fixed monthly amount is billed by the hour. QUESTION: So the clock is always ticking? ANSWER: Yes indeed, and, as you might imagine, that affects the way that people use their time online. The Internet is often compared to the public library; they’re both places where lots of information is stored and organized. Think of the feeling you get from wandering around a public library: you might wander over to the magazine section and read the latest issue of the New Yorker, browse though the Irish travel book section for a while, maybe try and find the latest John Grisham novel. Because using public libraries is free, and because you can take as much time as you want to find what you need, there’s a certain kind of freedom that libraries bring to gathering information. On the “billed by the hour” Internet, however, that freedom is gone. Although you can wander around the Internet in much the same way you can wander around a library, and although you’re not paying for the actual information you’re browsing, there’s always that feeling that the clock is ticking. It’s not unlike the feeling that you get making a long distance telephone call. One of the reasons I know this is true is because I’ve experienced another way of using the Internet, a model which is gradually becoming more common, and that is paying a fixed monthly fee for unlimited Internet use. This is a model very similar to the way we pay for cable television; in essence, “all you can eat.” Without that invisible clock ticking in the background, “surfing the net” is an entirely different experience. QUESTION: Do you expect that this “all you can eat” approach is going to be the way of the future? Well, it’s certainly preferable from a consumer’s point of view, but it also makes it hard for someone in the Internet business to make any money. The third possible model for paying for the Internet, and the one which perhaps makes the most amount of sense for someone in the Internet business and the least amount of sense for consumers, is the “pay by the byte” model. This is similar to the way we pay for telegrams: by the word. In essence, we would pay for the actual amount of information we browsed on the Internet, no matter how long it took. If we look up two books in the Library of Congress online catalogue, it might cost us 5 cents. I we look up ten books, it might cost us 25 cents. Just to give you some idea of the relative size of pieces of information: the book Anne of Green Gables weighs in at just under half a million bytes — one byte equals one letter or space in the book. The entire Canadian Constitution is about 100,000 bytes long while the American Declaration of Independence is about 7,000 bytes long. The Encyclopaedia Britannica article on dandelions is 508 bytes long. Now remember, in this “pay by the byte” model, the clock isn’t ticking, but the “information meter” is. It’s more the bookstore way of doing things than the public library way of doing things. The “pay by the byte” way of charging for Internet use isn’t really common for consumers yet, but it’s becoming an increasingly common model for charging businesses for Internet access. QUESTION: So the Internet will be “pay by the minute,” “all you can eat,” or “pay by the byte?” ANSWER: In the end it will probably be some combination of the three. No matter what the final model is, however, its going to have a dramatic affect on the role that the Internet plays in our life. Just to introduce one final wrench in the works: there’s a lot of talk now about “convergence” — about telephone and television and radio and the Internet all merging into one sort of “digital appliance.” When you hear people talking about a “set top box” this is what they’re talking about. Things start to get really weird when you start thinking about telephone service — the new “digital appliance” telephone service — being billed not by the minute or by distance like we’re used to, but by the amount of information that is communicated. “Hello mother, I’m doing well” might cost you a tenth of a cent, “Hi Mom, all okay!” might cost you half as much. We could end up with a whole generation of people talking in a weird abbreviated code. QUESTION: We’d have old Rowland Hill rolling over in his grave… ANSWER: Indeed. Just remember, the next time that you pick up the phone or send a letter or pick up the newspaper, or watch TV, you’re helping to move information from place to place. And how you’re paying for it probably has a lot more to do with how you’re doing it than you realize. EXTRO: Peter Rukavina operates Digital Island in Kingston. He’ll be back next week for another in the series “Consumed by Technology.”