Being your own ISP was [Re: [mv] HTML editors]

[Birgitt Funk <birgitt@booktraders.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from Birgitt Funk <birgitt@booktraders.com>     ******


> ******    message to minivend-users from Ramsey French <rammjet@mac.com>
>
[del]

> And Racke stated that we all tend to become Linux conversant as part of
> our MV learning process.  I don't necessarily agree.  I have taken one
> course in Unix as part of my day job and used that with trial and error
> to set up MV on a server one time.  After than, I have not needed to
> mess with Linux very much (occasional telnet sessions).  The process
> described above is not Linux dependant (edit, FTP, run browser, repeat). 
> And now, I have moved to a host that manages MV for me (thanks Jason!),
> so I have next to no exposure to Linux.

It seems to me that it depends much upon how many people try to run their
own server 24h/7d server and attempt to be their own micro-ISP. Anyone
doing that will most probably very soon become Linux conversant.

I wonder what the inhibiting factor for a Mac/Windows-based web designer
is NOT to run his own ISP service on a Linux box ? Just the fact that
bandwidth doesn't come inexpensive enough to your households and offices ?

What if you had the bandwidth ? Wouldn't you want to have full control over
how you use your soft-and hardware ?  How much time consuming difficulties
do you have, just because you need to switch platforms and need to
cooperate with ISPs who run mass market  services and can't provide the
technical support for a complex package like MiniVend ?

I put my personal reasoning in a P.S. to make it easier to read, but
the question I have is, why not being your own ISP ?

Birgitt

P.S.
I assume, you think I am nuts, but I hope sincerely that every household
uses his own 24h/7d server to serve his own MV web catalog and takes full
responsability for his own system admin tasks and web hosting projects.
Uuuuh, I hear you crying: "No way, that would take our customers away",
but I don't believe that at all.

I assume that MiniVend can serve as a base for very large, complex
e-commerce solutions for enterprises of any size. It has the scalability
and flexibility built in.

On the other hand it can do also the opposite, be a micro-e-commerce system
for the individual household. And the way things are going, I think that
needs to be done on an open source code system with open source code
application software exclusively.

Any individual has to have the right and option to look under the hood and
learn to control his server with regard to what is coming in, where it's
coming from, what is going out, where its going to and what content
belongs to whom. MiniVend as a publishing and e-commerce platform handles
a lot of aspects of the above.

To say it simply, the web technology has enroached and influenced almost
every aspect of our social and business life, you shouldn't put the
control of it outside your own hands. As far as I can see any proprietary
closed system can't guarantee you that control and access. It is as basis
a need as open science is. You wouldn't want our genetic code belong to
any one entitiy and leave the power to manipulate it to them, right ?

Digital code is not that much different (don't you all wait for "some big
man" to announce that the next generation of web platforms and
applications are capable of "digital pollination"? 8-))

OK, I am getting way off topic here, but you get the picture. I just hope
you developers are not afraid to leave the code open, just because it
makes your expertise and skills accessible for anyone. Doesn't mean
that your open code has no "monetary value", does it ?

Code on the web is just too dangerous a thing to be controllable just by a
few. Or am I missing the point ?

Just my two cents of Sunday morning mumbling. 


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