The Network Connection

By Dr. Philip Baczewski, Assistant Director, Academic Computing Services (baczewski@unt.edu)

This column is a continuing feature of Benchmarks intended to present news and information on various aspects of wide area networks.

"Ad" Nauseam

In recent months there has been quite a bit of attention paid to the topic of advertising on the Internet and it can be quite confusing to hear the chatter from various sides of the argument if you are not already familiar with all the issues involved in this subject. After all, the press seems to be falling over itself with Information Superhighway stories implying that within six months we will all be doing everything but our laundry on the Internet. With commerce coming to the Internet aren t advertisements just an expected part of the picture an annoyance or a service, depending on your point of view? The answer to that question is it depends... it depends on where the advertising occurs and how it is accomplished.

The Network of Networks

We are often tempted to treat the Internet as one huge object to be accessed or manipulated, however, if it were, we d just call it The Network. The Internet is a network of networks with common practices (protocols) supporting the inter-network transfer of electronic information. The various component networks of the Internet may have their own standards and practices as to the use of their networks. BITNET, for example, while not officially part of the Internet, is still responsible for much of the electronic mail traffic that is transmitted over the Internet. Many network mailing lists are still maintained on BITNET hosts, but with the advent of mail gateways on commercial on-line services and at business Internet sites, BITNET mailing list subscribers are no longer just BITNET users (and haven t been for quite some time). BITNET itself, however, remains a network devoted to the exchange of information in support of research and instruction.

World Wide Web (WWW) services are being provided by more and more companies on the Internet. Companies have found WWW to be an effective forum for providing information on their products and organization. Normal people call this advertising, but since companies employ lots of people with MBA degrees, they call it marketing. Advertising in itself, then, is not intrinsically bad, especially if you desire the information and can retrieve only that in which you are interested. Unsolicited information which attempts to sway you to buy a particular company s product or service can be quite unwelcome whether it arrives as and electronic mail message, as an item in your postal mailbox (we call this junk mail), or as a phone call which interrupts that hot meal you ve just put on the table. In relation to the Internet, advertising may be subject to the usage guidelines of a component network some will ban it and some will allow it. Since the Internet is no longer exclusively a government-supported network for institutions of research and higher education, advertising in some forums may be quite copacetic.

Knowing the Nets

In spite of the sensitivity to advertising on some mailing lists, announcements and discussions of new products are common on many mailing lists and, in fact, many mailing lists are formed for just that purpose (even BITNET mailing lists). If you review the BITNET and NSFNet acceptable use policies (see page 14), you will find that both prohibit commercial or for profit use of their networks, including conducting commerce via those networks. Both specifically prohibit advertising, but BITNET does permit discussion of a product s relative advantages and disadvantages and allows venders to respond to questions about their products. NSFNet also lists announcements of new products or services for use in research or instruction as an acceptable use.

Since most Internet traffic is no longer carried by NSFNet, policy issues in that regard may be moot (see page 15). Non-commercial product announcements seem to be acceptable within the bounds of applicable network policies. There is a large difference between announcing that a product is available and doing a widely- distributed mailing that sells a commercial service or product. The former is standard practice, and the latter causes a great deal of consternation among mailing list owners. Selling ad space to run on BITNET mailing lists would definitely be a violation of BITNET policies, since it would be, in effect, reselling network bandwidth.

Ban the Spam

Recently there has been a rash of commercial messages broadcast to multiple BITNET LISTSERV mailing lists. This practice is known in LISTSERV circles as spamming, and has caused quite a bit of uproar among list managers and members (one list owner even wrote his congressman to suggest legislation against spamming). In more than one case, backlash against the messages has resulted in the quick loss of the perpetrator s privileges on the commercial service from which the messages originated. Spamming is the worst type of abuse of mailing lists. It not only sends unsolicited messages to those who don t want them (multiple copies if several of your lists are spammed), but it also adds an additional burden to mailing list traffic.

About a year ago, two lawyers broadcast a message to many mailing lists, causing enough fury to even merit note from the print media. After much retribution and some repercussions, they went on to write a book about advertising on the Internet. This seems the equivalent of those get rich quick ads that offer the secret to success for only five dollars, and it turn out the secret is to run ads which entice people to send you five dollars.

Thankfully, most on the Internet are sensitive to its appropriate use. If you have doubts about the propriety of a posting it is relatively easy to send a message to the list moderator or owner to ask if it is appropriate to the discussion (the list owner is usually identified in the welcome message you receive when you first subscribe to a mailing list). Matching the information to the forum will help achieve appropriate and efficient use of the Internet.

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