Public Access to the Internet

Book excerpt: This well-balanced collection takes up the important issues in enabling widely available access to the Internet at a time of rapid commercialization and growth. This collection takes up the important issues in enabling widely available access to the Internet at a time of rapid commercialization and growth. The 17 contributions present material that network managers, politicians and other professionals need to know in order to ask the right questions and properly analyze the various proposals that are being considered for the future of the National Information Infrastructure (NII). Chapters are grouped in five parts: the public access agenda, the sociology and culture of the Internet, establishing network communities, accommodating new classes of users, and pricing and service models.