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Re: SOAP and the Web

• To: "Benjamin Franz" <snowhare@n...>,<xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: Re: SOAP and the Web
• From: "Didier PH Martin" <martind@n...>
• Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 17:14:47 -0400
• References: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0205011323160.25403-100000@h...>

Hi Benjamin,

Benjamin said:
> You are mixing 'Web' and 'Internet'. The web 'took off' almost precisely
> at the moment the US government (via the NSF) _withdrew_ from direct
> support of the Internet infrastructure. The US government had only a
> minimal investment in the Web per se (although a substantial investment in
> the Internet infrastructure to that point which the Web, of course,
> utilized for transport).

Didier replies:
The internet + email where the main incentive at first to get a network
connection. Plus the fact that connection cost where very low. remember that
the government subsidized the backbone until the private sector took the
relay. In 1994-1995 big money started to flow to fund web ventures. The
concept demonstration was funded by the government. Who do you think paid
for the Mosaic project at the University of Illinois? When the VCs brought
the money, they got a proof of concept that people wanted what Mosaic
offered. Later on, Netscape started a new business model using word of
mouth, PR and free stuff to feed the web growth. Now that we got more
consumers (web browsers owners) suppliers (web servers) started to multiply
like mushrooms in Automn or */&%! flies in summer :-). When Netspace made
their IPO (by the way, do you remember the date?) and got an instant lottery
return then the investment community got crazy and the money flowed even
more. Yes indeed several factors lead to the web success, a major one is the
huge amount of money comming from the government and the private sector. By
the way do you know how many million... hoops sorry billion of dollards
where invested in the web? This is the main point here.


Didier said:
> > Also, the fact that in the beginning years, a big chunk of the backbone
> > was subsidized by the government. It is later that the private sector
> > took the relay.
Benjamin replied:
> 1993, to be precise. Also referred to as 'The Year September Never Ended'
> because the 'newbieness' of the net quit what had been until then its
> annual surge and ebb following University freshmen classes getting their
> first Internet access accounts. From that point forward, an immense
> percentage of people on the Net were _always_ 'newbies' as the growth of
> the net continually flooded it with inexperienced users - completely
> swamping the previously primarily educational system originating user
> base.

Didier replies:
Mainly because of Mosaic and because it was free. Getting access to the web
also meant cheap email ( I mean not expensive) and for the first time it was
vendor independent. We could send an email without having to install the
same software as the correspondent. The web content was at first very
limited and I remember people being more enthousiast about email than the
web. Then 2 years later, the content started to growth tremendously when VC
started to fund information suppliers. Again, question of money...

cheers
Didier PH Martin

• References:
  • Re: SOAP and the Web
    • From: Benjamin Franz <snowhare@n...>

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