An introduction to Internet Economics

Journal of Electronic Publishing

Volumn 2, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 1-12

  McKnight, Lee W ^a,b,c   Bailey, Joseph P ^a  

^a MIT Res Prog on Commun Policy   (United States)

^b MIT Technology and Policy Program   (United States)

^c MIT Ctr Technol Plcy/Indust D   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 3042774351     PISSN: 10802711     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3998/3336451.0002.101     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (9)

1. Of course accounting and pricing issues have long been of concern for telecommunications networks and services.(Ramsey, F.P. 1927. "A Contribution to the Theory of Taxation," The Economic Journal. pp. 47-61.) For much longer, accounting and pricing has been a critical function of businesses in market economies. (Stickney, C., Weil, and Davidson. 1991. Financial Accounting: An Introduction to Concepts, Methods, and Uses. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.)
2. Of course accounting and pricing issues have long been of concern for telecommunications networks and services.(Ramsey, F.P. 1927. "A Contribution to the Theory of Taxation," The Economic Journal. pp. 47-61.) For much longer, accounting and pricing has been a critical function of businesses in market economies. (Stickney, C., Weil, and Davidson. 1991. Financial Accounting: An Introduction to Concepts, Methods, and Uses. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.)
3. The term "cloud" refers to the network of networks (owned and operated by multiple partners) which provides data transport through use of TCP/IP.
4. Lee McKnight first proposed that the Internet could best be understood as operating on the principles of its positive network externalities, statistical sharing, and interoperability at the Internet Economics Workshop.
5. A T1 link is a circuit between two points at 1.544 megabits per second. Joseph Bailey first introduced these definitions in his presentation at the Internet Economics Workshop.
6. This purported statistic was discussed during the Internet Economics Workshop. See the appendix to this journal (the workshop notes) for the documented discussion.
7. Resale is another issue which has long been of concern to telecommunications firms and governments. For example, until recently, resale of telecommunications circuits was prohibited by international treaty. Resale is now prevalent, and has not had the disastrous effects predicted by early simplistic assessments. In fact, resale can be argued to be a significant positive factor in promoting deregulation and competition and encouraging efficiency. See Bridger M. Mitchell and Ingo Vogelsang Telecommunications Pricing; Theory and Practice, pp. 141-142.
8. Other issues, such as the nature and importance of Internet culture, were discussed at the Workshop but are not addressed in most of the papers collected here. See the Internet Economics Workshop Notes in the Appendix of this volume for information on how the subject of the Internet culture kept popping up during discussions of Internet Economics. Privacy, child protection, pornography and censorship issues which are receiving significant public and government attention - but have not yet been the subject of replicative empirical research - are also beyond the scope of this paper and this special journal issue on Internet Economics. A recent treatment of some of these public policy issues is B. Kahin and J. Keller, eds. Public Access to the Internet. MIT Press, 1995.
9. Please consult the Internet Economics Workshop home page (http://rpcp.mit.edu/Workshops/cfp.html) for workshop notes and other workshop information.