Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Cable modems, Tragedy of the Commons

Author:David Valentine
Posted:7/6/1999; 4:23:32 PM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 7/2/99
Msg #:8263 (In response to 8260)
Prev/Next:8262 / 8264

Ever hear of the tragedy of the commons? Every farmer can put so many sheep in the commons, and there will be enough for everyone. One farmer decides he can put an extra sheep or two, and it does not effect the balance. Now all farmers decide that they can add a couple of extra sheep, and commons collapses.

The people running the services don't seem to know how their usage effects their neighbors. One kid puts up a server, brags he's making XX from posting adult ads. Soon every kid puts up a server, and none are making as much money as the first kid, but there is no bandwidth left. If someone is hogging all the bandwidth, they don't complain to their neighbors like they should, they complain to the cable company. Cable companies are staff by ... .... .... ..... who decide that noone should run a server.

GTE says that with the lowest end DSL service, I get 10kbytes/sec. Sometimes I hit 30-50 on a late-evening. If I want more, I pay more.

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