[ Thanks to Dean Jenkins for this
link. ]
“As yet another former dot.com darling crashes and burns into
cyber-oblivion, many must be experiencing a certain guilty
Schadenfreude. Just as people had suspected, it seems the
multibillion dollar new economy behemoths were as full of nothing
as the zeros in their improbable valuations.”
“But to confuse the frothy, headline-grabbing excitement of
e-business and its egregious if entertaining cast of characters
with the real achievement of the internet would be a tragic
mistake. For the rise of the net as an open, universal
communications medium has created another kind of wealth that has
nothing to do with share options and initial public offerings
(IPO’s.)”
“In contrast to the hype and self-promotion of the
e-commerce sector, thousands of selfless individuals have been
quietly working away, steadily putting together the internet’s
best-kept secret and greatest gift: free software.“