> I can't help but wonder why they didn't try this 20 years ago. 20 years ago, nobody cared about the few, the unusual, the networked. 15 years ago, people dam

> I can't help but wonder why they didn't try this 20 years ago. 20 years ago, nobody cared about the few, the unusual, the networked. 15 years ago, people damned well did care, but everyone was in 'run in circles, scream and shout' mode and business plans were more-or-less optional. 10 years ago it was definitively too late. Does that seem like an eye blink to you? It does to a multinational bureaucracy. My life fades... the vision dims... all that remains are memories. Looking back over the history of the Internet, from about 1991 to 2001, I remember a time of chaos, bizarre dreams, and the growing suspicion that the average people more-or-less snuck online too quickly for anyone who could have been said to have been 'in charge' to notice.