[71]. In November 1984 the Labor Department released a rule that allowed people to knit sweaters and hats at home for sale to manufacturers.
[72]. Nilles’s[Nilles’s] three-quarters of a billion estimate is reported in InfoWorld, April 23, 1984.
[73]. Harkness’s remarks are from his speech to the Seminar on Communications, Brasilia, Brazil, June 1982.
[74]. Frank Schiff, Washington Post, Outlook Section, September 2, 1979, p. C1.
[75]. Some of the material in this chapter originally appeared in an article I did for USA Today. I’ve also made use of facts from the Wall Street Journal, March 16, 1984, p. 29.
[76]. The example of computerized conferencing comes from Participation Systems, Inc., a Winchester, Massachusetts, firm that provided the software for computer conferencing on The Source.
[77]. Bigelow’s company, Adevco, Inc., 2145 Market St., Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, manufactures The WEB equipment under a license from The WEB’s designers. That’s Centram Systems, Inc., P.O. Box 511, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, which also sells to manufacturers to add to their computers. A California company, Trantor Systems, likewise makes a network called WEB: this may or may not mean a name change for the Centram technology. At any rate, Adevco itself may abandon the WEB name for other reasons. “We may drop the name and market the product with the same technology in a different version under a number of names,” said Bigelow. “If we enhance the product enough, I may want more Adevco identification.”
[78]. Telephone tag occurs when person A returns B’s call, but now B isn’t available. With an E-Mail arrangement, A and B could exchange messages without the other being available at the same time.
[79]. Bigelow plans a more rugged version of The WEB transmission line in the future to make installation less tricky.
[80]. Thanks to Ed Bigelow for the children’s game metaphor for the ring network. The kids try not to be.