AHC: Information-only Internet

How would you create a scenario where the Internet is basically information-only: no sales, so no Amazon; no file sharing or downloads; no online gaming, etc. One would access the Internet to obtain information but not to carry out transactions in most types of business. Ebay would perhaps be a site that directed a user to items for sale - but you still had to separately make contact with the seller on your own. You could look up airline schedules, hotels, and the like - but you still had to go through a travel agent or contact the airlines/hotels yourself to make reservations. And so on. Can you think of a scenario where the Internet would function in this limited manner only?
 
Tight government controls on the initial use of the Internet would be necessary, and that would require a POD before deregulation. The opportunity for e-commerce of all kinds would be too great without government controls, and a population that willingly accepts these (as well as a business community) would be very hard to come by. Eventually it's going to be used in some capacity for business, even if that trickles down from almost-certain use for academics and the military. The question is where that begins - in the U.S., in China, in some unscrupulous Caribbean island, in Europe, or what-have-you. We may have delayed commerce and technology for such commerce, but it's going to happen.
 
This is basically teletext. It could have developed into an internet analogue, but one would have to keep it from evolving into an interactive format. As @Colonel Zoidberg mentioned, regulation would probably be best - a top-down, regulated from the start system would be best. It would effectively be an electronic telephone/business directory crossed with news bulletins and travel brochures.
 
You would have to have severe regulation to get this outcome - Soviet/Nazi style governmental oversight. Any system resembling capitalism will eventually find the way to make it commercial. In this case, you are more likely to get approved vendors like Amazon than a Craigslist like service.
 
This is basically teletext. It could have developed into an internet analogue, but one would have to keep it from evolving into an interactive format. As @Colonel Zoidberg mentioned, regulation would probably be best - a top-down, regulated from the start system would be best. It would effectively be an electronic telephone/business directory crossed with news bulletins and travel brochures.

I was a hardcore Teletext user (Oracle mainly) and all the interaction was by postcards :) But it had a high level of societal feel regarding involvement. It was like a magazine on TV which had many more pages than a magazine could have, had daily updates, eg about new heavy metal releases, and had pen pals, feedback etc sections
 

cpip

Gone Fishin'
How would you create a scenario where the Internet is basically information-only: no sales, so no Amazon; no file sharing or downloads; no online gaming, etc. One would access the Internet to obtain information but not to carry out transactions in most types of business. Ebay would perhaps be a site that directed a user to items for sale - but you still had to separately make contact with the seller on your own. You could look up airline schedules, hotels, and the like - but you still had to go through a travel agent or contact the airlines/hotels yourself to make reservations. And so on. Can you think of a scenario where the Internet would function in this limited manner only?

Perhaps you could get to this by crippling information technology.

Keep it strictly to dialup -- no broadband whatsoever, no investment in it, so no online gaming or downloads.
Scrap encryption software so that you can't send financial information with any security.

You'd at best get something that looks like the BBS's of the late 80s/early 90s.
 

CECBC

Banned
What if an internet was just programmed in a way that made it read-only except at specialized servers? So basically an internet where you can search but can't upload and that becomes popular and widespread enough that it never gets changed. Perhaps an earlier internet system would be this way due to technical limitations.
 
Delay the progress of the Internet, or instead of the OTL Internet, have a version of it that uses shittier standards.
 
What if an internet was just programmed in a way that made it read-only except at specialized servers? So basically an internet where you can search but can't upload and that becomes popular and widespread enough that it never gets changed. Perhaps an earlier internet system would be this way due to technical limitations.

Well this actually sounds like... the internet! Pre-WWW it was access to databases. BBS and newsgroup technologies is mainly what allowed people to get round these limitations and teir successes more or less ask the vital question - how do you prevent someone developing analogous systems that do this? Especially as there was obviously a high demand to create a user group interface?
 
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