"In the 1990s, the Internet passed unnoticed in mainstream circles while networks
were deployed by competing proprietary barons such as AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy.
The technorati placed bets on which baron would prevail over the others...
All those bets lost. The proprietary networks went extinct,
despite having accumulated millions of subscribers.
They were crushed by a network built by government researchers
and computer scientists who had no CEO, no master business plan,
no paying subscribers, no investment in content,
and no financial interest in accumulating subscribers"