Season's Greetings all,
(Disclaimer: I'm quite ill right now and higher than a Georgia Pine
from medication, so if this is incoherent, I apologize for the waste
of bandwidth)
The powers that be who control Bricklin International (BI) were
(are?) adamantly in favor of the restriction of Bricklin specific
info.
When I first joined this list I felt as John K. does WRT to
restricting info.
I like to help folks. What good is knowledge that's not shared?
Well, some (most), feel they should be reimbursed for it. I
certainly do when it's work related, but not when it's hobby
related. Of course if your work is your hobby, such as a Terry
Tanner, then I think you should get to choose what's free and what's
not.
It's been my experience / observation that some info comes from
books, but most comes from a hard, dedicated pursuit of knowledge
that others may (have) already acquired and (who) are determined not
to share it unless it's in their own best interest. I've found that
most folks are zealous in their protection of their accumulated
knowledge, to the point of dispensing misleading info. This has been
very prevalent in emerging technologies, even within corporate
groups.
So, in general, most of what we've learned has been acquired at high
cost in time and / or money.
Others use knowledge as a power to some extent control a situation.
This appears to me to be BI's stance.
AFAIK, BI's primary goal is to provide members with whatever info is
necessary to keep their cars on the road.
Some have stated that the best way to accomplish this is to make any
and all information (previously bought and paid for by others)
available at no charge. They also expect it to be maintained at no
charge.
Now there is no incentive to be a BI member unless your primary goal
is social in nature, such as with the Porsche, Corvette, etc, club.
These clubs don't need to be a 'secret society' because of the
volume of potential members available. Tech info is in abundance, as
well as service centers, parts vendors, etc.
Limited production cars like the Bricklin aren't so fortunate. They
have to have an 'ace in the hole' as an incentive to join / stay in
a club. This ace is tech data. Without it, the club eventually
folds.
What happens to the website with all the 'free' info? Sooner or
later, the core group's enthusiasm wanes with no parent organization
to help share the burden. Will others step in to cover the expense
in time / money?
Without a club, vendors no longer have easy access to their target
market. This leads to lower repro or NOS parts availability in any
quantity, and prices would be much higher for whatever is available.
This eventually leads to cannibalizing marginal condition cars.
The exact opposite of the (late) BI's primary goal.........
GM
|