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Issue 19 of The Sensible Internet Design Newsletter follows.

As always, you can catch up on back issues in the archive, or subscribe free to get future mailings. Read on for this issue in its entirety ...

Issue 18 of The Sensible Internet Design Newsletter follows.

As always, you can catch up on back issues in the archive, or subscribe free to get future mailings. Read on for this issue in its entirety ...

This is Issue 3 of The Sensible Internet Design Letter.

If you're going to stick your neck out and say you stand behind a mantra as promising as "Sensible Internet Design," then buddy, you better mean it.

I received a gentle reminder of that mandate the other day. In a friendly e-mail message, brand-new TSIDL subscriber Jeff Foust brought a problem to my attention:

This is Issue 2 of The Sensible Internet Design Letter.

I designed a lot of newspaper pages in the 1980s and '90s, even after making the jump to Internet site management in 1995.

Recently, a good friend and design colleague from that time finally made the jump himself -- right back into print newspaper design. In recent years he had managed digital creatives doing everything from HTML template architectures to Macromedia Director movies. He and his teams won awards and respect, all deserved, while bringing new-media flair to old-media content in a friendly workplace.

Why give that up? For one thing, his new job is fantastic: a bigger department, more resources and a broader spectrum of design opportunities at a growing paper in a vibrant market.

Something else may have been in play, though. He wouldn't come out and say it, but I believe he felt those few years of interactive design had dulled his creative edge. And that same feeling appears to be creeping up on other print-based designers who tried their hands at new media.

This is Issue 1 of The Sensible Internet Design Letter.

Even upper-deck observers should see signs of the ideology battle brewing over the future of our friendly neighborhood Internet.

In one corner are people who keep trying, with growing urgency, to find substantial, sustainable business models that connect content and commerce online. Though adamant about the potential, most of them have yet to succeed (yeah, I know: other than pornographers, that is).

In the opposite corner are people who either helped develop what we now know as the Internet, or were the earliest of early adopters and content providers. They're now armed with plenty of "in-my-day-we-liked-our-300-baud-modems-and-Gopher-servers" hard-times stories. They may not say it this way, but they regret the commercialization of the Internet, all or in part.