In 1984, the then-38-year-old Wheeler took over NABU Network, which offered specially designed home computers that could access news, games and other applications through the cable television network. The National Museum of Science and Technology later described the network as the "Internet -- 10 years ahead of its time." A few blocks from NABU's Alexandria, Va., office, 27-year-old Steve Case was working on a similar project that tapped into the telephone network, which Wheeler derided as inferior.

"We used to look down our noses at them because they were so slow," Wheeler recalled in a half- hour-long interview last month.

But it was Case's company, America Online, that became an Internet titan during the dot-com boom. NABU folded in 1985. The difference between the two approaches? Wheeler's company relied on a closed network.

"Steve [Case] could build a national footprint immediately, and we had to go from cable operator to cable operator to ask permission to get on the network," said Wheeler. "That is exactly the situation that entrepreneurs face today. If you can't have open access to the Internet, innovation is thwarted and new services grind to a halt."

There's your pro. Here's your con.