If it’s good people, people will want to buy it, and money is the way they vote on what they want. I believe that system is the best one we have, so if it’s right, sure people are going to make money. People will make money building software, selling information, and more importantly doing all kinds of “real” business which happens to work much better because the Web is there to make their work easier.
Predictor: Berners-Lee, Tim
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 e-mail exchange with Tim Berners-Lee, reporter Kris Herbst asks questions for a story she is preparing to run in the August issue of Internet World. Berners-Lee saved the communication and put it up on the W3.org Web site, in its “history” section. Herbst asks Berners-Lee, “How do you feel about the fact that WWW promises to generate large amounts of money for some persons – other than you, its creator – who have the desire and ability to capitalize on it?” Berners-Lee replies: ”If it’s good people, people will want to buy it, and money is the way they vote on what they want. I believe that system is the best one we have, so if it’s right, sure people are going to make money. People will make money building software, selling information, and more importantly doing all kinds of ‘real’ business which happens to work much better because the Web is there to make their work easier. I certainly don’t mind! My priority is to see it develop and evolve in a way which will hold us in good stead for a long future, rather than to cash in personally right now. Now, if someone tries to monopolize the Web, for example pushes proprietory variations on network protocols, then I may get mad.”
Biography:Tim Berners-Lee of CERN first released his revolutionary World-Wide Web for initial use in 1991 and with it shared his invention HTML (hypertext mark-up language). He later served as director of W3 Consortium, an open forum of companies and organizations whose goal was to find ways to help the Web reach its full potential. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Internet World
Title, headline, chapter name: Interview with Berners-Lee
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.w3.org/History/1994/WWW/Journals/InternetWorld/Interview.txt
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Bruno, Marian Theresa