It’s the beginning of the innovation, and we are witnessing experimentation and play. These sorts of activities will fuel the growth of the next stage of the medium’s development, where it starts to become “useful.”
Predictor: Hoffman, Donna L.
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Scotland’s Glasgow Herald, Ian Bell quotes Donna Hoffman. Bell writes: ”After the Internet hype comes, inevitably, the backlash. Some people are even saying that the biggest breakthrough since smoke signals is being put to some really silly uses. There is the case, for example of Tom Jennings. In the name of greater understanding, Mr. Jennings has placed a digital image of his toilet online for all the world to see. Then there is, for those who can stand it, the World Wide Web page that consists simply of a display of an unblinking eye. Daft? Professor Donna Hoffman of Vanderbilt University, who studies commercial applications of the Net, thinks not. Or, as she wrote recently: ‘The toilet or the eye aren’t useless. They’re creative. It’s the beginning of the innovation, and we are witnessing experimentation and play. These sorts of activities will fuel the growth of the next stage of the medium’s development, where it starts to become ‘useful.'”
Date of prediction: April 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Herald (Glasgow)
Title, headline, chapter name: See No Evil
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 21
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Krout, Kevin M.