The Internet is too primitive to take the leap to supporting the sophisticated indexing, search-and-retrieval services that libraries use.
Predictor: Arnett, Nick
Prediction, in context:In his 1994 online essay “Massively Parallel Wetware,” Nick Arnett wrote:”The potential of the ‘virtual library’ has not been ignored by the existing library community. Realizing that they possess the indexing, categorization and retrieval skills necessary for the Internet’s growth, many progressive librarians are developing software tools, as well as participating in discussions and debate about the future of these technologies on the Net. First-hand observation of these activities reveals an interesting aspect of the relationship between librarians and technologists. Librarians generally ask for inclusion of much more ‘meta-information’ (author, subject, title, etc.) than commercial software vendors and services are willing to provide. This is a present-day example of the kind of compromise in quality that is necessary to take advantage of a new medium of distribution. The Internet is too primitive to take the leap to supporting the sophisticated indexing, search-and-retrieval services that libraries use.”
Biography:Nick Arnett was president of Multimedia Computing Corp., the leading market research and consulting firm tracking multimedia technologies and markets, from 1988 through August of 1994. He later became the World-Wide Web product manager at Verity Inc. Earlier in the 1980s, he was a journalist with publications including InfoWorld and American City Business Journals. He was author of “The Internet and the Anti-net: Two Public Internetworks are Better than One.” (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Libraries/Databases
Name of publication: Essay: Massively Parallel Wetware
Title, headline, chapter name: Libraries and Academia
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.mccmedia.com/html/wetware.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Beckett, Angela