E-mail dominates the Internet, and it’s likely to remain the dominant use of the Internet in the future. Nonetheless, I expect to see an exciting array of other applications which become heavily used and cause a change in the perception of the Internet as primarily a “mail system.”
Predictor: Crocker, Steve
Prediction, in context:Steve Crocker makes the following remark in a 1991 autobiography he wrote for the Internet Society. Here, he is answering his own question: How will the Internet evolve? He answers it in parts. The third part is titled “More Applications.” He writes: ”E-mail dominates the Internet, and it’s likely to remain the dominant use of the Internet in the future. Nonetheless, I expect to see an exciting array of other applications which become heavily used and cause a change in the perception of the Internet as primarily a ‘mail system.’ Important databases will become available on the Internet, and applications dependent on those databases will flourish. New techniques and tools for collaboration over a network will emerge. These will include various forms of conferencing and cooperative multi-media document development.”
Biography:Steve Crocker was probably best known in the 1990s as the founder of CyberCash Inc. a leading Internet payments company. Earlier, he was program manager on the team developing the protocols for ARPANET in 1966. In1968, he organized the Network Working Group to develop host-level protocols for ARPANET communication. He began the Request for Comment (RFC) series of notes through which Internet protocol designs are documented and shared, and he wrote RFC 1 and many others. In1970, he worked with Vinton Cerf and C.S. Carr to publish the first ARPANET host-host protocol. He later became known as an Internet and computer business and security specialist. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1991
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Requests For Comments
Title, headline, chapter name: Who’s Who in the Internet
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1251.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Culp, William Jarrell