A lot more than virtual communities and libraries of text are going to live on the Net in the near future. Digitization is where the future of the Net is likely to collide with other computer-amplified forces in the world … Money is already an abstraction, part of a huge, incessant, worldwide flow of electronic messages. The value gained now by knowing how to move these abstract money messages around the world’s telecommunications networks dwarfs the original value of the goods and services that produced the money.
Predictor: Rheingold, Howard
Prediction, in context:In his 1991 book “The Virtual Community,” Howard Rheingold writes: ”In research-and-development laboratories today, one popular buzzphrase is ‘digital convergence,’ which means that a lot more than virtual communities and libraries of text are going to live on the Net in the near future. Digitization is where the future of the Net is likely to collide with other computer-amplified forces in the world. As John P. Barlow is fond of saying, ‘Cyberspace is where your money is.’ Money is already an abstraction, part of a huge, incessant, worldwide flow of electronic messages. The value gained now by knowing how to move these abstract money messages around the world’s telecommunications networks dwarfs the original value of the goods and services that produced the money.”
Biography:Howard Rheingold, one of the first writers to illuminate the ideals and foibles of virtual communities, published a webzine called Electric Minds and wrote “Virtual Reality,” “Smart Mobs” and “Virtual Community.” He also was the editor of Whole Earth Review and the Millennium Whole Earth Catalog. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1990
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: The Virtual Community
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter Three: Visionaries and Convergences: The Accidental History of the Net
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/3.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Smith, Ian T.