The possibility that the future Internet (or whatever replaces it) may be dominated by monolithic corporate-controlled electronic consumer shopping malls and amusement parks is antithetical to the existence and activity of free individuals in the electronic communications world, each one able to interact freely with other individuals and groups there.
Predictor: Figallo, Cliff
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 online essay, Cliff Figallo of The Well [the San Francisco-area’s Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link] includes remarks he adapted from a paper presented to the ‘Public Access to the Internet’ meeting at Harvard University in May, 1993. Figallo writes: ”The possibility that the future ‘Internet’ (or whatever replaces it) may be dominated by monolithic corporate-controlled electronic consumer shopping malls and amusement parks is antithetical to the existence and activity of free individuals in the electronic communications world, each one able to interact freely with other individuals and groups there.”
Biography:Cliff Figallo, was managing director of the WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link, one of the best known conferencing systems and virtual communities in the United States in the 1990s) and a director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Cambridge office in the early 1990s. He later worked with Pandora Systems. Figallo and John Coate are regarded to be the chief architects of the WELL’s implementation of virtual community. (Advocate/Voice of the People.)
Date of prediction: September 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Role of Govt./Industry
Name of publication: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Title, headline, chapter name: The WELL: Small Town on the Internet Highway System
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.eff.org/Net_culture/Virtual_community/well_figallo.article
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Gulbranson, Mathea