Unfortunately Tim Berners-Lee forgot to make an expiry date compulsory. It means that any information can just be left and forgotten. It could stay on the network until it is five years out of date.
Predictor: Carpenter, Brian
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 interview with the Associated Press, Brian Carpenter, head of communications systems at CERN, is quoted. The article says: ”The fast-expanding information superhighway has a litter problem, an Internet expert said Tuesday. Much of the information on the much-vaunted global computer network is ‘rubbish,’ Brian Carpenter, head of communications systems at the European Laboratory of Particle Physics, CERN, told a U.N. Internet forum in Geneva. And at present there is no way of cleaning it up, he said. The network, now used by an estimated 20 to 30 million people in up to 100 countries, is likely to have 187 million users by the year 2000, experts predict. ‘Unfortunately Tim Berners-Lee forgot to make an expiry date compulsory,’ said Carpenter. ‘It means that any information can just be left and forgotten. It could stay on the network until it is five years out of date,’ he said.”
Biography:Brian Carpenter developed process control systems at CERN in Geneva, the place at which Tim Berners-Lee invented HTML and the World Wide Web. From1985-98 Carpenter was Communications Systems group leader at CERN. He was instrumental in the beginning years of the Internet Society, including serving a term as chair. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: March 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: Information Overload
Name of publication: Associated Press Worldstream
Title, headline, chapter name: Information Highway Has Litter Problem
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=3177b5d8a5b3a8ec312c3463437d3a62&_docnum=5&wchp=dGLbVzz-lSlzV&_md5=7d3725dec1a56896bfbcef441d64c98e
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Canizaro, Lauren