To a large extent, the NII will be a transformation and extension of today’s computing and communication’s infrastructure … 1994 is a critical juncture … Meeting the challenge of “wiring up” the nation will depend on our ability not only to define the purposes that the NII is intended to serve, but also to ensure that the critical technical issues are considered and that the appropriate enabling physical infrastructure is put in place.
Predictor: Kleinrock, Leonard
Prediction, in context:In a May 1994 executive summary of the report “Realizing the Information Future: The Internet and Beyond,” Leonard Kleinrock says his NRENaissance Committee of the National Research Council concludes: ”A national information infrastructure (NII) can provide a seamless web of interconnected interoperable information networks, computers, databases, and consumer electronics that will eventually link homes, workplaces, and public institutions together. It can embrace virtually all modes of information generation, transport, and use. The potential benefits can be glimpsed in the experiences to date of the research and education communities, where access through the Internet to high-speed networks has begun to radically change the way researchers work, educators teach and students learn. To a large extent, the NII will be a transformation and extension of today’s computing and communication’s infrastructure (including, for example, the Internet, telephone, cable, cellular, data, and broadcast networks) … the nature of the NII that will develop is malleable. Choices will be made in industry and government, beginning with investments in the underlying physical infrastructure. Those choices will affect and be affected by many institutions and segments of society. 1994 is a critical juncture … Meeting the challenge of ‘wiring up’ the nation will depend on our ability not only to define the purposes that the NII is intended to serve, but also to ensure that the critical technical issues are considered and that the appropriate enabling physical infrastructure is put in place.”
Biography:Leonard Kleinrock published the first paper on packet-switching theory in the RLE Quarterly Progress Report while at MIT in 1961. He established the Network Measurement Center at UCLA and worked in the area of digital networks. He also published a comprehensive look at digital networks in his book “Communication Nets.” He developed the ARPANET network with Lawrence Roberts. In 1969, Kleinrock’s NMC team connected an SDS Sigma 7 computer to an Interface Messenger Processor, creating the first node on the ARPANET, the first computer to connect to the Internet. Kleinrock’s team used the early system to iron out the initial design and performance issues on the world’s first packet-switched network. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Realizing the Information Future: The Internet and Beyond
Title, headline, chapter name: Executive Summary
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/rtif/summary.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Krout, Kevin M.