People in business would like to buy a very fat pipe through which they pump everything – voice, data, video, e-mail and faxes – rather than using separate connections.
Predictor: Cerf, Vinton G.
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article in The New York Times, writer Katie Hafner interviewed Vinton G. Cerf. Hafner writes: ”Dr. Cerf, whose official title is senior vice president for data architecture, oversees a group of engineers who help shape the company’s data services, both existing and planned … ‘People are increasingly mixing together services,’ Dr. Cerf said. ‘People in business would like to buy a very fat pipe through which they pump everything – voice, data, video, e-mail and faxes – rather than using separate connections.’ Designing that pipe and making it work is Dr. Cerf’s job. His group at MCI is responsible for determining when and how various services can be made to work together. By way of example, Dr. Cerf pointed to a new data service that allows people with modems to plug into cellular phones and connect to MCI’s data network. Dr. Cerf’s group is working on adding Internet access to this service … MCI, Bell Atlantic, Ameritech, Pacific Telesis and Time Warner say they plan to spend a total of nearly $100 billion over 15 years on building an advanced data network … The breathless pace of the Internet’s growth, Dr. Cerf said, continues to astound him. ‘It’s awfully hard to keep up just with the products,’ he said. ‘I spend my weekends hacking around, configuring Internet software. And it’s not easy. I’m going to get a badge that says, “It’s still rocket science.”‘”
Date of prediction: September 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Pipeline/Switching/Hardware
Name of publication: New York Times
Title, headline, chapter name: Profile: For ‘Father of the Internet,’ New Goals, Same Energy
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=4a0ca42885292a837bb0acf39dcf29e9&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVtb-lSlAl&_md5=24c2ee4eeb628d31f3acb5e99fbd507d
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Catalfumo, Cara J.