So when the big boys start moving into our cyberspace what are we going to do? Run away and hide somewhere else? That’s one option, but some of our Net pioneers have decided to meet them head-on. Take Metaverse for example … a subscription-based MOO … The trouble with video is that it’s expensive, it doesn’t travel well over the Internet and who wants to sit in front of a camera for an hour trying to look awake anyway? The parallels with [George] Orwell’s telescreen are obvious.
Predictor: Hand, Chris
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for Computer-Mediated Communication magazine, Chris Hand, a lecturer and writer from the United Kingdom, writes: ”MUDs used to be part of HackerSpace. They were populated by games-playing, programming Net-junkies who innocently spent their leisure time in a shared virtual space. Now things are changing. When a corporate colossus like Microsoft or Apple starts moving in you know they must have smelled money. Apple has announced eWorld, effectively a graphical front-end to a USENET-like BBS using a village, building and room metaphor for navigation. Microsoft’s project Utopia is an experimental interface using a virtual house to organize activities. So when the big boys start moving into our cyberspace what are we going to do? Run away and hide somewhere else? That’s one option, but some of our Net pioneers have decided to meet them head-on. Take Metaverse for example … a subscription-based MOO. It also provides a home to several ‘virtual corporations’ such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who have virtual office-space there. Another strategy is to create a new MUD specifically for the business community and then to sell it to them. World Benders, Inc have created a client/server system called Meeting Space. They intend to sell this software to businesses so they can conduct meetings in virtual – rather than physical – space. So Meeting Space lets you conduct virtual meetings across a network. Of course this is useful, but it’s nothing new – it’s why we’ve had video-conferencing rammed down our throats as the Next Big Thing. The trouble with video is that it’s expensive, it doesn’t travel well over the Internet and who wants to sit in front of a camera for an hour trying to look awake anyway? The parallels with [George] Orwell’s telescreen are obvious.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: MOOs/MUDs/B-Boards/Newsgroups
Name of publication: Computer-Mediated Communication
Title, headline, chapter name: Meet Me In Cyberspace
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1994/sep/meetme.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Vellucci, Amanda