I don’t believe “Beavis and Butt-head” on demand is going to drive (sales on) the information highway. Every child I know already has an Encyclopaedia Brittanica within reach as they watch MTV. So why is wiring them up to the Library of Congress going to change things?
Predictor: McNealy, Scott
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for The San Francisco Chronicle, John Eckhouse reports on a luncheon speech made by Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy. Eckhouse writes:”‘I don’t believe ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ on demand is going to drive (sales on) the information highway,’ said Scott McNealy, chief executive of Mountain View workstation maker Sun Microsystems. Nor will the overhyped ideas of using the network for telecommuting, solving illiteracy or educating the country’s youth. ‘Every child I know already has an Encyclopaedia Brittanica within reach as they watch MTV. So why is wiring them up to the Library of Congress going to change things?’ he said in a luncheon speech to the Commonwealth Club. ‘Get a grip!’ The first companies that try to reap profits from the information superhighway simply by offering interactive entertainment or educational programs will make themselves as vulnerable as ‘the first clay pigeon in a skeet-shooting contest,’ McNealy said. He based his conclusions, rightly or wrongly, on his own lifestyle … Instead of showing up in the home first, the fully featured information superhighway will appear first in large and geographically dispersed corporate work groups, the Sun executive concluded.”
Biography:Scott McNealy was the CEO and cofounder of Sun Microsystems, Inc., a leading global supplier of network computing solutions, including Java, in the 1990s. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: February 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: San Francisco Chronicle
Title, headline, chapter name: Business May Drive Information Highway
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Business Page D1
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Meyer, Jennifer Marie