The prediction, in brief:

One doesn’t need the vast capacity of NREN to exchange simple electronic mail. There are many alternative, if slower, networks available. Using super-sophisticated NREN for such mundane tasks might be like trying to get a drink out of a fire hose. And it’s problematic whether local schools and libraries would be able to pay for the equipment needed to exchange items much more complex than simple electronic mail. There’s the potential here for the creation of information haves and information have-nots.

Predictor: Karraker, Roger

Prediction, in context:

In a 1991 article for The Whole Earth Review, a quarterly magazine of access to tools and ideas, Roger Karraker writes about the network:”One doesn’t need the vast capacity of NREN to exchange simple electronic mail. There are many alternative, if slower, networks available. Using super-sophisticated NREN for such mundane tasks might be like trying to get a drink out of a fire hose. And it’s problematic whether local schools and libraries would be able to pay for the equipment needed to exchange items much more complex than simple electronic mail. There’s the potential here for the creation of information haves and information have-nots. As Apple Computer librarian Steve Cisler puts it, ‘If this is going to be a data superhighway, how would you like to have to go to a computer company, military base, or university to find an onramp?'”

Date of prediction: January 1, 1991

Topic of prediction: Communication

Subtopic: E-mail

Name of publication: Whole Earth Revue

Title, headline, chapter name: Highways of the Mind or Toll Roads Between Information Castles?

Quote Type: Partial quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.eff.org/Net_culture/Criticisms/hiways_of_mind.article

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Stotler, Larry