Ideally, everyone who is a consumer online should have the potential to also be a provider on the network. Anyone should be able to run a Web site from their home or company. I’m pretty certain that’s not going to be an issue. Someone will try to put in the fix. But they’ll lose again. If so, this is the BBS of the future.
Predictor: Rickard, Jack
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 commentary for the Internet Gazette, Boardwatch editor and publisher Jack Rickard writes:”So, we have telephone companies panting to deliver video to the home in an orgy of wishful thinking based on Blockbuster revenues they won’t get and can’t have even if they could deliver it. We have cable companies that do deliver it but screw everybody that comes within range to the floor. True, there is some market for on-demand movies as most of the broadcast channels are being taken over by an endless series of infomercials, anyway. But it isn’t enough for cables or telcos to live on, much less both … So sure, I’d like to pay $30 per month for a T1 to the net or its equivalent in bandwidth. The telcos can do it. The cable company can do it. Their future in video is a bit limited. It has to happen … Ideally, everyone who is a consumer online should have the potential to also be a provider on the network. Anyone should be able to run a Web site from their home or company. I’m pretty certain that’s not going to be an issue. Someone will try to put in the fix. But they’ll lose again. If so, this is the BBS of the future. That may upset some, and it may gladden some. It does not augur particularly well for large services such as CompuServe and AOL unless they suddenly get in the business of providing SLIP accounts. All of this will change the concept of what a BBS is in the hobby/commercial BBS community – though not as much as many of us will initially fear. But it will affect us all … It’s time. It’s actually going to be a VERY good time in cyberville. Lock and load.”
Biography:Jack Rickard, the editor/publisher of Boardwatch Magazine, the magazine of the 1990s home-grown BBS industry, was also co-founder of the Online Networking Exposition and BBS Convention (ONE BBSCON). (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: December 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: The Internet Gazette
Title, headline, chapter name: Webulism and the Cable Fable
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.kenmccarthy.com/archive/gazette/ig3.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Schmidt, Nicholas