Today we have the Net, the last accidentally uncensored mass medium in existence. Is it a toy of the rich and the ivory tower, or is it potent? … Will we allow ourselves to be possessed by the vision of a Net whose purpose is to help create and support HEROES? Or will we dismiss it all with a keystroke and get back to the REAL FUN STUFF on alt.flame.Joe.schmuck.the.world’s.greatest.poophead?
Predictor: Crocker, Steve
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article in Computerworld, writer J.C. Herz interviews Steve Crocker. The article is actually an excerpt from a book by Herz titled “Surfing on the Internet.” Herz writes: ”Net customs are important because they have allowed us to participate in a truly democratic mass medium, and that’s something worth defending. Crocker says, ‘It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that “they” decide what appears in newspapers, magazines, books and on radio and TV, whereas we decide what will appear on the Net. Ultimately we may actually realize the ideal of the old New Left (and the Founding Fathers) of democratic participation of the people in shaping political programs. I keep coming back to the image of old Ben Franklin and his printing press. Franklin understood that the British Empire was a dinosaur. Its bandwidth was no longer sufficient to support the extent of its body. So he used the innovative medium of his time to create bandwidth, thus setting into motion a form of social organization which could move faster and plan smarter than its obsolete competitor. So today we have the Net, the last accidentally uncensored mass medium in existence. Is it a toy of the rich and the ivory tower, or is it potent? … Will we allow ourselves to be possessed by the vision of a Net whose purpose is to help create and support HEROES? Or will we dismiss it all with a keystroke and get back to the REAL FUN STUFF on alt.flame.Joe.schmuck.the.world’s.greatest.poophead?'”
Biography:Steve Crocker was probably best known in the 1990s as the founder of CyberCash Inc. a leading Internet payments company. Earlier, he was program manager on the team developing the protocols for ARPANET in 1966. In1968, he organized the Network Working Group to develop host-level protocols for ARPANET communication. He began the Request for Comment (RFC) series of notes through which Internet protocol designs are documented and shared, and he wrote RFC 1 and many others. In1970, he worked with Vinton Cerf and C.S. Carr to publish the first ARPANET host-host protocol. He later became known as an Internet and computer business and security specialist. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Computerworld
Title, headline, chapter name: Newbie Bashing
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=f329ce1feefed32b7369934ff3777189&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVlz-lSlAl&_md5=796a7047a90430e8bcc3fe607877ec00
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Culp, William Jarrell