E-mail is a killer app for a lot of reasons.
Predictor: Bricklin, Dan
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for Computer World, writer Steve Moore quotes Visicalc creators Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston in a running dialogue about technology. They say: BRICKLIN: E-mail is the killer app there because it’s cheaper than fax. FRANKSTON: E-mail is a killer app for a lot of reasons. [With] Mosaic, the killer app there is the standards for the World Wide Web. Mosaic is just the first quick cut at a viewer; it is not the best viewer there will be. But it makes the Internet understandable and approachable. BRICKLIN: But how many people need or want to do the perusal for World Wide Web? E-mail is different; communicating with your kids who are away at college is a different thing. FRANKSTON: You do not need to be an Internet user to use e-mail. What the Internet contributed to e-mail was the domain naming system so you no longer had to know arcane addresses and everything was connected.
Biography:Dan Bricklin was the inventor of the first big spreadsheet program, VisiCalc, in 1979. In 1995, he founded and became chief technical officer of Trellix, a company making Web tools. Trellix later invested in Pyra Labs, the biggest supplier of Blogging software, in 2001. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: May 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Internet Appliances
Name of publication: Computerworld
Title, headline, chapter name: The Killer APP Crew
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=840e7abc469f85913fc34b8fa17d1789&_docnum=6&wchp=dGLbVlb-lSlzV&_md5=f4c75bb64c13523481dee487d1b24d92
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Bricker, Erin E.