General-purpose users may eventually outnumber the computer experts who now dominate the system, and they are gaining access in rapid numbers.
Predictor: Calem, Robert E.
Prediction, in context:In a 1992 article for The New York Times, Robert Calem writes:”The Internet is still used mostly by scientific researchers subsidized by the National Science Foundation, which controls the main computer network that is the Internet’s backbone. In the future, however, the Internet might be completely privatized. Right now Mr. [Mitch] Kapor’s Electronic Frontier Foundation is working toward the nearly total elimination of government subsidies for the Internet’s operations. The reason is that commercial messages are forbidden from centers that receive Government funding, and this complicates the use of the system. But general-purpose users may eventually outnumber the computer experts who now dominate the system, and they are gaining access in rapid numbers.”
Date of prediction: December 6, 1992
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: New York Times
Title, headline, chapter name: The Network of All Networks
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=b4ea7b69f983008f364fd6f137cf54f9&_docnum=3&wchp=dGLbVzb-lSlAl&_md5=0bc9784b135d7b444a08a8e3cdd0d5e6
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Garrison, Betty