What could limit the growth and usefulness of the Internet is its very power. A technology that can bring all the information from everywhere to your computer is useless unless it can also help you find what you really want, the people that you want to talk to, and the conversation that you want to join. So a crucial test of the viability of the Internet will be the development of filters for all that information: software agents, mail handlers and human intermediaries such as net searchers, conference moderators and digest editors.
Predictor: Flower, Joe
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for New Scientist, Joe Flower, principal of the Change Project, a consulting project in Larkspur, Calif., writes: ”What could limit the growth and usefulness of the Internet is its very power. A technology that can bring all the information from everywhere to your computer is useless unless it can also help you find what you really want, the people that you want to talk to, and the conversation that you want to join. So a crucial test of the viability of the Internet will be the development of filters for all that information: software agents, mail handlers and human intermediaries such as net searchers, conference moderators and digest editors.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Intelligent Agents/AI
Name of publication: New Scientist
Title, headline, chapter name: Idiot’s Guide to the Net: From Boston’s Cyberbars to Siena’s Schoolrooms, Some of the Frequently Asked Questions About the Network that Connects Us All
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 2222
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney