If equality of opportunity and symmetry of participation are valued, then all classes of users (not just privileged groups and institutions) should be able to create as well as receive information; this means that the infrastructure has to provide two-way digital pipes and allow anyone to set up a server. If bottom-up community development efforts and entrepreneurial enterprise are to be encouraged, then the infrastructure must have a carefully crafted open architecture; it should allow a wide range of hardware companies, software developers, network service providers, content providers, and users to produce and integrate components which extend and add value to the system.
Predictor: Mitchell, William J.
Prediction, in context:In his 1994 book “City of Bits,” MIT computer scientist William J. Mitchell writes: ”Nations that seek to remain economically competitive and to provide high living standards for their citizens will race to embark on their National Information Infrastructure projects as, in the past, they have invested in their ports and shipping fleets, railroad networks, and highway systems. And as they do so, they will have to resolve fundamental questions about the political economy of cyberspace; the answers that they reach will largely determine the kinds of nations that they become. Democratic ideals (and the lessons of the telephone system) suggest that they should strive to provide universal access – affordable, ubiquitously present, high-bandwidth service to all their citizens. If equality of opportunity and symmetry of participation are valued, then all classes of users (not just privileged groups and institutions) should be able to create as well as receive information; this means that the infrastructure has to provide two-way digital pipes and allow anyone to set up a server. If bottom-up community development efforts and entrepreneurial enterprise are to be encouraged, then the infrastructure must have a carefully crafted open architecture; it should allow a wide range of hardware companies, software developers, network service providers, content providers, and users to produce and integrate components which extend and add value to the system. And if the infrastructure is to encourage national coherence rather than a new kind of balkanization, then its development must be guided by policies and standards that assure interoperability between all the subnetworks of the national system.”
Biography:William J. Mitchell was a professor and dean of architecture at MIT and the author of the predictive book “City of Bits: Space, Place and the Infobahn” (1994). He also taught at Harvard, Yale, Carnegie-Mellon and Cambridge Universities. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Universal Service
Name of publication: City of Bits
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 7: Getting to the Good Bits
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-books/City_of_Bits/index.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney