The superhighway should be required to provide so-called open-platform services. In today’s channel-based cable TV system, program producers must negotiate for channel space with cable companies around the country. In an open-platform network, we would avoid that bottleneck. Every person would have access to the entire superhighway, so programmers could distribute information directly to consumers. Consumers would become producers: individuals and small organizations could create and distribute programs to anyone on the highway who wants them. Open-platform services will spur diversity in the electronic media.
Predictor: Kapor, Mitchell
Prediction, in context:In a 1991 article for Scientific American, Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder Mitchell Kapor and Jerry Berman state: ”The amount of electronic material the superhighway can carry is dizzying compared to the relatively narrow range of broadcast TV and the limited number of cable channels. Properly constructed and regulated, it could be open to all who wish to speak, publish and communicate. None of the interactive services will be possible, however, if we have an eight-lane data superhighway rushing into every home and only a narrow footpath coming back out. Instead of settling for a multimedia version of the same entertainment that is increasingly dissatisfying on today’s TV, we need a superhighway that encourages the production and distribution of a broader, more diverse range of programming. The superhighway should be required to provide so-called open-platform services. In today’s channel-based cable TV system, program producers must negotiate for channel space with cable companies around the country. In an open-platform network, we would avoid that bottleneck. Every person would have access to the entire superhighway, so programmers could distribute information directly to consumers. Consumers would become producers: individuals and small organizations could create and distribute programs to anyone on the highway who wants them. Open-platform services will spur diversity in the electronic media, just as low production and distribution costs make possible a wide variety of newspapers and magazines.”
Biography:Mitchell Kapor founded the Lotus Development Corporation and also founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation with WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link) members John Perry Barlow and John Gilmore in 1990 in direct response to a threat to free speech. He was an outspoken supporter of open access to the Internet, and was asked to speak in many venues about the issue, including Congressional hearings. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: November 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Open Access
Name of publication: New York Times
Title, headline, chapter name: A Superhighway Through the Wasteland?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.eff.org/Publications/Mitch_Kapor/nii_kapor_berman_eff_nyt.article
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney