Video e-mail will be a killer app. Not so much for business use, but for personal use. People in this scattered society will want to see each other – family, friends, new (e-mail) acquaintances – maybe not bosses, co-workers and clients, though.
Predictor: Figallo, Cliff
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for The Wall Street Journal, Thomas E. Weber shares the words of many users and analysts of computer networks, including Cliff Figallo, a former director of the virtual community called the WELL, and the online communications coordinator for the Electronic Freedom Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights group for computer users. Weber quotes Figallo saying: ”Video e-mail will be a killer app. Not so much for business use, but for personal use. People in this scattered society will want to see each other – family, friends, new (e-mail) acquaintances – maybe not bosses, co-workers and clients, though.”
Biography:Cliff Figallo, was managing director of the WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link, one of the best known conferencing systems and virtual communities in the United States in the 1990s) and a director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Cambridge office in the early 1990s. He later worked with Pandora Systems. Figallo and John Coate are regarded to be the chief architects of the WELL’s implementation of virtual community. (Advocate/Voice of the People.)
Date of prediction: November 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: E-mail
Name of publication: Wall Street Journal
Title, headline, chapter name: Technology: An Electronic Roundtable: Two Dozen Users and Analysts Examine the Potential – and Shortcomings – of Networks
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page R24 ISSN: 00999660
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney