The Jeffersonian option requires a commitment to openness in all of its dimensions. We should be paying attention to issues of openness today because while it is easy to build openness into networks, it is difficult to add it after the fact. Policy makers and business leaders need to ask themselves these key questions before committing to any one path: Who has access to the network? Is it affordable? … Who can put content onto the system? … Will novel uses of the network be allowed to develop? … Where do services originate? … Will system specifications and interfaces be publicly available and defined in an open process?
Predictor: Kapor, Mitchell
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for Wired magazine, Mitchell Kapor, a co-founder of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, writes: ”A network is either open or closed with respect to who may have access to it, who determines its specific uses, who may supply content, who can providethe equipment used, how interfaces and standards are determined, and whether the technical details are public or private. In its fundamental architecture and, increasingly, in its policies, the Internet is an ideal example of an open network. It is an interactive medium based on two-way communications, where people can fluidly shift from position of listener to that of speaker, from role of consumer to that of provider. The public switched telephone network, on the other hand, is substantially closed in its architecture, but, by virtue of being common carriers, telcos are required to be open in access, use, and content. And cable systems have no such obligation, they exercise very tight control over both content and use. The Jeffersonian option requires a commitment to openness in all of its dimensions. We should be paying attention to issues of openness today because while it is easy to build openness into networks, it is difficult to add it after the fact. Policy makers and business leaders need to ask themselves these key questions before committing to any one path: Who has access to the network? Is it affordable? … Who can put content onto the system? … Will novel uses of the network be allowed to develop? … Where do services originate? … Will system specifications and interfaces be publicly available and defined in an open process?”
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: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Open Access
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Where is the Digital Highway Really Heading? The Case for a Jeffersonian Information Policy
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.03/kapor.on.nii_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney