The prediction, in brief:

There are good reasons – both selfish and high-minded – why we should try to achieve an effective form of universal service for the infobahn … Rigid, centralized attempts to achieve universal service for any future communications infrastructure just won’t work in the brave new world of competitive, decentralized broadband networks. So, fine – let’s not be centralized. But let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water … Americans want the American experience to be inclusive and broadly participatory. Inclusiveness is important for both personal and community reasons, for the same reasons we have public schools and a federally funded interstate highway system.

Predictor: Glaser, Rob

Prediction, in context:

In a 1995 essay for Wired magazine, Rob Glaser, founder and president of Progressive Networks Inc., discusses the prospect of universal network service, available to all people. Glaser writes:”There are good reasons – both selfish and high-minded – why we should try to achieve an effective form of universal service for the infobahn. The monopoly on local telephone service is being broken up, haltingly but inevitably, and this in turn will break the method by which nearly universal phone service has been financed. Rigid, centralized attempts to achieve universal service for any future communications infrastructure just won’t work in the brave new world of competitive, decentralized broadband networks. So, fine – let’s not be centralized. But let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water. The basic reason that universal service has been an important goal of telecom policy since the 1930s is that Americans want the American experience to be inclusive and broadly participatory. Inclusiveness is important for both personal and community reasons, for the same reasons we have public schools and a federally funded interstate highway system.”

Date of prediction: January 1, 1994

Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure

Subtopic: Universal Service

Name of publication: Wired

Title, headline, chapter name: Universal Service Does Matter: Not Because You’re a Bleeding Heart, but Because You’re Selfish

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.01/glaser.if_pr.html

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney