There is considerable danger in attempting to extrapolate the future from existing institutional viewpoints when there is every reason to believe there will be major changes in current industry structure and in the requirements for policy and regulation. What is needed is a view of what should be as opposed to what has been.
Predictor: Hiltz, Starr Roxanne
Prediction, in context:In a 1992 paper they presented at a workshop titled “Rights and Responsibilities of Participants in Networked Communities” for the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council, researchers Starr Roxanne Hiltz and Murray Turoff say: ”Limited viewpoints and analogies influence the perceptions of decision makers about the potential of the technology within their organizations and of policy makers about the role of the technology in society. They are also one reason why most attempts at commercialization have fallen far short of the glamorous predictions that have ushered in public offerings of the technology. CMC [computer-mediated communication] is a unique medium of communication, with its own social impacts and a need for laws and policies tailored for it, not ‘borrowed’ from older media. There are numerous attempts to apply the metaphors of existing industries to describe the overlapping functions of computers and communications (e.g., publishing, common carriers, distribution, warehousing, etc.). There is considerable danger in attempting to extrapolate the future from existing institutional viewpoints when there is every reason to believe there will be major changes in current industry structure and in the requirements for policy and regulation. What is needed is a view of what should be as opposed to what has been.”
Biography:Starr Roxanne Hiltz, the co-author of a seminal book about the electronic frontier, “The Network Nation: Human Communication Via Computer” (MIT Press), was a professor of computer and information science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the author of many Internet research studies. In 1994, Hiltz received the “Pioneer Award” from the Electronic Frontier Foundation for her “significant and influential contributions to computer-based communications and to the empowerment of individuals using computers.” She was among the first to note that computer conferencing could form the basis of new kinds of communities. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: November 1, 1992
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Rights and Responsibilities of Participants in Networked Communities Computer science and Telecommunications Board National Research Council (NRC)
Title, headline, chapter name: A Normative View of Networking Applications
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.njit.edu/~turoff/Papers/dcgov.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney