Elon University
The prediction, in brief:

By encouraging the formation of regional civic and commercial networks where local as well as national and global issues can be discussed, the government can help stimulate citizen involvement in the solving of problems, from the very local to the planetary. Such systems could provide affordable access to all economic levels of society, so that the discussion and debate can include more than just the affluent, white, well-educated population that now makes up the vast majority of network users.

Predictor: Figallo, Cliff

Prediction, in context:

The 1995 book “Public Access to the Internet,” edited by Brian Kahin and James Keller carries the chapter, “The WELL: A Regionally Based On-Line Community on the Internet” by Cliff Figallo. Figallo, a networking consultant in the San Francisco area who served as director of the Whole Earth Lectronic Link from 1986 to 1992, writes:: ”By encouraging the formation of regional civic and commercial networks where local as well as national and global issues can be discussed, the government can help stimulate citizen involvement in the solving of problems, from the very local to the planetary. Such systems could provide affordable access to all economic levels of society, so that the discussion and debate can include more than just the affluent, white, well-educated population that now makes up the vast majority of network users.”

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: January 1, 1995

Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues

Subtopic: Digital Divide

Name of publication: Public Access to the Internet (book)

Title, headline, chapter name: The WELL: A Regionally Based On-Line Community on the Internet

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 60, 61

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne