High-level protocols and user-friendly software like NCSA Mosaic are reducing less tangible barriers to public use. But great disparities remain. In fact, disparities will grow as those on the cutting edge leave the training edge farther and farther behind. Households without computers, keyboard illiterates, unaffiliated individuals, rural residents, the elderly, and small businesses are all disadvantaged in different ways and likely to remain so.
Predictor: Kahin, Brian
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “Public Access to the Internet,” edited by Brian Kahin and James Keller carries the chapter, “The Internet and the National Information Infrastructure” by Kahin. Kahin is general counsel for the Interactive Media Association and an adjunct lecturer and director of the Information Infrastructure Project at Harvard University. He writes: ”The Internet is a primary path to the future information infrastructure, at least for structured information. It is openly accessible public infrastructure, competitively provided, and based on nonproprietary technology … Technology push and market growth are driving down many of the direct costs. High-level protocols and user-friendly software like NCSA Mosaic are reducing less tangible barriers to public use. But great disparities remain. In fact, disparities will grow as those on the cutting edge leave the training edge farther and farther behind. Households without computers, keyboard illiterates, unaffiliated individuals, rural residents, the elderly, and small businesses are all disadvantaged in different ways and likely to remain so.”
Biography:Brian Kahin was a coauthor of “Public Access to the Internet,” a 1995 collection of papers on Internet-access issues produced by the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project, for which he was founding director. He had helped found the Interactive Multimedia Association in 1988. In the early 1990s, he also was the author or editor of “Building Information Infrastructure (McGraw-Hill, 1992), “The Information Infrastructure Sourcebook” (published by the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project 1993-1995) and “Standards Policy for Information Infrastructure” (with Janet Abbate; MIT Press, 1995). (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
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 Internet and the National Information Infrastructure
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 18
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne