If corporations do not see billion-dollar projects that promise large future profits, they may not support community innovation networks. Citizen input to federal decision making is necessary to assure that citizens’ best interests are not forgotten as the National Information Infrastructure begins to take form … If control of information represents power, resistance to making information more broadly available is to be expected. Incentives and ongoing evaluations for strategic partnering among federal, state, and local agencies is needed.
Predictor: Odasz, Frank
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “Public Access to the Internet,” edited by Brian Kahin and James Keller carries the chapter, “Issues in the Development of Community Cooperative Networks” by Frank Odasz, the director of Big Sky Telegraph, Western Montana College of the University of Montana. He writes: ”Community BBSs are already in use in rural areas, and FreeNets are proliferating in urban areas. However, there are some subtle but very real barriers to their widespread adoption… - Who will promote the practical use of community networking? If corporations do not see billion-dollar projects that promise large future profits, they may not support community innovation networks. Citizen input to federal decision making is necessary to assure that citizens’ best interests are not forgotten as the National Information Infrastructure begins to take form… - Our federal, state, and corporate leaders need to stay keenly aware of the rapidly evolving low-cost, high-imagination networking options. Citizens need to assure that our leaders stay current in their knowledge of what practical networking options exist, so that they are able to lead us intelligently. To date, we have not held our leaders thus accountable, as demonstrated by the incomplete nature of most network-related legislation, which is oblivious to the practical alternatives already functioning at the grassroots level… - We need to ensure that fearful citizens can receive all the human support they need to become comfortable with the use of computers. Local volunteers need to be encouraged to help citizens through this transitional period. Youth service programs could be tasked with this mission… - Testbed models are needed to identify economic approaches that provide verifiable citizen benefits at an affordable cost, while allowing Internet providers to sustain development of value-added Internet access and human mentorship… - If control of information represents power, resistance to making information more broadly available is to be expected. Incentives and ongoing evaluations for strategic partnering among federal, state, and local agencies is needed.”
Biography:Frank Odasz was an assistant professor of computing education at the University of Colorado and the director of Big Sky Telegraph, a popular community network of the time. He was widely known as a speaker on community networking and educational technologies. (Technology Developer/Administrator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Public Access to the Internet (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Issues in the Development of Community Cooperative Networks
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 132-134
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne