The e-mail software needs to provide hooks for a user to set a default bid price, and to override the default when desired … The user specifies her maximum willingness to pay, but the actual price for each packet may (and typically will) be lower. However, since the TCP protocol offers positive acknowledgment of each packet, the acknowledging packets that are returned can contain the actual price charged so that the host database can record user-specific charges.
Predictor: MacKie-Mason, Jeffrey K.
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “Public Access to the Internet,” edited by Brian Kahin and James Keller carries the chapter, “Pricing the Internet” by Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason and Hal R. Varian. MacKie is an associate professor of economics and Varian is a professor of economics at the University of Michigan. They write: ”Suppose user 1 on machine 1 is sending an e-mail to user 1 on machine 2. [User 1] needs to be able to set her bid (maximum willingness to pay) for the packets that make up her e-mail message. However, she prefers not to think about a bid for every message since she usually puts the same, very low priority price on e-mail. Thus, the e-mail software needs to provide hooks for a user to set a default bid price, and to override the default when desired … The user specifies her maximum willingness to pay, but the actual price for each packet may (and typically will) be lower. However, since the TCP protocol offers positive acknowledgment of each packet, the acknowledging packets that are returned can contain the actual price charged so that the host database can record user-specific charges.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Cost/Pricing
Name of publication: Public Access to the Internet (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Pricing the Internet
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 306
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne