Most Internet institutions are still remarkably open, in the sense that anybody can join and anybody can send messages at any time. Will this last? Will hordes of unacculturated beginners overwhelm it? Will advertising overwhelm it? Will cumbersome billing software overwhelm it? Will people start building walls around their network communities? Maybe not – if we understand and apply some principles for the maintenance of a commons.
Predictor: Agre, Phil
Prediction, in context:The March 1994 issue of The Network Observer, an online newsletter, carries an editor’s note by Phil Agre, who was, at the time, working in the Department of Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. He writes:”Most Internet institutions are still remarkably open, in the sense that anybody can join and anybody can send messages at any time. Will this last? Will hordes of unacculturated beginners overwhelm it? Will advertising overwhelm it? Will cumbersome billing software overwhelm it? Will people start building walls around their network communities? Maybe not – if we understand and apply some principles for the maintenance of a commons.”
Biography:Phillip E. Agre was an associate professor of information studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has been the author of research studies on the Internet. He edited The Network Observer, an online newsletter on Internet issues. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: The Network Observer
Title, headline, chapter name: The Internet as a Commons
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/tno/march-1994.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne