Given how the net works, it happens that the most effective ways of networking, getting help, finding information, gathering people together, making friends, and so forth are also the most socially responsible ways of doing these things. Why is this? It’s because of the network’s tremendous capacity for cultural self-regulation.
Predictor: Agre, Phil
Prediction, in context:The March 1994 issue of The Network Observer, an online newsletter, carries an article titled “The Internet as a Commons” by Phil Agre, TNO editor, who was, at the time, working in the Department of Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. He writes:”Given how the net works, it happens that the most effective ways of networking, getting help, finding information, gathering people together, making friends, and so forth are also the most socially responsible ways of doing these things. Why is this? It’s because of the network’s tremendous capacity for cultural self-regulation.”
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: Ethics/Values
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