A new software program available free to companies and individuals is helping even novice computer users find their way around the global Internet, the network of networks that is rich in information but can be baffling to navigate. Since its introduction earlier this year, the program, called Mosaic, has grown so popular that its use is causing data traffic jams on the Internet. That worries some computer scientists. But Mosaic’s many passionate proponents hail it as the first “killer app” of network computing – an applications program so different and so obviously useful that it can create a new industry from scratch. “Mosaic has given me a sense of limitless opportunity, which is the reason that I went into computer science in the first place,” said Brian Reid.
Predictor: Reid, Brian
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for the New York Times, technology columnist John Markoff reports on the revolutionary development of Mosaic, the first World Wide Web browsing program. Markoff writes: ”Think of it as a map to the buried treasures of the Information Age. A new software program available free to companies and individuals is helping even novice computer users find their way around the global Internet, the network of networks that is rich in information but can be baffling to navigate. Since its introduction earlier this year, the program, called Mosaic, has grown so popular that its use is causing data traffic jams on the Internet. That worries some computer scientists. But Mosaic’s many passionate proponents hail it as the first ‘killer app’ of network computing – an applications program so different and so obviously useful that it can create a new industry from scratch. ‘Mosaic has given me a sense of limitless opportunity, which is the reason that I went into computer science in the first place,’ said Brian Reid, a computer researcher who is the director of the Digital Equipment Corporation’s Network System’s Laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif. Digital, a leading computer maker, is exploring ways of using Mosaic as the basis for a whole new system of electronic commerce, letting customers easily browse through on-line product catalogues. Other companies – including Xerox, the software company Novell Inc. and the publisher R. R. Donnelley – are also exploring business opportunities they see springing from Mosaic. And in California, a government and private industry consortium called Smart Valley Inc. is using Mosaic to create an electronic marketplace for Silicon Valley high-tech companies.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Language/Interface/Software
Name of publication: New York Times
Title, headline, chapter name: A Free and Simple Computer Link
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Section D; Page 1; Column 3: Financial Desk
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney