At some point, ordinary citizens linked by nothing but goodwill and a keyboard will be able to check nationwide bulletin boards devoted to cases of missing children.
Predictor: Smolowe, Jill
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for Time magazine, Jill Smolowe and Elaine Lafferty describe how the Internet can be used to solve crimes through people working together. They write: ”The crisp likeness of Polly Klaas, the 12-year-old girl who was kidnapped Oct. 1 from her home in Petaluma, Calif., has shown up everywhere … The reason is that the search for Polly is being conducted along America’s rapidly emerging information superhighway … [The people who launched this search, Gary French, Bill Rhodes and Larry Magid,] have laid the groundwork for lightning-fast searches in the future. At some point, ordinary citizens linked by nothing but goodwill and a keyboard will be able to check nationwide bulletin boards devoted to cases of missing children. Toward that end, French is feeding a national directory of fax numbers into a permanent database and is seeking donated computers for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Arlington, Va. When that kind of system is in place, girls like Polly may have millions of searchers looking for them.”
Date of prediction: November 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Crime/Fraud/Terrorism
Name of publication: Time
Title, headline, chapter name: A High-Tech Dragnet: A California Kidnapping Spurs a Novel Use of the Information Highway
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web11.epnet.com/citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=dbs+0%2C1%2C2%2C3+ln+en%2Dus+sid+4350E799%2D2B2C%2D4188%2D8440%2DC41383A837A8%40Sessionmgr6+51F4&_us=bs+A++high%2Dtech++dragnet+ds+A++high%2Dtech++dragnet+dstb+KS+hd+0+hs+0+or+Date+ri+KAAACBTB00224066+sm+KS+so+b+ss+SO+D7E7&fn=1&rn=1
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Kafoure, David