A free market and open marketplace for information and communication services will go a long way toward eliminating many potential abuses of networking … We could greatly improve effectiveness if we considered more appropriate marketplace mechanisms. For example, the growing problem of junk phone calls (solicitations) would be solved if receivers could charge a fee that they set for anyone phoning them. This would be a very easy marketplace mechanism on any electronic message service and go along way toward eliminating junk electronic mail … There is no technology bottleneck for users to be able to charge a fee for the “privilege” of others to send them mail. When one considers this, it would seem to be the more desirable objective for society than the one we have now with physical mail.
Predictor: Hiltz, Starr Roxanne
Prediction, in context:In a 1992 paper they presented at a workshop titled “Rights and Responsibilities of Participants in Networked Communities” for the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council, researchers Starr Roxanne Hiltz and Murray Turoff say:”A free market and open marketplace for information and communication services will go a long way toward eliminating many potential abuses of networking. A group working for a company and engaged in using a project-management conference clearly is giving up the right of ownership of material to the company they are working for. However, a group of scientists exchanging research findings sets their own criteria on what can or cannot be quoted outside the shared group facility. Even with current communication systems, we could greatly improve effectiveness if we considered more appropriate marketplace mechanisms. For example, the growing problem of junk phone calls (solicitations) would be solved if receivers could charge a fee that they set for anyone phoning them. This would be a very easy marketplace mechanism on any electronic message service and go along way toward eliminating junk electronic mail. There is no need for even “electronic mail” to operate as a mere automation of what is done in the physical mail environment. There is no technology bottleneck for users to be able to charge a fee for the “privilege” of others to send them mail. When one considers this, it would seem to be the more desirable objective for society than the one we have now with physical mail.”
Biography:Starr Roxanne Hiltz, the co-author of a seminal book about the electronic frontier, “The Network Nation: Human Communication Via Computer” (MIT Press), was a professor of computer and information science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the author of many Internet research studies. In 1994, Hiltz received the “Pioneer Award” from the Electronic Frontier Foundation for her “significant and influential contributions to computer-based communications and to the empowerment of individuals using computers.” She was among the first to note that computer conferencing could form the basis of new kinds of communities. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: November 1, 1992
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Rights and Responsibilities of Participants in Networked CommunitiesComputer science and Telecommunications BoardNational Research Council (NRC)
Title, headline, chapter name: A Normative View of Networking Applications
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.njit.edu/~turoff/Papers/dcgov.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney