Paid advertising will save the Internet in two ways: First, advertising will make the Internet sustainably inexpensive, like today’s newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio – a prospect that should excite universal-access advocates. Second, advertising will provide practical incentives for attracting the attention of Internet citizens to the information they need. The fact is, the Internet is now large and rapidly outgrowing its quaint netiquette. The Internet is running up against new limits – not on computing power, not on bandwidth, but on the attention span of its citizens.
Predictor: Metcalfe, Robert
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for InfoWorld, Internet pioneer and Ethernet creator Bob Metcalfe writes:”Paid advertising will save the Internet in two ways: First, advertising will make the Internet sustainably inexpensive, like today’s newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio – a prospect that should excite universal-access advocates. Second, advertising will provide practical incentives for attracting the attention of Internet citizens to the information they need. The fact is, the Internet is now large and rapidly outgrowing its quaint netiquette. The Internet is running up against new limits – not on computing power, not on bandwidth, but on the attention span of its citizens.”
Biography:Robert Metcalfe developed Ethernet technology at Xerox PARC in 1973 and later developed the networking company 3Comm. He is known for making the exaggerated 1995 prediction that due to an expected overload as people tried to connect, the Internet would “go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.” He later jokingly ate his words, pureeing a paper copy of the article including this comment and swallowing it before a group of onlookers. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: May 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Advertising/PR
Name of publication: InfoWorld
Title, headline, chapter name: Advertising Can Save the Internet from Becoming a Utopia Gone Sour
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?Did=000000000519830&Fmt=3&Deli=1&Mtd=1&Idx=2&Sid=7&RQT=309
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Pinkerton, Bradley Steven