We are heading out there toward convergence but nobody has a clue what it’s converging into … But everybody realizes they’ve got to get off their duff … People are looking for the best position.
Predictor: Botein, Michael
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article about the many recent mergers of technology companies, Evan Ramstad of The Associated Press quotes New York Law School Professor Michael Botein. Ramstad writes: ”Will consumers access the highway with a TV, a computer or telephone? Will information be delivered via copper, cable or fiber-optic wire or through wireless communications? And who will decide how much such service costs? ‘We are heading out there toward convergence but nobody has a clue what it’s converging into,’ said Michael Botein, a professor at New York Law School and founding director of its Communications Media Center. ‘But everybody realizes they’ve got to get off their duff.’ The biggest prize for any alliance would be to create a product that becomes an industry standard method, program or structure at any point along the data highway … ‘People are looking for the best position,’ said Botein. ‘Does a cable operator really want to get into switching? Does a telephone company really want to try to get into video?'”
Biography:Michael Botein was founding director of the Communications Media Center at New York University Law School. His expertise in international telecommunications law, the regulation of cable television and new technologies made him a valuable consultant to the FCC and the Administrative Conference of the United States. He wrote “International Telecommunications in the United States” (1987) and “Cases and Materials on Regulation of the Electronic Mass Media” (2002). (Legislator/Politician/Lawyer.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: The Associated Press
Title, headline, chapter name: As Technology Converges, So Do Technology Companies
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http;//web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?-m=1d42675a009942cca236934d0ad13920...
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Bradshaw, Lindsay