The prediction, in brief:

The Clinton-Gore administration came into office determined to understand the promise of information infrastructure, diagnose the barriers to its realization, and solicit the cooperation of Congress, states and communities, and the public realize this promise. This is still an attainable objective. However it will not be attained by leaving applications initiative to commercial firms and leaving the architecture of the communications and computing services to the contention of carriers before the FCC … It would be a serious error to underestimate the importance of building both the institutional capacity and the software to support the public-interest applications.

Predictor: Branscomb, Lewis M.

Prediction, in context:

The 1995 book “Public Access to the Internet,” edited by Brian Kahin and James Keller carries the chapter, “Balancing the Commercial and Public-Interest Visions of the NII” by Lewis Branscomb, director of the Program on Science, Technology and Public Policy at Harvard University and principal investigator of the Information Infrastructure Project. Branscomb writes:”The Clinton-Gore administration came into office determined to understand the promise of information infrastructure, diagnose the barriers to its realization, and solicit the cooperation of Congress, states and communities, and the public realize this promise. This is still an attainable objective. However it will not be attained by leaving applications initiative to commercial firms and leaving the architecture of the communications and computing services to the contention of carriers before the FCC … It would be a serious error to underestimate the importance of building both the institutional capacity and the software to support the public-interest applications.”

Date of prediction: January 1, 1995

Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure

Subtopic: General

Name of publication: Public Access to the Internet (book)

Title, headline, chapter name: Balancing the Commercial and Public-Interest Visions of the NII

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 31

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne