Legal, governmental, medical and … nearly every service that uses paper today could do business via the NII … The process of moving around the paper forms and letters that constitute business mail, for example, consumes tens of billions of dollars annually.
Predictor: Dertouzos, Michael
Prediction, in context:In a 1991 article for Technology Review, MIT researcher/administrator Michael Dertouzos writes: ”The potential clientele for the NII [National Information Infrastructure] is immense: legal, governmental, medical and numerous other services could find their way onto the NII and develop new ways of doing business. Indeed, nearly every service that uses paper today could do business via the NII. In one class of uses, the NII would perform more effectively operations that are today being done by other means. The process of moving around the paper forms and letters that constitute business mail, for example, consumes tens of billions of dollars annually. And it often takes more than five days for a piece of paper to reach its destination. The NII would cut this delay to five seconds – or even five milliseconds in critical cases … Electronic mail could also accelerate (and, dare we hope, simplify) dealings with government agencies such as the IRS and Social Security.”
Biography:Michael Dertouzos was director of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and the author of “The Unfinished Revolution.” He led a project intended to make computers adapt to people. He outlined a comprehensive proposal for a national information “infrastructure” in a 1991 article for Technology Review. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1991
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: E-mail
Name of publication: Technology Review
Title, headline, chapter name: Building the Information Marketplace
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web2.infortrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/599/939/33335311w2/purl=rcl
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney