The prediction, in brief:

Perhaps the most significant change the National Public Network will afford us is a new mode of building communities – as the telephone, radio, and television did … Digital media can serve as a local nexus, an evanescent meeting-ground, that adds levels of texture to relationships between people in a particular locale.

Predictor: Kapor, Mitchell

Prediction, in context:

In a September 1991 submission to the Network Working Group’s Request for Comments (Request for Comments 1259), Mitchell Kapor, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, writes:”Perhaps the most significant change the National Public Network will afford us is a new mode of building communities – as the telephone, radio, and television did. People often think of electronic ‘communities’ as far-flung communities of interest between followers of a particular discipline. But we are learning, through examples like the PEN system in Santa Monica and the Old Colorado City system in Colorado Springs, that digital media can serve as a local nexus, an evanescent meeting-ground, that adds levels of texture to relationships between people in a particular locale.”

Biography:

Mitchell Kapor founded the Lotus Development Corporation and also founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation with WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link) members John Perry Barlow and John Gilmore in 1990 in direct response to a threat to free speech. He was an outspoken supporter of open access to the Internet, and was asked to speak in many venues about the issue, including Congressional hearings. (Pioneer/Originator.)

Date of prediction: September 1, 1991

Topic of prediction: Community/Culture

Subtopic: Virtual Communities

Name of publication: Requests For Comments

Title, headline, chapter name: Building the Open Road: The NREN As Test-Bed for the National Public Network

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.eff.org/Publications/Mitch_Kapor/nren_npn_nii_kapor_eff.rfc

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney