“Video on demand” will not just mean ordering current movies, as if they were spooling down from the local videotape store, but opening floodgates to vast new amounts of independent work, with high quality thanks to plummeting prices of professional-quality desktop video editors. Customers will grow used to dialing up two-minute demos of homemade videos before ordering the full program and storing it on their own blank tape.
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: ”‘Video on demand’ will not just mean ordering current movies, as if they were spooling down from the local videotape store, but opening floodgates to vast new amounts of independent work, with high quality thanks to plummeting prices of professional-quality desktop video editors. Customers will grow used to dialing up two-minute demos of homemade videos before ordering the full program and storing it on their own blank tape.”
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: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: TV/Films/Video
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