Everybody knows that only those whose networks connect to everybody else’s have a chance to reach the enormous world market, but nobody knows yet which set of interests – newspapers, television networks, entertainment conglomerates, communication giants – will dominate the mass-market networks of the future.
Predictor: Rheingold, Howard
Prediction, in context:In his 1991 book “The Virtual Community,” Howard Rheingold writes: ”Cyberspace is where global entertainment and communications are headed; large colonies of those industries already live there. Televisions and newspapers rely on a slightly different flavor of the same basic electronic signals traveling through the same worldwide network. The cable companies are in on it. Everybody knows that only those whose networks connect to everybody else’s have a chance to reach the enormous world market, but nobody knows yet which set of interests – newspapers, television networks, entertainment conglomerates, communication giants – will dominate the mass-market networks of the future.”
Biography:Howard Rheingold, one of the first writers to illuminate the ideals and foibles of virtual communities, published a webzine called Electric Minds and wrote “Virtual Reality,” “Smart Mobs” and “Virtual Community.” He also was the editor of Whole Earth Review and the Millennium Whole Earth Catalog. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1990
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: The Virtual Community
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter Three: Visionaries and Convergences: The Accidental History of the Net
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/3.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Smith, Ian T.