The potential entails emphasis on personal connection. Not only must everyone have access to a broad range of tools and information, but they should take make something meaningful of the medium. Shallow, glossy, well-targeted salesmanship is a waste of technology.
Predictor: Hall, Justin Allyn
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 online essay, Justin Hall makes the statement: ”I look at the Net as a neighborhood. I want to live in a neighborhood with funky houses, neighbors who greet me on the street and have something to say. Not amidst office sky-disgracers, plastered with useless billboards and littered with forgotten glossy flyers. I want my house to have a warm glow, like people really live there. I have given my online space a human feel with honest and revealing material, publishing even the painful parts, because cyberspace will only be funky if it reflects our joys and sorrows. Anything else is sanitized, alienating and just not any fun at all. The response I’ve gotten tells me people appreciate humanism online. At the same time, it seems to be rare. People have a hard time opening up and sharing of themselves, no less over the wires. Computers teach us that we can build our world, construct a reality according to our vision. We must encourage openness; communications between folks instead of tight reins on the means of information production and distribution. Widespread tales instead of pervasive corporate persuasion. The potential entails emphasis on personal connection. Not only must everyone have access to a broad range of tools and information, but they should take make something meaningful of the medium. Shallow, glossy, well-targeted salesmanship is a waste of technology.”
Biography:Justin Hall worked briefly at Wired in 1994, during a sabbatical from his college days at Swarthmore. He started his own irreverent e-zine, covering diverse topics and providing links all over the Web. He later worked for ZDTV and Games.com and as a freelance journalist. (Advocate/Voice of the People.)
Date of prediction: July 21, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: Relationships
Name of publication: Links.net
Title, headline, chapter name: Computopia: Sharing Stories Humanizes Computer Connections
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.links.net/dox/tech/computopia.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney