In the future, Physics Abstracts will be a service which tells you in the morning which of the papers published overnight match a set of keywords which you have specified. You’ll be able to ask for reverse citations – all the later papers which reference the one you’re reading – and go directly to read them. And you could see the citation count, and the readership count, change day-by-day. Such tools will be the only way to keep up with the flood of information.
Predictor: Holderness, Mike
Prediction, in context:In his 1993 article on worldwide electronic communication, Mike Holderness writes:”Why is anyone bothering with this technology, when ink on paper has stood us in good stead for so long and can now be transmitted in seconds by fax? Pam Waddell, senior researcher studying electronic publishing at the Science and Engineering Policy Studies Unit [in Britain], says that ‘there are things which are very difficult to express on paper which you can do with an electronic journal – for example, three-dimensional molecular models.’ … And, as Derek Law, librarian at King’s College London, points out: ‘In 20 years, Physics Abstracts has grown from 80,000 to 120,000 entries a year. That’s 100 abstracts an hour every working day, which means it’s impossible to keep up with and is why it’s known in the trade as ‘the green slime.’ In the future, Physics Abstracts will be a service which tells you in the morning which of the papers published overnight match a set of keywords which you have specified. You’ll be able to ask for reverse citations – all the later papers which reference the one you’re reading – and go directly to read them. And you could see the citation count, and the readership count, change day-by-day. Such tools will be the only way to keep up with the flood of information.”
Date of prediction: March 2, 1993
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Medical/Professional
Name of publication: New Scientist
Title, headline, chapter name: Down and Out on the Electronic Frontier
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.poptel.org.uk/nuj/mike/articles/nsc-elec.htm
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney