Imminent national and international data “superhighways” will lead to a vastly more complex world. “It will be as disruptive as going from mainframes to LANs.”
Predictor: Farber, David J.
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for Computerworld, Lynda Radosevich quotes David Farber. She writes: ”If information systems managers think that life is complicated now, wait until speakers at the E-Mail World conference this week in Santa Clara, Calif., outline how imminent national and international data ‘superhighways’ will lead to a vastly more complex world. ‘It will be as disruptive as going from mainframes to LANs,’ said David Farber, a conference speaker and a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a Washington-based group that lobbies on computer-related issues. That is because the merger of communications and computing, which has been simmering for 20 years, will swing into high gear once these data superhighways take off, requiring IS managers to rethink the way they build computing systems. By comparison, the move from mainframes to LANs was a switch from one computing platform to another, said Farber.”
Biography:David Farber was the recipient of the 1995 ACM Sigcomm Award for lifelong contributions to the computer communications field. He has worked at the University of Pennsylvania, managing research in high-speed networking. In 2000, he served as chief technologist at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. He also directed the Center for Communications and Information Sciences and Policy. In 1997, Upside magazine named him one of its Elite 100 visionaries of high-tech. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: E-mail
Name of publication: Computerworld
Title, headline, chapter name: E-mail Conference Highlights IS Challenges
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=9d2d6da29473e39b5b83a4bd91935809&_docnum=9&wchp=dGLbVlz-lSlAl&_md5=d1efa7571764bf82e4861431c08c2e5d
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Goodrich, Barbara J.