[Vendors] shouldn’t be sold a bill of goods that they’re going to be able to make a pile of money in 1995, because there are risks that need to be well understood, and the opportunities are still relatively small. On the other hand, if we’re not looking at it now, we’re not going to be prepared to make money when the risk/return ratio goes the other way.
Predictor: Rutt, Jim
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Wall Street and Technology, Kathleen Golden writes about Internet security issues, quoting Jim Rutt, president of Thomson Technology Services Group. Golden writes:”Though one [security] protocol has not yet been identified, [Wall] Street is utilizing the Internet for a number of functions. ‘Foremost is an R&D tool for their software development people,’ says Jim Rutt, president of Thomson Technology Services Group, Rockville, Md. Rutt suggests Wall Street firms also use the Internet for file transfers – historically send on a nine-track tape, a slow, cumbersome and unreliable process. Transmitting real-time data over the Net, he says, is also technically possible, ‘but there is probably no easy way to make money off it yet. Once the commercial infrastructure is in place to authenticate who’s getting your data, and you can make sure that the only people getting the data are those paying for it, it would be quite possible to offer a market data feed over the Net,’ Rutt says … As far as trading over the Internet, Rutt says, ‘I wouldn’t rush into that. I’m not sure what the benefit [is] relative to the exposure, with respect to both security and timeliness and guaranteed delivery … It’s important to raise people’s consciences. [Vendors] shouldn’t be sold a bill of goods that they’re going to be able to make a pile of money in 1995, because there are risks that need to be well understood, and the opportunities are still relatively small. On the other hand, if we’re not looking at it now, we’re not going to be prepared to make money when the risk/return ratio goes the other way.'”
Biography:Jim Rutt was the man who coined the phrase “snail mail” (1981). He co-founded First Call, an Internet financial information service in the early 1990s and was later an executive with Network Solutions. According to a September 2001 profile in Wired, he was once called the “bad boy of the Internet” and “a wired version of Jesse Ventura.” (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: February 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: Security/Encryption
Name of publication: Wall Street and Technology
Title, headline, chapter name: Electronic Commerce: Still a Double-Edged Sword
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Vol. 12, Issue 10, Page 52ISSN: 1060989X
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Smith, Ian T.