The system could evolve in one of two ways: Either entrepreneurs will manage to set up shop on a free-market version of the Internet, or some consortium will take the whole thing over and turn it into a giant CompuServe. “That’s an outcome,” O’Reilly says, “that would effectively destroy the Internet as we know it.”
Predictor: O'Reilly, Tim
Prediction, in context:A 1993 article for Time magazine paints a general picture of the Internet, quoting publisher Tim O’Reilly. It says: ”Change has already begun. [The National Science Foundation’s] contribution now represents about 10 percent of the total cost of the network, and the agency is scheduled to start phasing out its support next April, removing at the same time what few restrictions still remain against commercial activity. According to Tim O’Reilly, persident of O’Reilly and Associates, a publisher experimenting with advertiser-supported Internet magazines, the system could evolve in one of two ways: Either entrepreneurs will manage to set up shop on a free-market version of the Internet, or some consortium will take the whole thing over and turn it into a giant CompuServe. ‘That’s an outcome,’ O’Reilly says, ‘that would effectively destroy the Internet as we know it.'”
Biography:Tim O’Reilly was founder and first president of O’Reilly & Associates, a computer-book-publishing company that helped popularize the Internet in the decade of the 1990s. His Global Network Navigator site (GNN, which was sold to America Online in September 1995) was the first Web portal and one of the initial commercial sites on the World Wide Web. He received InfoWorld’s Industry Achievement Award in 1998 for his advocacy on behalf of the Open Source community. He served on the board of trustees for the Internet Society and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Time
Title, headline, chapter name: First Nation in Cyberspace
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Vol. 142, Issue 24, Page 62 ISSN: 0040781X
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney