Translated into a principle for information infrastructure, the First Amendment suggests that government should permit no one to exercise monopoly control over the content carried over the network; content determination and editorial control issues should be the province of competing information providers … Placement on the network and in address directories … should be provided without discrimination or favoritism. It is in the public interest to have a variety of information sources … Users should have the ability to place information on the network – a capability that has differentiated the Internet, whose users have emerged as both authors and publishers. A corollary is a right of users to offer services over the network.
Predictor: National Research Council
Prediction, in context:In 1994, the NRENaissance Committee, appointed by the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council, produced a special report titled “Realizing the Information Future: The Internet and Beyond.” Among the committee members were Internet pioneers Leonard Kleinrock, David Clark, David Farber, Lawrence Landweber and Robert Kahn. The committee’s goal was to “study issues raised by the shift to a larger, more truly national networking capability.” Among its statements about the blossoming of the National Information Infrastructure (NII) is this: ”Translated into a principle for information infrastructure, the First Amendment suggests that government should permit no one to exercise monopoly control over the content carried over the network; content determination and editorial control issues should be the province of competing information providers. Monopolization of content is a fear that arises in the context of vertical integration (combined provision of content and conduit, as in the case of cable and broadcast television, which are regulated in different ways to protect public interests in content). A related issue is placement on the network and in address directories, which ideally should be provided without discrimination or favoritism. It is in the public interest to have a variety of information sources … Users should have the ability to place information on the network – a capability that has differentiated the Internet, whose users have emerged as both authors and publishers. A corollary is a right of users to offer services over the network.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Jurisdiction/Control
Name of publication: Realizing the Information Future: The Internet and Beyond
Title, headline, chapter name: Flow of Information
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://stills.nap.edu/html/rtif/
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney