[Acceptable Use Policies] have caused controversy … It is presumed that they will diminish with the decline in federal support for network infrastructure.
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: ”The Internet provides individuals with access to mass communication channels, a feature particularly evident in its use during popular uprisings in the People’s Republic of China and the former Soviet Union. However, open interfaces and nondiscriminatory access to media can produce outcomes that trouble some for various reasons (such as 900-number pornography services in the case of telephony) … libraries have a large base of experience in this domain, having fought – usually successfully – censorship battles in every information format introduced to date. Librarians have developed both policies and tools and put them into regular practice … AUPs [Acceptable Use Policies] have caused controversy (from allegations of censorship to observations that they are impossible to police), it is presumed that they will diminish with the decline in federal support for network infrastructure. That is, the federally supported networks with AUPs, such as the anticipated NSF very-high-speed backbone network service (vBNS), will constitute a shrinking portion of the Internet (and NII).”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Censorship/Free Speech
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