“Information retrieval technology is starting to spread from supercomputers all the way down to personal computers,” said Brewster Kahle … In the future, a special directory or “white pages” will keep an up-to-date list of all the separate sources on the network.
Predictor: Kahle, Brewster
Prediction, in context:In a 1991 article for the New York Times, technology columnist John Markoff reports on the development of the nationwide data network. Markoff writes: ”Wide Area Information Servers, or WAIS (pronounced ways) [permit] computer users to quickly search through a huge volume of information even if it is stored at several distant locations … WAIS delivers information over the Internet, a collection of 2,600 high-speed public and private computer networks. This Government-sponsored system of data highways is rapidly being improved and turned to commercial uses … ‘Information retrieval technology is starting to spread from supercomputers all the way down to personal computers,’ said Brewster Kahle, a Thinking Machines scientist who has led the WAIS experiment. The WAIS system is built on a procedure for retrieving information developed by librarians who initially set out to computerize their card catalogues. The procedure – known in the field as Z39.50 – now has the support of the Library of Congress, Apple, Sun Microsytems Inc., Next Inc., Dow Jones and Mead Data Central. In the future, a special directory or ‘white pages’ will keep an up-to-date list of all the separate sources on the network.”
Biography:Brewster Kahle invented Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) for Thinking Machines Corporation in 1991. He is a co-founder of the Internet Archive. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1991
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: New York Times
Title, headline, chapter name: For Shakespeare, Just Log On
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Section D; Page 1; Column 3: Financial Desk
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney