General Magic is getting ready to apply Telescript to the Internet and the World Wide Web, although it is not clear how it will be able to do so.
Predictor: Alsop, Stewart
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for InfoWorld, editor-in-chief Stewart Alsop writes:”Sun doesn’t have a great record for establishing standards … despite long-running attempts at doing precisely that with several of its technologies. In fact, it seems as if Sun is more likely to establish a standard when it doesn’t try – as in the case of Network File System – than when it does try, as in the case of Solaris. And it will face competition as other vendors begin to understand the opportunity involved.The first such vendor will probably be General Magic Inc., with its Telescript programming system for developing intelligent agents. Telescript is a comprehensive system for developing not just the agents themselves, but the server software that will handle the agents and all the infrastructure in between. The company managed to get AT&T to believe in its religion and create an entirely new service called PersonaLink (currently matched with the Magic Cap system incorporated in the Sony Magic Link and Motorola Envoy devices). But AT&T has been an unreliable partner, given its insistence on spreading its bets over five or six different electronic services (Easylink, Imagination Network, NetWare Connect Services, Notes Network, and most recently, Interchange). So General Magic is getting ready to apply Telescript to the Internet and the World Wide Web, although it is not clear how it will be able to do so.”
Biography:Stewart Alsop has been a contributing editor and editor-in-chief of InfoWorld magazine. He later became a partner in New Enterprise Associates, a venture capital firm, and was the executive producer of Agenda, a conference held annually for computer industry executives. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: May 30, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Intelligent Agents/AI
Name of publication: InfoWorld
Title, headline, chapter name: Hot Java Could be Really Hot
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-03-1996/idgns.java.1995/idgns.java.1995.009.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Beckett, Angela