When they aren’t busy watching TV, shopping at home and firing off e-mail, Americans will want to use the new technology to, say, debate the issues with their fellow “netizens,” download government information on myriad topics, let their voices be heard at the local school board and seek out information about those who are willing to leave the house long enough to run for office.
Predictor: Love, Jamie
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for Common Cause magazine, Deborah Baldwin quotes Jamie Love, a telecommunications policy analyst for Ralph Nader’s consumer organizations. Baldwin writes: ”If it’s unclear whether the Information Superhighway will improve the political process, at a minimum keyboards and modems will speed things up. And activists like Jamie Love firmly believe that when they aren’t busy watching TV, shopping at home and firing off e-mail, Americans will want to use the new technology to, say, debate the issues with their fellow ‘netizens,’ download government information on myriad topics, let their voices be heard at the local school board and seek out information about those who are willing to leave the house long enough to run for office … Lobbying on the Internet … Love says, gave ‘a tiny group like ours an opportunity to shape the debate.’ Today, thanks to his persevering presence on the Internet, he gets invited to gather around the table with Al Gore and telecommunications industry CEOs. ‘In Washington, what’s politically possible dominates the debate,’ Love says, while Internet users have higher expectations.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: Democracy
Name of publication: Common Cause Magazine
Title, headline, chapter name: If This is the Information Superhighway, Where Are the Rest Stops?
Quote Type: Paraphrase
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=6bb2902898a52d79b267d142a1ee1117&_docnum=4&wchp=dGLbVtb-lSlzV&_md5=1deffb71b371e0594dffd3c2bd0c9685
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney