At the bottom are growing numbers of people who are unemployed, poor, undereducated and likely to be left on the shoulder of the information superhighway. If current trends in the communications media industry persist, the “unwired” in our society will in the near future become even more disenfranchised and neglected.
Predictor: Simons, Barbara
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for The San Francisco Chronicle, Barbara Simons, chair of the U.S. Public Policy Committee for the Association for Computing Machinery, and Gary Chapman, coordinator of the 21st Century Project, write: ”The middle strata is the vast majority of working Americans who are losing ground year by year and who have to work with information technologies that are far less glamorous and inspiring than those advertised by the techno-elite. At the bottom are growing numbers of people who are unemployed, poor, undereducated and likely to be left on the shoulder of the information superhighway. If current trends in the communications media industry persist, the ‘unwired’ in our society will in the near future become even more disenfranchised and neglected.”
Biography:Barbara Simons was a 1990s leader in technology-policy issues. She founded and chaired the Association for Computing Machinery’s U.S. Technology Policy Committee (USACM) and was ACM secretary from 1990 to 1992, prior to which she chaired the ACM Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Digital Divide
Name of publication: San Francisco Chronicle
Title, headline, chapter name: Information Highway Has Many Potholes
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page B3
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Stewart, Ben L.