The standard approach to communications system design, starting from the physical layer and working up, is the wrong way to proceed for multimedia… In a multimedia environment, one must, in order to gain user acceptance, design the system from top layers down.
Predictor: McGarty, Terrence P.
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “Public Access to the Internet,” edited by Brian Kahin and James Keller carries the chapter, “Internet Architectural and Policy Implications for Migration from High-End User to the ‘New User'” by Terrence P. McGarty and Carole Haywood. McGarty is chairman and CEO of The Telemarc Group, Inc. and Haywood is with RAM Mobile Data Inc. They write: ”We anticipate a context in which multiple users will share in the use of multimedia objects … In contrast to data communication in the computer domain, where humans are a secondary afterthought and optimization is made in accordance with machine-to-machine connection, multimedia communications is a human-to-many-other-humans communications process that must fully integrate the end user into the environment … Displaced conversationality demands interaction, and such transparent interaction will become the most important capability and functionality of the Internet, especially as it addresses the new user … The standard approach to communications system design, starting from the physical layer and working up, is the wrong way to proceed for multimedia… In a multimedia environment, one must, in order to gain user acceptance, design the system from top layers down.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Public Access to the Internet (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Internet Architectural and Policy Implications for Migration from High-End User to the ‘New User’
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 247
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne