The federal National Information Infrastructure (NII) initiative has recently been reinforced by several announcements of major corporate investments totaling billions of dollars. This combination of public and private actions is moving us closer to the vision of public participation in widespread global networks, rasing questions as to the potential economic benefits of networking. Prominent among these questions is the extent of inconsistency between the corporate and individual visions of the potential benefits of an NII. Are these visions the same, or mutually exclusive? Is economic freedom for individuals the goal of the huge corporate initiatives? Or do they aim to secure billion-dollar contracts providing entertainment services rather than the services in support of individual and community economic benefit? What should be the leading vision? Reflection on the history of cable television reminds us there is good reason for concern about these inconsistencies.
Predictor: Odasz, Frank
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “Public Access to the Internet,” edited by Brian Kahin and James Keller carries the chapter, “Issues in the Development of Community Cooperative Networks” by Frank Odasz, the director of Big Sky Telegraph, Western Montana College of the University of Montana. He writes: ”[The] promise of individual economic freedom, job satisfaction, and mobility appears almost within reach given today’s powerful notebook and home computers, which facilitate increasing citizen access to the global Internet. The federal National Information Infrastructure (NII) initiative has recently been reinforced by several announcements of major corporate investments totaling billions of dollars. This combination of public and private actions is moving us closer to the vision of public participation in widespread global networks, rasing questions as to the potential economic benefits of networking. Prominent among these questions is the extent of inconsistency between the corporate and individual visions of the potential benefits of an NII. Are these visions the same, or mutually exclusive? Is economic freedom for individuals the goal of the huge corporate initiatives? Or do they aim to secure billion-dollar contracts providing entertainment services rather than the services in support of individual and community economic benefit? What should be the leading vision? Reflection on the history of cable television reminds us there is good reason for concern about these inconsistencies. In the 1970s, cable was promised as a new vehicle to provide education to the home. But today, far more shows center around the theme of murder than of education; corporations profit from ‘lowest-common-denominator entertainment’ and have sidestepped cable’s educational potential. We risk repeating this pattern with top-down implementation of the NII.”
Biography:Frank Odasz was an assistant professor of computing education at the University of Colorado and the director of Big Sky Telegraph, a popular community network of the time. He was widely known as a speaker on community networking and educational technologies. (Technology Developer/Administrator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Role of Govt./Industry
Name of publication: Public Access to the Internet (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Issues in the Development of Community Cooperative Networks
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 115, 116
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne