Reliable, convenient, and purposeful communications with 40 million Internet users is possible without full Internet access. Internet messages stored on a local BBS for nightly transfer via high-speed modems can bring e-mail benefits virtually identical in most ways to expensive full Internet access … For the purposes of building global communities of learning or trading based on interacting regularly with experts, the global Internet is within reach for any community member on a shoestring budget … The potential is limited only by imagination, and for this fundamental level of connectivity, costs and bandwidth are virtually non-issues.
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: ”Reliable, convenient, and purposeful communications with 40 million Internet users is possible without full Internet access. Internet messages stored on a local BBS for nightly transfer via high-speed modems can bring e-mail benefits virtually identical in most ways to expensive full Internet access … For the purposes of building global communities of learning or trading based on interacting regularly with experts, the global Internet is within reach for any community member on a shoestring budget … The potential is limited only by imagination, and for this fundamental level of connectivity, costs and bandwidth are virtually non-issues. For many, the power of the Internet is the ability to instantly search databases and archives, and to obtain direct access to nearly 1.7 million on-line systems … The most efficient searching strategy is to e-mail a librarian with superior searching skills and request that search results, and their interpretation, be sent via e-mail … For individuals and communities without the option of full Internet access, these options represent very acceptable temporary alternatives compared with the only other economic choice – access to nothing … Many serious needs can be adequately satisfied through the bulletin board store-and-forward model … Alternatively, a BBS [Bulletin Board Service] can be set up to allow a temporary full Internet connection (intermittent SLIP connection) whenever users need such access. When it becomes more economical for an individual or community to pay for 24-hour Internet access (compared to the pay-for-what-you-need model), then full Internet access is warranted. Economics suggest this progressive model is necessary to avoid paying for underutilized Internet access.”
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: General
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 125, 126
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne