In the electronic town square, we can form plans of action with people we might otherwise never talk to … government can rebuild a reputation for efficacy and fairness … and democracy can regain its vibrancy and immediacy, offering each citizen the opportunity to affect his own future when and if he wants to.
Predictor: Hadden, Susan
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Texas Monthly, Gary Chapman, director of the 21st Century Project at the University of Texas mourns the death of Susan Hadden. She was a UT political science professor and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; she was murdered while on a vacation in Cambodia. Chapman quotes her vision. He writes: ”Those of us who knew Susan miss her because she was a wonderful friend. But beyond the personal loss, there is a loss to the country, because she was one of the most forceful and visionary thinkers about the impact of information technology on society, specifically on the future of the information highway … [She regarded it] as nothing less than a potential instrument for social change and justice, and at the time of her death, she was helping shape – both in Washington and in Austin – a model for a public-interest version of the information highway. It’s advocates call is the electronic town square … a public forum for public interaction … Most experts understand that the current Internet will soon be supplanted by new technology – certainly within 10 years – and Susan was one of the people who believe that this new technology must keep the open, public character that the Internet has now. In her view, the coming Information highway would – or could – be a common carrier like the phone company. The network’s cables (through which digital information would flow) could be used by everyone, for a reasonable fee, from a hospital giving interactive prenatal advice to local women to national TV networks broadcasting documentaries … The town square model, Susan believed, could stimulate a revitalization of civic life. ‘In the electronic town square,’ she wrote, ‘we can form plans of action with people we might otherwise never talk to … government can rebuild a reputation for efficacy and fairness … and democracy can regain its vibrancy and immediacy, offering each citizen the opportunity to affect his own future when and if he wants to.’ The open, switched network is the model for a plan that the City of Austin is pursuing to grant Internet access to citizens, and the city’s vision statement – which Susan helped write – may be the most sophisticated in the United States. If the project succeeds here, much of the credit will go to Susan Hadden.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: Democracy
Name of publication: Texas Monthly
Title, headline, chapter name: Net Worker: When Susan Hadden was Murdered, the Country Lost a Visionary Thinker on the Information Highway and the Internet
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=b2258f3622c124a9770c9a6fe176396d&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVtb-lSlAl&_md5=19a2dd1a7c41d3df44655b7447526939
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Garrison, Betty