The big online services will be organized around collecting micropayments for Internet services and for Internet content, both in one convenient bill. Telephone companies might therefore make good online services, but only because of their billing systems, and only after they are demonopolized, please. Digital moneys, and particularly micropayments, are a key to the Next Generation Internet
Predictor: Metcalfe, Robert
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for InfoWorld, Internet pioneer and Ethernet creator Bob Metcalfe writes: ”The big online services will be organized around collecting micropayments for Internet services and for Internet content, both in one convenient bill. Telephone companies might therefore make good online services, but only because of their billing systems, and only after they are demonopolized, please. Digital moneys, and particularly micropayments, are a key to the Next Generation Internet.”
Biography:Robert Metcalfe developed Ethernet technology at Xerox PARC in 1973 and later developed the networking company 3Comm. He is known for making the exaggerated 1995 prediction that due to an expected overload as people tried to connect, the Internet would “go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.” He later jokingly ate his words, pureeing a paper copy of the article including this comment and swallowing it before a group of onlookers. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: December 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: Microtransactions
Name of publication: InfoWorld
Title, headline, chapter name: Online Services in for Small Change on the Next Generation Internet
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayNew.pl?/metcalfe/bm122595.htm
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Pinkerton, Bradley Steven