“Yellow Pages”-type advertising will be a very effective way of reaching prospects. For example, all those who sell widgets can list their up-to-the-minute pricing for various sizes and quantities of widgets. Those who want to buy widgets can find the best price or submit an offer at some lower price, much as the stock market works today, but based on a software package running on an inexpensive workstation connected anywhere on the Internet.
Predictor: Barker, Ben
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “The Information Revolution,” edited by Donald Altschiller, carries a reprint of a 1994 Computerworld article ÒThe History of the Future,Ó by senior editor Gary H. Anthes. Anthes interviewed more than a dozen pioneers of ARPAnet, forerunner to todayÕs Internet, including Ben Barker, the senior vice president and chief technology officer at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN). In 1969, he designed the hardware interfaces for ARPAnet. Anthes quotes Barker saying: ”‘Yellow PagesÕ-type advertising will be a very effective way of reaching prospects. For example, all those who sell widgets can list their up-to-the-minute pricing for various sizes and quantities of widgets. Those who want to buy widgets can find the best price or submit an offer at some lower price, much as the stock market works today, but based on a software package running on an inexpensive workstation connected anywhere on the Internet.Ó
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: E-commerce
Name of publication: The Information Revolution (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: The History of the Future
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 41
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne