Two distinct, interconnected publicly accessible digital internetworks are likely to emerge, which is surely better than just one. One of the future internetworks will grow out of today’s Internet, whose roots are in the technology and scientific/academic communities … The other great internetwork will grow out of the technology and mass communications industries, especially cable and broadcast industries. The “Anti-Net” will rely on advertising revenue to recoup the cost of the infrastructure necessary to create cheap, high-speed bandwidth.
Predictor: Arnett, Nick
Prediction, in context:Nick Arnett wrote the following in a 1994 online essay: ”Two distinct, interconnected publicly accessible digital internetworks are likely to emerge, which is surely better than just one. One of the future internetworks will grow out of today’s Internet, whose roots are in the technology and scientific/academic communities, funded by government, institutions and increasingly, corporate and individual users. Although the Internet will support commercial services, they rarely will depend on advertising. The other great internetwork will grow out of the technology and mass communications industries, especially cable and broadcast industries. The ‘Anti-Net’ will rely on advertising revenue to recoup the cost of the infrastructure necessary to create cheap, high-speed bandwidth. (I call this second network the Anti-Net not to be a demagogue but to make a historical allusion, explained shortly.) All three communities – technology, science and academia, and mass media – will participate in many joint projects. The most successful new ventures often will arise from three-way collaborations; skills of each are essential to create and deliver network-based information products and services.”
Biography:Nick Arnett was president of Multimedia Computing Corp., the leading market research and consulting firm tracking multimedia technologies and markets, from 1988 through August of 1994. He later became the World-Wide Web product manager at Verity Inc. Earlier in the 1980s, he was a journalist with publications including InfoWorld and American City Business Journals. He was author of “The Internet and the Anti-net: Two Public Internetworks are Better than One.” (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Essay
Title, headline, chapter name: The Internet and the Anti-Net
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/archives/WWW-TALK/www-talk-1994q3/0331.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Beckett, Angela