The Internet could fragment into a bunch of separate spheres, each with its own gatekeeper. It won’t happen right away, since most of the people who run Internet discussion lists and the like are still primarily interested in attracting people, not keeping them away … The net is providing people at the periphery of the global research system with ways of building a community for themselves by providing a useful public service. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Predictor: Agre, Phil
Prediction, in context:The March 1994 issue of The Network Observer, an online newsletter, carries an article titled “The Internet as a Commons” by Phil Agre, TNO editor, who was, at the time, working in the Department of Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. He writes:”The Internet could fragment into a bunch of separate spheres, each with its own gatekeeper. It won’t happen right away, since most of the people who run Internet discussion lists and the like are still primarily interested in attracting people, not keeping them away. Notice that many of the people who run important Internet facilities, for example bibliographies and Listserv lists, are based at relatively marginal institutions – the ones that we in the United States sometimes jokingly refer to as “Southwestern East Kansas State” and the like. Those jokes can be their own form of bigotry, but the phenomenon is real: the net is providing people at the periphery of the global research system with ways of building a community for themselves by providing a useful public service. Let’s hope it stays that way.”
Biography:Phillip E. Agre was an associate professor of information studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has been the author of research studies on the Internet. He edited The Network Observer, an online newsletter on Internet issues. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: The Network Observer
Title, headline, chapter name: The Internet as a Commons
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/tno/march-1994.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne