The prediction, in brief:

The Internet will be choked by a software program called Mosaic, which layers text in the user-friendly manner of Windows help screens. The problem is that Mosaic consumes so much memory it could force the Internet to expand its capacity faster than is economically feasible. It’s much like urban sprawl forcing the premature expansion of highways.

Predictor: Landweber, Lawrence

Prediction, in context:

In a 1994 article in the Wisconsin State Journal, reporter Mike Dorsher paraphrases a statement made by Lawrence Landweber:”Landweber is not among the purists who worry the Internet will be ruined for researchers as it becomes increasingly commercialized. Rather, Landweber worries the Internet will be choked by a software program called Mosaic, which layers text in the user-friendly manner of Windows help screens. The problem is that Mosaic consumes so much memory it could force the Internet to expand its capacity faster than is economically feasible. It’s much like urban sprawl forcing the premature expansion of highways.” 

Biography:

Lawrence Landweber, then at the University of Wisconsin, created THEORYNET, providing electronic mail to a group of more than 100 computer-science researchers using a locally developed e-mail system over TELENET in 1977. In 1979 he worked with the National Science Foundation to establish a U.S. research computer network that eventually became NSFNET. (Pioneer/Originator.)

Date of prediction: January 1, 1994

Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure

Subtopic: Language/Interface/Software

Name of publication: Wisconsin State Journal

Title, headline, chapter name: The Internet: Computer Network is Superhighway On-Ramp

Quote Type: Paraphrase

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=d569c86eabe6454223f5187e8f9f8703&_docnum=6&wchp=dGLbVtb-lSlAl&_md5=168c818c07d6459aeff4ef2bb1d8db77

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Pagano, Shawna