Unlike the road system, the Internet can and should be paid for as a commercially viable service. Special segments of the marketplace may well need assistance, and this can be provided by government or other support mechanisms. On the whole, competitive provision of service still seems the most attractive formula.
Predictor: Cerf, Vinton G.
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 Information Week article regarding the future of the Internet, Vint Cerf commented on Internet infrastructure: ”People who say, ‘X has to be free’ really don’t understand that everything must be paid for somehow. Choosing to pay taxes for it does not make something free. It does subsidize things, and one has to think twice about what should be – and what need not be – subsidized … Infrastructure always has to be self-supporting, even if this is by way of taxes, or it cannot survive. Unlike the road system, the Internet can and should be paid for as a commercially viable service. Special segments of the marketplace may well need assistance, and this can be provided by government or other support mechanisms. On the whole, competitive provision of service still seems the most attractive formula.”
Date of prediction: July 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Cost/Pricing
Name of publication: Information Week
Title, headline, chapter name: The Internet – Where’s It All Going?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=b83c10508e19ffbee2b32765ce099c64&_docnum=13&wchp=dGLbVlz-lSlAl&_md5=c019c9e4607b692c5d94a18a96d58bde
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Bruno, Marian Theresa