It is our belief that the Internet is not controllable, and its standards and protocols should be completely open. If we all sit around and wait for a central body to completely set these standards, then some company – probably Microsoft – will end up creating the de facto standards.
Predictor: Clark, Jim
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Red Herring magazine, Alex S. Vieux interviews Netscape CEO Jim Clark in Madrid, Spain, at the European Technology Roundtable Exposition. Clark says: ”No single company owns the telephone system, and likewise, no single company owns the Internet. But compared to the Internet, the telephone system is very, very simple; you have a simple dial tone, you have pulses or clicks to get you connected from one place to another, and once you are connected there is hardly any other protocol involved. But on the Internet, because you are dealing with data in various forms, data protocols and software for processing these protocols become mandatory. Many companies would, of course, like to define and control these protocols, because if they could do so they could control the Internet. But it is our belief that the Internet is not controllable, and its standards and protocols should be completely open. If we all sit around and wait for a central body to completely set these standards, then some company – probably Microsoft – will end up creating the de facto standards. We therefore believe it is very important for Netscape, if we intend to survive, to innovate, but at the same time, to make these innovations open by publishing the protocols.”
Date of prediction: October 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Jurisdiction/Control
Name of publication: Red Herring
Title, headline, chapter name: The Once and Future Kings
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.redherring.com/mag/issue2.5/once.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney