Computer networking involving group dialog (sometimes referred to as the “many-to-many” model) has a value to our society far beyond what can be measured by economics alone.
Predictor: Figallo, Cliff
Prediction, in context:The 1995 book “Public Access to the Internet,” edited by Brian Kahin and James Keller carries the chapter, “The WELL: A Regionally Based On-Line Community on the Internet” by Cliff Figallo. Figallo, a networking consultant in the San Francisco area who served as director of the Whole Earth Lectronic Link from 1986 to 1992, writes: ”As increased usage and commercialization radically redefine the Internet’s original purpose and alter the course of its development, there is widespread concern about its future and how that future will affect our society … I see the Internet serving as the link between regionally-based electronic communities and as an information-resource conduit for those communities, just as the interstate highway system serves as a link between geographic localities in the physical world … I am convinced that computer networking involving group dialog (sometimes referred to as the ‘many-to-many’ model) has a value to our society far beyond what can be measured by economics alone.”
Biography:Cliff Figallo, was managing director of the WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link, one of the best known conferencing systems and virtual communities in the United States in the 1990s) and a director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Cambridge office in the early 1990s. He later worked with Pandora Systems. Figallo and John Coate are regarded to be the chief architects of the WELL’s implementation of virtual community. (Advocate/Voice of the People.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Public Access to the Internet (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: The WELL: A Regionally Based On-Line Community on the Internet
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 49
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne