[The Internet is] like a television station without programmers or a newspaper without editors – or rather, with millions of programmers and editors, a lot more opinionated than polished. Like it or not, in a time seemingly dominated by giant communications empires, the amateurs may hold the key after all.
Predictor: Gleick, James
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 New York Times article, writer George Johnson quotes James Gleick. Johnson writes: ”Someday, the visionaries tell us, we will be able to communicate with just about anybody by sending an electronic message; no matter where they are, the bundle of bits will find them … someday perhaps, but not yet … when we asked four writers to give us their visions of the information future, the science writer James Gleick communicated with us entirely through the Internet … [Gleick said:] ‘The real information superhighway has already taken shape, almost behind our backs, with startlingly little real planning and with only the most accidental assistance from government policymakers and the telecommunications companies. The global Internet – somehow lacking a mergers-and-acquisitions department, not to mention a board of directors – has suddenly become the most universal and indispensable network on the planet. It’s a wild frontier, befitting its origins – amorphous, unruly, impolite and anarchic. It’s like a television station without programmers or a newspaper without editors – or rather, with millions of programmers and editors, a lot more opinionated than polished. Like it or not, in a time seemingly dominated by giant communications empires, the amateurs may hold the key after all.”
Date of prediction: October 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: New York Times
Title, headline, chapter name: We Are the Wired: Some Views On the Fiberoptic Ties That Bind
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=2a36a194c9a458e14d8de9643883255d&_docnum=4&wchp=dGLbVlb-lSlAl&_md5=75e1bac47fdc16cf2dea2332a2db34a9
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney