The next thing for the Web is the death of the concept of the killer application. It will be killer content. The idea of an application will disappear over time. There is one possibility … There will be a whole mingling of components of software which won’t be grouped into lumps like applications. Even the operating system will become less significant. What you will be interested in in your operating system is something which will be small and fast and get out of the way quick.
Predictor: Berners-Lee, Tim
Prediction, in context:Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web in 1989 as a global information sharing initiative for the Internet spoke with Computer Reseller News Industry Editor Steven Burke and Senior Editor Diana Hwang at the World Wide Web conference in Boston in 1995. In response to the question, ÒIs there going to be a killer application for the Web?Ó Berners-Lee replies: ÒThe next thing for the Web is the death of the concept of the killer application. It will be killer content. The idea of an application will disappear over time. There is one possibility. And I don’t know whether it will happen, because it is very difficult to predict these things. The idea of component software and global object-oriented programming will come about. So there will be a whole mingling of components of software which won’t be grouped into lumps like applications. Even the operating system will become less significant. What you will be interested in in your operating system is something which will be small and fast and get out of the way quick.Ó
Biography:Tim Berners-Lee of CERN first released his revolutionary World-Wide Web for initial use in 1991 and with it shared his invention HTML (hypertext mark-up language). He later served as director of W3 Consortium, an open forum of companies and organizations whose goal was to find ways to help the Web reach its full potential. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Language/Interface/Software
Name of publication: Computer Reseller News
Title, headline, chapter name: Web Inventor Berners-Lee Speaks Out on Internet Future
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 227
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne