Video conferencing bears a terrifying promise: Distance will no longer be an excuse for not attending meetings.
Predictor: Steinberg, Steve G.
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article listing tech items and issues that are currently being hyped, Steve Steinberg of Wired magazine writes: ”Video conferencing bears a terrifying promise: Distance will no longer be an excuse for not attending meetings. Desktop video conferencing transforms a typical dry meeting into an excruciating experience of droning, tinny voices and grainy shadows that flicker in and out of view. Only a masochist, or, as in ‘1984,’ someone of very low rank, wouldn’t immediately click the window off. If you don’t believe me, try sitting through one of the Internet Engineering meetings now being broadcast over the Net. Yet, industry analysts expect us to be terribly excited about the idea of desktop videoconferencing. Just what kind of meetings do analysts go to, anyway?”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: Video Conferencing
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Hype List: Video Conferencing
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.02/hypelist.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney