Elon University

Archives: Expert Predictions

The Information Superhighway as the Yellow Brick Road

Competitive pressure and economic rationalism require firms to focus attention on individuals, or groups, or even communities that their best intelligence suggests have the greatest potential for profit. This means, however, that certain individuals, because their profiles suggest a lower profit potential, will be ignored or bypassed as they stand by the highway trying to hitch a ride to the good life.

The Information Superhighway as the Yellow Brick Road

The wave of constrictions in employment that moved somewhat slowly from agriculture to industry and contributed to the decay in the industrial North has now begun to make its way at light speed into the information sectors of the economy … The fact that the information highway is also a global network makes it easier for corporations to acquire the use of highly skilled but less expensive labor in overseas markets … This high-speed data network facilitates a process of pre-employment screening that includes not only credit ratings and criminal records, but also information about health and personal habits … This same superhighway will facilitate the management of labor by means of work assignment and by monitoring and surveillance techniques that build mistrust and contribute … to a level of stress that threatens both health and productivity.

The Information Superhighway as the Yellow Brick Road

Critical theorists concerned with issues of class and power see the Information Age as merely an extension of capitalist influence beyond its traditional industrial base … My own work, which shares this critical view, describes the process as a kind of panoptic sort, an all-seeing discriminatory technology that uses information about individuals gathered from numerous sources and transformed into strategic intelligence by means of sophisticated statistical models. This intelligence is then used to determine the quality of options and experiences we face in our roles as citizens, employees, and consumers.

The Information Superhighway as the Yellow Brick Road

Even when regulatory intervention requires equal access, disparities in the quality of service typically emerge across borders defined by race and class. Thus, understanding how the information superhighway will come to be built and maintained requires some understanding of what the Information Age is really all about.

The Information Superhighway as the Yellow Brick Road

Like the Oz stories, the tales of the Information Age are fanciful … Much of the futurists’ promise is humbug, a deceitful fiction, an instrumental contrivance developed with the assistance of creative people in marking and public relations departments. It is true that the future is unknown, but the evidence available to us in the present makes it clear that the promises of the Information Age are at the very least substantially overdrawn, if not outright fabrications.

Serious Money Heading to Internet Companies

The big winners today are software start-ups that are working to make the still-nerdy Net and particularly the World Wide Web more hospitable to consumers and businesses … If the trend continues, financing for this full year might well surpass $200 million. That would be about five times as much as the $42 million that went into Internet companies all last year.

Netscape’s Rise is Getting Scary: It Shows No Sign of Slowing as Stock Soars 21 1/2 Yesterday

There has been talk of Netscape becoming the next Microsoft, but the comparison is not apt. Microsoft dominates the personal computer industry in a way that no company, even Netscape, could do to the virtually untameable Internet. It’s more likely that investors believe the myriad alliances Netscape has struck with other technology companies will enable it to set the tone for developing business, banking and entertainment on the World Wide Web. The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter that Netscape is still a puny company on paper. The future is what counts, and optimism over the future has juiced the stocks of most Internet-related companies, not just Netscape.

International Implications for Global Democratization

Interconnectivity is a powerful predictor of democracy, more so than any of democracy’s traditional correlates. Measurable effects of this technology on global democracy resonate with arguments to justify a national universal e-mail system: E-mail can help vitalize or reinvigorate democratic governance … The United States should support increased connectivity abroad, as this may aid the spread of democracy. Second, and more broadly, the development of a national e-mail system must consider the international implications.