Al Gore takes a Spin on the Info Highway; A Few Potholes Mar Electronic Town Meeting
Soon, the nature of the interaction here will be enriched with full-motion video and much faster links.
Topic: Community/Culture
Where is the Digital Highway Really Heading? The Case for a Jeffersonian Information Policy
Crucial doubts remain as to whether the re-wiring of America will result in Jeffersonian networks promoting the openness, freedom, and diversity that is the true promise of this technology. In the worst case, we could wind up with networks that have the principal effect of fostering addiction to a new generation of electronic narcotics … Their principal themes revolving around instant gratification through sex, violence, or sexual violence; their uses and content determined by mega-corporations pushing mindless consumption of things we don’t need and aren’t good for us … Purveyors of network services could simply decide that a business strategy that encourages the widest variety of content sources and originators will dramatically increase network usage. A few pennies per transaction will eventually add up to billions of dollars in revenue.
Visions of Japan’s Internet Development: A Report on the Hyper Network ’95, Beppu Bay Conference
When this media blitz is over, people will start to get tired of using things like Netscape to read Web pages online every day. I mean, all these things about reading glossy magazines online – people are going to realize they can just buy a paper magazine and take it to a coffee shop to read … Once the initial rush to get on the Internet is over, people will start to look for a community to get guidance from.
Visions of Japan’s Internet Development: A Report on the Hyper Network ’95, Beppu Bay Conference
Companies that grew fast but failed to develop real services other than these Internet pipes are skating on very thin ice … The development of online communities is definitely a value-added service.
Cork Express
I see one important future thread in the WWW having nothing to do with marketing, selling, or other commercial activities, but just the way that individuals create a persistent identity for themselves in cyberspace.
Street Corners in Cyberspace
If cyberspace is deprived of public forums, we’ll get a lot of what we’re already used to: endless home shopping, mindless entertainment and dissent-free chat. If people can avoid the unpalatable issues that might arise in these forums, going on-line will become just another way for elites to escape the very nonvirtual realities of injustice in our world. As the wired life grows exponentially in the coming years, we’ll all be better off if we can find a street corner in cyberspace.
Street Corners in Cyberspace
Congress and state and local governments [could] establish forums in cyberspace dedicated explicitly to public discourse … These public forums must be visible, accessible and at least occasionally unavoidable – they must be street corners in cyberspace.
The Internet as a Commons
The Internet could fragment into a bunch of separate spheres, each with its own gatekeeper. It won’t happen right away, since most of the people who run Internet discussion lists and the like are still primarily interested in attracting people, not keeping them away.
Street Corners in Cyberspace
Cyberspace is shaping up to be more like Cyberbia than Cyberkeley … These extreme alternatives prevent us from moving toward [a] … hybrid vision [without which] it is unlikely that we will realize the democratic possibilities of this new technology.
3.4 Intelligent Interfaces
Advanced user interfaces will bridge the gap between users and the future National Information Infrastructure. A wide range of new technologies that adapt to human senses and abilities must be developed to provide more effective human-machine communications.