gracewoo@ml

tech news: Opinions of the Internet in 1995

Polychronis passed this link along today: http://www.newsweek.com/id/106554

This is an article about the Internet from 1995 published in Newsweek on my birthday. Basically, Clifford Stoil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Stoll) thought that there was far too much hype about what a few computers getting connected together could do. In 1995 (15 years ago), he says:

"Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works."

In contrast, Nicholas Negroponte, now director of the OLPC project felt the Internet was the future of social computing and interaction... to which Clifford Stoil said:

"Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure"

This brought me to the conclusion: You can't go wrong with optimism for you will always be "ahead of the times"

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