A BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS LOOK

It is now a year since this column was launched and a number of arrows have been shot in the air … aimed at hitting the target labelled the year 2000. In the first column (vol. 17 no. 1) Charles Oppenheim (University of Strathclyde) commented that Target 2000 would be one way of learning how good information professionals are at predicting the future. So far, the Oppenheim award goes to Charles Citroen (TNO Policy Research, The Netherlands) whose prediction at this time one year ago was that ‘online hosts like the present ones will probably disappear.’ Within a few months of this prediction, Dialog and Data‐Star had announced their merger.