Scores by kind of claim
Each kind of claim is scored on its own, out of 100: the share that held up, with the range it likely falls in. Fewer resolved claims give a wider range.
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Factual claims
Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?
67 61 73 -
Predictions
Statements about events outside the person's control, checked once they fell due: did they come true?
60 44 76 -
Promises
Commitments to the person's or organisation's own future action, with something to deliver: was it delivered?
Insufficient record: 0 promises resolved, 5 needed for a score.
All types combined: 66 (likely 61 to 72, high confidence), from 105 claims: 94 factual claims, 11 predictions. It mixes kinds of claim in different proportions for different people, so compare people kind by kind.
Marc Andreessen's claims
105 claims · page 2 of 2
| Verdict | Kind | Said | Claim | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mostly true | Factual | Jun 1995 | The Mosaic team designed Mosaic with end users as its target. Factual · Jun 1995 | Technology |
| Mostly true | Factual | Jun 1995 | Internet access was never free; it always cost money. Factual · Jun 1995 | Economics and markets |
| Resolved true | Factual | Jun 1995 | After the company shipped product in December, its revenues went from zero to a level where it was pretty much able to fund the bulk of its work and development. Factual · Jun 1995 | Economics and markets |
| Resolved true | Factual | Jun 1995 | Yahoo was started by Ph.D. students at Stanford. Factual · Jun 1995 | Technology |
| Mostly false | Factual | Jun 1995 | Leaving aside access into the home, general bandwidth is improving in price-performance, or dropping in price, faster than microprocessors, by a factor of about four each year. Factual · Jun 1995 | Economics and markets |
“We targeted the users.”
Marc Andreessen, Netscape founder June 1995 Smithsonian Oral and Video Histories: Marc Andreessen (Smithsonian)
The Mosaic team designed Mosaic with end users as its target.
Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.
The second judge said resolved true; the verdict shown is the first judge's.
What would count as true or false
Judge as of 1995-06. True: contemporaneous or historical accounts show that the NCSA Mosaic team designed Mosaic with ordinary end users as the primary target, for example through ease of use, a graphical interface and inline images, rather than primarily for developers, server operators or researchers. Mostly true: end users were a primary target, alongside other substantial goals. Mixed: end-user focus was one of several equal priorities. Mostly false: accounts show the team mainly targeted technical or academic users, with end users secondary. False: end users were not a design target.
Evidence
- NCSA Web browser ‘Mosaic’ was catalyst for Internet growth University of Illinois News Bureau · 17 April 2003
“When Mosaic made its 1993 debut, it opened up the Internet for nontechnical consumers by simplifying access.”
- How Web Browsers Have Changed 25 Years After The Introduction Of Mosaic NPR (via WWNO) · 24 April 2018
“That's largely because of an easy-to-use graphical interface called Mosaic developed by a group of students at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.”
- BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY; A Free and Simple Computer Link The New York Times (copy hosted by Larry Smarr) · 8 December 1993
“The problem with Mosaic is that it's currently for the haves of the Internet,”
- How Netscape Navigator Won and Then Lost the World Wide Web Popular Mechanics · 4 April 2019
“After the Illinois team launched Mosaic, it immediately became the web’s most popular browser because of its user-friendly design.”
Reasoning
Independent accounts describe Mosaic as an easy-to-use graphical interface (E2) with a user-friendly design (E4), and say it opened up the Internet to nontechnical consumers by making access simpler (E1). These are the kinds of end-user features the criteria give as examples. However, these sources mostly describe Mosaic's effect rather than stating what the team set out to target. The 1993 NYT piece (E3) also notes that Mosaic was then mainly available to the "haves" of the Internet. On balance the evidence supports an end-user focus, but it does not show directly that end users were the sole primary design target.
Cite this claim
Marc Andreessen, “The Mosaic team designed Mosaic with end users as its target.” (said June 1995). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_cc6e71eb6292, method 0.1.0+c876030c. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_cc6e71eb6292
Claims without a verdict
Is a verdict here wrong, or do you speak for Marc Andreessen? Reply on the claim's own page, with the form at its foot (how replies work). Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts and scores are made.