NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Robert M. White is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce Alberts and Dr. Robert M. White are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.
Support for this project was provided by core funds of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. Core support for the CSTB is provided by its public and private sponsors: the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (under Contract N00014-87-J-1110); Advanced Research Projects Agency (under Contract N00014-87-J-1110), Apple Computer Corporation, Department of Energy (under Grant DE-FG05-87ER25029), Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (under Grant CDA-9119792), National Science Foundation (under Grant CDA-9119792), and Office of Naval Research (under Contract N00014-87-J-1110). Additional project support was provided by Ameritech Corporation, Bell Atlantic Corporation, Bell Communications Research, BellSouth Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM Corporation, and NYNEX Corporation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this volume are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 94-66572
International Standard Book Number 0-309-05091-X
Additional copies of this report are available from:
National Academy Press
2101 Constitution Avenue, NW Box 285 Washington, DC 20055 800-624-6242 202-334-3313 (in the Washington Metropolitan Area)
B-457
Copyright 1995 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
STEERING COMMITTEE ON THE CHANGING NATURE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS/INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE
GEORGE L. TURIN,
Teknekron Corporation,
Chair
ALFRED V. AHO,
Columbia University (formerly Bell Communications Research)
ALAN E. BARATZ,
Delphi Internet Services Corporation
DEBORAH ESTRIN,
University of Southern California, Information Sciences Institute
IRWIN M. JACOBS,
Qualcomm Inc.
ROBERT E. KAHN,
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
DAVID G. MESSERSCHMITT,
University of California at Berkeley
ROGER G. NOLL,
Stanford University
Staff
MARJORY S. BLUMENTHAL, Director
LESLIE M. WADE, Project Assistant
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD
WILLIAM WULF,
University of Virginia,
Chair
FRANCES ALLEN,
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
JEFF DOZIER,
University of California at Santa Barbara
DAVID J. FARBER,
University of Pennsylvania
HENRY FUCHS,
University of North Carolina
CHARLES M. GESCHKE,
Adobe Systems Inc.
JAMES N. GRAY,
San Francisco, California
BARBARA J. GROSZ,
Harvard University
DEBORAH A. JOSEPH,
University of Wisconsin
RICHARD M. KARP,
University of California at Berkeley
BUTLER W. LAMPSON,
Digital Equipment Corporation
BARBARA H. LISKOV,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JOHN MAJOR,
Motorola Inc.
ROBERT L. MARTIN,
Bell Communications Research
DAVID G. MESSERSCHMITT,
University of California at Berkeley
WILLIAM H. PRESS,
Harvard University
CHARLES L. SEITZ,
Myricom Inc.
EDWARD SHORTLIFFE,
Stanford University School of Medicine
CASMIR S. SKRZYPCZAK,
NYNEX Corporation
LESLIE L. VADASZ,
Intel Corporation
MARJORY S. BLUMENTHAL, Director
LOUISE A. ARNHEIM, Senior Staff Officer
HERBERT S. LIN, Senior Staff Officer
JAMES E. MALLORY, Staff Officer
JOHN M. GODFREY, Research Associate
RENEE A. HAWKINS, Staff Associate
GLORIA P. BEMAH, Administrative Assistant
LESLIE M. WADE, Project Assistant
COMMISSION ON PHYSICAL SCIENCES, MATHEMATICS, AND APPLICATIONS
RICHARD N. ZARE,
Stanford University,
Chair
RICHARD S. NICHOLSON,
American Association for the Advancement of Science,
Vice Chair
STEPHEN L. ADLER,
Institute for Advanced Study
SYLVIA T. CEYER,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
SUSAN L. GRAHAM,
University of California at Berkeley
ROBERT J. HERMANN,
United Technologies Corporation
RHONDA J. HUGHES,
Bryn Mawr College
SHIRLEY A. JACKSON,
Rutgers University
KENNETH I. KELLERMANN,
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
HANS MARK,
University of Texas at Austin
THOMAS A. PRINCE,
California Institute of Technology
JEROME SACKS,
National Institute of Statistical Sciences
L.E. SCRIVEN,
University of Minnesota
A. RICHARD SEEBASS III,
University of Colorado
LEON T. SILVER,
California Institute of Technology
CHARLES P. SLICHTER,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ALVIN W. TRIVELPIECE,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
SHMUEL WINOGRAD,
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
CHARLES A. ZRAKET,
MITRE Corporation (retired)
NORMAN METZGER, Executive Director
Preface
In 1992 the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the National Research Council (NRC) decided to convene a workshop to assess the extraordinary changes in the nation's telecommunications/information infrastructure since the divestiture of AT&T and to address related questions of technology and policy. These questions have provoked a stirring national debate about the best way to move forward in establishing a national information infrastructure. Government officials, representatives of the telecommunications and computer industries, users, and public interest groups have taken often-contradictory stands. CSTB hoped to bring to the debate the neutral and dispassionate platform offered by the NRC.
In planning the workshop, CSTB's steering committee faced two fundamental questions:
-
What, in fact, is the telecommunications/information infrastructure? Definitions range from raw physical connectivity, on the one hand, to connectivity plus a vast array of network and end-user services and software, on the other. It was decided not to prejudice the workshop with a limiting definition, but rather to leave the definition open to debate.
-
On what issues should the workshop focus? Possible foci were the exploration of potential applications as the driving force behind infrastructure development, and examination of the processes by which various players in its development can efficiently encourage and respond to new applications, no matter what they are. It was decided that the workshop's focus would be on processes, since no one can foresee which applications will prove to be important.
To make sure that the meeting was a workshop, not a series of set speeches, the committee agreed to limit attendance to about 75 people—invited from various government entities, large and small companies, and universities and "think tanks"—active in analysis or development of the telecommunications/information infrastructure. A substantial amount of time was scheduled for discussion from the floor. The workshop took place in Washington, D.C., on October 12–13, 1993, and was composed of three panels that ran consecutively. Panel 1 set the stage for the workshop by characterizing infrastructure trends and applications, while Panels 2 and 3 addressed issues of policy.
Panel 1 addressed such questions as: What is the infrastructure now, technologically and institutionally? How did it get to that state? What are the states to which it might evolve in the next decade? In connection with the last question, the needs of several large user communities—finance, health care, education, and libraries—were specifically addressed, not because these applications will necessarily drive infrastructure development but because they are a sample of
the national "grand challenges" currently much in vogue. They illuminate issues of process and access underlying infrastructure development.
Panel 2 examined the role, if any, that the nation's regulatory apparatus can play in helping direct the development of the telecommunications/information infrastructure. Traditionally, the role of regulation has been to allocate resources equitably and to level the competitive playing field or tilt it toward a socially desired objective. In the past decade, the encouragement of market efficiencies has been a goal of regulation. Panel 2 grappled with the roles that regulation might play in the future. The underlying question it addressed was how regulators can simultaneously encourage infrastructure development; protect the interests of all stakeholders (including the public); and do so at social, technical, and economic costs that are substantially outweighed by the benefits.
Panel 3 considered government investment policies. The federal government has long been active in promoting growth of the telecommunications/information infrastructure through various direct and indirect means of investment: support of research and development, implementation of pilot networks, direct user subsidies, and purchasing policy. Panel 3 also debated such questions as: What is the range, in the 1990s, of public investment options? How does public investment affect market forces and are these effects desirable?
The workshop was as lively as the steering committee and CSTB had hoped. There was broad audience participation, some of which is recorded in this volume. CSTB believes that its primary goal of shedding light on fundamental issues and tensions in the national debate on the telecommunications/information infrastructure was achieved.
Thanks are due many people for their hard work and support in making the workshop a success. The steering committee laid the groundwork for the workshop, designing its content and format. A subset of committee members who became the panel chairs—Alfred Aho, Roger Noll, and David Messerschmitt (who succeeded Deborah Estrin as chair of Panel 3 when she had to give up that role)—worked assiduously in helping choose keynote speakers and panelists, in convincing them to participate, and in bringing together their respective parts of this volume. And without the determined work of the CSTB staff—Marjory Blumenthal, CSTB's director; Leslie Wade; and Renee Hawkins—nothing would have been accomplished. The anonymous reviewers prompted the steering committee and several panelists to strengthen the written record of the workshop. Finally, a special word of thanks goes to the following organizations for their financial support specifically for this project: Ameritech Corporation, Bell Atlantic Corporation, Bell Communications Research (Bellcore), BellSouth Telecommunications Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM Corporation, and NYNEX Corporation.
George L. Turin, Chair
Steering Committee on the Changing Nature of Telecommunications/Information Infrastructure
Contents
|
||||
|
||||
|
Introduction to Part 1 |
|||
|
The Evolution of the Telecommunications Infrastructure |
|||
|
The Search for the Holy Paradigm: Regulating the Information Infrastructure in the 21st Century |
|||
|
Current and Future Uses of Information Networks |
|||
|
The Changing Nature of Telecommunications and the Information Infrastructure for Health Care |
|||
|
Can K-12 Education Drive on the Information Superhighway? |
|||
|
Future Roles of Libraries in Citizen Access to Information Resources through the National Information Infrastructure |
|||
|
||||
PART 2— |
|
|||
|
Introduction to Part 2 |
|||
|
Government Regulation and Infrastructure Development |
|||
|
State Regulatory Policies and the Telecommunications/Information Infrastructure |