------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Jan 1994 21:23:20 CST From: CuD Moderators Subject: File 6--What It Takes To Make It Happen: Key Issues For NII ((MODERATORS' NOTE: The full text of the following paper summary can be obtained from the CuD ftp archives (see CuD header for addresses)) What It Takes To Make It Happen: Key Issues For Applications Of The National Information Infrastructure Committee on Applications and Technology Information Infrastructure Task Force January 25, 1994 This paper is intended for public comment and discussion. Your comments can be sent to any of the following addresses: Post: Committee on Applications and Technology National Institute of Standards and Technology Building 101, Room A1000 Gaithersburg, MD 20899 Phone: (301) 975-2667 FAX: (301) 216-0529 E-Mail: cat_exec@nist.gov THE COMMITTEE ON APPLICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY This issue paper was prepared by the Committee on Applications and Technology of the Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) in support of the President's action plan for developing, in partnership with the private sector, an advanced information infrastructure for our country -- the National Information Infrastructure. The Committee is charged with coordinating Administration efforts: to develop, demonstrate, and promote applications of information technology in manufacturing, electronic commerce, education, health care, government services, libraries, and other areas, and to develop and recommend technology strategy and policy to accelerate the implementation of the NII.. The Committee works with the Subcommittee on High-Performance Computing and Communications and Information Technology, which was established as part of the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and Technology to coordinate the development of new information technologies. The Committee on Applications and Technology also is responsible for implementing many of the recommendations of the Vice President's National Performance Review that pertain to information technology. ((ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS DELETED)) ABSTRACT This paper highlights important issues that need to be addressed in the development, demonstration, and promotion of applications for the National Information Infrastructure (NII). The paper is intended for three important audiences: the public, the committees and working groups of the Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF), and other agencies and departments in our government. The goal is to identify and describe the issues so they can be considered and discussed by these audiences, leading to their eventual resolution. Some of these issues, such as privacy, intellectual property rights, information security and the scalability of projects are already being addressed by the committees and working groups of the IITF. Others, such as user acceptance and organizational learning, still need to be addressed by the IITF in order to allow the private/government partnership to evolve and to work together to build and shape the National Information Infrastructure. KEY ISSUES FOR NII APPLICATIONS The publication of the Agenda for Action on the National Information Infrastructure (NII)1 in September 1993 greatly heightened the level of public debate on information technology and social change. That and other white papers, studies, and commentaries dramatically sketched a vision of the near future, in which a web of advanced communications networks and computers would bring vast amounts of information and greatly improved services to the homes of virtually every citizen - if we as a nation properly manage the technology. With this paper, the Committee on Applications and Technology of the President's Information Infrastructure Task Force proposes a basic set of critical issues which our nation will face as the NII evolves. Our perspective in selecting these issues is that of applications that will use the NII. The reasons for taking this perspective - indeed, for creating this Committee - are grounded in the unique role the Federal government plays in the development of the NII. The National Information Infrastructure is not a cliff which suddenly confronts us, but rather a slope - and one society has been climbing since postal services and semaphore networks were established. An information infrastructure has been with us for a long time, continuously evolving with each new advance in communications technology. Why the sudden debate? Change is coming much faster, and more thoroughly, than ever before. In our lifetimes we will see information technology bring more changes to more aspects of our daily lives than have been witnessed in the preceding century. Digital technology is merging the functions of television sets, telephones, and computers. Fundamental changes are in store for us in the ways we work, learn, shop, communicate, entertain ourselves, and get health care and public services. And those are just the applications we can foresee. Private industry will be responsible for virtually every major facet of the NII and the information marketplace it creates. Private industry will build and manage the networks, provide the information tools and much of the information that travels the networks, and develop the many of the applications that use the networks. But government remains a major participant in the NII. One reason is obvious - government policies are a major force in the information infrastructure. One of the principal goals of the Information Infrastructure Task Force is to develop and foster informed government policy that promotes our societal goals for the NII without unnecessarily hampering industry. As Vice President Gore has observed, "Our goal is not to design the [information] market of the future. It is to provide the principles that shape that market. And it is to provide the rules governing this difficult transition to an open market for information. We are committed in that transition to protecting the availability, affordability and diversity of information and information technology as market forces replace regulations and judicial models that are simply no longer appropriate."2 Less obvious, however, is the fact that government plays a major role in the development of NII applications: As one of the nation's biggest users of information technology, the government develops NII applications to speed and improve the delivery of its services. Examples include making ((600 LINES OF TEXT DELETED)) NEXT STEPS AND FOLLOW THROUGH For the IITF to follow through on the remainder of the issues identified in this paper requires at least two steps. First, the IITF committees and interested individuals and groups from the private sector should review this paper and the issues we have presented to broaden our understanding and perspective. We welcome comments. Next, the IITF should review the issues reported here, the framework for assessing the issues, and the comments from the private sector and the other committees to decide if its organization is adequately structured to address the key issues. For example, if the categorization of issues outlined here - according to the components of the infrastructure: people, information, processes (software, especially applications), hardware and networks - is useful, we should consider whether our current IITF structure covering information, telecommunications, and applications and technology adequately addresses people and hardware. Some steps are already being taken in this direction. A working group of the Committee on Applications and Technology has been formed to address technology policy issues, and the Committee has instituted a public issues discussion program as part of its regular meetings to facilitate a dialog on the issues outlined in this paper. In closing, we would like to repeat and emphasize the point made earlier. In presenting this issues paper, the Committee on Applications and Technology intends only to describe an initial catalog of critical issues that must be addressed and resolved in the development of the NII. We see this is a starting point for discussion, and not a document to close off discussion of other issues. Your comments on this paper can be sent to any of the following addresses: Post: Committee on Applications and Technology National Institute of Standards and Technology Building 101, Room A1000 Gaithersburg, MD 20899 Phone: (301) 975-2667 FAX: (301) 216-0529 E-Mail: cat_exec@nist.gov ------------------------------ ------------------------------ *********************************************************************** ***** End of Computer Underground Digest #6.10 ***** ***********************************************************************