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cis.upenn.edu (really linc) is off the sir for a period unknown) mail will be difficult till it come199309151658.AA04188 () eff org
From: Dave Farber <199309151658.AA04188 () eff org>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 12:58:08 -0400
process, as a superior way to apportion this scarce resource among the widely differing wireless services that will be a part of the NII. At the same time, the Administration will develop policies to ensure that entrepreneurs and small, rural, minority- and women-owned businesses are able to participate in spectrum auctions. 7. Protect Intellectual Property Rights Development of an advanced information infrastructure will create unprecedented market opportunities and new challenges for our world-preeminent media and information industries. The broad public interest in promoting the dissemination of information to our citizens must be balanced with the need to ensure the integrity of intellectual property rights and copyrights in information and entertainment products. This protection is crucial if these products -- whether in the form of text, images, computer programs, databases, video or sound recordings, or multimedia formats -- are to move in commerce using the full capability of the NII. Action: Examine the adequacy of copyright laws. The IITF will investigate how to strengthen domestic copyright laws and international intellectual property treaties to prevent piracy and to protect the integrity of intellectual property. To ensure broad access to information via the NII, the IITF will study how traditional concepts of fair use should apply with respect to new media and new works. Action: Explore ways to identify and reimburse copyright owners. The IITF will explore the need for standards for the identification of copyright ownership of information products in electronic systems (e.g., electronic headers, labels or signature techniques). The Task Force will also evaluate the need to develop an efficient system for the identification, licensing, and use of work, and for the payment of royalties for copyrighted products delivered or made available over electronic information systems. 8. Coordinate with Other Levels of Governmental and With Other Bodies Domestic: Many of the firms that will likely participate in the NII are now subject to regulation by Federal, state, and local government agencies. If the information infrastructure is to develop quickly and coherently, there must be close coordination among the various government entities, particularly with respect to regulatory policy. It is crucial that all government bodies -- particularly Congress, the FCC, the Administration, and state and local governments -- work cooperatively to forge regulatory principles that will promote deployment of the NII. Action: Seek ways to improve coordination with state and local officials. The IITF will meet with state and local officials to discuss policy issues related to development of the NII. The Task Force will also seek input from the private sector and non-federal agencies as it devises proposals for regulatory reform. The Administration is committed to working closely with state and local governments in developing its telecommunications policies. International: The NII also will develop in the context of evolving global networks. Because customers typically demand that U.S. communications providers offer services on a global basis, it is critical that the infrastructure within this country can meet international, as well as domestic, requirements. Action: Open up overseas markets. The Administration has shown its willingness to work directly on behalf of U.S. firms to ensure that they have an equal opportunity to export telecommunications-related goods and services to potential overseas customers. For example, the Commerce Department is developing new export control policies governing computers and telecommunications equipment manufactured by U.S. firms. These changes will remove export restrictions on many of these products and permit U.S. manufacturers to enter new markets not previously available to them. The Administration will continue to work to open overseas markets for U.S. services and products. Action: Eliminate barriers caused by incompatible standards. Equally important is the need to avoid trade barriers raised by incompatible U.S. and foreign standards or -- more subtly -- between the methods used to test conformance to standards. Through its participation in international standards committees, the Administration is working to eliminate or avert such barriers. Action: Examine international and U.S. trade regulations. The IITF will coordinate the Administration's examination of policy issues related to the delivery of telecommunications services to and from the U.S., including claims by some U.S. companies that regulatory practices in foreign countries -- including denial of market access for U.S. carriers and the imposition of excessive charges for completing calls from the United States -- are harming the competitiveness of the industry and the costs charged to U.S. customers for service. The IITF also will reexamine U.S. regulation of international telecommunications services. 9. Provide Access to Government Information and Improve Government Procurement Thomas Jefferson said that information is the currency of democracy. Federal agencies are among the most prolific collectors and generators of information that is useful and valuable to citizens and business. Improvement of the nation's information infrastructure provides a tremendous opportunity to improve the delivery of government information to the taxpayers who paid for its collection; to provide it equitably, at a fair price, as efficiently as possible. The Federal government is improving every step of the process of information collection, manipulation, and dissemination. The Administration is funding research programs that will improve the software used for browsing, searching, describing, organizing, and managing information. But it is committed as well to applying those tools to the distribution of information that can be useful to the public in their various roles as teachers, researchers, businesspeople, consumers, etc. The key questions that must be addressed are: What information does the public want? What information is in electronic form? By what means can it be distributed? How can all Americans have access to it? A secondary question is: How can government itself improve through better information management? Action: Improve the accessibility of government information. IITF working groups will carefully consider the problems associated with making government information broadly accessible to the public electronically. Additionally, several inter-agency efforts have been started to ensure that the right information is stored and available. Finally, to help the public find government information, an inter-agency project has been formed to develop a virtual card catalogue that will indicate the availability of government information in whatever form it takes. Action: Upgrade the infrastructure for the delivery of government information. The Federal government has already taken a number of steps to promote wider distribution of its public reports. Legislation has been enacted to improve electronic dissemination of government documents by the Government Printing Office. A number of Federal agencies have moved aggressively to convert their public information into electronic form and disseminate it over the Internet, where it will be available to many more people than have previously had access to such information. In the future, substantial improvements will be made to "FedWorld," an electronic bulletin board established by the Department of Commerce's National Technical Information Service (NTIS), which links the public with more than 100 Federal bulletin boards and information centers. These improvements will enhance FedWorld's ability to distribute to the public scientific, technical, and business-related information generated by the U.S. Government and other sources. Finally, a conference will be held in the Fall of 1993 to begin teaching Federal employees how they can use these distribution mechanisms. Action: Enhance citizen access to government information. In June 1993, OMB prescribed new polices pertaining to the acquisition, use, and distribution of government information by Federal agencies. Among other things, the policies mandate that, in distributing information to the public, Federal agencies should recoup only those costs associated with the dissemination of that information, not with its creation or collection. Moreover, a number of inter-agency efforts are under way to afford greater public access to government information. One project seeks to turn thousands of local and field offices of various Federal agencies into Interactive Citizen Participation Centers, at which citizens can communicate with the public affairs departments of all Federal agencies. Action: Strengthen inter-agency coordination through the use of electronic mail. To implement the National Performance Review's recommendation on expanded use of electronic mail within the Federal government, an inter- agency coordinating body has been established to incorporate electronic mail into the daily work environment of Federal workers. The group is also sponsoring three pilot projects to expand connectivity that will build a body of experience that other Federal agencies can draw on when they begin to use electronic mail. Action: Reform the Federal procurement process to make government a leading-edge technology adopter. The Federal government is the largest single buyer of high technology products. The government has played a key role in developing emerging markets for advanced technologies of military significance; it can be similarly effective for civilian technologies. The Administration will implement the procurement policy reforms set forth in the National Performance Review report. VI. America's Destiny is Linked to our Information Infrastructure The principles and goals outlined in this document provide a blueprint for government action on the NII. Applying them will ensure that government provides constructive assistance to U.S. industry, labor, academia and private citizens as they develop, deploy and use the infrastructure. The potential benefits for the nation are immense. The NII will enable U.S. firms to compete and win in the global economy, generating good jobs for the American people and economic growth for the nation. As importantly, the NII promises to transform the lives of the American people. It can ameliorate the constraints of geography and economic status, and give all Americans a fair opportunity to go as far as their talents and ambitions will take them. TAB C BENEFITS AND APPLICATIONS OF THE NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE The development of the National Information Infrastructure is not an end in itself; it is a means by which the United States can achieve a broad range of economic and social goals. Although the NII is not a "silver bullet" for all of the problems we face, it can make an important contribution to our most pressing economic and social challenges. This infrastructure can be used by all Americans, not just by scientists and engineers. As entrepreneurs, factory workers, doctors, teachers, federal employees, and citizens, Americans can harness this technology to: o Create jobs, spur growth, and foster U.S. technological leadership; o Reduce health care costs while increasing the quality of service in underserved areas; o Deliver higher-quality, lower-cost government services; o Prepare our children for the fast-paced workplace of the 21st century; and o Build a more open and participatory democracy at all levels of government. This is not a far-fetched prediction. As shown below, our current information infrastructure is already making a difference in the lives of ordinary Americans, and we have just begun to tap its potential. ECONOMIC BENEFITS The National Information Infrastructure will help create high-wage jobs, stimulate economic growth, enable new products and services, and strengthen America's technological leadership. Whole new industries will be created, and the infrastructure will be used in ways we can only begin to imagine. Below are some of the potential benefits to the U.S. economy: 1. Increased economic growth and productivity o The Computer Systems Policy Project estimates that the NII will "create as much as $300 billion annually in new sales across a range of industries." o The Economic Strategy Institute concluded that accelerated deployment of the NII would increase GDP by $194 - $321 billion to GNP by the year 2007, and increase productivity by 20 to 40 percent. 2. Job creation Although there are no definitive estimates for the total number of U.S. jobs the deployment of the NII will create, it is clear that it has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. For example: o Industry experts believe that the Personal Communications Services industry, a new family of wireless services, could create as many as 300,000 jobs in the next 10-15 years. The development of this industry will be accelerated by the Emerging Telecommunications Technology Act, which was signed by President Clinton as part of the budget package. 3. Technological leadership The NII will serve as the driver for a wide variety of technologies, such as semiconductors, high-speed networking, advanced displays, software, and human/computer interfaces such as speech recognition. This technology will be used to create exciting new products and services, strengthening U.S. leadership in the electronics and information technology sector. For example, experts envision the production of powerful computers that will be held in the palm of our hand, "as mobile as a watch and as personal as a wallet, ... [they] will recognize speech, navigate streets, take notes, keep schedules, collect mail, manage money, open the door and start the car, among other computer functions we cannot imagine today."4. Regional, state, and local economic development In today's knowledge-based, global economy in which capital and technology are increasingly mobile, the quality of America's information infrastructure will help determine whether companies invest here or overseas. States and regions increasingly recognize that development of their information infrastructure is key to creating jobs and attracting new businesses: o In May 1993, Governor Jim Hunt announced the creation of the North Carolina Information Highway, a network of fiber optics and advanced switches capable of transmitting the entire 33-volume Encyclopedia Britannica in 4.7 seconds. This network, which will be deployed in cooperation with BellSouth, GTE, and Carolina Telephone, is a key element of North Carolina's economic development strategy. o In California's Silicon Valley, academics, business executives, government officials, and private citizens are working together to build an "advanced information infrastructure and the collective ability to use it." A non-profit organization, Smart Valley Inc., will help develop the information infrastructure and its applications. Many business applications are envisioned, including desktop videoconferencing, rapid delivery of parts designs to fabrication shops, design of chips on remote supercomputers, electronic commerce, and telecommuting. o The Council of Great Lakes Governors has developed a regional telecommunications initiative, which includes creating an open data network as a first step towards creation of a Great Lakes Information Highway, promoting access in rural areas, developing a set of telecommunications service goals and a time table for achieving them, and developing a computerized inventory of each state's advanced telecommunications infrastructure. 5. Electronic commerce Electronic commerce (e.g., on-line parts catalogues, multi- media mail, electronic payment, brokering services, collaborative engineering) can dramatically reduce the time required to design, manufacture, and market new products. "Time to market" is a critical success factor in today's global marketplace. Electronic commerce will also strengthen the relationships between manufacturer, suppliers, and joint developers. In today's marketplace, it is not unusual to have 12 or more companies collaborating to develop and manufacture new products. HEALTH CARE The NII can help solve America's health care crisis. The Clinton Administration is committed to health care reform that will ensure that Americans will never again lose their health care coverage and that controls skyrocketing health care costs. The costs of doing nothing are prohibitive: o Since 1980, our nation's health care costs have quadrupled. Between 1980 and 1992, health expenditures shot up from 9 percent to 14 percent of GDP; under current policies, they will hit 19 percent by the year 2000. Health care cost increases will eat up more than half of the new federal revenue expected over the next four years. o Twenty-five cents out of every dollar on a hospital bill goes to administrative costs and does not buy any patient care. The number of health care administrators
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- cis.upenn.edu (really linc) is off the sir for a period unknown) mail will be difficult till it come199309151658.AA04188 () eff org Dave Farber (Sep 15)
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- cis.upenn.edu (really linc) is off the sir for a period unknown) mail will be difficult till it come199309151658.AA04188 () eff org Dave Farber (Sep 15)
- cis.upenn.edu (really linc) is off the sir for a period unknown) mail will be difficult till it come199309151658.AA04188 () eff org Dave Farber (Sep 15)
- cis.upenn.edu (really linc) is off the sir for a period unknown) mail will be difficult till it come199309151658.AA04188 () eff org Dave Farber (Sep 15)
- cis.upenn.edu (really linc) is off the sir for a period unknown) mail will be difficult till it come199309151658.AA04188 () eff org Dave Farber (Sep 15)