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Subject: cis.upenn.edu (really linc) is off the sir for a period unknown) mail will be difficult till it come199309151658.AA04188@eff.org
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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