The International Information Infrastructure

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

In my presentation in the keynote to the Frontiers on Communications
conference in Tokyo of the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, I took
the position that, at least to the business and science community in the
USA, a National Information Infrastructure must be just a small step on the
way toward a truly international information system -- the III.  It makes
little sense for a company with world wide business (and that is not just
GM) to convert to the full use of a NII and then face the discontinuity
when international boundaries are reached.


I called for a much grander vision on the part of the national leaders that
they develop their local data highways as future components of a truly
International Data Freeway.  I posed to MPT and MITI and the audience the
legal and ethical problems facing such a future as well as the obstacles
that lie before us.


I found their reactions after the talk to be more enthusiastic then I expected.


Dave