HATX INST^ Of STAND i TECH RiC- NIST

PUBLICATIONS

Putting the Information

Infrastructure to Work:

Report of the Information Infrastructure

Task Force Committee on Applications

and Technology

U57

iO.857

,994

Nisr

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Technology Administration

National Institute of

Standards and Technology
This paper is intended for public comment and discussion. Your comments can be sent to any of tlie following addresses:

Post: Committee on Applications and Technology

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Building 225, Room B164

Gaithersburg, MD 20899

Phone: (301)975-4529

FAX: (301)948-7242

E-Mail: cat_exec@nist.gov
THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE

Washington, D.C. 20230

May 3, 1994

Dear Colleague:

The Clinton Administration has given high priority to working with the private

sector to develop an advanced information infrastructure for our country: the National

Information Infrastructure (Nil). As Chairman of the Interagency Task Force that is helping to shape our vision of the Nil, I believe that it is vital for us to continue our

dialogue ~ private and public sectors - on the form our future will take.

An interconnection of computer networks, telecommunications services, and

applications, the Nil can open up new vistas and profoundly change much of American

life, not by the fact that it exists but by the way it is used. For that reason, this

document explores some of the opportunities and obstacles that are presented when

we talk about how people and organizations will use the Nil.

This document was prepared by the Committee on Applications and Technology of

the Information Infrastructure Task Force. The Committee is charged with

coordinating Administration efforts:

o to develop, demonstrate, and promote applications of information technology in

manufacturing, electronic commerce, education, health care, government

services, libraries, environmental monitoring, and other areas; and

0 to develop and recommend technology strategies and policy to accelerate the

implementation of the Nil.

This document is intended for four important audiences: the general public, the

private sector organizations that are building the Nil and driving its applications, the

committees and working groups of the Information Infrastructure Task Force, and

other agencies and departments in our Government.

The topics presented here explore manufacturing, electronic commerce, health

care, education, environmental monitoring, libraries, and government services as a stimulus to further debate. This is a limited list, as clearly there are many other

relevant applications of the Nil.

Sections of the papers are presented as questions. We welcome your input in

helping to answer these questions and to raise other relevant issues. Your response

will illuminate and guide government policies and investments to accelerate Nil

applications.

We look forward to hearing from you.
For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Mail Slop: SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-9328 ISBN 0-16-043188-3
NIST Special Publication 857

Putting the Information Infrastructure

to Work: A Report of the Information

Infrastructure Task Force Committee

on Applications and Technology

Office of the Director

National Institute of Standards and Technologay

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001

May 1994

•^^4 res

U.S. Department of Commerce

Ronald H. Brown, Secretary

Technology Administration

Mary L. Good, Under Secretary for Technology

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Arati Prabhakar, Director
National Institute of Standards

and Technology

Special Publication 857

Natl. Inst. Stand. Techno).

Spec. Publ. 857

112 pages (May 1994)

CODEN: NSPUE2

U.S. Government Printing Office

Washington: 1994

For sale by the Superintendent

of Documents

U.S. Government Printing Office

Washington, DC 20402
Table of Contents

Page

Acknowledgments vi

Introduction 1

Manufacturing and the Nil 7

Electronic Commerce and the Nil 25

Health Care and the Nil 41

A Transformation of Learning: Use of the Nil for Education and Lifelong Learning 57

Environmental Monitoring and the Nil 71

Libraries and the Nil 83

Government Service Delivery: Reengineering Through Information Technology 101
Acknowledgments

The Information Infrastructure Task Force and the Comnnittee on Applications and Technology would like to thank the following people for their devoted efforts in developing this document.

Coordinator

David Lytel, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Education

Linda Roberts, Department of Education

Electronic Commerce

Chuck Chamberlain, United States Postal Service

David Jefferson, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Environmental Monitoring

Ernest Daddio, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Government Services

Jasmeet Seehra, Office of Management and Budget

Health Care

Michael Fitzmaurice, Department of Health and Human Services

Libraries

Herb Becker, Library of Congress

Manufacturing

Mark Mandell, National Institute of Standards and Technology

vi
Introduction

DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

"/ know of but one single means of increasing the prosperity of a people thiat is infal- lible in practice ttiat I believe one can count on in all countries as in all spots. This means is naught else but to increase the ease of communication between

men . . . America, which is the country enjoying the greatest sum of prosperity ever accorded a nation, is also the country which, proportional to its age and means, has

made the greatest efforts to procure the easy communication I have spoken of. Of all the countries of the world America is the one where the movement of thought and

human industry is the most continuous and swift.

— Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835

PART I: Introduction

The goal of this document is to express how

improvements in the technical foundation upon

which modern communications rests can benefit

all Americans. We call this platform the National

Information Infrastructure (Nil), meaning the

facilities and sen/ices that enable efficient cre- ation and diffusion of useful information. We

wish to focus the public debate on the uses of the Nil and the benefits to be derived by applications of advanced computing and communications technologies. This collection of papers

describes a national vision for how the evolving

Nil can:

enhance the competitiveness of our manufacturing base

increase the speed and efficiency of electronic commerce, or business-to-business

communication, to promote economic

growth

improve health care delivery and control costs

promote the development and accessibility of quality educational and lifelong learning

for all Americans

make us more effective at environmental

monitoring and assessing our impacts upon

the earth

sustain the role of libraries as agents of democratic and equal access to information

provide government services to the public

faster, more responsively, and more effi- ciently

In addition to articulating a national vision that can serve as a framework for discussion and

dialogue, a second goal of this collection of papers is to improve public policy-making, to

identify critical barriers, enablers, and the tools

of government action most effective in each of these areas. In this way we can maximize the

benefits of government activities in support of the development of the Nil while we minimize

unintended or undesirable consequences.

1
While the term Nil Is new, the promotion of in- novation in communication and transportation is among the proudest elements of our American

heritage. From the postal roads, canals, and

railroads to the telegraph, telephone, interstate highways, and the spacecraft with which we loft our satellites skyward, America has been fear- less in its pursuit of new and better ways of moving people and their ideas. And nearly every

generation has sought ways to pursue public

purposes by properly guiding these innovations.

Moreover, the facilitation of free and open

communication is the centerpiece of American

law and culture. Freedom of speech and expression, protection of an inviolate private realm, and

institutions by which the popular will may be

expressed are the fundamental principles upon

which our nation was founded. The task before us is not just to defend these ideals as historic

artifacts, but to deepen, enliven, and enrich

them; to give them new life in our time and a

foundation that will maintain them in the new

century that lies before us, as ever more capable tools for human communication evolve and

are adopted.

Yet, while the American people acting collectively through their government have established

and enforced guiding principles, it has been the

American people acting through private industry

who have built and maintained most of the core elements of the infrastructure in previous generations. This will not change. The very dynamism

that forces us to address questions of industrial convergence -technological innovation in fields ranging from electronics to entertainment

stems in large measure from our past commitment to seeing the business of communications

remain in the hands of private citizens.

The government's role is to set the rules for competition and enforce them, ensure that improvements in public communication benefit

all Americans rather than a select few, promote

the adoption of standards that allows systems to interoperate, ensure that intellectual property

rights are respected, support research to improve information systems and make them

easier to use, be a wise purchaser of information

technologies and services, and reduce uncertainty and risk by funding pilot projects that demonstrate the usefulness and economic

efficiency of new services and applications.

This introduction will identify some of the

themes common to all of the papers in this first collection. Before doing that, however, a few

other introductory notes are important concerning the scope of these papers and the process

for ensuring widespread circulation and comment.

These papers are the first set the Committee

on Applications and Technology has chosen for development. We identified these as the core

set because there are significant public interests

to be served by the application of advanced

information and communication technologies in these arenas and some key government activity

already underway. The next collection of papers

could include such things as entertainment, arts and culture, demand-side management of electrical power, the Nil and Americans with disabilities, information technologies in the workplace,

political participation and community networking,

transportation, telecommuting and other topics.

We look forward to getting the next set of papers underway and welcome input on topics

of greatest interest.

This collection of papers represents the most

detailed effort to date of the Information

Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) to articulate the

opportunities presented by an advanced Nil and

identify some of the obstacles to its deployment.

To invite as much public comment and debate

as possible, the potential actions identified below and in the papers themselves are stated as

questions on which we are seeking your views.

We are trying to move the national debate for- ward so that our discussions as well as our

actions are considered judicious, and well- informed.

PART II: Issues Common to all of

the Applications Papers

Several themes emerge as concerns common

to all of the papers. They are equity of access,

the pursuit of demonstrations and pilot projects,

the standards setting process, privacy and communications security, training and support, identification of long-term research and development

priorities, and performance measurements to assess both public and private investments and

experiments.

2
Equity of Access: Improved means of information access and dissemination must serve to close the gap between those with more influ- ence and those with less; it must lower the

obstacles to full and complete citizenship in American society rather than raising them.

Earlier this year, the President and Vice President set a goal of connecting all hospitals,

clinics, libraries, and classrooms to the Nil by

the end of the century. Doing so will empower

citizens and help reinvigorate their public institu- tions. Hearings are being held to assess strate- gies for achieving universal telephone service.

While the Administration is funding demonstration projects through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA),

this will only connect a small number of public

institutions to the Nil. The Administration's pro- posals for telecommunications reform will ensure

low cost basic telephone service and maintain

the ability of communities to require cable operators to connect public institutions at little or no

charge. To ensure that public institutions can

continue to serve their historic functions this must be preserved in the new regulatory regime.

To this end, should the Federal Communications

Commission propose regulations that enhance

the availability of advanced telecommunications

services to all educational and health care insti- tutions and libraries by mechanisms such as

preferential rates for telecommunications ser- vices? Are there alternate means for achieving

this public requirement?

Demonstrations and Pilot Projects: Among the

key obstacles to the adoption of new communications techniques is risk and uncertainty as to the benefits. In the adoption of health information systems, for example, uncertainty among

private sector purchasers of these systems

about their ability to exchange information accurately must be overcome before the costs and

benefits of such systems may be proven in clini- cal practice. In the case of libraries, mechanisms

to ensure that works placed in the system will be protected from unauthorized uses will be

required if copyright owners will make their works available under appropriate terms and

conditions. Teachers and administrators must be

able to see that networked-based teaching tools improve the educational process before deciding

upon widespread adoption of these techniques.

How can interactivity as a technical attribute of

advanced networks best be incorporated into services that facilitate genuine social and politi- cal interaction among citizens and consumers,

and between them and the companies and

governments that serve them? The federal

government is currently supporting a host of demonstration projects, as described in this collection of papers. What future Nil applications can be demonstrated in ways that will allow later scaling to community- or society-wide status? How can these simulations be conducted under

conditions that closely resemble what would be

found if they were fully operational?

Standards: Standards for information content,

display, and exchange are such a crucial

element in the development of the Nil that it may

be said there is no infrastructure without them.

In addition, there is a significant international

component to the adoption of standards. The

United States can no longer assume that other

nations will adopt our standards or purchase

products built to U.S. developed standards.

Standards may be effective barriers for product

entry in foreign markets.

There is an urgent need to make the selection

of standards for information technologies and

services as efficient as it can be. Broadly speaking, the government's role is to set clear goals

and be an intelligent adopter of standards, and

to ensure the best possible coordination among

standards organizations, industry, and the government so that the private, voluntary standards

system in use in the United States works to maximum efficiency. How can the adoption of standards best be improved? In addition, what

specific standards-setting activities and decisions are of greatest importance to the development of the Nil? How may the government

facilitate consensus among relevant parties? Is it possible to identify interfaces between technologies and services where the establishment of common standards would enable faster in- frastructure development and those interfaces

that inhibit infrastructural improvements because

they are not open?

Privacy and Communications Security: Among

the most notable shortcomings of today's Inter- net is the inability to be sure of the identity of someone with whom one is exchanging electronic mail, and uncertainty as to whether a message was read by unintended parties. If com3
munications over the Nil are not secure, then

people will not honestly report their condition to

their physicians. If physicians do not trust the Nil to maintain confidentiality they may misreport

sensitive medical information to insurance companies. Both of these not only degrade the effi- ciency of the health care system but

undercut the ability of advanced communications to make people healthier. Electronic Commerce also shows the same requirements. Few

business class applications will develop on the

Nil until an infrastructure is in place to guarantee

a high level of authentication and privacy.

The IITF's Privacy Working Group has been

working on a Code of Fair Information Practices

that is soon to be issued. This report will address issues related to the privacy of electronic

records. The National Institute of Standards and

Technology has been working on strategies for implementing a national infrastructure for the

management of public key cryptographic techniques for authentication and confidentiality. It

will address such questions as: How should it identify a registration service that would issue

policies and certificates? What is the best way to

identify the work remaining to be done in protocol development for the interchange of certifi- cates? How should it identify the necessary and

sufficient services of the infrastructure itself to support Electronic Commerce and determine the

initial entities to start developing actual services,

such as government agencies and commercial

service providers? Should these questions be

addressed by a conference, a panel of experts, or some other process?

Training and Support: Professional development and technical assistance often lag well behind the adoption of advanced communications

tools. This has been identified as one of the

most important obstacles to the development of

Nil applications in the areas of education and

lifelong learning, libraries, and health care. Even

the most cleverly designed and implemented

advanced communication techniques will not be

used if teachers and administrators, health care

providers, and librarians do not understand how

to use them. Improving the ability of these pro- fessionals to interact with the people they serve depends upon their being trained and practiced

to use the new communications techniques that are at their disposal. Failure to adequately train these professionals will obviate any improvements in services delivered over the Nil.

How can we ensure the training that professionals receive keeps pace with advances in the

capabilities of the Nil?

Research and Development: One of the most

effective tools for the promotion of the Nil is the

investment the federal government makes in research. Many of the current search and

retrieval tools on the Internet today were created

with the help of government-sponsored

research. Government research today in such

areas as advanced manufacturing techniques,

digital libraries, and environmental assessment

tools will be the foundation for future capabilities

and commercial products. The newly formed

National Science and Technology Council is charged with advising the President on how the

federal research investment may be best managed. Under its purview, the High Performance

Computing and Communications program coor- dinates key Nil technology efforts across the

government. How can federal research best

support the key technical underpinnings of the

Nil, ranging from product data standards to

digital storage, retrieval, and dissemination

technologies?

Performance Measurements: Demonstrations,

pilot projects, and research expenditures are never ends in themselves. Without a set of metrics, it is impossible to tell if either public or

private experiments with new services or cooperative research efforts have been successful.

Monitoring and understanding the results of pro- grams and experiments is therefore crucial for future decision making. How can we develop

program evaluation techniques that help people

understand the effects and results of experimentation with the tools of an advanced Nil? How

can the costs and benefits be best assessed

and the understanding be widely shared, so that many people benefit from government expenditures, whether they take the form of the funding

of pilot projects or cooperative research and

development efforts? How do agencies ascertain whether these investments are yielding their anticipated national benefits? In short, how can we be sure to learn the right lessons?

PART III: Conclusions

As we begin to identify and understand the

potential benefits of an advanced Nil and

develop policies to accelerate its development,

we must tightly couple federal initiatives and

programs to the goals, priorities, and activities of

4
industry, academia, and labor. Only by effectively linking the complementary activities of the

public and private sectors can we accomplish

technological, economic, and social objectives

that will pay dividends to the entire nation.

There is no ineluctable force pulling these

advanced applications of the Nil into being. Nor

can the simple statement of desirable future characteristics of the Nil make it so. Success in each application arena requires the identification of intermediate goals and objectives and the

successful negotiation of outcomes involving a

multitude of different parties. Only conscious,

willful, and well informed public decisions will result in an Nil that meets America's needs.

We hope that careful consideration of the

policy questions in these papers will both facili- tate the development of the National Information

Infrastructure and guide its evolution so that it best meets public purposes. The most important

performance measurements for the Nil are not

technical but social. The Nil should -and willbe judged not by the speed at which bits may

race to their destination to be reassembled into words or images, but by how well these technical capabilities make the nation and its citizens

healthier, wealthier, and more wise.
i

I
Manufacturing and the Nil

DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

PART I: What Is the Application

Arena?

Description of Manufacturing ^

From automobile and computer products to wood furniture, U.S. manufacturers face intense

competition that threatens their very survival. Indeed, today's competitive advantage knows no

national boundaries, going only to those manufacturers who can rapidly respond to ever- changing market demands with high quality,

customized, competitively priced goods. U.S. manufacturers and workers have the skills, desire, and potential to succeed, but their success is by no means certain.

In the new manufacturing paradigm, the efficient and effective management, manipulation, and

use of information is essential to sustained eco- nomic vitality and growth. With information as a

strategic asset, the integration of information

technologies -in an infrastructure of communications networks, hardware and software applications, databases, bulletin boards, and other

services glued together through common Inter- operability and data exchange standards — holds one critical key to manufacturing success. An

advanced National Information Infrastructure

(Nil) will enable both the modernization and upgrading of traditional design, development,

^ For the purposes of this paper, "manufacturing" refers to the discrete parts manufacturing industry, although the

trends, issues, and opportunities discussed in this paper can be applied to a great extent to other industries.

production, and support processes as well as

the complete re-engineering, optimization, and

integration of separate business functions, activities, and enterprises.

Nil applications in manufacturing have the potential to transform and significantly improve all stages of manufacturing operations, from

technology/market assessment and R&D to aftersales support and product disposal or reuse. Effectively applied information technology

has a greater potential to change the way manufacturers do their work than the steam engine

had in the Industrial Revolution. While the gains

in productivity, quality, flexibility, and cost will be

large, the greatest benefits will be realized

through the combination of technology with

organizational and managerial changes,

enabling entirely new ways of working — as well as the creation of entirely new industries.

The potential benefits of an advanced Nil to manufacturers come from the gains in a number

of areas. The ability to quickly and efficiently transfer data within and among operations can

revolutionize the design process, enabling concurrent collaboration and communication among

suppliers, partners, customers, and competitors

at distributed locations. It can enable the rapid

vertical and horizontal integration of companies;

accelerate first time optimization of products

from design to production; reduce the number

of design changes; enable "virtual" modeling,

simulation, and testing; reduce waste and in- crease yields -with greater quality and in- creased flexibility and responsiveness.

7
Imagine a future where:

Customers "custom design" products such

as automobiles and clothing, electronically

transmitting their requirements to remote

locations capable of quickly manufacturing

and distributing these products.

Companies rapidly and easily form alliances

needed to produce new products, employing advanced manufacturing concepts such

as "agile" and "virtual" manufacturing.

Small- and medium-sized companies advertise their manufacturing capabilities over computer networks and efficiently bid on

projects required by other companies.

"Software system brokers" connect users who have a need for temporary access to sophisticated manufacturing tools that would

normally be too expensive to acquire.

Manufacturers and suppliers use "intelli- gent" procurement systems to facilitate and

speed parts procurement, billing, and payment transactions, reducing costs, improving

accuracy, and meeting customer demands

in a timely manner.

An advanced Nil can make available the best

manufacturing application tools, knowledge

bases, product information, and training materials regardless of location. Using advanced

databases, bulletin boards and other services

available on the Nil, manufacturers can rapidly

disseminate requirements and specifications for parts and subassemblies, letting the most qualified and competitive suppliers respond without

prejudice to location or size. Over computer

links and networks, companies can quickly

adopt innovations in materials, parts, and manufacturing processes, advising suppliers of new

capabilities at reduced costs. With an advanced

Nil, companies can quickly integrate data from

distributed resources and use this data to create, model, test, and evaluate products, pro- cesses, and enterprises in real time and under a wide variety of simulated conditions, guaranteeing first time optimization while satisfying unique

customer preferences and manufacturing re- quirements.

With the continued development of other advanced manufacturing technologies such as in- telligent machines and processes, engineering

design and planning systems, and intelligent

sensors and controls, U.S. companies can fully

implement advanced manufacturing techniques

such as concurrent engineering and agile manufacturing. By integrating advanced manufacturing technologies with an advanced Nil, companies can identify, record, and manage a product throughout its life cycle, enhancing the

quality, flexibility, and responsiveness of their manufacturing operations, while generating rapid

production and product improvements and re- ducing unusable inventories, waste, rework, and

costs.

An advanced Nil can also create entirely new

business opportunities in such areas as services

for processing, analyzing, and disseminating

manufacturing information. It can create new

opportunities for consulting services to assist

companies in identifying opportunities to improve or reengineer their business processes

and to develop strategic plans for migrating from

their existing infrastructure to advanced manufacturing and other information technology applications.

Finally, and most dramatically, in combination

with other Nil applications arenas such as electronic commerce, digital libraries, and education, an advanced Nil in manufacturing can greatly

affect the overall cost and efficacy of an entire business operation, including financial trans- actions, market analysis, workforce education

and training, and supplier/customer relations. By

linking businesses via electronic commerce and

banking services, financial settlements can be

made in real time with minimal paper work,

thereby reducing outstanding balances and fi- nancial risks for small businesses. Through real- time networks with suppliers and customers,

companies can identify trends, respond to problems, survey needs, and quickly prepare for and

swiftly react to everchanging market demands.

Finally, advanced education and training avail- able via the Nil can help workers develop new

skills and remain prepared, flexible, and comfortable with information technologies in the face of continuous and rapid technological change.

What Is the Public Interest in Promoting the

Application?

The national impact of a highly advanced manufacturing infrastructure can be enormous in terms of international competitiveness, economic

8
growth, and standard of living. Manufacturing

accounts for nearly 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and represents approximately

17 percent of all U.S. employment. It is the foundation of a diversified, interdependent, vibrant

economy, providing a large share of the industry

funded R&D and purchasing heavily from the

service sector to support its operations. In addition, the service sector, which represents more

than 70 percent of the U.S. economy, is increasingly dependent on high quality, low cost, cus- tomized goods supplied in a timely manner, and

relies on manufacturers for the products it sells as well as the hardware, software, and other

technologies it uses to market, support, track,

and evaluate its inventories and sales.

In the face of shortening technology and product

life cycles and increasing technological complexity, the ability to manufacture high quality, competitively priced goods such as microelectronic

components, automobile and aircraft parts, and

telecommunications devices in the United States

is critical to the nation's overall economic competitiveness. As a result, in addition to their own

economic value, manufactured products contribute to and often drive technological innovations in downstream products and services, and

therefore much of the value added in the econ- omy. The ability to integrate highly sophisticated,

nextgeneration components into downstream

products and services requires close working re- lationships among component and end product

manufacturers and service suppliers. Historically

this synergy has been difficult to achieve between U.S. companies and foreign suppliers.

In addition, as information and information ex- change become more valuable to economic per- formance, those countries that develop an

effective advanced information infrastructure will gain competitive advantage in global markets.

Instead of just chasing low wages, as has been

the trend in the recent past, manufacturers in- creasingly will choose to locate and invest in countries whose infrastructure is able to handle

the rapid and efficient control and dissemination

of information and the integration of diverse

business operations. Consequently, an effective advanced Nil in the United States can make the

United States the country of choice for manufacturing and manufacturing R&D, with enormous

and lasting positive impact on the national

economy.

Evidence of the Benefits

Numerous studies and implementations of advanced manufacturing applications supported by

an improved information infrastructure demonstrate the impact the Nil can have on manufacturing products and processes. It should be

noted that while automation and networking of existing manufacturing processes will bring significant benefits to many U.S. manufacturers, the

ability to manufacture differently, that is to inte- grate traditionally separate manufacturing

processes in combination with new management

and business practices, will bring the lion's share of benefits.

Specific Examples

Edward Deming and other quality champions

have found that the process of design exerts the

most influence over a product's life cycle. For example, approximately 60 percent of a

product's cost is fixed early in the process of design and, overall, the design process may fix as much as 90 percent of the total cost of a

product. The application of information technologies such as computer-aided design and concurrent engineering techniques, however, can

reduce product defects by as much as 80 percent. Other studies support these results. For example, one study found that advanced manufacturing techniques that enable the rapid ex- change of information not only increase quality

and cut the number of design changes by 50

percent, but also reduce total costs by 30 to 60

percent, development time by 35 to 60 percent,

design and product defects by 30 to 80 percent,

and scrap work by 58 to 75 percent. An advanced Nil will enable manufacturers to take full advantage of the productivity improvement potential of computer-aided design and other infor- mation technology and advanced manufacturing

technologies [Carver, pp. 14,20].^

Combining significant investments in advanced

manufacturing equipment and techniques with

intensive education and training programs for its workers, John Deere & Co. has been able to reduce production costs and design time while

^ For more details, see Winner, Robert, "Information Infra- structures for Integrated Enterprises," Institute for Defense

Analyses, Volume I, 1991.

9
improving product quality and productivity.

"[Acting] as a blueprint for the revival of other

nnanufacturers," Deere has introduced advanced

manufacturing methods such as just-in-time

inventory control, teamwork, and supplier inte- gration with the results of reducing inventory by

20 percent, cutting design time by 33 percent,

and speeding delivery time to twice a week from

twice a month. Deere's investments in both

technology and workers have led to a dramatic

resurgence in its competitive position. Profits that rebounded in 1993 are expected to increase

by an additional 35 percent in 1994 [Kelly,

p. 65].

Thanks to computer-based concurrent engineering and improved communication among design

teams which enabled simulation, consistency,

and the sharing of data among concurrent work

teams, Intel Corp. has been able to reduce the

time from design-to-sample in half, even though

product complexity doubled. In addition, the

company achieved a 95 percent success rate on

the first silicon fabrication of new products. As a

result of those successes, Intel Corporation, in the face of a dozen Japanese competitors, has

retained 95 percent of the flash memory market

[Davidow, p. 94].

Faced with heavy competition from Asia that had

driven out all other U.S. pager manufacturers,

Motorola implemented a concurrent engineering

system, completely revising its production strat- egy. Using soft automation, flexible computer

controlled machines, a new modular conveyor

system, and a computer-based order entry sys- tem, less than 18 months from the program's

start order times were reduced from one month

to minutes; manufacturing time, from 5 hours to 3 [Manufacturing A La Carte, p. 29-32].

In the Japanese automobile industry, implementation of proprietary concurrent engineering sys- tems enabled Japanese auto makers to decrease time-to-market for new cars by more

than 30 percent, helping them to gain considerable market share and to increase pressure on

U.S. auto makers [Carver, p. 20 ]. A study of the impact of a common data management, storage, retrieval and exchange ser- vice for transferring in a standard digital format

all contractor design and manufacturing data

among the Air Force and its B2 subcontractors

found significant savings. This study, CALS Contractor Integrated Technical Information Service

(CITIS): Business Case Feasibility Study, determined that the CITIS would lead to a 50 percent

reduction in the number of attendees at meetings between contractors and the Air Force, a

5.4 percent reduction in the total B2 spares dollars, a 23 percent reduction in modification lead

time, a 1 .8 percent increase in the average

availability of aircraft fleet, and a 90 percent re- duction in the contractor data submittals. The total estimated cost savings ranged from a minimum of $536 million to a maximum of $894

million, for investments that ranged from $9 million to $30 million. Through the use of just-in-time inventory control

and total quality management practices, Harley

Davidson reduced manufacturing cycle time for motorcycle frames from 72 days to just 2, while

increasing final product quality from 50 percent

to 99 percent; Digital Equipment Corporation

reduced overall inventory from 16 weeks to 3, while reducing its defect rate from 17 percent to 3 percent; and 3M attained a 70 fold reduction

in critical defects, appearance defects, and

packaging problems [Davidow, p. 94, (from

O'Neil and Bertrand, Developing a Winning JIT Marketing Strategy, 1991)].

Through its use of the ODETTE (Organization of Data Exchange via TeleTransmission in Europe), an electronic communications network, the

French automobile manufacturer PSA Peugeot

Citron was able to create closer, more efficient ties with its many suppliers and implement "justin-time," "quick response" inventory control. As

a result, Peugeot, "was able to reduce inventories and operating costs, while increasing the

quality of its products and customer satisfaction

levels. The company went from a monthly order

cycle to a multi-day one. It improved inventory turnover by nearly 40 percent, cut the number of nonassembleable cars on the line by 70 percent,

and offers customers nearly 30 percent more

models to choose from [Teresko, p.36]."

PART II: Where Are We Now?

Background

The information infrastructure has always been a fundamental part of manufacturing in the United

States and many companies and government

agencies

10
have excelled at information exchange, control,

manipulation, and use. As seen above, there are numerous success stories which highlight the

fact that U.S. manufacturers have been and

remain at the vanguard of the design and implementation of leading edge advanced manufacturing technologies. In addition, U.S. companies maintain strategic advantages relative to

their foreign counterparts in a number of key In- formation technologies, including hardware and

software and telecommunications equipment.

While many U.S. companies are leading the

world in R&D and deployment of advanced manufacturing technologies, the overall use of infor- mation technologies by manufacturers in the

United States, especially small- and mediumsized manufacturers, remains low (see tables

below). With some notable exceptions, most

U.S. companies are organized to take advantage

of stable, mass production markets and have

specialized tasks, seeking to minimize ex- penses, divide and separate work. To increase

the speed of design and production and reduce

costs, they have developed and implemented

automated technologies, such as computeraided-design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering

(CAE), and computer-integrated manufacturing

(CIM). Their successes in the past have led to the further fragmentation and division of labor

and activities and the creation of narrow, fo- cused activities within rigid, hierarchical

bureaucracies.

The result of these trends is that, for the most

part, where information technologies have been

developed and applied to manufacturing operations, it has been done with a high degree of sophistication yet with a narrow focus that makes integration of these manufacturing technologies not economically feasible. As a result,

while U.S. manufacturers excel in product R&D

and innovation and the automation of individual

components of the overall manufacturing pro- cess, they frequently fare less well in the combination of individual technologies into an

integrated manufacturing system, embodying

such concepts as concurrent engineering, total quality management, and just-in-time inventory

control.

Moreover, most U.S. manufacturers have tradi- tionally invested less, and subsequently use less and performed more poorly In commercial

product improvement and process improvement

relative to their foreign counterparts. For example:

In the 1970s and 1980s, fixed capital

investment in manufacturing (as a share of manufacturing output) was 1 .5 times higher

in Japan than in the United States. In developing new products and processes,

Japanese firms allocate to tooling and

equipment almost double the share of total project costs as the amount spent by Ameri- can companies. . . . Over three-fifths of U.S. machine tools are 10 or more years old,

while more than one-quarter are 20 or more

years old. . . . Proportionately, Japan now

uses numerically controlled (NC)

machine tools at 1 .5 times the rate in the

United States 27 per thousand manufacturing workers compared with 1 8 per

thousand in the U.S. [Shapira, p. 3].

Adoption and diffusion rates of technology are

also a problem in the United States. A recent study by the National Institute of Standards and

Technology reports that it takes 55 years for 90

percent of United States manufacturers to adopt

a technology, compared with 18 years in Japan

[Manufacturing Extension Partnership, p. 10]. In addition, while the use of information technologies for inventory control and tracking are reaching saturation in retail applications, they are far less prevalent in the industrial sector, where, for example, only some 30 percent of products are barcoded [Stevens, p. 17]. As seen below, in- vestment, adoption, and diffusion rates are most

acute for small- and medium-sized manufacturers, whose rates trail those of larger companies,

and dramatically lag foreign competition (see

tables below).

11
Table 1. Percent of U.S. Establishments Using Selected New Manufacturing Technologies in 1988 by Size of Establishment (employees)

Technology 20-99 100-499 500-1-

Design and Engineering Automation Technology (CAD/CAE) 29.8 percent 54.4 percent 82.6 percent

Flexible Manufacturing Cells or systems 6.5 16.2 35.9

Numerically Controlled/Computer Numerical Controlled 35.9 50.0 69.8 machine tools

Local Area Network for technical data 13.1 25.9 58.6

Local Area Network for factory use 1 1 .0 22.9 50.7 Intercompany computer network linking plant to 9.7 22.7 41.8

subcontractors, suppliers, or customers Programmable Controllers 22.5 48.1 77.8 Computers used for control on the factory floor 18.9 41.0 68.0

Source: Shapira, p. 13.

Table 2. Japan-U.S. Ratio of Advanced Manufacturing Used By Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (fewer than 500

employees) and Large Manufacturers (over 500 employees)

Advanced Manufacturing Technique SME Large

NC/CNC Machine Tools 1.4 1.1

Flexible Manufacturing Cells 4.3 1.9 ComputerAided Design 1.1 0.9 Automated Inspection 2.9 1.5 Handling Robots 4.1 1.4 Automatic Warehouse Equipment 5.8 1.8 Assembly Robots 2.1 1.2

Source: CTI study, based on data from the Industrial Technology Institute.

Low investment, adoption, and diffusion rates are a concern since it is only through the use of a technology that familiarity with its capabilities occur. Low investment and low diffusion rates mean that businesses which are initially uncomfortable with new technologies remain skeptical

of the ability of advanced manufacturing

strategies to affect competitiveness. In addition,

firms that under-invest in new manufacturing

equipment lag not only in their comfort and un- derstanding of information technologies, but

consequently in the use of combinations of technologies for modern manufacturing techniques such as continuous flow processing, justin-time inventory control, and concurrent

engineering. This under-investment puts U.S. manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage in world markets.

Private Sector Activities

Today, the increased pressure to reduce innovation time, the growing technical complexity of products and processes, and the need to be more responsive to external demand for quality,

customization, and cost are rapidly shifting the

manufacturing paradigm from one that rewards

low cost, mass production manufacturing sys- tems to one that rewards small production run,

flexible manufacturing systems. This situation is true for small and large firms alike. As a result,

companies are seeking ways to break down the

walls that have traditionally separated operations

within a company as well as the barriers that have inhibited communication with customers,

suppliers, partners, and even competitors.

12
To remain competitive, many companies, in particular large companies, are investing heavily in automated manufacturing equipment, process

technologies, and networking capabilities. For example, the Boeing Company has invested $5

billion in creating a paperless design and inanufacturing infrastructure for its next generation

"777" aircraft. Other manufacturers, such as General Motors, Ford, Newport News Shipbuilding, Caterpillar, and Intel have instituted pro- grams to develop or purchase new equipment

and technology and integrate them with existing

capabilities in order to create a seamless, flex- ible manufacturing environment.

Yet, despite the achievements of these and

other of America's premier manufacturers, with- out the development of an advanced Nil capable

of transmitting data quickly and efficiently from one application to another inside and outside

their operations, most businesses will remain

isolated and incapable of integrating their applications interacting with other companies, suppliers, and customers in a timely and cost-effective manner.

In an attempt to remedy this situation, U.S. companies and government agencies are beginning

to develop, demonstrate, and promote Nil- related manufacturing applications and services.

These activities take the form of industrial extension services, enterprise integration and electronic commerce applications, and R&D

consortia. They include the following:

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership

The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP),

sponsored by the National Institute of Standards

and Technology (NIST), is an industrial extension service designed to help U.S. manufacturers modernize manufacturing equipment,

redesign processes, and improve relations with

suppliers and original equipment manufacturers.

The MEP achieves this through regionally based

extension centers which provide technical assistance with new management and organizational

practices, shop floor design and manufacturing

process evaluation, workforce education and

training programs, and deployment of appropriate advanced manufacturing technologies and

manufacturing best practices. A key component

of the MEP is its information infrastructure program, known as LINKS, which electronically

connects the MEP's Manufacturing Extension

Centers to a vast array of technology resources

available throughout the nation (e.g., national

labs, private services, universities).

The LINKS pilot program, Technologies for Effective Cooperation Network (TECNet), effectively demonstrated the potential value of link- ages among the Extension Centers. The next stage is to add services requested by clients and centers and to implement a user friendly

front-end allowing transparent access to data

repositories resident on the major network sys- tems (e.g.. World Wide Web, Gopher, WAIS,

etc.). Databases of best practices, firm demographics, and corporate information will be

added to the system along with access to manufacturing analysis and workforce assessment

tools. Eventually video teleconferencing, on-line

training, and the capability to perform electronic commerce with business and product data will be added.

Most of these applications will be initially developed, implemented, expanded, and extended

through the following projects sponsored by the

Technology Reinvestment Project and deployed

by the MEP:

The Manufacturing Extension Partnerstiip's

Technology Network (MEPnet) is an electronic

network and communication system intended to expand and enhance the TECNet pilot. It will start by linking the NIST Manufacturing Technology Centers (MTC) and Manufacturing Outreach

Centers (MOC) to each other, providing access to federal technology resources and the ability to communicate directly with clients. Eventually it will provide a forum for direct communications

among small- and medium-sized manufacturers.

Employing the capabilities of the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation

(MCC) Enterprise Integration Network (EInet),

MEPnet will provide a set of online services,

including directories, design and analysis tools,

databases, and search mechanisms for the secure, easy, and timely exchange of manufacturing information in such areas as process

analysis, benchmarking, quality assessment, and

best practices. This scalable prototype will connect MTCs, MOCs, 2 National Laboratories,

13
3 Department of Defense Centers, and can be

extended to a potential user base of 370,000

small- and medium-sized manufacturers.

Manufacturers' EnterCorp (MEC) will provide a

practical, comprehensive, integrated, electronically linked service for manufacturers to quickly

pinpoint specific needs and match them with the

best network resources to fill them. MEC is a

consortium of midwestern manufacturers that, in cooperation with Sprint, will use an enhanced

version of EInet to enable smaller companies to share resources in the areas of product realization, design, prototyping, analysis and testing,

production, and training. The initial market for MEC services is the 5,000 small- and mediumsized manufacturers in Missouri, Kansas, and

Colorado. Partners in the organization include

Allied Signal; Colorado State University; Day and

Zimmermann, Inc.; DeMaTec Foundation, Inc.; Kansas Manufacturers Association; Kansas State

University; MidAmerica Manufacturing Technology Center; Kansas Technology Enterprise

Corp.; Metropolitan Community Colleges;

Pittsburg State University; Sprint; and the

University of Missouri.

TEXAS-ONE, created by the Texas Department

of Commerce, is intended to help small Texas

manufacturers become comfortable with electronic commerce by providing an electronic net- work that is easy to access, affordable, and

contains applications that are targeted at the

small manufacturer's needs. Core participants

include the Texas Department of Commerce; the

Texas Department of Information Resources; the

Texas Innovation Network System; Texas

Marketplace; the Institute for Manufacturing and

Materials Management at the University of Texas, El Paso; and the Microelectronics and

Computer Technology Corporation (MCC). Initial applications include Borderbase, and on-line

information systems providing demographic,

socioeconomic, market, and customs data in support of U.S./Mexico commerce; Texas Market

Place, a statewide electronic bulletin board ser- vice to promote buyer/seller exchanges; and the

Texas Assessment Center, which provides infor- mation on hardware and software products as

well as access to State information resources.

CommerceNet is an open, Internet-based in- frastructure to support the exchange of electronic data conceived of and operated by a

consortium of Silicon Valley's major electronics

manufacturers, software developers, and infor- mation service providers. Created under the

auspices of Smart Valley, Inc. -a consortium

which includes Hewlett Packard, Intel, Sun

Microsystems, Apple, National Semiconductor,

and Texas Instruments -CommerceNet will enable companies to revolutionize the way they

design, manufacture, sell, and support their products by making interactions with customers,

suppliers, and partners efficient, high quality,

flexible, and responsive. Demonstration of the

power and effectiveness of CommerceNet will attract hundreds and eventually thousands of small- and medium-sized companies, creating an integrated marketplace for the design, pro- duction, sales, and support of semiconductors,

electronics, computers, and software capable of meeting the demands of 21st century manufacturing.

National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols

The National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols (NIIIP) Consortium, led by IBM and

including participants from the software industry,

private and public research organizations,

universities, and defense and commercial products companies, is developing a series of computerbased protocols to enable the widespread

deployment and use of virtual enterprises within

America's industrial community. Sponsored in part by the Technology Reinvestment Project

(TRP), the NIIIP will provide the software architecture, tools, and mechanisms to allow diverse

organizations to work together as a virtual enterprise toward common goals by means of computer technology. The NIIIP will demonstrate

several Challenge Problems through pilot

projects which show the value of concurrent

product and process design, project control, and

distributed manufacturing. The NIIIP will consolidate, rationalize, and integrate a set of standards

upon which applications will be built and virtual enterprises will be formed. The approach is to converge commercial off-the-shelf standards and

14
tools, take advantage of the skills and experi- ence of Consortium members (the leading practitioners of each of the relevant technologies),

and develop an easily-accessible and secure

"plug and play" environment that embraces

both new and legacy applications and offers a

powerful solution for the virtual enterprise.

Rapid Response Manufacturing

Four large U.S. manufacturers — General Motors

Corporation, Ford Motor Company, Texas Instru- ments, and United Technologies -have joined

forces with the U.S. Departments of Commerce

and Energy to create a consortium to improve

the process of rapid response manufacturing

(RRM). The ultimate goal of the consortium is to reduce the time it takes an enterprise to design

and manufacture products and get them to market. The RRM Consortium intends to enhance

and adopt key technologies to enable the use of advanced, highly integrated systems for manufacturing. RRM consortium participants work to create computer-based tools to better assure an

accurate first part, achieve one-pass product designs by developing intelligent software systems

to analyze and choose optimum designs, and

provide simultaneous consideration of manufacturing process constraints in the generation of

initial designs. Included in the project is the development of a core architecture that will permit

the "plugging in" of a variety of focused engineering tools, thereby enabling companies to use numerous suppliers as well as develop

additional "next-generation" tools.

The American Textile Partnership

The American Textile (AMTEX) Partnership, ini- tiated in mid-1992, is a collaboration of 30 fiber,

textile, apparel, and retail companies working in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy

National Laboratories to provide assistance to the U.S. soft goods industry. The AMTEX Part- nership features long range, strategic R&D planning, technology transfer from the public to the

private sectors, and an operational framework

through which potential projects can be successfully implemented and directed. In January

1994, AMTEX announced a $20 million projectDemand Activated Manufacturing Architecture

(DAMA)- designed to develop a computerbased communications, analysis, and simulation

architecture to link the entire textile supply chain

to an electronic marketplace. This project is ex- pected to reduce an estimated $25 billion a year

loss due to stockouts, inventory, and distressed

pricing that result from communication inefficien- cies within the textile industry.

Center For Electronic Commerce

Combining a focus on small firm assistance and

manufacturing information management, the

Industrial Technology Institute (IT!) has developed the Center for Electronic Commerce

(CEC). The CEC serves as a bridge between

government and industry for electronic commerce, supporting the development and broad

deployment of electronic commerce within in- dustries through a program of pilots, demonstrations, training and outreach. The CEC works

with industry groups (both large customers and

their smaller suppliers) to work out the technical

and business aspects of effective communication and information sharing and also acts as a hub for sharing information on electronic commerce with other outreach centers across the

United States. Examples of CEC pilots include a

cooperative project with the Automotive Industries Action Group (AIAG) to develop new ways

to manage order release and scheduling of au- tomotive components and a project with the

Michigan office furniture industry, a $25 billion industry, to shorten product order-to-delivery

time to 5 days.

The National Initiative for Product Data

Exchange (NIPDE)

The National Initiative for Product Data Ex- change (NIPDE) is an industry-led, governmentfacilitated partnership that includes companies,

corporate consortia, standards organizations and

government agencies. Experts detailed to NIPDE from participant organizations are located

together at one site to work for a fixed period of time on a standards development plan for

digital information agreed to by senior executives from both industry and government. A primary focus of NIPDE has been the coordinated

15
development and deployment of the Standard

for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP).

NIPDE has identified and catalogued over 400

on-going product data exchange projects

accounting for approximately $50-$70 million of annual corporate and government expenditures.

NIPDE's "Roadmap" methodology enables companies to evaluate product data exchange strate- gies, establish plans for their implementation,

and monitor how well they help achieve specific

business goals. NIPDE's 11 Capability Action

Plans (CAPS) coordinate and optimize members'

efforts to get early, usable pilot demonstrations

of product data exchange capabilities into manufacturing operations. The NIPDE "Master Plan"

milestones and schedules help participants

review, coordinate, and maximize their own

product data exchange efforts. The Department

of Commerce hosts NIPDE at NIST's Gaithersburg headquarters.

PDES, Inc.

PDES, Inc., is a 26-member joint industry/government consortium focused on accelerating the

development and implementation of the emerging international Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP). PDES, Inc. is making substantial progress in influencing and

accelerating STEP'S development and implementation. Within PDES, Inc., the Development

Group focuses on mechanical and electrical/

electronics applications and STEP support activi- ties while the Deployment Group conducts pilot

projects and develops migration strategies to help members implement STEP in their enterprises. Pilot projects currently underway include

AEROSTEP, a project supporting intercompany

exchange of product definition data during the

development of commercial aircraft design; the

Advanced Weapons System pilot project, a

demonstration of STEP in an advanced weapons

system development environment; and the

PreAmp Program, designed to develop precompetitive generic technology using STEP to improve concurrent engineering for the U.S.

electronics industry.

The Continuous Acquisition and Life-Cycle

Support Initiative

The Continuous Acquisition and Life-Cycle

Support (CALS) Initiative is an industry and government strategy to enable more effective generation, exchange, management, and use of digital

data supporting the life cycle of a product

through the use of international standards, busi- ness process change, and advanced technology

application. The CALS initiative was started in September 1985 by the U.S. Department of Defense with the goal of enabling the integration

of enterprises on a worldwide basis through the

development, implementation, and integration of

digital information standards for product design,

manufacture, and support. The vision is for all parts of a single enterprise to be able to work

from a common digital database, in real time, on

the design, development, manufacturing, distri- bution, and servicing of products.

The five primary areas of the CALS initiative are:

(1) Technology Development and Demonstration: Develop and demonstrate technologies that can support the integration, management, and

secure electronic interaction of large volumes of digitized data, (2) Acquisition Process: Implement policy and procedures, program management guidance, and other contractual processes

for major system acquisitions, (3) Technology

Infrastructure: Address the way industry and

government receive, store, and transmit data,

(4) Standards: Integrate selected existing inter- national and national standards, and (5) Training

and Outreach: Develop an information dissemination process for effective cultural change

needed to implement the CALS initiative throughout government and industry.

Government R&D Initiatives

Within the federal government, there are numer- ous existing programs explicitly focused on R&D

for advanced manufacturing within eight federal

agencies, totaling more than $1.3 billion for

fiscal 1994. These activities are coordinated by

the White House's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). Within the NSTC, the

Civilian Industrial Technology Committee supports advanced manufacturing through its subcommittee on Manufacturing Infrastructure, while

the Communications and Information Committee

oversees advanced information technology R&D

through the High Performance Computing, Communications, and Information Technology

(HPCCIT) Subcommittee.

In addition to government involvement in many

of the projects cited above, following below is a

16
summary of key R&D programs sponsored by

the federal government related to manufacturing

applications for the Nll.^

The Systems Integration for Manufacturing

Applications Program

The Systems Integration for Manufacturing Applications (SIMA) Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) addresses

the development of a fully integrated set of manufacturing systems using High Performance

Computing and Communication (HPCC) technology. Its primary focus is concurrent product and

process design and integrated production planning and control. The centerpiece of the pro- gram is the creation of an Advanced

Manufacturing System and Networking Testbed

(AMSANT) which will support R&D in high per- formance manufacturing systems and will test high performance computer and networking

hardware and software. It will serve as a demonstration and test site for use by industrial technology suppliers and users, and it will assist

industry in the development and implementation

of voluntary standards.

In addition, the SIMA program includes a standards-based data exchange effort for computer-integrated manufacturing that will focus on

the improvement of data exchange among computer-aided design, process, and manufacturing

activities. Applications may include enterprise

integration for manufacturing applications, inte- grated product/process design, simulation and

agile manufacturing. Results will be made avail- able to U.S. industry through workshops,

training materials, electronic data repositories

and pre-commercial prototype systems that can be installed by potential vendors for test and

evaluation. Lastly, NIST will distribute Standards

Reference Data, technical information, and

digital product data designs via digital library

technologies.

Technologies Enabling Agile Manufacturing

To support U.S. industry's efforts to meet the

manufacturing challenges of today and tomor-

^ These projects were selected from both the Committee on

Applications and Technology and the High Performance Computing, Communications, and Information Technology

(HPPCIT) subcommittee's inventories.

row, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) facili- ties are teaming with industry in the development of Technologies Enabling Agile

Manufacturing (TEAM). The TEAM project has a

twofold mission: collaboration with industry to define critical technology needs, and direct ac- cess to the vast DoE scientific and engineering resources — people and facilities -that have cre- ated state-of-the-art manufacturing systems.

DoE's world-class manufacturing resources will unite with industry to:

Define an integrated set of U.S. manufacturing requirements;

Form project teams to address specific technological needs and opportunities throughout the manufacturing life cycle;

Promote awareness of available and potential solutions within both the private and

government sectors; Advance current technologies and collaborate to develop new solutions;

Demonstrate and install enabling technologies that will benefit a broad spectrum of U.S. industries without impeding the competitive process; and

Provide a virtual enterprise of technology

centers, accessible to all partners.

The TEAM project thrust areas are Production

Design and Enterprise Concurrency, Virtual Manufacturing, Manufacturing Planning and

Control, Intelligent Closed-Loop Processing, and

TEAM Integration. In one project, TEAM will work

with the Financial Services Technology Consortium to develop billing and payment systems

using the Nil for the manufacturing industry.

Manufacturing and Design Engineering Program

The Manufacturing And Design Engineering

(MADE) program of the Advanced Research

Program Agency (ARPA) focuses on the development and demonstration of key software

elements for Integrated Product/Process Development (IPPD) and agile manufacturing applications for the Nil. The primary emphasis is on

mechanical parts and electro-mechanical assemblies, where today's automation environment is neither integrated nor flexible compared to

17
electronics design and manufacturing. As a result, the program addresses the following areas:

Development of tools for conceptual design

that provide a spreadsheet-like capability for

Iterative optimization of product and process

characteristics. MADE will initially focus on

design for assembly and assembly process

planning, simulation, and control. Development and demonstration of tools for Interoperability, such as self-describing,

reusable, sharable product and process rep- resentations. In addition, MADE will demonstrate unambiguous interchange of geometry, dimensions, and tolerances in machine interpretable form, and will develop

productivity-enhancing capabilities for capturing and sharing data requiring human

interpretation, such as design intent. These

activities will provide a foundation for enhancement of emerging product data

interchange standards such as STEP.

Demonstration of a scalable capability to share multiple types of distributed information among networked applications that were

not explicitly designed for interoperability.

MADE will prototype a layer of network inte- gration services using intelligent agents to

facilitate interactions among coarse grained

objects (encapsulated legacy systems), fine grained objects (such as new MADE tools)

and man-in-the-loop applications. Initial ser- vices will include brokering of services for engineering analysis and manufacturing

processes, limited electronic commerce

support, and multi-media interchange of information among engineering and manufacturing applications.

Agile Manufacturing Initiative

Sponsored by ARPA and the National Science

Foundation, the Agile Manufacturing Initiative includes a prototype of an information infrastruc- ture to support distributed concurrent engineering, flexible manufacturing, and electronic

commerce in manufacturing applications. The

vision of agile manufacturing is to enable "virtual companies" to be formed by linking design and

manufacturing operations that are physically

distributed among a group of companies. The

program has three components: (1) an agile

manufacturing network ($10M), which will provide access to design and manufacturing

applications over both Internet and commercial

networks, (2) agile manufacturing research

institutes ($5M), which will work with industry

groups in important sectors to develop a deep

understanding of the business principles and

practices for lean/agile manufacturing, and

(3) pilot programs ($13M) to demonstrate use of the technology and business practices to achieve improvements in cycle time, cost,

quality, and responsiveness to change.

Part III: Where Do We Want to Be?

The national vision of an advanced Nil that supports manufacturing is one of widely accessible

and interoperable communications networks;

easy-to-use applications that are capable of run- ning on whatever types of computers are avail- able; a diverse collection of digital libraries,

information databases, and services; and trained

operators and support people. Achieving this vision will require both short and long term

goals.

Short Term Goals:

A short term goal of the Nil is for manufacturers,

in particular small- and medium-sized ones, to have sufficient information to make adequate

investments in both existing and advanced infor- mation technologies for the purpose of modernizing current manufacturing practices as quickly as makes business sense. Continued and

expanded investment in automation and net- working technologies will enable companies to streamline business and manufacturing pro- cesses, making them more efficient, effective,

and competitive." Through the use of information

technologies, management and shop-floor workers alike increase their familiarity and comfort

with information technologies, begin to see the

benefit of treating information as a strategic

asset, and most importantly, place themselves in position to take advantage of existing Nil tools and services to solve real business problems

and meet increasingly competitive business

challenges.

" As noted earlier, the use of information technologies and

the advanced Nil is innportant to business modernization and

competitiveness, but it is not the only important factor. Companies must also make changes in management, corporate

culture, organizational design, and other "nontechnical" business factors throughout the entire manufacturing enter- prise in order to remain competitive.

18
A second and related goal is for manufacturers

to use existing Nil tools and services in connbination with automation and networking technologies to advance their business modernization

efforts. Nil tools for analysis and simulation,

quality assessment, and data management and

Nil services which enable automated bidding,

data conversion, and on-line searches of databases and directories, enable companies to streamline manufacturing operations and activities. The use of information technologies in combination with Nil tools and services, enables

manufacturers to better understand their own

and other's information requirements and flows

and to see the value of an advanced information

infrastructure to their business operations. As a

result, the risl< and uncertainty of additional

investments is reduced while the role of information as a strategic asset is further clarified.

To realize these short-term goals, initial Nil tools

and services should support the following manufacturing functions:

Transmission, translation, exchange, and

down-loading of electronic design Initial Graphic Exchange Specification, product

(STEP), and business transaction data Electronic Data Interchange;

Electronic bidding and proposal, billing and

payment processes;

Conversion and translation of data, including

legacy (Computer-aided-xxx) data;

Automation of engineering and design

change;

Distribution of design and production functions;

Search, identification, location, communication, and coordination of suppliers, cus- tomers, partners, and others; and

Advanced planning concepts and implementations.

To be effective, initial Nil tools and services

need to be transparent, easy to use, secure, and

cost effective. A sample of Initial tools and ser- vices is given below:

While some tools and services already exist, oth- ers will need to be created. Almost all will need

to be improved, enhanced, and extended as the

advanced Nil evolves. In addition, as companies

increase investment in information technologies

and become more accustomed to Nil capabilities, additional, unforeseen tools and services

will be needed. An additional short term goal,

therefore, is the design, development, testing,

implementation, and use of new Nil applications

for manufacturing. Most applications will be

driven by users who will work together and with

vendors to define information requirements and

to develop, implement, and test them.

Table 3. Examples of Initial Tools and Services

Tools Services

process analysis tools

data storage, management, retrieval, and tracking tools

electronic mail

design tools

quality assessment tools

online search tools

modeling and simulation tools

software toolkits and libraries

benchmarking tools management and organizational design tools

planning tools

access to government services

access to government procurement Information

forums and bulletin boards

best practices databases

data conversion services

online training and outreach

electronic bidding networks and services

teleconferencing services

directories (white and yellow pages)

parts catalogues

referral services

19
Whether in small or large companies, the adoption and deployment of manufacturing technologies and the use of Nil applications will be

incremental.

A fourth short term goal is to hasten this pro- cess, encouraging companies to adopt technologies and use the Nil faster than has been

supported by the free market in the past. At the

same time, it is imperative that companies think

strategically about their investments in infrastructure technologies, tools, and services,

and make all investments in the context of a

long-term business strategy that places emphasis on the role of the information management

and use in future economic competitiveness.

Demonstration and testing of advanced manufacturing techniques such as enterprise integration and "agile" manufacturing will help

companies see the benefits of the seamless

exchange and use of information throughout an

enterprise while providing a model for manufacturers to build toward. It will also encourage all investment to be made in the context of a long

term business strategy, so as to avoid "islands

of automation" or stove-pipe situations. As a

result, to ensure the goal of hastened yet strate- gic investment in information technologies and

Nil tools and services, U.S. manufacturers, infor- mation technology vendors, and the federal government must encourage the development and

implementation of advanced manufacturing pilot

projects and testbeds.

Long Term Goals

Enabling U.S. manufacturers to compete and

win in world markets is the ultimate goal of developing and implementing advanced Nil applications in manufacturing. There are a number of technical and non-technical issues that need to be addressed for the vision of an advanced Nil in manufacturing to become a reality.

An essential goal is the establishment of standards for product and business data, net- work interfaces, and business and engineering

practices.

While product and process technological innovation is important to economic success, stan- dards are essential. Without standards, effective and efficient cooperation and collaboration

cannot occur. Indeed, "in an automated environment, concurrent engineering is impossible

without standards [Carver, p. 3]." The same can be said for agile and virtual manufacturing as

well as electronic business and financial trans- actions.

Standards enable rapid communication and

iterative decision-making. While protection of in- tellectual property and proprietary interests are

critical to increase competition and innovation,

they sometimes can provide unnecessary barri- ers to market competition. For example, some

proprietary data formats, incompatible hardware

peripherals and reporting requirements, and

rigid supply and distribution networks inhibit rather than enhance collaborative activities and

restrict rather than improve the speed, accuracy,

and flexibility of supplier and consumer transactions. In addition, standards lower the barriers to entry by small- and medium-sized firms, fre- quently shut out of established markets by en- trenched trading partners. Lastly, they reduce

the risk of investing in complex products and

systems, enabling accelerated market penetration and diffusion of new product and process

technologies. For all these reasons, the establishment of international standards for data for- mats, network interoperability, and business and

engineering practices is vital to the long term success of an advanced Nil.

Just as the private sector has the major responsibility for building the Nil, it is the private sector which must play a vital role in standards development and implementation. The federal government can and should aggressively promote

action on standards by the private sector and

assist in their development and use. Other criti- cal long-term goals include developing the ability to:

Understand how information is absorbed,

sorted, accessed, and used;

Scale prototype systems;

Ensure data security and integrity, and

maintain intellectual property rights;

Verify (certify) conformance to and compli- ance with Nil standards;

Use benchmarking and other metrics to assess competitive position and evaluate

alternative services and suppliers;

20
Provide adequate education, training, and

outreach to overcome social, managerial,

and economic barriers (including financial impact and business justification) to use of the Nil; and

Maintain long-term research and development and commitment to advanced manufacturing technologies, through support of the Manufacturing Infrastructure subcommittee of the NSTC's Civilian Industrial Technology Committee, the High Performance

Computing, Communications and Information Technology Subcommittee of the

NSTC's Computer and Information Committee, and other strategic R&D programs.

Part IV: How Are We Going to Get

There?

For the Nil to succeed, the private sector must own and operate it; develop, design, and implement its applications; and make the vast majority

of investments. There are several significant barriers, some technical, some cultural, and some

financial, to achieving the Nil vision. For example, most of the 370,000 small- and mediumsized manufacturers in the United States, who

compose nearly 98 percent of all manufacturing

firms, have neither the expertise, time, nor re- sources to modernize their manufacturing pro- cesses without some assistance. Moreover,

small and large firms alike are inhibited by the

difficulty they find identifying and understanding

technology trends, generating adequate invest- ment decisionmaking and strategic planning

models, implementing new technologies and migrating from old (legacy) systems, and, most importantly, developing a comprehensive business case capable of tying all these factors together.

Inexperience with computers and other information technologies and the perceived threat of advanced manufacturing applications on traditional ways of performing work present additional

barriers to achieving the Nil vision in manufacturing. Accordingly, user acceptance of, and

comfort and familiarity with information technology and its opportunities for improving manufacturing competitiveness and economic per- formance are necessary to developing meaningful advanced manufacturing Nil capabilities.

Moreover, manufacturers must increase education and training efforts to ensure that workers

and managers are comfortable with and ready to use the Nil.

The federal role is to help the private sector get

beyond these and other barriers to making the

advanced Nil a reality. The federal government

must provide an environment in which the pri- vate sector can take the lead, seeking to remedy market failures such as low investment

or adoption of information technologies,

standards, or R&D where necessary/.

To make the Nil vision in manufacturing a reality

and to meet both short and long term goals, the

following issues need to be addressed and

answered through private and public actions:

Issues and Questions to be Addressed

The continued modernization of manufacturing processes, in particular through incremental investment by small- and mediumsized manufacturers in appropriate manufacturing technologies, is fundamental to build- ing a strong, competitive, sustainable

industrial base in the United States. Early in- dications show that programs such as the

Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

and other state and local efforts are successful at helping manufacturers make in- vestments and adopt appropriate

manufacturing technologies, including communications equipment and computer hard- ware and software applications for the Nil. Should the federal government, building on

the successes of the MEP, broaden the

scope and reach of the MEP, turning it Into a national program capable of assisting

small- and medium-sized manufacturers

throughout the United States in their preparation for the use of the Nil for manufacturing?

In the new manufacturing paradigm, the

factors that determine competitiveness — flexibility, responsiveness, time-to-market, cost,

and quality -all depend on the efficient manipulation, control, management, and use

of information. For this reason, information is a company's key strategic asset. While

many companies want to modernize their equipment and processes, they often find

21
difficulty in procuring, installing, and configuring new equipment to work with old equipment and in thinking about short-term

investments in new equipment and capabilities in the context of a long-term, enterprisewide investment strategy. To facilitate the

investment process, should the federal government increase the scope of the MEP to assist small- and medium-sized companies

with their long-term strategic planning and

investment decision-making activities? Standards for product data exchange, electronic commerce, and interoperabiltiy are

essential to the development and use of the

Nil in manufacturing. Currently, however,

there are no generally accepted methodology or data format standards to allow easy

exchange of data (both engineering and

business) between U.S. companies within

the same industry or across industries. In addition, information technology advances

for manufacturing systems occur at very

frequent intervals and there is concern that the standards development process as it is today cannot keep pace with the needs of the manufacturing industry. The federal

government can accelerate the standards

development and acceptance process by

providing strong technical support for stan- dards development and by demonstrating

the soundness of technical ideas through

rapid prototyping, demonstration of feasibility, and other implementation and validation

activities. In which areas are the development and demonstration of the technical

underpinnings of manufacturing-related

standards for the Nil most needed? Does

continued federal investment in product data

standards (STEP), electronic commerce

standards (EDI), and interoperabiltiy

standards (OSE) make sense? Is there a need for an overarching standards framework that ensures that manufacturing applications for the Nil are compatible?

The Committee on Civilian Industrial Technology (CIT) of the National Science and

Technology Council (NSTC) has identified several areas as critical to the manufacturing

infrastructure. These areas include: Agile

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Systems Inte- gration, Manufacturing Technology Deployment, Intelligent Sensors and Controls, and

Rapid Prototyping. In addition, the Committee on Information and Communications

(CIC) of the NSTC oversees R&D for the

Information Infrastructure more broadly.

What are the specific technical requirements

that industry needs to develop, implement,

and use manufacturing applications for the

Nil? Which areas of R&D will stimulate most

rapidly the development and use of applications for the Nil in manufacturing? What are the best candidates for federally sponsored

demonstration projects and test beds?

Which federal agency or agencies should

coordinate and lead the effort to build and

test manufacturing applications for the Nil?

While the federal government performs a

great deal of R&D and provides demonstrations and test beds, it is the private sector

that turns the results of both public and

private R&D into commercial products and

processes. In the capital intensive, pre- production, latter stages of R&D, however,

capital markets often find it difficult to properly assess the risk-return ratio (i.e., expected value) of further investment in product or process development and therefore often do not provide resources to test the commercial viability of high risk products

and processes. To what extent is this a problem in manufacturing? Is there a government role in helping capital providers to accurately determine the risk-return ratio of investment in the latter stages of high risk product and processes development?

In the information age, a highly skilled, flexible, retrainable workforce is essential to economic competitiveness. The Nil can be

used to provide just-in-time, remote,

tailored, multi-media education and training

applications. (See, for example, "A Transformation of Learning: Use of the National

Information Infrastructure for Education and

Lifelong Learning"). The dynamic nature of the manufacturing sector necessitates the

existence of adequate mechanisms for the

identification of current and future trends

and needs of U.S manufacturers, assess- ment of the skills required to perform new

tasks and use new manufacturing equipment, and development and delivery of focussed education and training programs

directly to workers on the shop floor in a

timely and effective manner. To what extent should the federal government play a role in

22
developing mechanisms for the education

and training of the U.S. workforce to meet

manufacturing needs? Should the federal

government guarantee that all U.S. manufacturers, regardless of size, have access to adequate education and training resources?

Which federal agency or agencies should be

responsible for these activities?

For manufacturers to use the Nil they must

be assured that their transactions will be

secure, timely, verifiable, and unaltered. To

what extent is the safety, reliability, security,

and maintenance of the Nil a federal responsibility?

References

"Advanced Manufacturing Technology," Committee on Manufacturing Science, Engineering, and Technology, Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology, Office of Science and Technology Policy, August, 1993. "Basic Technologies for Industry," Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Japan, 1988. Bloom, Howard, "Concurrent Engineering Technical Program

Description: Systems integration for Manufacturing," National

Institute of Standards and Technology, November 1993. Byrne, John, "The Virtual Corporation," Business Week,

February 3, 1993, pp. 98-103.

Carver, Gary and Bloom, Howard, "Concurrent Engineering

Through Product Data Standards," National Institute of Standards and Technology, 1991. "The Challenge to Manufacturing: A Proposal for a National Forum," National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, 1988. "The Competitive Edge: Research Priorities for U.S. Manufacturing," National Research Council, 1991. "Contractor Integrated Technical Information Service: Busi- ness Case -Feasibility Study," Northrop, 1992. Davidow, William, The Virtual Corporation , HarperCollins

Publishers, 1992. "Emerging Technologies: A Survey of Technical and Eco- nomic Opportunities," U.S. Department of Commerce, 1990.

Fiengold, David, et. al., "The Decline of the U.S. Machine

Tools Industry and Prospects for Its Recovery," Critical Technologies Institute, forthcoming.

"Gaining New Ground: Technical Priorities for America's

Future," Council on Competitiveness. 1991. "Global Standards: Building Blocks for the Future," U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, March 1992. "High Performance Computing and Communications: To- ward a National Information Infrastructure," Committee on

Physical, Mathematical, and Engineering Sciences, Federal- Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology, Office of Science and Technology Policy, July 2, 1993.

"Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications," a

report to the High Performance Computing and Communications and information Technology Subcommittee, January 4, 1994.

"Information Technology and Manufacturing: A Preliminary

Report on Research Needs," National Research Council, 1993.

Kelly, Kevin, "The New Soul of John Deere," Business Week, January 31, 1994, pp.64-66.

"Manufacturing A La Carte," IEEE Spectrum, September,

1993, pp. 25-85. "Manufacturing Extension Partnership: A National Strategy

for Manufacturing Excellence," National Institute of Stan- dards and Technology, December, 1992. "Mastering a New Role: Shaping Technology Policy for National Economic Performance," Committee on Technology

Policy Options in a Global Economy, National Academy of Engineering, 1993.

Nagel, Roger and Dove, Rick, "21st Century Manufacturing

Enterprise Strategy: An Industry Led View of Agile Manufacturing," lococca Institute, Lehigh University, Volumes I and II, November 1991. "The National Information Infrastructure: Agenda for Action," Information Infrastructure Task Force, September 15, 1993. "Needs and Opportunities: U.S. Manufacturers Consider the Role of NIST in Systems Integration," Workshop sponsored

by NIST, 1993. "Needs and Opportunities: U.S. Manufacturers Define the Role of NIST," a workshop sponsored by NIST, 1993.

Park, Hisup, Tenenbaum, Jay and Dove, Rick, "Agile

Infrastructure for Manufacturing Systems (AIMS): A Vision for Transforming the U.S. Manufacturing Base."

"Report of the National Critical Technologies Panel," Office

of Science and Technology Policy, 1991. "Science and Technology" Report of the President transmit- ted to the Congress, Office of Science and Technology

Policy, January, 1993. "Second Biennial Report of National Critical Technologies

Panel," Office of Science and Technology Policy, 1993.

Shapira, Phillip, "Modernizing Manufacturing: New Policies To Build Industrial Extension Services," Economic Policy

Institute, Washington, DC, 1992. "Smaller Manufacturers: Their Targets for Improvement, and

Their Perceptions of New Technology," Industrial Technol- ogy Institute, 1989. Stevens, Tim, "A Tidal Wave Of Technology," Industry Week,

December 20, 1993, pp. 17-21. "Survey of American Manufacturers," Grant Thornton

Accountants and Management Consultants, 1992

Tassey, Greg, "Advanced Manufacturing Technology

Policy," National Institute of Standards and Technology,

January 1994. Tassey, Greg, "The Roles of Standards as Technology

Infrastructure," National Institute of Standards and Technology, October 1993. Teresko, John, "Tripping Down the Information Superhighway," Industry Week, August 2, 1993, pp. 33-40. "Toward a New Era in U.S. Manufacturing: The Need for a

National Vision," National Research Council, Commission on

Engineering and Technical Systems, Manufacturing Studies Board, 1986. Winner, Robert, "Information Infrastructures for Integrated

Enterprises," Institute for Defense Analyses, Volumes I and

II, November 1991.

23
1

I
Electronic Commerce and the Nil

DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

"Electronic Commerce integrates communications, data management, and security

services, to allow business applications within different organizations to automatically

interchange information. Communications sen/ices transfer the information from the

originator to the recipient. Data management services define the interchange format

of the information. Security services authenticate the source of information, verify the

integrity of the information received by the recipient, prevent disclosure of the infor- mation to unauthorized users, and verify that the information was received by the in- tended recipient."

Source: Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications (IITA) Task Group,

National Coordination Office for High Performance Computing and Communications,

February 1994, pp. 13-4

PART I: What Is the Application

Arena?

Description of Electronic Commerce

The telephone, fax, and electronic mall have

provided faster, cheaper, and nnore reliable conn- munication of business data v^/ithin and between

commercial entities. Great distances and multi- ple time zones are no longer barriers to busi- ness communications; the challenge now is how

to respond to and use an ever-increasing flood

of data from diverse sources in a timely and ef- fective manner. The stakes are high: vital infor- mation from the office next door or the other

side of the world may be lost or unnecessarily

delayed in the flood.

Many businesses are coping with the data flood

by shifting much of their routine data processing

and business transactions to automated, electronic information systems. However, differences

in information systems require that trading part- ners frequently translate from one system to an- other manually, greatly reducing both the speed

and the reliability of information exchange. In addition, while standards for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) enable fast, accurate exchange

of routine, relatively simple business transactions

between different automated information sys- tems, EDI requires rigid agreements about the

structure and meaning of data. These agreements are often expensive, inflexible, and diffi- cult to maintain, especially in a rapidly changing

business environment.

Electronic Commerce is the evolution of EDI into other types of data and transactions. An advanced national Electronic Commerce capability

will be comprised of interconnected communications networks; advanced computer hardware

and software tools and services; established

business transaction, data exchange, and inter- operability standards; accepted security and privacy provisions; and suitable managerial and

cultural practices. This infrastructure will enable

diverse and distributed companies throughout

the nation to rapidly, flexibly, and securely ex- change and, more importantly, use information

to drive their business processes. As a result,

people -who are needed to creatively solve

complex business problems -can be taken out

of the loop of routine data processing.

25
An advanced Nil for Electronic Commerce can

support activities such as the following:

Electronic funds transfer -extending and

completing the procurement process by

providing buyers the ability to rapidly and

cost-effectively make their payments to sell- ers and shippers with less financial risk and

fewer errors, while reducing paper handling

and storage.

Government regulatory data interchanges —

collecting formatted data from (and returning

data to) various communities to enable the

government to carry out its mandated re- sponsibilities: e.g., organizations that trans- port hazardous materials, corporations and

banking institutions that submit financial re- ports, and State public health officials who

report health statistics and epidemiologic in- cidents.

Collaborative engineering — providing for early evaluation of engineering designs to ensure manufacturability, reliability, maintainability, and other "-ilities." This may involve

massive amounts of highly complex engineering data, as well as extensive, non-routine interactions among people.

Enterprise integration —exlending integration

throughout a company and into other trading

partners. Business Process Reengineering is needed to identify business processes

which can be improved (or eliminated entirely) by improving communication within a company or by outsourcing to other companies. The result is the Virtual Enterprise,

which provides vertical integration of companies with their suppliers as well as

horizontal integration of segments of a company.

Computer-supported collaborative work — ex- panding collaborative activities from engineering into many other business activities,

such as supporting joint development of re- quirements, maintenance documents, etc., within or across companies (e.g., just-in-time

inventory control). The intent is to remove

the barriers (time, space, information complexity, etc.) that inhibit creative interactions

among people.

Electronic Commerce can combine the advantages of computers (speed, reliability, high volumes of data) with the advantages of people

(creativity, flexibility, adaptability). Electronic

Commerce can enable people to review, analyze, add value, and sell a wide variety of products that are represented electronically, such as

reference material, textbooks and training

materials, entertainment, and software. Electronic Commerce is not limited only to business

transactions— it also applies to exchanges of ideas and opinions, as well as the amassing and

sorting of information.

The successful extension of Electronic Commerce into these more complex (and rewarding) areas is dependent on the integration of communications, data management, and security

services into a ubiquitous, user-friendly, easily

accessible national electronic marketplace that encourages and enables the seamless ex- change of information for social and business

transactions -for all companies.^

In sum. Electronic Commerce differs from tradi- tional commerce primarily in the way information

is exchanged and processed. Traditionally, infor- mation has been exchanged through direct, per- sonal contact or through the use of the phone or

postal systems. In Electronic Commerce, infor- mation is conveyed via a digital communications

network, computer system, or some other electronic media. In addition, the information accompanying a typical traditional business transaction

is usually acted upon by individuals involved in the transaction, whereas with Electronic Commerce much of the transaction is automated. At a minimum. Electronic Commerce increases the

speed, accuracy, and efficiency of business and

personal transactions.

Wfiat Are the Benefits of Electronic Commerce

Applications in the Nil?

An advanced Nil that supports Electronic Commerce applications will provide benefits in a number of areas:

' Electronic Commerce will affect all types of business trans- actions and personal activities. As a result, Electronic Commerce applications are described to some extent in each of the applications strategies white papers. For a detailed dis- cussion of the potential influence of Electronic Commerce on

the manufacturing industry, see the white paper: Manufacturing and the Nil.

26
Reduced costs to buyers from increased

competition in procurement as more suppli- ers are able to compete in an electronically

open marketplace;

Reduced errors, time, and overhead costs

in information processing by eliminating

requirements for re-entering data; Reduced costs to suppliers by electronically accessing on-line databases of bid opportunities, on-line abilities to submit bids,

and on-line review of awards;

Reduced time to complete business trans- actions, particularly reduced time from deliv- ery to payment;

Creation of new markets through the ability to easily and cheaply reach potential cus- tomers;

Easier entry into new markets, especially

geographically remote markets, as the playing field becomes more level between companies of different size and locations;

Better quality of goods as specifications are standardized and competition increases,

and better variety of goods through ex- panded markets and the ability to produce

customized goods;

Faster time to market as business pro- cesses are linked enabling virtual elimination

of time delays between steps and the engineering of each subprocess within the whole

process for seemingly seamless processing;

Optimization of resource selection as businesses quickly form cooperative teams

to better tailor capabilities to work opportunities to increase chances of success, to share economic successes more broadly,

and to give the customer a mix of capabilities more exactly meeting his requirements.

Teaming may happen at either the company

or individual level, creating a just-in-time

"virtual" resource for delivery of the right human and business resources for a job. In addition, the workforce can be better uti- lized by freeing skilled labor from routine

activities enabling them to focus instead on

customer service and more complex duties;

Reduced inventories and a related reduction of risk of obsolete inventories as the

demand for goods and services are electronically linked through just-in-time inventory and integrated manufacturing

techniques;

Ability to undertake major national programs such as national health care where

the cost and personnel needed to manage a manual or disjoint automated system could

be prohibitive or unreasonable;

Reduced overhead costs through unifor- mity, automation, and large-scale integration

of management processes which enable flat- ter, wider, more efficient processes; and

Reduced use of ecologically damaging

materials through electronic coordination of

activities and the movement of information

rather than physical objects.

What is the Public Interest in Promoting the Application?

Productivity increases are essential to the longterm economic viability of the U.S. economy. In- creases in productivity enable companies to create, provide, and maintain goods and ser- vices using less resources. As a result, profits

rise, additional resources are freed to be in- vested in the sources of future economic growth

and even greater productivity, and, rounding out

the virtuous circle, companies continue to grow

and profit. The ultimate beneficiary, of course, is the U.S. worker whose economic security is strengthened and whose standard of living continues to rise.

Since the early 1980's U.S. companies have

been pumping money into information technologies as one way to boost productivity. However,

despite investments of over $1 trillion during this period, the resulting economic benefits have

been disappointing: overall U.S. productivity

grew at an annual rate of only 1 .0 percent, while

during a similar period, Japan's productivity in- creased 3.0 percent per year, Germany's 1 .8

27
percent per year, and Korea's 5.7 percent per

year.^'^

Table 1 . Annual Growth In Gross Domestic Product per Labor-Hour for Selected Sectors of the U.S. Economy, 1979-

1989

Industrial Sector Average Annual Growrth per Labor Hour

(percent per year 1979-1989)

Manufacturing 3.33

Service Producing 0.84 Government 0.53

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Eco- nomic Analysis, 1991. Survey of Current Business, April, Tables 6.2 and 6.11.

An advanced Nil which supports Electronic

Commerce applications will help U.S. companies

increase productivity by enabling rapid business

transactions, data and information exchanges,

and organizational changes. Through the ability to handle tremendous volumes of transactions

and the ability to amass, analyze, and control

large quantities of specialized data, organizations will be able to improve efficiency and accuracy, and reduce costs, while providing faster, more reliable, and more convenient services.

Most importantly, in combination with changes in management practices, organizational design,

corporate culture and other non-technical advancements, U.S. companies can reengineer

their business processes, and then use the Nil to take greater advantage of the productivity potential of their current and future information

technology investments. Electronic Commerce

will increase efficiency by improving human

^ Productivity is measured as the average percent change in real gross domestic product (GDP) per employed person for the period 1975-1991. Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

^ Some economists have concluded that any apparent lack

of productivity growth may be due to deficiencies in the way we measure productivity. For an excellent summary of the

current literature and a thorough assessment of the "Productivity Paradox," see Brynjolfsson, Erik, "The Productivity Paradox of Information Technology," Communications of the ACM, December 1993. In this study the author argues, "that the shortfall of IT productivity is as much due to deficiencies

in our measurement and methodological tool kits as to mis- management by developers and users of IT." He later con- cedes, however, that, "although it is too early to conclude

that the productivity contribution of IT has been subpar, a paradox remains in the difficulty of unequivocally documenting any contribution, even after so much effort."

access to information, and increasing the need

for human judgement based on that information.

The immediate effect will be to enhance the dynamics of competition in the U.S. economy. With

the ability to perform Electronic Commerce anywhere at anytime, smaller firms will be able to enter and participate at less cost and more effi- ciently in new markets, and larger firms will be

able to evaluate, select, and work with other

companies more readily than is possible today.

In addition, with an advanced Nil in place, new

ways of doing business and new forms of eco- nomic activities will develop, including telecommuting, worldwide research networks, global

sourcing arrangements, large-scale development

and sharing of new databases, new training and

education capabilities, faster response innovation systems, and disaggregated alliances or networks of companies.

As U.S. companies use Electronic Commerce to boost productivity, they will be able to maintain

and expand their share of international markets.

At present, the United States maintains a large

trade surplus in computer software, communications equipment, financial services, and other in- formation-intensive manufacturing and service

industries. Catching up in some international

markets and expanding market share in others

is critical to domestic economic growth, as the

export market will be the largest single source of potential value-added to the GDP in the future.

In addition to their importance to international

trade, communications equipment and computer

hardware and software drive the information in- frastructure, providing the connectivity, tools,

and services that other companies use to pro- duce their products and to ensure a close

working relationship among their suppliers, cus- tomers, and partners. In the face of shortening

technology and product life cycles and increasing technological complexity, the ability to inte- grate highly sophisticated, next-generation

components and associated services into downstream products and services requires close

working relationships among component and

end-product manufacturers and service suppliers. Historically, this synergy has been difficult to achieve among U.S. companies and their suppliers. An advanced Nil will facilitate and encour- age these relationships.

28
Finally, as Information and information exchange

become more valuable to economic performance, those countries that develop an effective advanced information infrastructure will gain

competitive advantage in global markets. Instead

of just chasing low-wages around the gloce, as has been the trend in the recent past, companies increasingly will choose to locate and invest

in countries whose infrastructure and highlyskilled workforce are able to handle the rapid

and efficient control and dissemination of infor- mation and the integration of diverse business

operations. Consequently, an effective advanced

Nil and trained workforce in the United States can make the United States the country of choice for investment, with enormous and last- ing positive impact on the national economy.

Evidence of the Benefits

Many companies in several industries have ex- perienced the benefits and realized the need to use Electronic Commerce to survive. Large companies such as Sears, General Motors (GM),

and Wal-Mart have championed electronic trad- ing practices for their suppliers. Indeed, in some

industries EDI has become a virtual necessity for doing business. Some examples of the benefits

of Electronic Commerce are given below:

In the 1980's, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., experienced

explosive growth in sales, rising lo number one

in the U.S. retail business. Despite its rapid

growth, Wal-Mart's investment of half a billion dollars in computer and satellite communications

networks, bar code systems, scanners, and

other "quick response" equipment linking each

point-of-sale terminal to distribution centers and

headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, enabled

the company to maintain high service levels and

increase sales while preserving one-fourth the

inventory investment. By empowering its individ- ual stores to order directly from suppliers, even

overseas, Wal-Mart stores reduced inventory re- stocking time from an industry average of six weeks to thirty-six hours. Moreover, by tracking

every sale to see what was selling and what was

not, Wal-Mart stores were better able to keep

their stores well-stocked while maintaining tight

inventories and low prices [Davidow, pp. 23-24].

In building a brand new facility in which to manufacture its Saturn cars. General Motors developed an information infrastructure to enable

Saturn and its numerous suppliers to operate as

one company. Through the implementation of a

production scheduling database and the use of electronic data interchange, Saturn and its suppliers reduced overhead in all organizations, in- creased cooperation, and broke one of the

oldest rules in any corporation's unwritten rule book: treat vendors as adversaries. Located in Spring Hill, Tennessee, the Saturn plant includes an online manufacturing database which is ac- cessible by component suppliers who do not

wait for GM to send a purchase order, but simply consult the car maker's production schedule,

included in the database. In this process there is no paper -no purchase order and no invoice.

After the parts are shipped, the vendor sends an

electronic message to Saturn saying, in effect,

"These are the parts we have sent you." When

the box of goods arrive, the receiving clerk scans the bar code printed on it with an electronic wand. The computer can then tell the re- ceiving clerk to what part of the plant the goods

should go. The scanning also initiates payment

to the vendor [Hammer, pp. 90-91].

Over the past decade, the banking and financial industries have invested heavily in automation

and networking technologies to handle and pro- cess electronically an ever-increasing number of

financial transactions. For example, the Clearinghouse for Interbank Payment Systems coordi- nates daily bank-to-bank transactions worth

nearly $2 trillion while the nation's network of more than 75,000 Automated Teller Machines

(ATMs) handles more than 6 billion transactions

per year. In addition, one analysis of the New

York Stock Exchange suggests that electronic

trading saves stock buyers and sellers hundreds

of millions of dollars annually. Examples of the

effect of Electronic Commerce on specific financial institutions abound: Through the use of in- formation technologies, Visa's peak capacity for processing credit card transactions grew from

30,000 per day in 1978 to over 1.4 million per

day in 1991, while its response time for authorizations dropped from 5 minutes in 1973 to 1.1 seconds in 1991; through the deployment of an ATM network in 1977 Citibank increased its market share from 4 percent to 13.4 percent; by in- stalling a computer-based network to resolve

credit card disputes, Mellon Bank reduced its backlog of customer complaints from 5,200 to 2,200, resolving them in 25 days on average

(versus 45 days previously) [National Research

Council, pp. 83-84 and Davenport, p. 54].

29
Through the use of just-in-time inventory control

and total quality managennent practices, Harley

Davidson reduced manufacturing cycle time for motorcycle frames from 72 days to just 2, while

increasing final product quality from 50 percent

to 99 percent; Digital Equipment reduced overall inventory from 16 weeks to 3, while reducing its defect rate from 1 7 percent to 3 percent; and

3M attained a 70-fold reduction in critical defects, appearance defects, and packaging problems [Davidow, p. 94].

The Defense Medical Logistics Standard Support

(DMLSS) system has embraced Electronic Commerce concepts of business process redesign

and EDI to obtain an estimated $3.2 billion sav- ings over 12 years from an investment of $120

million. Savings come from reduced inventories

and the leverage of the civilian health care supply industry to streamline DoD operations.

The U.S. Customs Service, one of the leaders in the federal sector for adoption of EDI, today pro- cesses 94 percent of all customs declarations

electronically and collects 60 percent of all duties electronically. By moving from paper to electronic declarations. Customs reduced error rates from 1 7 percent to 1 .7 percent, a whole order of magnitude. In addition, it saves an estimated

$500 million in processing costs each year while

increasing annual productivity an estimated 10

percent each year. PART II: Where Are We Nowr

As seen above, many companies and government agencies use Electronic Commerce applications to facilitate internal operations and

interact seamlessly with their trading partners.

While a wide variety of transactions occur electronically already, the performance of Electronic

Commerce applications usually requires highly

structured, previously established arrangements

and, for the most part, dedicated lines and/or

Value-Added-Networks (VANs). The resulting costs and necessary lead times frequently create

barriers to investment in and widespread use of Electronic Commerce applications by small and

medium-sized companies, and inhibit the expansion of Electronic Commerce beyond large companies and their major trading partners.

Much of this section is excerpted from "Electronic Commerce on the Internet," by Robert Neches, et al.

Despite these barriers, the electronic marketplace is forming at a rapid pace. By the end of 1994, more than 10,000 companies will be offer- ing information and services for sale over a combination of Internet and VAN service providers.

Their ranks are expected to swell to 100,000 by

1997 and 1 million by 1999. In addition, the In- ternet is already making some form of Electronic

Commerce an economically viable option for many companies. Today, the Internet connects

some 10 million users in over 130 countries, and

at current growth rates it will link to an additional

15 million users by 1995. While the Internet is useful for electronic mail, bulletin boards, and

file transfer, it has a number of limitations that must be overcome before it can be deemed

suitable for commerce. Some commonly ex- pressed concerns include reliability, security,

scalability, and ease-of-use. These problems

could be more easily addressed if the Internet were run as a business enterprise; the enterprise would be accountable to customers from

whom it would receive payments for specified

services rendered.^

Electronic Commerce usually happens as a set

of evolutionary implementations. The early implementations focus on the introduction of electronic technologies to add functionality and

operational effectiveness (i.e., automate busi- ness processes) by connecting computers and

applications with electronic tools such as bulletin board systems, groupware, databases, e-mail,

electronic directories, imaging, and graphics.

The second phase moves beyond automation to complete business process reengineering,

where major benefits are realized from the inte- gration of the business processes. Business pro- cess reengineering, facilitated by Electronic

Commerce, eliminates time and distance constraints, leading to double digit or higher annual

returns on investment as well as increasing cycle time by an order of magnitude or better.® Obtaining Electronic Commerce benefits is more

like a journey rather than a destination. With

each increase in the efficiency of business pro-

^ Potential solutions to these and other concerns about using

the Internet for Electronic Commerce are explored in "Electronic Commerce on the Internet," by Robert Neches, et al. ® For an excellent discussion of the role of information tech- nology in business process reengineering see Davenport, Process Innovation: Reengineering Work Through information Technology.

30
cesses, new bottlenecks are identified, studied,

and overcome yielding a new level of benefits.

An improved Nil will establish an environment

conducive to speeding up this evolution.

The computers, networks, standards, interoperability, accessibility, training, and other components of the Nil are the raw materials used to build the national Electronic Commerce capability. Once the tools for Electronic Commerce are

nationally available and companies are comfortable using them, organizations will be able to concentrate on a re-examination of business

processes rather than working to overcome

technology barriers. As a result, the realization of the benefits possible through Electronic Commerce will be accelerated by implementation of the Nil.

Federal Goals

From its sheer size, the government's adoption

of a redirection in business practices can create a force that can sway business practices

throughout the nation. At present, there are nu- merous pockets of expertise in the federal government. Most importantly, the Administration

has made the development and implementation

of Electronic Commerce throughout the federal

government a top priority, with the President asserting personal leadership in this area by signing an Executive Memorandum outlining federal

goals for "Streamlining Procurement Through

Electronic Commerce" dated October 26, 1993.

That memorandum provides the following mile- stones: "by March 1994, define the architecture for the government-wide Electronic Commerce

acquisition system and identify executive

departments or agencies responsible for developing, implementing, operating, and

maintaining the federal electronic system;

"by September 1994, establish an initial Electronic Commerce capability to enable

the federal government and private vendors

to electronically exchange standardized re- quests for quotations, quotes, purchase or- ders, and notices of awards and begin

government-wide implementation;

"by July 1995, implement a full-scale federal

Electronic Commerce system that expands

initial capabilities to include electronic payments, document interchange, and supporting databases; and

"by January 1997, complete governmentwide implementation of Electronic Commerce for appropriate federal purchases, to the maximum extent possible."

This implementation schedule should be accelerated where practical.

By creating and completing an initiative such as

the President's Executive Memorandum, the

government will signal strong leadership for the

country's adoption of Electronic Commerce.

In addition, the National Performance Review,

conducted by Vice President Al Gore, has pro- posed to reengineer many current government

services and information dissemination pro- cesses through the introduction of Electronic

Commerce applications.^ Many smaller busi- nesses and government agencies, however, are

waiting for Electronic Commerce applications to become more prevalent before they make their investments, citing the desire to avoid prohibitive

trail-blazing costs that are always incurred by the

leaders. Legacy systems and a large installed base provide further barriers to Electronic Commerce. In addition, some organizations, even if large, are at the end of an information chain In- volving many organizations which have handled

the information before it gets to them; the benefits from conversion to electronic data handling

may not make sense until that data is delivered

in electronic form.

Federal Activities The following is a small sample of current activi- ties within the federal government:

The Executive Office of the President has established the Federal Electronic Commerce Acquisition Team to define the Electronic Commerce

architecture called for in the President's Executive Memorandum. Representatives from over a dozen federal agencies and departments participate on this team, which is co-chaired by the

General Services Administration and the Department of Defense.

^ For more detail on federal initiatives to use Electronic Commerce improve ttie collection and dissemination of information and ttie provision of government sen/ices see ttie white paper: Government Service Delivery: Reengineering

Ttirougti IT.

31
The General Services Administration (GSA), In- formation Resource Management Services

(IRMS), is engaged in several government-wide

Electronic Commerce initiatives which should

have a major impact on the way the federal government conducts business with the private sector. These activities include:

The support of the President's Electronic

Commerce Executive Order by providing

procurement, automated data processing,

and telecommunications technical support

and by serving as co-chair of the Federal

Electronic Commerce Acquisition Team.

The redesign and implementation of an au- tomated procurement system which will start with the preparation of a purchase requisition and include the electronic transmission

of a purchase order, either using EDI, e- maii, or fax. Once the order is completed the

vendor will electronically transmit its invoice,

which will be electronically matched with the

purchase order and receiving report. The

payment to the vendor will then be made

through EFT.

The establishment and maintenance of the

IRMS Bulletin Board which contains Multiple

Awards Contract information is undergoing

enhancements to enable federal agencies to

directly place purchase orders.

The development and introduction of emerging technologies into the government-wide

infrastructure through Master Contracts for products and services, and the development

of critical multiagency services. A number of specific initiatives are likely to support

Electronic Commerce. These may include

service ordering and billing, and X.435 pro- totype and operational system development,

distributed directory services, registration

services, and security certification services.

The Office of Management and Budget has es- tablished an E-Mail Task Force (EMTF), to develop a plan of action for promptly establishing a government infrastructure for interagency e-mail.

The plan will support mail-enabled applications

such as electronic filings, Electronic Commerce,

interactions with state and local governments,

and Service to the Citizen. EMTF is currently

supporting several e-mail pilot projects to pro- mote government e-mail.

Throughout the Department of Commerce, Electronic Commerce applications are being implemented. For example, the Bureau of Export

Administration processes export licenses electronically; the Economics and Statistics Administration maintains the Department's Economic

Bulletin Board; the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration electronically dis- seminates weather information to local meteorologists and news stations; the Office of the

Secretary receives and processes Federal Ex- press invoices using EDI; and the Department

transmits time and attendance data to the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Finance Center electronically. Many more initiatives are either

underway or planned.

Also within the Department of Commerce, the

National Institute of Standards and Technology

(NIST) has been active in R&D for Electronic

Commerce as well as efforts to increase public

dialogue on Electronic Commerce and stan- dards issues. NIST assists the private sector

with the development of the technical underpinnings for interoperability, and also works to coordinate and facilitate the standards process. NIST

has issued Federal Information Processing Stan- dard 161, which assures federal agency adoption of appropriate national and international

voluntary standards for use in Electronic Commerce. NIST reports on Electronic Commerce in- clude: "National Public Key Infrastructure Implementation," "The Federal Certificate Authority Liability & Policy," "Good Security Practices for Electronic Commerce, Including

Electronic Data Interchange," and "Analyzing

Electronic Commerce." NIST's work to establish

the Digital Signature Standard (DSS) is critical to the success of Electronic Commerce. Other

NIST activities include the establishment of an

Electronic Commerce Integration Facility (ECIF),

described below:

The goals of the ECIF are: (1) to serve as a technology transfer center to assist government and industry in the deployment of Electronic Commerce applications; (2) to demonstrate, through prototypes and pilots,

generic open systems implementations of Electronic Commerce applications; (3) to perform, in cooperation with industry,

research, development, and testing of Electronic Commerce applications and in- frastructure services. These goals should

32
assist in the removal of barriers that are currently preventing the transition from paperbased commerce to Electronic Commerce,

and should help to advance technology in order to permit the development of future

Electronic Commerce applications.

The ECIF is developing a pilot electronic

procurement system which will assist agencies in the implementation of the Executive

Memorandum on electronic procurement.

Other Electronic Commerce applications,

such as health care and manufacturing, will be addressed in the future. Prototypes and

pilots of infrastructure services, required by

Electronic Commerce applications, are also

under development. The initial services in- cluded are: secure electronic mail, directories, EDI translation and transmission, and

Remote Database Access.

Other ECIF deliverables will include: (1) guideline documents disseminating the

knowledge gained from the facility, (2) li- aison services with other government and

industry groups involved in Electronic Commerce, and (3) consulting services, which

help users in the federal and private sectors deploy Electronic Commerce applications.

The Security and Exchange Commission's

(SEC's) EDGAR system is designed to automate

the receipt, processing, and dissemination of documents filed with the SEC. The purpose of EDGAR is to increase the efficiency and fairness

of the securities markets for the benefit of in- vestors, corporations, and the economy by accelerating the processing, dissemination, and

analysis of time-sensitive corporate information

filed with the SEC. Under the fully implemented

EDGAR system, millions of pages of information

currently submitted to the SEC on paper will be

transmitted and stored electronically using electronic communication and data management

systems. Currently, 3,400 of the approximately

15,000 U.S. corporations with filing obligations are using the system to submit 309 different fil- ing types. Once the electronic filing is accepted,

public information is immediately disseminated

and becomes available quickly to investors, the

media, and others on computer screens via the

SEC's public reference rooms and through

electronic subscription services provided by in- formation resellers. EDGAR makes disclosure in- formation readily available on both a document

retrieval and a text search basis to all of the SEC

operating divisions and offices.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is using EDI as a business reengineering tool to improve

relationships with third parties regarding benefits

delivery, seeking to improve the quality and re- duce the costs of doing business. VA has re- cently completed a Business Case Analysis that outlines savings of approximately $500 million over a five year period by replacing approximately 15 commonly used business documents,

including purchase orders, invoices, health care

claims and others with their electronic equivalents. VA is currently developing an implementation plan for Electronic Commerce applications.

The Department of Defense Continuous Acquisition and Life-Cycle Support (CALS) Initiative is an industry and government strategy to enable more effective generation, exchange, management, and use of digital data supporting the life cycle of a product through the use of international standards, business process change, and

advanced technology application. The CALS ini- tiative was started in September 1985 by the

U.S. Department of Defense with the goal of enabling the integration of enterprises on a

worldwide basis through the development, implementation, and integration of digital information standards for product design, manufacture,

and support. The vision is for all parts of a single

enterprise to be able to work from a common

digital database, in real-time, on the design, development, manufacturing, distribution, and ser- vicing of products.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is modernizing business processes to allow TVA to compete more effectively in today's global econ- omy. A critical tool in this modernization process

is the Nil. TVA is streamlining its procurement

processes to use electronic data interchange to

solicit bids, develop contracts, and to deliver

and receive products. As a result of this initia- tive, TVA has developed electronic data inter- change relationships with 56 preferred suppliers.

Of the 56 suppliers, 19 are small, minority, or woman-owned businesses.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has instituted a

Postal Electronic Commerce Services project at the request of the Department of Defense to provide trusted third-party value-added services

33
for Electronic Commerce transactions. The ser- vices consist of a registration authority service

for individuals to obtain a public-key certificate to sign electronic transactions, a time/date stamp

service to prove existence of an electronic

record and to seal it to prevent undetectable al- teration and a directory service for identification and location of Electronic Commerce trading

parties. The services, developed jointly with

NASA, will be tested with the Federal Aviation

Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.

A decision will then be made by the USPS concerning making the services generally available

throughout government. The USPS is also working with other federal agencies, most noticeably

the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Veter- ans Affairs, to establish a generic governmentwide Service to the Citizen kiosk program. The

program will provide an economy of scale and a "one stop shopping" kiosk program for the public. The kiosk program material will migrate to

interactive TV delivery of the government infor- mation services at such time as the Nil supports secure home interactive TV services.

The Internal Revenue Service, which introduced an Electronic Filing System on a limited basis in 1986, received over 13 million individual returns from over 75,000 filers last year, a number that

is expected to grow to 80 million returns within

the next 10 years. Over the past few years the

system has expanded to include certain busi- ness forms and balance due returns. In 1991 a

Federal/State cooperative program was started

that has grown to include more than 25 states.

In 1992 a 1040EZ file-from-home pilot (TeleFile) was introduced via touch-tone phone. The current system uses a proprietary input format but a

pilot is scheduled to accept American National

Standards Institute/American Standards Committee XI 2 (ANSI/ASC XI 2) EDI input in the near

future.

Private Sector Activities Many private sector organizations are developing and implementing Electronic Commerce applications for the Nil; indeed, the Gartner Group

has made a strategic planning assumption that by 1997 there is an 80 percent probability that electronic messaging will become more important for Electronic Commerce than EDI [Gartner

Group ECS Research Notes, February 14, 1994].

Evidence of this movement is that the Electronic

Messaging Association, the national U.S. e-mail

association, has created an Electronic Commerce Committee to promote adoption of Electronic Commerce throughout the U.S. and

internationally. National voluntary standards

organizations working in electronic data inter- change, in bar coding, and in electronic ex- change of product modeling and specification

data, are providing necessary components for the infrastructure. Below is a brief list of examples of current private sector activities:

CommerceNet

CommerceNet is an $8 million project designed

to help Silicon Valley businesses make commercial use of the Nil. Half of the funds for CommerceNet will be provided by a federal

"Technology Reinvestment Program" (TRP)

grant. Matching funds will be provided by the

State of California and participating companies.

CommerceNet's goal is to make public computer networks, such as the Internet, "industrial

strength" for business use. CommerceNet will address issues including low-cost, high-speed

Internet access using newly deployed technology such as Integrated Services Digital Network

(ISDN) services and multimedia software. CommerceNet will support a range of commercial

network applications such as on-line catalogs,

product data exchange, and engineering collaboration. It will also offer outreach services such

as technical assistance to small- and mediumsize businesses that want to access public

networks. The CommerceNet consortium is sponsored by Smart Valley, Inc., and the State

of California's Trade and Commerce Agency.

Enterprise Integration Technologies, a local high-tech company specializing in Electronic

Commerce, will lead the effort.

Enterprise Integration Network (EINet)

The Microelectronics & Computer Technology

Corporation (MCC) is an industry consortium of more than 80 leading companies in the microelectronics and computer industry committed

to the joint development of pre-competitive technologies. MCC has developed the Electronic In- tegration Network (EINet) which dramatically

reduces the time and costs involved in getting

products and services to market using Electronic

Commerce technologies. EINet allows the wide34
spread, secure exchange of information and ser- vices in order to increase and enhance business

activity across networks. With EINet, businesses

and organizations are able to interconnect with

partners, suppliers, and customers. Four initial services— directory, security, remittance, and advanced e-mail — have been developed based on

industry priorities. The Advanced Research

Projects Agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Electric Power Research

Institute, Sematech, and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, among others, are participating in the EINet program. Pilots are being

planned in the manufacturing, health care, and

general commerce arenas. Geographically

based initiatives are also developing in Albuquerque, Austin, Omaha, and Rochester. These

initiatives are aimed at increasing the economic

viability of a specific region.

Electronic Manifest Bar Code (EMBARC)

The publishing industry has been using EDI

since 1985 and has grown its Electronic Commerce uses through an evolution of progressive

changes that started with financial or operational

justification and that have evolved into strategic

service differences. The publishing industry has

developed a proprietary set of EDI transactions

and bar codes called Electronic Manifest Bar

Code (EMBARC) which it uses to used to track

and control paper shipments. This standard is expected to migrate to X12 EDI standards in the near future. As an example of the benefits of EMBARC, Judd's, a Virginia printer, has used

the EMBARC technology to reduce on-hand pa- per stock from 100 to 25 days and reduce their inventory by $3 million. EDI transactions are also

used to provide activity reports electronically to such customers as Newsweek in an automated

process that is quicker and more accurate and

that saves time.

Production Order Specification (PROSE)

Using a new complex EDI transaction for Pro- duction Order Specification (PROSE), also to be

converted to XI 2, New York based printer World

Color Press receives detail printing instructions

that can set up a print job 60 percent faster and

can be used by the U.S. Postal Service to rate the resultant mail pieces. Use of PROSE enables

customers such as U.S. News & World Reports

to make last minute changes while extending

their deadlines closer to print time. PROSE in the future will be used to customize printing for companies, regions, or even individuals to re- ceive their personal customized copy of their national magazine!! What started with notices and

control of paper shipment, through successive it- erations, will generate whole new strategic products and capabilities [EDI News, pp. 1-3,

"Publishing Industry Gets The Word Out On

EDI", January 10. 1994].

Financial Services Technology Consortium

The Financial Services Technology Consortium

(FSTC) is a consortium of financial service

providers, national laboratories, universities, and

government agencies whose goal is to enhance

the competitiveness of the U.S. financial services

industry. The FSTC sponsors interbank technical

projects with particular emphasis on projects in- volving the Nil and the High Performance Computing and Communications Program such as

Electronic Commerce/consumer payments; fraud

prevention and control; and trusted, secure re- mote access to financial services.

In addition to the examples cited above, the

Council on Competitiveness has created an in- ventory of Electronic Commerce applications in various stages of development. Their inventory

includes:

"Institute for a Distributed Workplace" and

"Intell-I-Center" are two Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) projects designed to study the impacts of telecommuting on productivity and social structure.

"Internet Mercantile Protocol" is a Bellcore

proposal to develop technologies that will permit Internet users to conduct business

over Internet, and use Internet services to validate and complete the transaction.

"Kodak Picture Exchange" is a Kodak pilot to demonstrate an on-line marketing service

for the commerce of images and the commerce of image-dependent products or ser- vices. Kodak's project enables keyword and

visual searching of an image database,

transmission of thumbnail images to the

desktop, and electronic ordering.

"Interactive Transaction Partners" is an

operational joint venture among General Motors/Electronic Data Systems (GM/EDS),

35
us West and France Telecom to provide in- teractive financial and information transactions to the consumer and small business in the home and office. It provides a platform

to move seamlessly among applications.

"PowerView (Energy)" is an operational

EPRI pilot that provides residential and other

electric customers the ability to manage their

electricity to reduce their energy expenses.

PowerView is a combination of software and

broadband network technology that allows

real-time information

exchange between the utility and its cus- tomers. It has ample capacity to integrate

other services to the home, such as video

and telephone.

"Workers Compensation Reporting Ser- vices" is an EDS developed system that conveys an employer's First Report of Injury to the state and to the insurance agent, carrier third party payor, or self-insurer and to the state's Industrial Accident Board.

International Activities The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe is developing an international family of standards called UN/EDIFACT that is starting to make possible world-wide Electronic Commerce.

Many nations throughout the world, including

the United States, contribute to development of these standards.^

The United Nations has established a Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRL) to develop rules for the international adoption of EDI. The United Nations Commission on Trade

and Development (UNCATD) is working on re- ducing the administrative costs of conducting in- ternational trade, which currently is $400 billion annually, to enable $4 trillion of commerce. UNCTAD is holding a World Symposium on

Trade Efficiency in Columbus, Ohio, on October

17-24, 1994. Secretary Ronald H. Brown, of the

U.S. Department of Commerce, will serve as

host and UN Secretary-General Boutros BoutrosGhali is expected to attend. Columbus, one of the fastest growing centers in North America for international trade and utilization of information

technologies, has been named The North

^ ANSI/ASC X 12 has agreed to adopt EDIFACT standards,

and has established the EDIFACT Alignment Task Group.

American Trade Point by UNCTAD under its Trade Efficiency Initiative Project. This project is an effort to include the developing world in Electronic Commerce with the developed world.

The European Community started in 1988 a Trade EDI Systems (TEDIS) program to educate

users, to help set standards, and to help implement and coordinate EDI systems in such industries as automotive, chemical, and retail.

Singapore perhaps is the leader in the world

today in its adoption of Electronic Commerce.

Singapore has adopted a national program to aggressively maximize its use of telecommunications and paperless processing to establish

competitive advantage for its nation. Singapore

represents a potential national model and

benchmark for Electronic Commerce.

Worldwide recognition of the potential payoff for international enterprise integration is evidenced

by CALS organizations in Australia, Canada,

France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Nor- way, Netherlands, Japan, and Taiwan. Singapore and South Korea are also considering

CALS efforts. PART III: Where Do We Want to Be?

The ultimate goal of the Nil in Electronic Commerce is the creation of a national electronic

marketplace which is secure, open, affordable,

easy to access, and easy to use. The exponential growth of the Internet indicates that connectivity and the use of electronic mail, bulletin boards, and file transfers are growing at an enormous rate. In addition, EDI is currently being used by many individuals and organizations

to automate simple business decisions and fi- nancial transactions. To make an advanced Nil for Electronic Commerce a reality, individuals

and organizations must continue to increase

their use of and familiarity with networked communications services and tools, such as the In- ternet and EDI, as quickly as makes financial sense.

A fully scaled, comprehensive national Electronic

Commerce capability, however, involves much

more than the reduction of paperwork and the

speeding of decision making information for business and government transactions. In particular, the creation of an advanced infrastructure

36
that can support national Electronic Connmerce

requires solutions to many technical, legal, security, financial, and regulatory barriers, as well as

the widespread adoption and use of a variety of technical standards for communications, infor- mation processing, and security.

Although the federal government itself generates

a small portion of total commerce, it may be,

with its Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and General Services Administration leading the way, the largest single purchaser of goods and services in the United States. All over

the government, agencies are beginning to adopt Electronic Commerce for the very high

volumes of information interchanges required in

its tax, insurance, and regulatory activities. Im- plementation of Electronic Commerce by the

federal government, including its adoption of applicable national voluntary standards, has pro- vided and will continue to provide significant

momentum towards implementation nationwide.

As a result, the full implementation of the Presi- dent's memorandum on Electronic Commerce is an important goal.

While the government as a large user of Electronic Commerce can provide leadership, it is the private sector that generates the overwhelming majority of commercial transactions, and

therefore will make an overwhelming majority of the investments in Electronic Commerce capabilities. As such, for an advanced Nil to develop

and succeed, it is critical that the private sector own and operate it. The nature of Electronic

Commerce, in particular the fact that cooperation

and flexibility among permanent and transient

partners as well as the establishment of stan- dards for the interoperability of communications

networks, information and data exchange, and

security services are needed means that the

government can play a pivotal role in creating

the Nil by facilitating and coordinating private sector efforts.

Until many technologies. Electronic Commerce

capabilities, and security provisions are proven,

individuals and companies will be hesitant to in- vest in research, development, and implementation of Electronic Commerce applications. For example, concerns about threats to proprietary

data, computer virus exposure, unauthorized ac- cess, increased single points of failure, control

and auditing functions, and search and verifica- tion mechanisms inhibit investment.

Many of these concerns go beyond Electronic

Commerce; in particular, information protection,

privacy, and security have been identified as a

critical requirement and enabler in each application strategy paper. It is a cross-cutting need

and the challenge for government and industry

Is establishing a comprehensive and coherent

approach for these applications. This will require

leadership and cooperation across government

and industry, and the requirements for Electronic Commerce will offer a benchmark application.

The President's efforts toward "Streamlining Pro- curement Through Electronic Commerce" afford the government a unique opportunity to provide

the needed leadership and to demonstrate se- cure and trustworthy operational solutions. Consistent with the National Performance Review

(NPR) Recommendations, the Government Infor- mation Technology Services (GITS) Working

Group must provide the leadership to identify

the steps that must be taken to provide solutions that cross-cut applications in an integrated

fashion. With such leadership stovepipe systems

can be avoided, and the benefits of an inte- grated and comprehensive solution fully real- ized.

The documentation of success stories and the

development of a national scorecard and metrics

for evaluating Electronic Commerce implementations as well as the development of legal and

regulatory structures that address these threats

will help ameliorate some fears. In addition, the

expansion of national R&D, pilot demonstrations,

and testbeds, and the continued support of the

High Performance Computing and Communications Program and other long-range, high risk R&D programs will further reduce fears and cre- ate a healthy environment for investment in Electronic Commerce applications.

To create a national commerce infrastructure,

the following seven subject areas, illustrated in Figure 1 (see below), must be coordinated and

facilitated through public-private sector partnerships, setting base implementations and stan- dards for minimizing costs overall, but allowing

for flexibility to meet unique requirements:^

^ Saltman, pp. 52-62.

37
Agreements among organizations of part- ners interchanging diverse subject matter, so that the developed infrastructure meets

all requirements in a cost-effective manner;

Details of message interchange standards,

i.e., character sets, data types, data ele- ments, message syntax, message types,

and provision for inclusion of security

parameters;

Supporting interchange technologies, such

as communications protocols, audit trails, security, and graphics interchange capability;

Netv^ork reliability, availability, and management, including agreements among connecting networks, to assure that messages are

delivered in a timely manner with integrity,

security, and appropriate audit trails;

Directories of prospective partner information, including network addresses and

representational data, such as contacts for Electronic Commerce, banking arrangements and financial terms for buying and

selling, and sources for security credentials

and public keys;

Technology and standards development,

including a national Electronic Commerce

architecture employing a distributed implementation using networks such as the Inter- net that tie together other networks, and

transmit electronic mail, formatted commercial documents and graphics.

Legal and regulatory framework, including

strategies for facilitating the transition from

paper-based commerce to Electronic Commerce, and for addressing such issues as

legal acceptance of electronic documents

and electronic signatures, assurance of the

"trustworthy" electronic record and the

"trusted third party."

PART IV: How Are We Going to Get

There?

It is probable that Electronic Commerce, like fax,

will grow slowly until a critical mass is reached,

and then explode in popularity. How can we

reach critical mass as quickly as possible while

ensuring that the transition from traditional commerce activities to Electronic Commerce activi- ties is as smooth as possible? The following

paragraphs represent only a starting point for

Technology and

Standards

Development

T

T

Organizations of Interchange

Partners

Legal and

Regulatory

Framework

Message

Interchange

Standards

Partner Addressing and

Representations

Interchange

Technologies

and Support

z

Networks and

Network

Management

Figure 1. Planning for Global Electronic Commerce.

38
formulating the key issues and questions, and

for initiating the key actions and policies that are needed to facilitate the development of the Electronic Commerce application as part of the Nil. The full range of issues described in this paper

must be addressed to realize the full potential of Electronic Commerce.

Issues and Questions to be Addressed

Government and industry cannot accept

Electronic Commerce unless electronic

transactions are secure. There are clear re- quirements for authentication of the source

of a transaction, verification of the integrity of the transaction, prevention of disclosure of the transaction to unauthorized users, and

verification of receipt of the transaction by

the intended trading partner. Is the current work in computer security services adequate

for timely resolution of these technical is- sues, or should the direction of work be

changed or the level of effort increased?

What organizations and mechanisms are needed to ensure that government and in- dustry can jointly address security-related is- sues?

Electronic Commerce application will require

the interoperation of communications, data

management, and security services. These

services will be provided by many different companies, including Value-Added-Networks, systems integrators, hardware vendors, and software vendors. Given this

diversity, how can government and industry ensure that Electronic Commerce will be reli- able, and that the components can be as- sembled, maintained, and upgraded at reasonable cost? We must develop technologies, measurement tools, testing ser- vices, interoperability demonstrations, etc., to ensure that components satisfy the current and future requirements of government

and industry. Should the NIST Electronic

Commerce Integration Facility be tasked to lead this effort? What other organizations can lead or contribute to this effort? What

actions are needed to ensure appropriate

funding?

Successful resolution of technical issues will be insufficient to ensure the widespread use

of Electronic Commerce; economic, cultural,

regulatory, and legal barriers to Electronic

Commerce must be identified and removed.

For example, how can government and in- dustry ensure that Electronic Commerce will be viewed positively by workers? What in- centives can be provided so that workers

will share in the benefits of Electronic Commerce? How can government and industry

establish realistic business cases and suc- cess stories to encourage potential users and providers of Electronic Commerce hard- ware, software, and services? Are the benefits discussed in this paper adequate, or are

additional incentives required? Should government and industry create a joint task

force to identify the most critical barriers and

incentives and identify or create appropriate

organizations to remove those barriers and

provide those incentives. What actions are needed to ensure appropriate funding for the joint task force and for the organizations

that it will identify or create?

References

Byrne, John, "The Virtual Corporation," Business Week,

February 8, 1993.

Carnahan, G. W., J. J. Peavey, and K. E. Schohl, "The Inter- net and Its Relationship to the National Information In- frastructure (Nil)," General Motors Corporation Input to the

National Initiative for Product Data Exchange (NIPDE) Committee, March 1994.

Davenport, Thomas H., Process Innovation - Reengineering

Work through Information Technology, Ernst & Young,

Boston, MA, 1993.

Davidow, William H., and Michael S. Malone, The Virtual Corporation, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., New York, NY,

1992.

Gebase, Len, and Steve Trus, "Analyzing Electronic Commerce," National Institute of Standards and Technology,

1993.

Gleckman, Howard, "The Technology Payoff," Business Week, June 14, 1993.

Gore, Al, "From Red Tape to Results: Creating a Govern- ment that Works Better and Costs Less," Accompanying Report to the National Performance Review, Office of the President of the Vice President, September 1 993.

Hammer, Michael, and James Champy, Reengineering the Corporation - A Manifesto for Business Revolution, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., New York, NY, 1993.

Hardcastle, T., et al., "A Business Case for Electronic Commerce," September 1990, LMI Report DL001-06R1.

39
Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications (IITA) Task Group Report, National Coordination Office for High Performance Computing and Communications, February

1994.

Moore, John, "BPR; RX for DOD Health Care System", Federal Computer Week. September 20, 1993.

National Research Council, Information Technology and the Service Society: A Twenty-First Century Lever, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1994.

Neches, Robert, Jay M. Tenenbaum, Anna-Lena Neches,

Paul Postel, and Robert Frank, "Electronic Commerce on the

Internet."

Office of the President of the United States, "Streamlining Procurement Through Electronic Commerce," Executive Memorandum, October 26, 1993.

Ross, E., "CALS-CE ISG Benefits Working Group Reports, 1989 & 1991," CALS Journal, Winter 1992.

Saltman, Roy G., "Planning the Infrastructure for Global Electronic Commerce," EDI FORUM, Vol. 6, No. 3, 1993, pp. 52-

62.

Teresko, John, "Tripping Down the Information Superhighway," Industry Week, August 2, 1993.

Weiss, Peter, "Electronic Data Interchange Federal Programs

and Policies," Office of Management and Budget.

40
Health Care and the Nil

DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

PART I: What Is the Application

Arena?

Description of a Health Care Information

Infrastructure

Implementation of wide-area, comprehensive,

integrated, networked information systems is a

logical response to the challenges faced by the

Nation's health care delivery system. These

challenges arise from several sources: dissatis- faction over rising health expenditures, in both

private and public health care programs; concern over the personal health security issues of access and continuity of insurance coverage,

and serious questions about the uneven quality

and appropriateness of health care [1 ,2]. These

challenges are driving the health system to a

cost-conscious, competitive, market-based,

managed care environment. In such an environment, information systems linked to the National

Information Infrastructure (Nil) are destined to play a central role.

The applications of the Nil have significant

potential for cutting unnecessary medical costs and improving health care access and quality.

With the Nil in place, consumers, physicians,

other practitioners, hospitals, payers, and

managers could readily obtain the information

needed to make informed choices about treat- ments, providers, institutions, and health plans.

With standards for defining, collecting, communicating, and storing administrative and clinical patient care data, scientific studies could point

the way to medically effective and cost-effective care. National networks would enable all per- sons and health care providers to access the

most recent information about particular medical

technologies, clinical treatments, and provider

performance. Patient outcome information could

be linked to medical treatment data in a variety

of settings so that all interested parties could

obtain a better understanding of what works in the practice of medicine in the community and

where it works best.

In addition to improving clinical processes, the

Nil can simplify and speed up administrative

processes within the health system, eliminating

much duplication of paperwork and making

uniform the data definitions required to make

health care claims. As a result, electronic claims

and payment transfers could occur rapidly over

national networks and administrative costs would

be significantly lowered. However, there is much

infrastructure to build.

A Vision of the Future

SCENARIO 1 : In a rural area, a child awakens

with severe coughing, fever, and a rash on her

chest. Her mother dials the interactive telecommunication connection to access medical care support and describes her child. The nurse at the other end asks for the mother to connect

special probes that monitor the child's temperature, blood pressure, pulse. She then listens through an electronic stethoscope to the child's breathing. She examines the rash through the

high resolution telecommunications viewer. After consulting information through the Nil about re- cent health events reported in the community,

such as the incidence of measles, bacterial and

viral infections, she recommends action to the

41
mother. Such action could be (1 ) stay on the

connection and the physician will be right with

her, (2) remain at home and continue to monitor

the child and report in, (3) come in for an

appointment with the doctor, or (4) head immediately to a designated emergency room. A valid medical encounter record is documented by this system and sent to the family's longitudinal

medical service file, to the community's information repository, to the family for verification, and

then to the family's health plan for payment.

SCENARIO 2: A state public health official ex- amines the state's health profile based on en- counter records (with the identifiers removed)

from health plans serving the state's communities. The records are retrieved from a statewide

information network which is part of the Nil. She

is alerted by the information system to a statisti- cally significant high incidence of children

treated for respiratory disorders in a community.

This leads her to call up the laboratory information from a sample of these children (the identifi- ers are removed but the information has been

linked). In one of the cases, the laboratory re- sults confirmed a diagnosis of whooping cough

(pertussis). Immediately, she queries the immunization records and finds that some children do

not appear to have been vaccinated. She then

calls the community's health department to verify the data in the system. Finding it accurate,

she queries the information system about the

vaccine inventory in that community and, discovering it to be short of pertussis vaccine, calls four other communities with ample supplies to request that half of their vaccine be shipped to the first community. After notifying the first community of her actions and receiving their plan to resolve the problem, she returns to her examination of the state's health profile.

SCENARIO 3: In the hospital of a major medical

university in the state. Dr. Jones visits a virtual

reality learning center to review procedures for a

surgical removal of a portion of the prostate

(prostatectomy). As she sits in the virtual reality clinical education room, she takes the electronic

scalpel and feels the sensation of cutting into the patient, the texture of the skin, the hardness

of the prostate as she is guided to making the

proper incisions. The simulation program that guides her uses an electronic model human object obtained via the Nil from a national library of reference models in conjunction with clinical measurement readings from the actual patient

who will undergo the prostatectomy. Two floors up. Dr. Smith is performing a cataract surgery

operation using robotics assistance. Although

Dr. Smith is past middle age and has slight

tremors in his hands, the robotics device with

microsurgical vision enhancements eliminates

the effects of his tremors. This supporting device

allows his surgical productivity to continue for many years, increasing the life-long value of his medical training and years of experience.

A Picture of Today

Other sectors of the U.S. economy, some even

less data- and information-intensive than the

health sector, have for many years centered

their operations around computerized systems.

Banks, airlines, stock markets, and even salvage

yards use computers to communicate, maintain

inventory control, allocate costs, bill, and manage their major activities in an integrated,

seamless manner. All these industries have

experienced operating efficiencies, improved

products and services, and, most important,

greater customer satisfaction.

These same benefits can be acquired for health

care. The health sector, however, has lagged far behind the other sectors of our economy in applying information and communication technologies. Most hospitals and clinics have

computers but relegate them to perform iso- lated, relatively small segments of the organizations' clinical operations. In these settings, the

computer's widest use is for billing purposes

and for patient admission, discharge and transfer functions, not for clinical purposes. Few

hospitals and clinics link all caregivers together over local- or wide-area networks.

As a result, patient care information is re-entered numerous times, information of value is not widely shared, and the paper outputs of these

systems are manually collated in what is called a

patient record. In this paper form, the patient

42
record does not provide the basis for efficient

clinical management, quality control, cost allocation, accurate billing, or clinical or health ser- vices research. Often the paper record and the

information it contains is simply not available to the clinician when needed. The course of the

patient through the health system is obscured

by lack of documentation of the decisions, consultations, and sequence of interventions that he

(or she) experiences. Thus, it is difficult to trace

longitudinally the course of an individual patient,

impossible to aggregate the data across a large

number of similar patients, and improbable that

all useful medical knowledge can be gleaned

from the ongoing treatment of patients. Without

reliable, comparative, performance feedback to the provider of health care, it is not likely that improvements in the quality of care or the effi- ciency of operation can be effected. Reliable

feedback requires uniform vocabulary and

coding standards for health care conditions,

diagnoses, and procedures. Further, without an

active communications interface among

providers of care, it is difficult to make avail- able—especially in underserved urban and rural areas — the benefit of the rapidly developing and

evolving body of knowledge arising from

biomedical and health services research.

What is the Public Interest in Promoting the

Application?

Health care spending is high and growing.

In 1994, the American public will spend $1

trillion on health care, nearly 15 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). National health care expenditures have risen by 10.5 percent

per year for the past 8 years — more than double

the rate of increase in the consumer price index

[3].

Insufficient knowledge exists for informed

decision making.

Health and medical decision-making processes

are flawed by a lack of knowledge and by financial considerations. The man (or woman) on the

street has less knowledge about medical treat- ment alternatives for a specific condition than he

(or she) has about any other service he buys.

Therefore, he is more heavily dependent upon

experts in the health care industry who often

have no financial incentive to refrain from ordering every service, regardless of cost, if there is the hope of a benefit, however small.

People do not pay the full price of the health care they consume.

There would be no problem with the rapid rate

of growth of national health expenditures and its portion of the GDP if it adequately represented consumer preferences expressed in the marketplace. After all, how much would the GDP have

grown if not for the large increases in national

health expenditures? Growth by itself is not bad.

There is more than a suspicion, however, that when people pay 25 percent or less out of pocket for medical care at the time of choice,

with insurance or public coffers paying the rest

of the cost, there is a tendency to consume

additional medical seo/ices. The value to the consumer of many of these additional services is less than the cost of the resources to produce

them.

How Can the Nil Help?

While the Nil cannot change the U.S. health care system's financial incentives directly, it can

support research into cost containment efforts and payment initiatives targeted at incentives to lower costs. For example, it could supply infor- mation to help appraise which payment systems

in use are the most cost-effective.

Further, the Nil can provide information that in- creases knowledge about the medical effective- ness of alternative treatments and make it available to the providers and consumers of health care. The Nil also can make available in- formiation consumers need to become more

cost-conscious purchasers of health care services. The Nil can provide an infrastructure that supports personal health improvement and

medical technology assessment.

Finally, the United States is one of the world's

leading manufacturers of medical technology.

With increased emphasis on cost-effective technology, there is a greater need for information

about how well alternative technologies work

when applied (1) in an ideal setting such as an academic medical center and (2) in the average

community.

The goal is to generate knowledge about which

treatments and technologies work best for specific clinical conditions and under what cir- cumstances, to have this knowledge available at the point of service (care), and to have medical

43
decisions made jointly by caregivers and their patients. The Nil can help attain this goal by

supporting the analysis of large quantities of patient care and administrative data, by protecting its confidentiality, by assisting in the dissemination of information based on these data, and

by adding value through the evaluation of the

information gained from these data and converting it into useful knowledge.

It is well recognized that there is substantial un- explained geographical variation in medical

practices. The findings of unexplained differ- ences in decisions about the best treatment for similar patients with the same condition elevates concern about the quality of care being deliv- ered. Analyzing of patient care data from communities and providing feedback about these

findings to the caregivers and consumers can

both reduce inappropriate care and increase

beneficial care. It can also improve continuous,

life-long learning for health care providers who

have difficulty keeping up with the flood of biomedical literature and clinical practice

guidelines.

By providing information access at home,

schools, and the workplace, the Nil can play an

important role in improving public knowledge

and decisionmaking about health, thereby re- ducing the significant information gap between consumers and clinicians and improving clinical outcomes. National and community networks

that allow consumers to obtain information about

their own health care conditions and to obtain

professional medical advice in their homes can empower patients to take better care of themselves.

What is the Evidence of the Benefits?

Although the health care industry has been slow

to adopt information and communication technologies in routine patient care, there are studies pointing to where the greatest benefits

may be achieved. However, because these studies most often are conducted in single sites,

both the size of the benefits to be achieved in multi-site and community settings and the costs

of obtaining these benefits are unknown. Some

examples of the studies follow:

In randomized controlled trials conducted at Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis

by the Regenstrief Institute for Health Care

at Indiana University, experimental groups of attending physicians that wrote their orders on microcomputer workstations were shown

(1) prior test results for their patients, (2) computer predictions of abnormal results if another test was ordered, and (3) test prices

at the time test orders were placed. These

three trials showed reductions in outpatient

test-ordering costs. A further randomized

controlled trial tested the effect of physicians

writing all their inpatient orders on workstations with screen information that encour- aged cost-effective ordering. This

intervention resulted in charges per admission reduced by $887 and hospital stays

shortened by .89 days. However, achieving

these savings did require more physician

time per patient (33 minutes more over a 10-hour observation period, or 5.5 minutes

per patient). [4]

Including the costs, as well as the benefits,

of implementing electronic data interchange

for administrative health care activities (such as consumer enrollment, eligibility checking,

billing, and claims payment), the Workgroup

for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) believes "the cumulative net savings over the

next six years (to the year 2000) is estimated

to total over $42 billion." [5]

An Automated Antibiotic Consultant software

program was introduced into the HELP

(Health Evaluation through Logical Processing) system at Latter Day Saints Hospital in Salt Lake City and evaluated. The Consultant was used when it was necessary to select an antibiotic therapy before the results

of bacterial culture and susceptibility were

known. The Automated Consultant suggested an appropriate antibiotic 94 percent

of the time. The Consultant can support improved physicians' decisions under such

conditions of uncertainty whether accessed on site or through a medical network. [6]

The HELP system was also instrumental in determining the optimal timing (0 to 2 hours)

of antibiotics before surgery to minimize the

risk of post-surgical infection. The uniformity

of data produced by such systems is advantageous not only for obtaining accurate

patient care data, but also for conducting

medical effectiveness studies. [7]

44
A case study supported by the U.S. Public

Health Service's Agency for Health Care

Policy and Research (AHCPR) of a comprehensive hospital information system in one

hospital in California, compared with sys- tems in two other hospitals, was recently

completed. The original system was installed

in 1975. Now, almost 20 years later, the hospital continues to outperform comparison

hospitals in all financial indicators. It experi- ences shorter patient stays (adjusted for case mix) and lower costs per admission. [8]

A National Cancer Institute cancer treatment

information system, Physician Data Query

(PDQ), provides physicians and patients with

information about state-of-the-art therapy

and clinical treatment trials for each cancer and its stages. In PDQ, new literature and

cancer prevention and treatment trials are

continually reviewed by panels of clinical cancer experts, synthesized monthly, and

updated. PDQ has experienced rapidly in- creasing use since its implementation and

provides necessary information about the

most recent cancer treatments and research

findings worldwide using CancerPax® and

CancerNetTM.

The Comprehensive Health Enhancement

Support System (CHESS) developed at the

University of Wisconsin runs on a personal

computer and offers a range of information,

social and emotional support, and problemsolving tools for people in health crises. CHESS is typically placed in homes, but can

also be installed in health care settings and

community sites. CHESS currently offers modules for early stage breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, sexual assault, academic failure,

adult children of alcoholics, and stress management. Such personal health information

systems may grow to achieve user familiarity

and acceptance, heavy use, quality of life improvements, and reductions in total costs

of care.

PART 11: Where Are We Now?

In many health care settings, patient information

is handwritten in paper records and stored

manually. Some of this is due to "state quill pen

laws" that require handwritten pen and ink signatures on paper medical records. The

current health information system does not adequately support patient care, medical effective- ness and cost effectiveness, and the public

health of the community. This lack of support is often a result of incompletely recording the

patient's signs, symptoms, and conditions; coding the patient's medical diagnoses to maximize

billed charges instead of accurately describing

the patient's ailment and the treatment given;

and storing this information in ways that hinder

both retrieval and making comparisons among

patients with similar complaints.

Consumers have insufficient information to make

informed choices among the health insurance

plans, health institutions, and providers available

to them. Providers of care have insufficient means to keep abreast of all the information

generated in their fields of specialty. Moreover,

they often are unable to marshall all relevant in- formation on a patient when making medical

decisions. Health organization administrators are hampered in their ability to merge administrative

and clinical information to make rational choices

concerning resource allocations, quality of care, and product and service pricing. Payors of care have insufficient information to determine what

package of benefits by which providers of care

yield the best value for their clients.

Further, public health officials should have the

ability to more rapidly detect sharp increases in the incidence of influenza, specific bacterial

infections, and other public health problems and

to act quickly in health crises to inform the community. Public health policymakers often have

insufficient information for offering solutions to health care problems. As a result, public health

decisions are made without the advantage of timely, relevant information using technology

that could reduce the costs of health care and

improve patient outcomes and the health status

of populations.

The value of data on patient treatment and

outcomes -especially automated, uniformly

defined, linked, and anonymously aggregated

data — is increasingly recognized and demanded

throughout the health care sector. These data

are needed for clinical, quality assurance, utiliza- tion review, business planning, administrative,

and public health purposes. For example, computerized ambulatory patient care data are scarce and not uniform in definition, coding, or content. Computerized hospital clinical care data

45
are collected on hospitalized patients in a small

number of settings, but often are not stored for long in retrievable form after the patient is dis- charged.

As valid methods for assessing the quality of care increase, so will the value of community

patient care data. When the benefits from this information are shown to exceed the costs of producing it, society must find a way to pay for the resources necessary to produce it.

Confidentiality and privacy are important concerns. Society must deal with perhaps its most

vital information issue: assuring the privacy,

confidentiality, and security of health care data

about identifiable individuals. Even though patient care data can lead to important information

for health care providers and their patients, it also has potential for personal harm if disclosed

inappropriately.

For example, these data may be required for emergency medical treatment or telemedicine

applications in rural areas. As the data are trans- ferred across wide areas, the system that transfers it must provide security against

unauthorized access and disclosure, maintain

the integrity of the data, and confirm the origina- tors and requesters of the data. Quite possibly,

most of the uses of patient care data may not

require that the individuals be identified. When

patient identification is necessary, the legal

system must provide severe penalties for in- appropriate uses of confidential patient care

data. Although many States have their own

privacy laws, many others do not. Moreover, uses of patient care data are not controlled uni- formly from State to State. This problem must be

addressed by national legislation.

Selected Private Activities

Private-sector activities discussed here include

coordinated activities and projects in standards

development, computer-based patient records,

telemedicine, and community health data repositories.

Standards. In the private sector of the United

States, the development of medical information

standards is coordinated through the American

National Standards Institute (ANSI) Healthcare

Informatics Standards Planning Panel (HISPP).

AHCPR, in cooperation with the Food and Drug

Administration, supports the meetings and administration of HISPP. The HISPP is also the

official link between U.S. and European

standards developing organizations. Other countries (particularly the European countries) are making notable progress with central development of medical information standards. Pursuing

international cooperation in the development of these standards could prove beneficial for stan- dards development in the United States.

Administrative health data standards are being

developed by the ANSI-accredited standards

committee X12, through its subcommittee X12N.

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange

is a private sector advisory body that has pro- vided much leadership for these standards,

which are essential for electronic exchange of health insurance business information. Progress

has been faster for administrative health data

standards than for clinical health data standards.

The development of standards for the electronic

interchange of clinical data is becoming more

coordinated under the Message Standards

Developers Subcommittee of ANSI HISPP.

These standards will permit standardized data

flows among departments of a hospital, for ex- ample, and among hospitals, physicians, and

other medical organization entities. Some examples of standards for the coding of medical

diagnosis and procedures are the International

Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) and Current Procedure

Terminology, 4th Revision (CPT-4). The ICD-9

coding system was developed by the World

Health Organization and modified in the United

States by the Health Care Financing Administration and the National Center for Health Statistics to produce the ICD-9-CM. The American Medical

Association maintains the CPT-4 coding system.

These codes, however, are used more for billing

purposes than for their clinical information. They

do not code the signs, symptoms, and conditions of the patient upon which the diagnosis is made.

The Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine

(SNOMED), 3rd Edition, does code for signs

and symptoms of diseases as well as for distur- bances in biochemical and enzyme factors of

interest to the clinical pathologist and for anatomy, pathology, and etiology upon which

the diagnosis is made. However, clinical codes

46
that better reflect the conditions of the patient

and the treatment received are needed. Further,

much work is needed to develop standard vali- dated measures of the patient outcomes of medical care. Although coordination of standard

development efforts continues to improve, the

pace of clinical data standards development has

much room for improvement, and there are many gaps.

What is the reason for the slow development of

clinical data standards? Because no one firm in the private sector can generate sufficient gains

from developing clinical data standards, the

development effort is voluntary, and it suffers from a lack of resources. Further, it takes time to reach consensus, and the benefits to the public are diffuse. If the public good is sufficiently

large, a proper role for the Federal Government

is to accelerate standards development and

collaboration in the private and public sectors.

Computer-based patient records . Created in 1991, the Computer-based Patient Record

Institute (CPRI) promotes and coordinates the

development of CPR systems in the United

States. The CPRI is composed of representatives from physician, hospital, computer system,

vendor, managed care, university, and other

national groups. The CPRI is working for the

ubiquitous use of CPR systems in medical care, with workgroups in four areas: Codes and

Structure; CPR Systems Evaluation; Confidentiality, Privacy, and Legislation; and Professional

and Public Education.

Several private sector-projects are attempting to build a computer-based patient record and to export common definitions and reporting

systems to all their sites nationwide. Two of these efforts have begun at Kaiser Permanente

in California and at the Mayo Foundation in Minnesota.

Although there is strong interest in finding the

best information systems for particular health- care organizations, there is no common method

for evaluating existing systems. Additionally,

there are differences in opinion regarding which

costs and benefits to include in such evaluations, and how to place a value on outputs and

resources that are not priced in the market

place. In addition, more knowledge is needed

about the technical, legal, social, and economic

barriers to the development and deployment of computer-based patient record systems.

Telemedicine . In early 1994, Ameritech, Inc., demonstrated a system that enables the family

of a person with a serious chronic illness to ac- cess medication at regular time intervals and to obtain direct consultation with the family physician via personal computer, television cameras,

and special hook-ups. This project can reduce

visits to the hospital emergency room and physician's office, while improving patient compliance

with drug therapy. Another example of a

personal health information system has been

described above (see CHESS).

The private sector also supports several

telemedicine projects such as those in Texas

and Georgia. Although payment for telemedicine

services has been nearly impossible to obtain

from insurance programs, these projects continue to support patient care. Additionally, they

are informing health care policymakers and

potential entrepreneurs about the potential for cost savings and increasing access — particularly

in rural areas -and about the social and legal concerns that must be addressed when providing medical care across State borders. Most of the potential savings are projected to come from

reduced transportation expenses required to bring physician and patient together in the

absence of telemedicine.

Community Data Repositories . Stimulated by

grants from the John A. Hartford Foundation,

Community Health Management Information

System projects have been initiated in the States

of Washington, Iowa, Vermont, New York,

Minnesota, and Ohio and the city of Memphis.

These projects aim to extract patient, provider,

and service data from claims and encounters

and store them in a shared community data

repository. As desired by the community, the

repository may be enhanced to include condition-specific data and patient-centered surveys.

In addition, many other health information net- works are in planning stages, although without a common model for health information networks

to guide them. The goal of these projects is to begin the development and implementation of

local health data networks and data repositories.

The expected benefits are improved health busi- ness transactions and community health data

47
repositories of standardized health data about

the process and outcomes of health care deliv- ery. Demonstrations such as these can show the

advantages of collecting standardized health

data about the community.

The potential for Nil to link national and community networks with homes, offices, and health in- stitutions to facilitate improved and cost-effective

health care should be demonstrated and evaluated. This information would increase understanding about the sources of efficiency and the

size of the costs relative to the benefits. Armed

with this knowledge, private and public ventures,

when targeted to obtain demonstrated cost

savings, would be less risky.

Selected Public Activities

Department of Health and Human Services

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) contributes to the Nil on many different levels. Fore- most, NLM produces data bases and information

services that provide access to the scientific knowledge underpinning biomedical research

and health care. NLM's on-line data bases and

data banks are the most widely used medical

information resources in the world. The expanding Internet provides an enhanced vehicle for delivering NLM services — from MEDLINE to GenBank — including on-line access to clinical practice guidelines that combine images and full text; the developing "Visible Human" digital

library of image data from photographic, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance

imaging of complete male and female bodies for a range of educational and health care applications; and remote execution of sophisticated

gene sequence matching algorithms.

Since the mid-1 980's, the number of clinicians with direct access to MEDLINE has increased

dramatically. More than 34,000 individual health

professionals now search NLM's computer sys- tem, up from just a few hundred less than a decade ago. "Physicians report that in situations

involving individual patients, rapid access to the

biomedical literature via MEDLINE is at times

critical to sound patient care and favorably influ- ences patient outcomes. "[9]

The Unified Medical Language System (UMLS)

Project of NLM focuses on linking terms and

codes in patient records to evidence-based

knowledge such as that in practice guidelines

and the scientific literature. Through the development of the Metathesaurus that connects the

various computerized coding schemes and controlled vocabularies and an Information Sources

Map that will support automated selection of data bases containing information relevant to

particular information needs, the UMLS is providing tools for successful navigation among the

growing number of health care information resources and for capturing and encoding

patient data.

The NLM's High Performance Computing and

Communications (HPCC) program funds Nil applications research in the areas of test-bed

networks linking health care organizations,

telemedicine, and development of computerbased patient record systems, coordinating and

in some cases co-funding projects with other

agencies such as AHCPR and the Department of Defense, Advance Research Projects Agency.

Supporting the development of computer-based

patient record systems is also a priority for NLM's National Information Center on Health

Services Research and Health Care Technology

(NICHSR), since data collected as a by-product

of current health care delivery could greatly

enhance the quality and timeliness of health

services research, including outcomes studies.

To ensure that academic medical centers, hospitals, and members of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine can access and make

effective use of the Nil, NLM and the National

Science Foundation are co-sponsoring a

Medical Connections program to link these

institutions to the Internet.

The NLM's programs to support the development of enterprise-wide Integrated Advanced

Information Management Systems (lAIMS) and

to provide Medical Informatics training to health

and information professionals create a receptive

environment for effective use of the Nil. The

NLM's current Director serves as the Director of HPCC's National Coordination Office, which is housed at the NLM and reports to the

President's Office of Science and Technology

Policy.

48
AHCPR , through its Medical Treatment Effective- ness Program (MEDTEP), adds to a knowledge

base of medical effectiveness research findings

and clinical practice guidelines that inform practitioners and their patients about what works best

and for whom. AHCPR is collaborating with NLM

to make guidelines available in a form compatible with Nil applications. In addition, AHCPR

supports the development and evaluation of computer-based patient record systems and

attendant clinical computer decision support

systems. AHCPR assesses their impact on the

medical and cost effectiveness of health care and their potential to generate uniform, accurate

patient care information for medical effectiveness

researchers. Through its extramural program,

AHCPR has for years supported the study of computer-based patient records and clinical decision support systems. Through its Office of Science and Data Development, AHCPR pro- motes the coordination of the developers of patient care data standards and the analysis of confidentiality and privacy issues concerning

researcher access to patient care data.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA),

through its Submission Management and Re- view Tracking (SMART) program, is developing a

consistent approach to the electronic submission and review of drug, biologic, and medical

device applications. As part of this project, FDA

is working with its regulated industries, the clini- cal community, the World Health Organization,

and the European Union to enhance and stan- dardize nomenclature for coding clinical safety

data. FDA also is pursuing nomenclature and

data format standards for other data elements

required in product submissions, including toxi- cology, pathology, and patient information.

These standards, coordinated with the private

sector, will improve the uniformity of patient care

data.

The Health Resources and Sen/ices Administration, through its Office of Rural Health Policy, is undertaking support of telemedicine project

application and evaluation in rural areas. These

applications should stimulate the outreach of Nil health care applications to rural America.

The Health Care Financing Administration

(HCFA), the Nation's largest health insurer, has

the most comprehensive health care data base

in the world, which supports the management of

the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Much of

this data is managed in a large network, linking

Medicare enrollment and benefits information to both the contractor claims payment sites and

providers. HCFA electronically receives more

than 90 percent of the institutional providers'

claims and more than 65 percent of the individ- ual providers' claims, which collectively require

HCFA to process over 500 million claims annually. HCFA agents use clinical data to assure

quality and appropriateness of care provided to beneficiaries. HCFA shares this information with

other organizations to facilitate research and

formulate health care policy. HCFA has been an

active participant in the development of data

standards, and was the first among the health

insurance groups to deploy electronic health

insurance claims standards. HCFA is an active

member in ANSI-Accredited Standards Committees and ANSI's Healthcare Standards Planning

Panel. HCFA also supports research on

telemedicine projects in rural areas and on payment methodology for telemedicine consultations.

In 1985, HCFA, in cooperation with the National

Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), developed a process for updating and maintaining ICD-9-CM

through the Coordination and Maintenance

Committee. HCFA is responsible for maintaining

Volume 3, Procedures, while NCHS is responsible for Volumes 1 and 2, Diagnoses. Proposed

revisions to the coding system are received by

the appropriate agency, researched, developed

in a standardized format, and publicly presented

for informational purposes. Final approval for any coding changes comes from the Administrator of HCFA and the Director of NCHS. The

changes are made annually. To address the

shortcomings of the ICD-9-CM procedure codes,

HCFA investigated developing a new procedure

coding system and contracted with 3M, Health

Information Systems, Inc., to develop a prototype. Six chapters thus far have been developed, with the cardiovascular chapter being the

most complete.

The National Cancer Institute, in addition to the

PDQ program described above, is supporting

the development of technology that could make

use of a national broadband network capability

for digital mammography. If successful, this technology could electronically transmit breast

images for the purpose of obtaining rapid and

49
expert radiologic consultation. This future application of teleradiology requires significant

improvement of digital imaging modalities to acquire primary digital images, film digitizers to translate conventional film images into digital

form, digital data networks, image-processing

algorithms, computer workstations, and other

imaging technology.

Within the Public Health Service, Office of the

Assistant Secretary for Health, the Office of

Disease Prevention and Healthi Promotion is developing a community services workstation.

With support from other PHS agencies and the

Department of Defense, Advanced Research

Projects Agency, a prototype of the workstation

is being created to illustrate how information

about health, education, and welfare service

availability may inform a community's population.

Department of Commerce

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) was allocated $26 million for FY 1994 to support the development of the Nil. The purpose of the Nil is to interconnect

the nation's businesses, residences, schools,

health care facilities, and other public information and social service providers through broadband interactive telecommunications networks.

During FY 1994, NTIA intends to issue grants in the area of health care for pilot demonstrations

that are designed to develop, demonstrate, and

promote applications of information technology

that will educate, restrain health care costs,

improve quality, and increase access to health

care, with the potential for wide-scale deployment and interconnection over Nil networks.

Also within the Department of Commerce, the

National Institute for Standards and Technology

(NIST) has been active in several standards

development efforts related to health care, including (1) Health Level 7 and (2) the Health

Care Special Interest Group of the Open

Systems Interconnection (OSI) Working Group.

The purpose the OSI Working Group is to encourage broad scale adoption of medical

information standards developed in the United

States, leading to information systems that will exchange data with each other and operate on a

variety of computer operating systems. The NIST

also has a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with private industry

in medical information systems/architecture

standards, which draws upon NIST's experience

with electronic data interchange.

Department of Veterans Affairs

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) operates

171 medical centers located in all 50 States and

Puerto Rico. All 171 facilities are supported with a hospital information system called the Decentralized Hospital Computer Program (DHCP).

DHCP has approximately 60 public domain soft- ware modules supporting functions such as

admissions, pharmacy, laboratories, medicine,

order entry, health summary, engineering,

purchasing, and finance. Both the Department of

Defense and the Indian Health Service, as well as some State institutions, have used this public

domain software, modifying it to meet their particular needs. Recent clinical releases, such

as Discharge Summary, Progress Notes, Allergy

Tracking, and Problem List are part of an incre- mental approach to automating the patient

record. The Problem List serves as a point of

integration, organizing patient information by

clinical discipline and associating patient treat- ments and outcomes with problems. It also ties the automated patient record to appropriate

billing procedures. The Problem List works with

VA's new Clinical Lexicon; a tool that permits the user to enter a clinical term using natural lan- guage. The system then maps the term to all of the applicable coding schemes (e.g., ICD, DSM,

SNOMED, CPT) and stores the term so that it can be retrieved and used by a wide variety of legitimate users of clinical data.

All VA facilities have been interconnected for the

past 8 years with a digital communications net- work. VA is enhancing its data transport utility called Patient Data Exchange (PDX) so that VA

health care facilities can exchange health summaries containing relevant clinical data across

the VA network. At the Washington and Balti- more Medical Centers, VA has installed an inte- grated imaging project to store medical images

as an integrated part of the electronic patient

record. These systems have been in daily use

for several years and store images from such

applications as pathology slides, gastrointestinal,

bronchoscopy, cardiac catheterization, echocardiography, and radiology examinations. At the

50
Baltimore Medical Center, the VA has built a standards-based gateway between a hospital in- formation system and a commercial Picture

Archiving and Communications System. With

these capabilities, VA could be a useful test bed

to determine the effectiveness of electronic data

exchange between facilities and health care

providers. As a result of the common software at many Federal medical care facilities, this test bed could easily be extended to other agencies

as appropriate. An example could be the effec- tiveness of making AHCPR-sponsored clinical practice guidelines available to clinicians on VA

wards using connections to Internet.

Department of Defense

The Department of Defense, Office of Health

Affairs has supported the development of a Comprehensive Health Care System leading to

six modules that are being deployed world-wide.

The Department was also charged by Congress

to deliver a plan for developing and deploying a computer-based patient record in military set- tings in early 1994.

The military's Medical Diagnosis Imaging Support System has developed and demonstrated

projects that involve filmless radiology departments in hospitals, electronic transmissions of

digital images via satellite, and the use of the

most recent standards in digital image trans- mission.

Department of Agriculture

Within the Department of Agriculture, the Rural

Electrification Administration (REA) plays a key

role in the rural aspect of the Nil. The Distance

Learning and Medical Link Grant Program

(DLMLGP) demonstrates the ability of rural communities to utilize existing or proposed telecommunications systems to achieve sustainable,

cost-effective distance learning or medical-link

networks. Rural schools, libraries, hospitals,

health care clinics, and related organizations that operate rural educational or health care facilities are eligible. Implemented in FY 1993, the

DLMLGP has selected 28 rural projects (9 medical projects) for funding, and is currently reviewing applications submitted under the second

round of funding. REA funds equipment used for distance learning classrooms such as encoding

and decoding devices, specialized cameras and

video monitors, video switchers, microphone

mixers computers, and local area networking

equipment. For medical link projects, REA funds

equipment used in physician consultation, tele- radiology, and educating rural health care

providers. Some of this specialized equipment

includes teleradiology workstations. X-ray scanners, digital microscopes, and all of the above

distance learning equipment.

Applicants to the DLMLGP work closely with

local telecommunications providers creating a demand for bandwidth capacity and switching

technology in remote areas. In this respect, the

DLMLGP accelerates the development of rural networks, one of the most challenging areas of the Nil.

National Aeronautics and Space

Administration

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been a pioneer in the field of telemedicine since the early days of manned

space flight. NASA's interest in telemedicine is to understand its application to medical care in space for future long duration platforms, such as a space station, and to minimize risk to astro- nauts and increases probability of mission success. NASA's early efforts to monitor the health

of its crew members have helped promote

dramatic changes in the way medical monitoring

in terrestrial medical transport is conducted in the U.S.

NASA has been involved in several telemedicine

projects over the past 30 years. Space Technology Applied to Rural Papago Advanced Health

Care Program (STARPAHC), brought medical

care to remote areas of the Papago Indian

Reservation in Arizona in the 1970s. The Spacebridge to Armenia provided satellite consultation

to a disaster area in 1988. Currently, NASA is in- volved in a joint effort with Russia, the Spacebridge to Moscow, to link several U.S. medical

centers with a hospital in Moscow. NASA's experience in telemedicine and communications

technologies has helped promote the practice of telemedicine across the globe. The Armenia ex- perience demonstrated that interactive consultation by remote specialists can provide valuable

assistance to onsite physicians and favorably in- fluence clinical decisions in the aftermath of dis- asters.

51
PART III: Where Do We Want to Be?

To obtain the benefits called for by the vision of the health care information system of the future, an advanced Nil should support the development and evaluation of information technology

applications that can improve patient care, both

directly and indirectly. These achievements

would improve the health status of communities

and reduce their costs of health care. Applications that bring both higher benefits and lower

costs should be carefully evaluated.

Patient care data describing patient's signs,

symptoms, and conditions; treatment; and out- comes should be generated at the point of care

delivery by the providers of health care. These

data should be defined uniformly across all points of care, automated, and made available

through the Nil for direct patient care; public

health policy development at community, state, and national levels; and research purposes. This

sharing should occur only under conditions of

confidentiality, privacy, and responsibility that are acceptable to society.

Patient care data and other information necessary in the direct care of the patient should be

promptly available to providers of care at the site of care.

Clinical decision support systems should incorporate research findings based on studies of these data and on other studies. The purpose is to give providers of care information about drug

interaction alerts, allergy alerts, preventive

screening reminders, and other prompts that improve the delivery of health care.

Personal health information should be widely

available on the Nil and be accessed through

personal computers and telephone links, cable

television, or other links to community and

nationwide networks. This linkage will permit

people to obtain health care information, computer-assistance for analyzing health problems,

and advice from medical professionals and from

people with similar health conditions. The result of improving personal self-care and wellness

should be more power in the hands of the

people to influence their health and a more

appropriate use of health care resources.

Public health surveillance and epidemiologic

studies based on patient care data and social

indicators should be available to inform public

policy and to guide the provision of public health

services. Information about the patient outcomes

of care produced by health care providers and

health care plans should be available to guide consumers in making health plan choices and to feed back information to providers of care about

the patient outcomes their peers are achieving.

This information will benefit consumers in their homes, schools, and workplaces. Providers of care in physicians' offices, other ambulatory

sites of care, and hospitals will have access to data about specific patients and the information,

if necessary, to guide decisions about treatment

alternatives and their expected outcomes. Health care managers and policymakers in health

plans, public health departments, national health

policy positions and other settings will be able to develop an overall picture of health care utiliza- tion to assess the allocation of health resources and whether private and public health needs are being met.

Achieving these benefits requires the development of several components of a health information infrastructure. These components are:

Medical information standards for the - nomenclature, coding, and structure; - content of specific data sets; and

- electronic data interchange

of patient care data. They are necessary to achieve the uniformity of definition and

meaning of the patient care data used in the care of the patient and in generating infor- mation about the outcomes of care. The

standards will improve the sharing of patient care data across different computer information systems. The slowness of there development of these standards hinders the

cost-effectiveness of clinical decision support systems in institutional and provider settings.

Unique personal identification for accurate

links across databases used for patient care. Although the social impact and confidentiality issues are the most important for society,

technical issues still remain. Patient information must be uniquely identified and linked

52
across databases used for patient care. Some options are tliumbprints, retinal eye scan images, DNA blood typing, or personal

identification numbers in digitized form. If personal identification numbers are used,

they could be social security numbers (SSN)

or identifiers unique to health care. The costs and security of different techniques to assure unique personal identity,

plus confidentiality and privacy of patient care information and any information to which it may legitimately be linked, need to be investigated.

Model development for health care information, reference requirements, and a refer- ence architecture to define and relate patient care data and medical information and the

clinical and administrative functions they

serve. A concept model should be developed that serves as the guiding framework

that shows the purpose, dimensions, and

minimum characteristics of health information networks, computer-based patient

record systems, and other concepts. The

concept models may pertain to specific domains, such as hospitals, clinics, and local networks. These models, requirements, and

architecture will provide a common framework that will allow software vendors and

system designers to build software tools that can work together. If they work together,

these tools can fill out, or build, the health care application architecture (the common

framework). By supporting the design, building, and implementation of systems that can

interact with each other, this framework, and

tool development, will support improved patient care and build a path for the movement

of existing systems to patient-centered sys- tems.

Federal confidentiality and privacy /aws that supersede a patchwork quilt of State privacy

laws. They will allow society to gain the benefits of rapid automated information transfers across States through information technology, while protecting patient care data from

disclosure. They should provide penalties for inappropriate linking, use, or disclosure of patient care data and define inappropriate

use.

Health data repositories to maintain and

assure the uniformity and confidentiality of patient care data and to provide access to the appropriate users of these data. These

repositories might be distributed among lo- cal communities or located regionally across

the United States. At the extreme, there

could be one central or national data repository. Safeguarding the confidentiality of patient-identifiable data wherever it is stored is essential and must be a prime responsibility

of the depository management.

Computer-based patient record system development to capture patient data at the

point of care and make it available electronically upon request of the provider for patient

care. This development should extend computer-based patient record systems so they

support both clinical and administrative decisionmaking.

Health Care Computer Laboratory (test bed)

development to determine the technical

usefulness of data standards and data

exchanges that support specific functions.

Findings from these pilot test sites should

guide modifications to data standards,

models, and architectures to make them

suitable for commercial applications.

Pilot tests and evaluation of health information technology in patient care settings such

as the home, physician's office, hospital,

and community. These pilot tests and evaluations should include rural as well as urban

settings, and consumer as well as provider

settings. They should reveal where the most

beneficial applications are likely to be.

Community trials for applications that have

been proven successful in single site settings. These trials would be linked in broad- area studies to assess their scalability (i.e., their costs and performances at different vol- ume levels and configurations) and their success in achieving quantifiable savings

that can be duplicated.

Specific studies should evaluate the eco- nomic and medical feasibility of patient care

data transfers between primary care physicians and specialists across geographic

distances, of the use of personal home

53
information systems to promote wellness

and efficient use of medical services, and of administrative electronic data systems to improve the efficiency of medical claims

handling and payment. These transfers in- clude telemedicine transmissions such as medical and patient images, consumer

health information and decision analyses,

and consultations with experts and patients

with similar conditions. Additional studies

should evaluate the potential for libraries of information on standard representations of medical conditions to be accessed by

providers to improve their understanding of patient conditions, disease entities, and

healthy body functioning which, in turn, should improve patient outcomes of care. Studies of alternative means for professional

education and training using the Nil should

also be undertaken.

IV: How Are We Going to Get There?

Issues and Questions to be addressed

How can the federal government facilitate a

public-private partnership for the development of health care information standards?

What should the priorities be among: - Medical information standards for the

nomenclature, coding and structure, content of specific data sets, and electronic

exchange of patient care data, information, and medical knowledge. - Standards for electronic signatures, especially for the validation of physicians'

orders and other information within health

information systems. - Standards for personal identification methods.

With regard to personal identification, how

best should the federal government examine

the benefits and costs of alternative

schemes, including (1) improving the Social

Security Number, (2) creating and implementing a new unique health identification number for the population, and (3) adopting

any other identification system, such as a

private-sector numbering system, retinal scans, or fingerprint readers?

When developing standards, data sets, and

formats for regular reporting of patient care

data used in the programs of federal agencies, how should the agencies work cooperatively with the private-sector standard

developers to achieve common standards

and to accelerate the private sector's development of standards to meet the programs'

needs?

How should federal confidentiality and privacy legislation be developed that would

apply civil and criminal penalties for inappropriate use of personally identifiable patient

data, including inappropriate disclosure and

redisclosure of that data, and discriminatory

decisions based on linking such data with

other personal data bases? - Should this legislation supersede State

privacy laws to achieve nationwide unifor- mity in the way the uses of personally

identifiable patient data are restricted? - How should information system security

requirements be addressed?

How should information about the health care information system technologies being

developed, placed in use, and evaluated by

federal agencies be coordinated? - Due to the diverse missions, technologies, service delivery programs, and re- search and demonstration programs

across federal agencies, should there be

a federal work group established for coordination to reduce unnecessary duplication by sharing program information

that could improve Nil health care applications?

Should the federal government support a

public-private partnership to develop inte- grated health care information systems in hospitals, physicians' offices, and other

health care settings? - Should this partnership develop models

for health care information and reference

requirements and architectures for supporting the functions that require patient care data? - Should this partnership develop tools for software developers and system designers? - Should this partnership support the development of the computer-based patient

record for capturing patient care data at

54
the point of care for clinical and administrative decisionmaking. - Should this support be based on a study

of the expected benefits and costs of these systems and target to those areas where the benefits are most strongly

expected to exceed costs? - Should this support include a portion of the capital cost of these systems? - Should this support be coordinated with

existing telemedicine projects aimed at increasing health care access for rural populations? - Should this support include investigating

the training necessary for these systems

to be adopted by health professionals and

their staffs?

Should the federal government undertake a program of research, demonstration, and

evaluation of integrated health care information systems to identify the specific applications for which the benefits exceed the costs? - Should this program participate with the

private sector in the funding of pilot tests

of these systems in single-site pilot tests, multiple-site trials, and community-wide

demonstrations? - Should this program be coordinated with

standards developing efforts to test pre- liminary standards and provide feedback

to the developers for revisions to the preliminary standards? - Should this program support demonstrations that show the benefits and costs of

linking clinical decision support systems in hospital and physician office settings to national sources of medical knowledge?

- Should this program support demonstrations showing the value of personal health

information systems that provide access to health care knowledge to individuals in their homes, in their workplaces, and in public libraries? - Should this program investigate the costs and benefits of nationwide networks for carrying out administrative health care

functions, including enrollment, eligibility

checking, claims processing, and electronic funds transfer?

- Should this program investigate the potential administrative and clinical cost savings, the changes in health care service

utilization behavior, and the change in consumer satisfaction from providing access to financial and medical effective- ness information to community populations and their health care providers? - Should this program investigate the ex- pected changes in the process of health care and in the patient outcomes of care

that result from use of clinical decision

support systems in relevant health care

settings that are linked to national information sources?

Should the federal government support a

public-private partnership to develop Federal

strategies for repositories of health care data? - Should this partnership fund workshops

and projects that support the development

of important community issues, new concepts and policies concerning health care

data that will be needed for addressing

control, access, and accountability questions in the Nil? - Should a research program investigate the

value of community health care data

repositories for efficient and effective deliver of health care services and for improving patient outcomes in the community? - Should Federal support include partial

funding of community health care data repository demonstrations? - Should Federal support include funding

evaluations of the community uses of their own data, determining what are the benefits to the community, who else receives

benefits from such repositories, and what

are the costs of achieving those benefits?

Should the federal government support State

efforts to use the Nil to promote and evaluate

the public health of their populations and the

administrative efficiency of their health care programs? - Should there be Federal support for States to demonstrate the benefits to state and local public health functions of community data repositories linked at the state

level?

55
References

[1] Wennberg, J. and Gittelsohn, A. (1982). Variations in medical care among small areas. Scientific American,

246,120-134.

[2] Chassin, M.. Kosecoff, J., Park, R. E., Winslow, C. M., Kahn, K. L., Merrick, N. J., Keesey, J., Fink, A., Solomon, D. H., and Brook, R. H. (1987). Does inappropriate use explain geographic variations in the use of health care services? A study of three procedures.

Journal of the American Medical Association , 258, 2533-2537.

[3] Health Care Financing Administration, Office of the Actuary, October 21, 1993, personal communication.

[4] Tierney, W. T., Miller, M. E., Overhage, J. M., and

McDonald, C. M. (1993). Physician inpatient order writ- ing on microcomputer workstations: effects on resource

utilization. Journal of ttie American Medical Association

,

269, 379-383.

[5] Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange Report

(October 1993). 1993 WEDI Report, Executive Summary,

p. iii.

[6] Evans S.. Pestotnik 8. L., Classen D. C, and Burke J. P. (1993). Development of an automated antibiotic consultant. M.D. Computing, 10, 17-22.

[7] Evans R. S., Reed M. G., Burke J. P., Pestotnik S. L., Larsen R. A., Classen D. C, and Clayton P. D. (1987). A computerized approach to monitor prophylactic anti- biotics. Proceedings of the Eleventh Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care (pp. 241-245).

Silver Spring, MD: IEEE Computer Society Press.

[8] Kunitz and Associates, Inc. Final Report (Revised March

28, 1994). Agency for Health Care Policy and Research,

Contract 282-91-0062.

[9] Lindberg DAB, Seigel E. R., Rapp B. A„ Wallingford

K. T., and Wilson S. R. (1993). Use of MEDLINE by

Physicians for clinical Problem Solving. Journal of the American Medical Association , 269,3124-3129.

56
A Transformation of Learning:

Use of tlie Nil

for Education and Lifelong Learning

DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

Today, we have a dream for a different kind of superhighway that can save lives, create jobs and give every American young and old, the chance for the best education avail- able to anyone, anywhere.

I challenge you ... to connect all of our classrooms, all of our libraries, and all of our

hospitals and clinics by the year 2000.

Vice President Al Gore, speaking to communications industry leaders, January 11,

1994

PART I: What Is the Application Area?

Description of Education and Lifelong Learning

Communications technology is transforming the

way we live by connecting us with information

and each other. The National Information

Infrastructure (Nil) promises every business,

government agency, hospital, home, library, and

school in the nation access anywhere to voice,

data, full-motion video, and multimedia applications. The impact of these capabilities on learn- ing -for the children, for higher education

students, and for lifelong learners — will be

substantial.

The way Americans teach, learn, transmit and

access information remains largely unchanged

from a century ago. We find the following conditions in American education and training:

The textbook remains the basic unit of in- struction. Absorption of its contents tends to be the measure of educational success. Teachers and instructors use "chalk and

talk" to convey information. Students are

often recipients of instruction rather than active participants in learning.

School teachers work largely in isolation from their peers. Teachers interact with their colleagues only for a few moments each

day. Most other professionals collaborate,

exchange information and develop new

skills on a daily basis.

Although half of the nation's school teachers use passive video materials for instruction,

only a small fraction have access to interactive video, computer networks, or even tele- phones in the classroom.

While computers are a frequent sight in America's classrooms and training sites,

they are usually used simply as electronic

workbooks. Interactive, high performance

uses of technology, such as networked

teams collaborating to solve real-world problems, retrieving information from electronic

libraries, and performing scientific experiments in simulated environments, are ail too uncommon.

57
"U.S. schooling is a conservative institution,

which adopts new practice and technology

slowly. Highly regulated and financed from a

limited revenue base, schools serve many

educational and social purposes, subject to

local consent. The use of computer technology, with its demands on teacher professional development, physical space, time in the instructional day, and budget ... has

found a place in classroom practice and

school organization slowly and tentatively." ^

Events of the last two decades have proven that we can do better. We have found that most

American children are capable of learning at dramatically higher levels — levels of performance

we now expect only of our best students. We

have learned this from research in cognitive

science, from the educational achievements of other countries, and from pioneering efforts in our own schools. Moreover, after 35 years of research, we have found that technology can be

the key to higher levels of achievement. ^

Similarly, in the American workplace we have

found that workers can achieve levels of productivity and quality equal to the best in the world. ^ Well-educated, well-trained, motivated workers can produce high-quality goods and services at low cost, enhance industrial productivity and

competitiveness, and sustain high living stan- dards. High-quality education and training pay

off for the individual whose skills are upgraded,

for the company seeking a competitive edge,

and for the nation in achieving overall productivity and competitiveness.

Our major foreign competitors place much

greater emphasis on developing and maintaining

workforce skills than we do. Experienced pro- duction workers at Japanese auto assembly

plants, for example, receive three times as much

training each year as their American counterparts. Research in our country has shown that workers who receive formal job training are 30 percent more productive than those who do

not. Again, we have found that technology is the

key to making training accessible and afford- able -especially for small- to medium-sized firms

with few resources of their own to devote to producing and implementing the training and

lifelong learning their workers need and for workers who, on their own, are attempting to

improve their skills or transfer them to new areas

of endeavor.

Finally, in preparing students for the workplace,

we have learned that interactive, high performance technology can produce immersive, real world instructional environments. These environments can smooth longterm school-to-work

transitions while helping to meet the immediate

objectives of both schools and workplaces. Our

efforts to develop this capability have been

fragmentary and shortlived at best.

/K Vision for ttie Use of tlie Nil

The Nil, will be the vehicle for improving education and lifelong learning throughout America in ways we now know are critically important. Our

nation will become a place where students of all ages and abilities reach the highest standards of academic achievement. Teachers, engineers,

business managers, and all knowledge workers

will constantly be exposed to new methods, and

will collaborate and share ideas with one

another.

Through the Nil, students of all ages will use

multimedia electronic libraries and museums

containing text, images, video, music, simulations, and instructional software. The Nil will give

teachers, students, workers, and instructors access to a great variety of instructional resources and to each other. It will give educators and managers new tools for improving the

operations and productivity of their institutions.

The Nil will remove school walls as barriers to learning in several ways. It will provide access to the world beyond the classroom. It will also

permit both teachers and students access to the

tools of learning and their peers -outside the

classroom and outside the typical nine to three

school day. It will enable family members to stay

in contact with their children's schools. The Nil

will permit students, workers and instructors to converse with scientists, scholars, and experts

around the globe.

Workplaces will become lifelong learning environments, supporting larger numbers of high

skill, high wage jobs. Printed books made the

content of great instruction widely and inexpensively available in the 1 8th Century. The interactive capabilities of the Nil will make both the

58
content and interactions of great teaching uni- versally and inexpensively available in the 21st

Century.

Education and Lifelong Learning Applications for the Nil

The Nil will provide the backbone for a lifelong

learning society. Education and training communities will better accommodate an enormous

diversity of learners in an equally diverse variety

of settings. In addition to schools and workplaces, interconnected, high-performance

applications will extend interactive learning to community centers, libraries, and homes.

Education, training, and lifelong learning applications available from the Nil may include:

Multimedia interactive learning programs

delivered to homes to immigrant children

and their parents to collaborate on learning

English as a second language.

Troubleshooting and operating applications

that access the computer-assisted-design

(CAD) databases used to design workplace

technology and to integrate the CAD data

with instructional and job-aiding capabilities

to provide just-in-time training and mainte- nance assistance.

Comprehensive interconnectivity for stu- dents that allows them to receive and complete assignments, collaborate with students

in distant locations on school projects, and

interact with teachers and outside experts to receive help, hints, and critiques.

Simulated learning activities such as laboratory experiments and archeological digs.

Universal access interfaces for computers

and telecommunications devices for stu- dents, workers and others with disabilities to allow access to the Nil.

Affordable, portable personal learning assistance that tap into the Nil from any location

at any time and provide multi-media access

to any Nil information resource.

Immersive, realistic interactive simulations

that allow emergency teams made up of geographically dispersed members to practice together on infrequently used pro- cedures that may be urgently needed to meet local exigencies.

The Educational Benefits of Technology

Evidence from research, schools, and workplaces around the country tells us that communications technologies are powerful tools in reaching the highest levels of educational perfor- mance.

Students with disabilities, who previously

had at best limited access to most educational and reference materials, will have

fuller access and will have the ability to participate in the learning experience with

their peers. A 1993 survey of studies on the effective- ness of technology in schools concluded

that "courses for which computer-based

networks were used increased student-student and student-teacher interaction,

increased student-teacher interaction with

lower-performing students, and did not decrease the traditional forms of communications used."

Research on the costs of instruction deliv- ered via distance learning, videotape, tele- conferencing, and computer software

indicates that savings are often achieved

with no loss of effectiveness. Distance learn- ing vastly broadens the learning environment, often providing teaching resources

simply not available heretofore. Technologybased methods have a positive impact on

learner motivation and frequently save

instructional time. Savings in training time

produce benefits both by reducing training costs and by shortening the time required to become and remain productive in the

workplace.

A review of computer-based instruction used

in military training found that students reach

similar levels of achievement in 30% less time than they need using more standard

approaches to training. ^

A Congressionally mandated review covering 47 comparisons of multimedia instruction

with more conventional approaches to instruction found time savings of 30%, improved achievement, cost savings of 30-

40%, and a direct, positive link between

amount of interactivity provided and instructional effectiveness. ^

59
A comparison of peer tutoring, adult tutoring, reducing class size, increasing the

length of the school day, and computerbased instruction found computer-based

instruction to be the least expensive instructional approach for raising mathematics

scores by a given amount.

A landmark study of the use of technology

for persons with disabilities found that "almost three-quarters of school-age

children were able to remain in a classroom,

and 45 percent were able to reduce schoolrelated services." ®

Of course, these benefits depend upon several

contextual factors, including the instructional

methods used, the quality of the applications,

the availability of professional development for educators, accessibility of instructional materials,

the presence of school technology support staff, and family involvement. ^ We must learn through

experience how best to ensure that the benefits

we intend to obtain from Nil-based applications

become routinely realized in practice.

Telecommunications networks provide a range

of resources to students and educators that were never before available or affordable. Students and workers can now gain access to mentoring, advice, and assistance from scientists, engineers, researchers, business leaders,

technicians, and local experts around the globe

through the Internet, using a level of access and

connectivity that was previously unimaginable.

High school students in West Virginia, for example, can now study Russian via satellite and tele- phone with a teacher hundreds of miles away.

Few West Virginia school districts could afford to

offer such a course any other way.

Less well understood are changes in the types

of learning that occur with the use of certain

technologies. Current evidence suggests that some technology applications are more effective than traditional instructional methods in building

complex problem solving capabilities for synthesizing information and in improving writing quality. The effects are achieved in part by permitting

alternate methods of "reaching" and motivating

learners. The Administration's National Information

Infrastructure initiative can trigger a transformation of education, training, and lifelong learning

by making new tools available to educators,

instructors, students, and workers and help

them reach dramatically higher levels of performance and productivity. The impact of this transformation in teaching and learning is in- estimable, but clearly enormous. Knowledge

drives today's global marketplace. The Nil will permit us to take learning beyond the limitations of traditional school buildings. It will take our educators and learners to worldwide resources. Learning will be our way of life.

PART II: Where Are We Now?

Today, compelling teaching and learning applications are the exception, not the rule. Several

federal agencies provide services that meet

specific, focused needs, while hundreds of state and local networks and private service providers

have begun to address the technology needs of education. Current uses, while expanding

rapidly, reach only a small number of technologically-literate school communities.

Current application of Nil capabilities to workplace training is more extensive and technologically advanced than educational applications, yet

it lags well behind what is needed and available.

The story of workplace training seems to be a case of the haves receiving more and the havenots remaining neglected. Small firms, those

with 100 employees or less, provide about

35 percent of total U.S. employment, but they

lack the expertise to provide in-house training,

the resources to pay for outside training, and

sufficient numbers of people who need training

at any one time to justify focused training efforts. Larger firms are more likely to provide training

than smaller ones, but the training they provide

is mostly limited to college-educated technicians

and managers. The lower the level of skills possessed, the less likely the worker is to receive

training from any source. Transportable, quality

controlled training and lifelong learning could be

made readily and inexpensively accessible using

the Nil and will have a major impact on improving worker skills and workplace productivity.

While much remains to be done, the opportunities offered by the Nil put many of the needed

capabilities within reach of schools, homes, and

the workplace.

60
Current Uses of Telecommunications for Education

The existing teiecommunications infrastructure is composed of telephone, broadcast, cable, and

electronic networks. It is used for education,

training, and lifelong learning in five basic ways:

1) instructing with video; 2) gathering infornria- tion from remote libraries and databases;

3) communicating using two-way asynchronous

capabilities such as e-mail and information

bulletin boards; 4) distance learning; and

5) electronic transfer of instructional software

and simulations.

Instructional video. Seventy-five percent of America's schools have cable television, and

half of its teachers use video material in their courses. ^° The Stars Schools program is reaching 200,000 students in 48 states with

advanced placement courses in mathematics, science, and foreign language instruction using fiber optics, computers, and

satellites. Cassette videotapes for instruction are widely used in schools and workplaces, and the development of these

videotapes for both education and training

has become a vigorous industry.

Information collection. This activity includes

location and retrieval of documents such as

lesson plans and research reports, but it also includes newer data sources such as CAD databases for workplace technologies

and equipment, and multimedia information

retrieval from digital libraries that can be ac- cessed by students, workers, or people in homes, libraries, and museums. Over

60,000 electronic bulletin boards are used

by more than 12 million Americans every

day. The annual rate of Gopher traffic on

the Internet, which directly represents an ef- fort to use Nil facilities to gather information,

is growing at an annual rate of approximately 1000%. The Department of Education has a Gopher server which points to or contains educational research information,

such as the AskERIC service and information from sources such as CNN, Academy

One, and the Educational Testing Service.

NASA Spacelink makes lesson plans on

space flight and related science topics avail- able on the Internet.

Two-way communication. This includes communication via electronic mail and conferencing among teachers, students, workers,

mentors, technicians, and subject matter

experts of every sort. Approximately onequarter of the teachers in Texas regularly

sign on to the Texas Education Network, or TENET, to share information, exchange mail,

and find resources. A professor at Virginia

Polytechnic Institute and State University

teaches a writing course entirely online.

Students swap writing projects and discuss

their assignments online. In the workplace,

electronic mail is used by more than

12 million workers, increasing to over 27 million workers by 1995. Just less than a

sixth of U.S. homes now have at least one

computer connected to a modem, and this percentage is growing rapidly. As of July,

1993, there were four Internet hosts for ev- ery 1000 people in the United States. There

are now 60 countries on the Internet. About

137 countries can now be reached by electronic mail.

Distance learning. Hundreds of thousands of students in schools, community colleges,

and universities now take courses via one- and two-way video and two-way audio communication. In South Carolina, high school

students across the state study with a teacher of Russia based in Columbia

through South Carolina Educational Television. Boise State University offers a masters

degree program conducted entirely over net- worked computers to students all over the

country. The Department of Defense is in- vesting well over $1 billion in the development and implementation of networked

distributed interactive simulation. This technology, which allows dispersed learners to engage in collaborative problem solving

activities in real time, is now ready for transfer to schools and workplaces outside

of the defense sector.

61
Transfer of instructional software and simulations. Instructional programs, simulations,

materials, and databases can all be

accessed over the Nil and delivered to schools, homes, libraries, and workplaces

wherever and whenever it is desirable to do

so. Currently, there are massive exchanges

of software, databases, and files using the

Internet, but relatively little of this activity occurs in the service of education, training,

and lifelong learning.

Nonetheless, compelling applications that will become indispensable to teachers, students,

and workers are not yet available. All the capabilities of computer-based instruction and multi- media instruction can be distributed using Nil

facilities to schools, workplaces, homes,

libraries, museums, community centers, store

fronts -wherever and whenever people wish to

learn. Yet the infrastructure and applications to support this level of accessibility for education,

training, and lifelong learning uses have yet to be developed. Until compelling applications are

available, educations will not realize the potential

of the Nil.

Efforts to Build ttie Nil for Education and Lifelong

Learning: Roles of the Private, Nonprofit, and

Public Sectors

Successful implementation of the Nil to serve

the nation's education and lifelong learning

needs will require significant contributions by the

private sector, state and local governments, the

federal government, and the non-profit sector.

The private sector's role in providing

telecommunications services and applications for education and lifelong learning has

been expanding rapidly in recent years, and

should continue to do so. The private sector

will build the telecommunications infrastruc- ture and must also make 75% to 95% of the

nation's investments in applications development for education and lifelong learning.

The private sector also supports the bulk of job training costs. On the telecommunications side. Pacific Bell has committed to providing data links for all California schools,

colleges, and universities. On the applications side, the Software Publishers Association reports that education is its fastest- growing product category, with over 700

firms currently producing educational soft- ware.

State and local governments provide 93% of the nation's investment in elementary and

secondary education and provide a large

percentage of the investment in higher education. Accordingly, most of the spending on

hardware, software, professional development and support services will come from

state and local public funds. In addition, states are in the position to remove regulatory and tariff barriers to Nil access in the

local communities.

The federal government has three principal

responsibilities. It facilitates the private sector investment in infrastructure and applications for education and lifelong learning by

creating incentives, removing regulatory

barriers, establishing standards, supporting

research, evaluation and prototype development, developing visionary "benchmark"

applications, and providing assistance to the

education and training communities. It communicates a vision for the education, train- ing, and lifelong learning uses of the Nil. And, most importantly, it promotes access

for all learners to the resources of the Nil. Thousands of private nonprofit organizations, ranging from large national industry

associations to small, informal groups serv- ing Internet users with specialized interests,

now serve critical roles as providers of infor- mation, technical assistance, and valuable

applications.

Key Federal Agencies

While almost every Federal agency supports

instructional activities that involve telecommunications technology, eleven agencies actively

support the development of instructional uses of the future Nil.

The Department of Agriculture collaborates with

land-grant colleges and universities to make an

array of information and expertise available online and to provide distance learning opportunities ato urban and rural communities.

62
The Department of Commerce provides support

and direct funding for teleconnmunications

infrastructure planning and development, and

plans to support improvements in workplace

training using the Nil. Commerce's National

Institute of Standards and Technology supports

standards development.

The Department of Defense provides lifelong

education and training to hundreds of thousands

of military personnel. It supports R&D for education and training and is expected to transfer knowledge and software to schools and non- Defense workplaces under its Dual-Use and

Technology Reinvestment programs. The

Department of Defense Dependents Schools

are expected to serve as a testbed for new

applications.

The Department of Education advocates for the

needs of all learners in the development of the

Nil. The Department is the principal source of Federal support for distance learning, via the

Star Schools Program. In FY 1995, the Department will also support applications and programming development, pilot projects, teacher

networks, research, and planning grants to states and districts.

The Department of Energy is in the forefront in the development and use of information technologies, such as high performance computing,

high speed networking, data storage and data

bases, and other information sen/ices and

system integration technology. The Department

is developing K-12 computing and communication applications that support a new learning

paradigm and take advantage of the regional

presence and capabilities of the Department's

laboratories. Emphasis is placed on reaching a broad range of students, including women and

underrepresented minorities. The Department

will initiate pilot projects that have scalability as an important characteristic so that schools can

bridge the period until network and system costs

decline to the point that the education establishment can take over this support. Another key

technology initiative is the development of digital libraries that will enable users speedy and

economical access to Energy information over an electronic data highway.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has undertaken an initiative to develop the

capability to provide training to HUD employees

and clients by linking trainers to students who

may be thousands of miles apart. This distance

learning network makes use of computer, inter- active video, satellite, and telecommunications

technologies, and will be implemented under the

auspices of the recently established HUD Training Academy.

The Department of the Interior has several activi- ties underway to implement the Nil within the

Department. One of these is the National Biological Information Infrastructure, which will allow users to access, manipulate, organize, and use

biological data and information from a variety of sources.

The Department of Labor has direct and indirect interaction with employers, workers, business

and labor organizations, and other government

entities and administers most Federal training

programs. The Department hopes to use the Nil to enhance the skills, education and training of the American workforce.

The Federal Communications Commission regulates interstate and foreign telecommunications

by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable.

The FCC is responsible for the orderly development and operation of broadcast services and

the provision of rapid efficient nationwide tele- phone and telegraph services at reasonable

rates.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration continues to build on its HPCC program, its aeronautics and space science research and

engineering missions, and its existing education

outreach infrastructure to facilitate the general

development of the Nil to support mathematics,

science, and engineering education in K-12

education. This program consists of pilot

projects at 7 NASA Centers involving many of

their local schools and school districts. The

goal of the K-12 effort will be to produce and

distribute curriculum materials to a very

broad user community over the Internet. A video

is in production in cooperation with the Department of Education to provide guidance on

63
appropriate steps for implementing Internet ac- cess and utilization in the classroom. NASA continues to operate and improve its "Spacelink"

computer information system for the education

community, principally teachers and students.

The National Science Foundation supports

research on digital libraries for capturing, categorizing, and organizing data of all forms (text, images, sound, speech) in electronic form to allow utilization of networked databases

distributed around the nation and the world.

A networking infrastructure for education

program will establish test beds and implement

prototypes that explore the role of electronic

networks in support of reformed education. The

NSF will also support the development of national facilities and centers such as NSFNET,

High Performance Computing and Communications Centers and National Challenge Centers

needed to support the research, education and

training activities required to broaden the impact

of the Nil.

In addition, the High-Performance Computing

and Communications initiative, an interagency

effort under the aegis of the Office of Science

and Technology Policy, includes several components that directly support the development of

Nil uses for education, training, and lifelong

learning. These include:

The National Research and Education

Network (NREN). The NREN will establish a

very fast communications infrastructure for research and educational use. NREN efforts include increasing the availability of advanced network products and services at affordable cost to research and education

communities.

Information Infrastructure Technology and

Applications (IITA). This component

supports the development of software,

interfaces, and tools necessary for the educational use of the Nil, including access to

digital libraries.

More than half the states sponsor broad educational networking. In some states, the state government has led the effort, in others, regional

or local organizations have taken the initiative as

illustrated in the examples that follow. The Iowa Communications Network (ICN)

currently includes over 2,600 miles of fiber optic cable that links together fifteen re- gional centers, three regent universities, and

Iowa Public Television. Current uses include

63 semester-long distance learning courses

offered in the fall of 1993, workshops and

seminars for educators, and town meetings.

Ultimately, ICN will link up every college and

high school in the state. The state has in- vested over $100 million in ICN so far.

In May, 1993, North Carolina Governor Jim

Hunt announced the North Carolina Information Highway, an effort to link educational,

medical, economic development, and public

safety organizations statewide. In January,

1994, Governor Hunt announced the first 106 sites to be linked up to the information

highway, most of which are educational in- stitutions. The state legislature created a school technology commission to examine

the technology needs of the state's schools.

The legislature is scheduled to vote on a $350 million proposal to fund educational

technology in late 1994.

In Ohio, a number of local and statewide or- ganizations are now working to increase ac- cess to networks for educational use. These

include the State of Ohio Network for Inte- grated Communications, which provides

connectivity for all state agencies; the Ohio

Educational Computer Network, charged

with developing K-12 educational links; Cleveland FreeNet, a regional network; and

the Ohio Academic Resources Network, link- ing up colleges and universities. Comparatively little state money has been spent to build these networks.

State and Local Agencies

States and local communities have initiatives to provide Internet access and high speed access

to the Nil for education and lifelong learning.

Use of Telecommunications Technologies in Schools

While computers and some communications capabilities are present in American schools, high

speed communications technology is limited to very few classrooms. Substantial local infrastruc64
ture investments will be necessary to realize the

promise of Nil applications. The installed base of computers, modems, networks, and video technology indicates that growth has been, at best, uneven. Since education and training application

development has not kept pace with other grand

challenges types of Nil applications, most

schools, communities, and state and local governing bodies have neither recognized nor acted on the need to build the technological capability

to access the information superhighway. A key

but not well understood requirement is for technical expertise to install and maintain high speed

connections to the Nil. Once the high speed

communications linkages of the Nil are brought

to the schoolhouse door, the challenge is to build the internal high speed linkages within the

building to connect the user hardware.

The installed base of computers in American

elementary and secondary schools is largely

incapable of supporting multimedia graphical

applications because of obsolete or obsolescent

hardware. Eighty percent of the base includes

55% Apple lis and 24% IBM PCs, XTs, ATs or

similar class machines, with limited modern

graphic or multimedia capabilities; the part of the base made of 10% Apple Macintoshes and

8% IBM compatible 386s or 486s is capable of supporting high level applications. The number

of computers in the schools, 2.5 million, is equivalent to one per classroom.'® In a 1993

survey of NEA members, only 4% of teachers

reported having a modem in their classroom,

while 38% reported having access to a modem

somewhere in the school building. Another

survey found that among 550 educators who are

actively involved in using telecommunications,

less than half have access to the Internet. They

use the Internet services twice as often for professional activities as for student learning

activities. ^°

Use of Telecommunications Teciinologies in tfie Workplace

Well-designed technology-based training can

provide greater mastery of material in less time

and with higher employee satisfaction than the

average classroom lecture, yet classroom

instruction remains the most common formal

training method in the United States. Most cor- porate trainers have insufficient experience with

technology to use it confidently or to design courses around it. Although 35 million adulsts

have difficulties with common literacy tasks, no more than 15 percent of literacy providers use them regularly for instruction, and many do not use them at all. Despite the explosion of cable,

public, and commercial television channels,

there are only a few instructional television pro- grams that target adult literacy. This situation

remains despite the privacy and accessibility that technology and the Nil offer adult learners.

The issue is not limited to the literacy training

adults need to obtain and keep employment.

Even among those who are prepared to benefit

from them, the immersing, tutorial interactions of instruction and especially instructional simulations that are now available from high-perfor- mance technology are rarely found in the

workplace. Even the capabilities of just-in-time

and just-enough training and job performance

aiding are rarely employed to their useful limits.

Equity and Access

Computer technology is unevenly distributed in our schools today when measured by computer

density, the ratio of computers to students.

Those schools in the top quintile have nine

times as many computers as those schools in the bottom quintile. Computer density in the

schools is not strongly correlated with socioeconomic, racial, or ethnic patterns, however.

Lower than average computer densities are found in large schools, urban schools, both

private and parochial schools, and schools with

large numbers of Hispanic students. Because

the installed base is 80% obsolete, it is not a

significant indicator of utilization of modern

technology.

Distribution of video technologies such as dis- tance learning equipment, VCRs, and cable TV

is more evenly distributed. Schools in rural and

poor areas actually have higher densities of these types of equipment. For instance, every

school in West Virginia, regardless of its location, has a satellite receive-only dish providing

ready access to televised courses.

Dramatic disparities appear in the area of computer networking. Instructional networks are most prevalent in the Northeast, in suburban

65
schools, in schools whose parents' education is "said to be above average," and also in elementary schools receiving Chapter I support, a rea- sonable nrieasure of poverty.

Although most schools' use of technology is far below what they desire, because the technology

is not affordable, a small number of schools

have made substantial investments in technology. Such schools achieve greater "high end"

technology usage. Higher socioeconomic level schools also are more likely to be high-end

technology users.

A disparity in technology investments between

small and large firms is noted, small firms can make only limited investments in training, with or without Nil support. When such investments are made, they appear to pay off. A Canadian study

found that successful companies innovate and

spend more on technology than those that are

less successful. However, entry level training

to facilitate school-to-work transitions remains

everyone's stepchild. Some of the entry level training needs are being met by electronic home

learning. In fact, education software sales for the

first three quarters of 1993 were up 46% from

the same period in 1992. Nonetheless, the

situated apprenticeship training and basic skills training that forms the foundation for entry level training that could be provided through the Nil remains to be developed. Without accessibility

to such workplace training technical capabilities,

intractable inequities are likely to remain.

PART III: Where Do We Want to Be?

The goal of the Administration -as stated by

Vice President Al Gore -is for all citizens to use

the Nil from every home, library, workplace,

community center and classroom in the nation.

The Nil will support lifelong learning opportunities for an enormously diverse community of learners.

This goal implies nothing short of a complete

transformation of American education and

lifelong learning. The Nil will enable education to become a lifelong enterprise for all Americans,

integrating and substantially enhancing school,

community, and workplace learning and providing opportunities accessible to all.

Immediate Objectives

We propose the following objectives as goals for the near term:

Schools, libraries, workplaces, and other

learning sites will have high speed access to the Nil, capable of supporting interactive,

multimedia applications.

Interactive, multimedia, high-quality educational applications for students in the basic

learning areas and at different skills levels

will be affordable and readily available in the

marketplace.

Schools will have internal networking capabilities and hardware capable of supporting

high-quality applications.

High-quality basic skills training that pro- vides every motivated worker with the verbal

and quantitative skills needed to learn and

perform job-relevant tasks will be available in every workplace.

The following conditions should exist in support

of the these goals:

Educators and the public will understand the

potential of the Nil to support high-performing learning environments, and they will be

able to use Nil resources effectively. Examples of the effective use of the Nil for education, training, and lifelong learning, and

evidence of concrete instructional benefits,

will be widely available.

All states, and a majority of school districts,

will have comprehensive plans in place for the integration of technology into education

and lifelong learning, that are linked to sys- temic education improvement plans, and will have begun implementation of these plans. At a minimum, these plans will address the

challenges of diminished budgets while

meeting requirements for increased investments in technology, professional development, maintenance, and technical support;

provision for access by users with disabilities; provide broadband access to class- rooms and other learning sites; and make

changes in regulatory structures to facilitate infrastructure and applications investments.

66
Investment by all levels of government in re- search, development, and evaluation, implementation, and technical support will increase dramatically. The investments will include professional development and technical assistance for teachers, school administrators, instructors, and managers in the use of information technologies. Providers of professional development and technical

assistance will be encouraged to offer quality, easily accessible services in a variety of ways -including access through the Nil. A

majority of teachers will have access to personal telecommunications devices and

networking services to support continuing

professional growth and interchange of professional information.

The demand for high-quality software packages and tools for education, training, and

lifelong learning will grow rapidly and substantially such that the private sector will make massive new investments in the

infrastructure and increase the quality and

accessibility of the software packages

and tools.

Multimedia education and training packages

will become portable so that they can be

delivered across the Nil and used when they

reach their destination regardless of the

hardware platform to be found there.

Strategies and standards will be available for making at least the current generation applications accessible to users with disabilities or who are experiencing limitations due to aging.

Long Term Goals

To serve the needs of the educational community in the long term, an improved Nil must have

the following attributes:

Convenient and equitable access. Connection to every American classroom, public

library and other learning locations will ensure that Nil applications are available to

all citizens as instructional tools and not

available just as special, rationed services.

Affordable workplace and home access will give all learners access to the Nil resources whenever and wherever they are needed,

will enable family members to be fully involved

in the education of their children, and will allow

workers to participate in a productive, lifelong

learning society.

High sped transmission capability. The Nil

will permit the interactive transmission of voice, video, data, multimedia applications,

and other digitized information at the capacities needed to support education, training,

and lifelong learning.

Easy use. User interfaces will be simple and

easy to use. Networks and applications will be interoperable, to permit easy access from

all hardware platforms to the widest possible

array of resources. The Nil will have directories and other exploration tools that allow

students, teachers, and workers to make

their way conveniently through the massive

amounts of available information. Tools to assist users identify resources will be developed.

Technological simplification. Telecommunications hardware and software will be simplified so that connecting a computer to the Nil

is no more complex than connecting a tele- phone.

Accessibility. User interfaces and information

must accommodate users with a widespread

range of abilities through built in interface

options, flexibility, and compatibility with

special access technologies.

Security. The Nil will accommodate security

systems adequate to protect privacy, the

confidentiality of sensitive information, and to safeguard intellectual property rights. The

network must also accommodate varying

levels of access to resources in education

and training settings.

Content. The Nil must offer information,

communication, and learning opportunities

that meet high standards of quality and help

America reach the National Education Goals.

Portability. Interactive courseware will have

the same operating interoperability- "plug

and play" -now available in high fidelity

audio systems. Investments in multimedia

education and training programs will be

67
preserved through Nil delivery using inter- operability standards in the development of software and hardware.

Instructional delivery. Instructional delivery

will provide workers with a "PhD in a

pocket." Instruction and job performance

aiding will be delivered on a device that re- sembles a pocket calculator. Every complex

device will include sufficient embedded train- ing and user assistance to make it easily

useable.

Instructional intelligence, instructional intelli- gence will support integrated individualized

tutoring that integrates goal setting, instruction, job performance aiding, and decision

aiding into a single package. Natural

language interaction will be an essential

feature of this capability.

Institutional integration. Institutional integration will be the most difficult challenge to meet. The new instructional capabilities will

first have to be integrated into the routine,

daily practice of our current instructional and

workplace institutions. Just-in-time and justenough training that is universally available

will not only change the ways people are

treated in the workplace but the workplace

itself.

PART IV: How Are We Going to Get

There?

Making the Nil a reality for education will require

significant capital investments by the private sector and commitments to meet continuing

operating costs. Federal, State, and local governments need to create the conditions in which

this investment can proceed, and will play a

critical role in "jump starting" educational applications and access to the network. The following

questions are intended to focus attention on the

most important issues for Federal policy.

Issues and Questions to be Addressed

Access

How can the Federal Government facilitate the

connectivity needs of schools and other learning

sites? Should schools that have been traditionally underserved be given special attention with

respect to network access and access to the

information resources relevant to their needs?

Should schools and other learning sites be

given universal service to ensure the delivery of service at the same affordable rates as most

American homes?

How can the Nil be made accessible in a variety

of learning environments? How can the Nil allow

individual learners access to the resources they

need when and where they want access? How

can the Nil provide the capability for learning on demand through education and training pro- grams funded by the Federal Government?

What incentives, regulatory actions, or other

activities within the private sector and state and

local government are needed to encourage

investments to connect educational institutions and other learning sites to the Nil?

Should the FCC propose regulations that en- hance the availability of advanced telecommunications services to all educational institutions mby mechanisms such as preferential rates for telecommunications services? Are there alternative means of achieving this public requirement?

Should the Federal Government collect and publicly report data to monitor progress in areas such as the extent of network access in schools?

Professional Development

Teachers, administrators, instructors, and others

need access to professional development opportunities on a much wider scale than is now the

case. How can the Federal Government facilitate access to on-site and on-line assistance? Should

professional development be expanded to in- clude the new role of the teachers and trainers as guides and mentors rather than their present

role as the primary information provider in the

classroom?

Development of Education and Training

Applications

Should the Federal Government target invest- ments for the development of high quality applications for education, training and lifelong

learning use of the Nil that meet challenging content and performance standards? What in- centives and guidelines should be developed to

68
encourage software developers and other pro- ducers of education and training materials to participate in developing new technologies and

applications to address the needs of diverse and

special needs populations?

Research and Development

What categories of research and development

should be identified across the agencies of the

Federal Government to ensure technologysupported learning is being pursued in conjunction with the development of the Nil? Should the

Federal government require evaluation of all supported projects?

How can the teachers, trainers and other educators who are actively using the Nil best be

supported and their work disseminated? How

can the intellectual property rights of those

creating applications of the Nil for learning best

be protected?

Planning

How can the Federal Government best support

State and local efforts to develop and implement

technology plans? Should the Federal Government ensure a coordinated approach between

states? Within each state?

Technical Assistance

How can technical assistance best be provided

by the Federal Government in response to a

general or specific request from any segment of the learning community? Should the Federal

Government establish specialized teams (composed of Federal staff or contractors) to assist

schools, districts, state agencies? Should technical assistance networks of expert staffs be avail- able to answer questions about Nil uses for education and lifelong learning? Should planning tools be developed and disseminated, such

as videotapes, planning guides, directories, resource listings and other forms of information?

Partnership

What is the role of the Federal Government in developing sustained public and private partnerships to support education and training uses of the Nil?

How can the Federal Government best promote

the goals of the Nil and its application to education and lifelong learning with the public, with

state and local governments, and with the education and training communities?

What role should the Federal Government play

in making public and private information resources available to schools, institutions of higher education, training institutions, libraries,

and other institutions of learning?

How can the Federal Government facilitate a

public-private partnership for the development of interoperability standards, application quality

standards, and effectiveness standards to facili- tate the development of high-quality telecommunications and applications?

How can the Federal Government best ensure

collaboration among the agencies to bring

together technical expertise and application

development to expand the use of the Nil for education and training?

How can the Federal Government best support

research and evaluation on the education and

training applications of current and emerging

technologies to the Nil?

Notes

1. Melmed, Arthur (June 1993) A Learning

Infrastructure for All Americans. Fairfax, VA: Institute of Public Policy, George Mason University.

2. For example, see U.S. Congress, Office of Techinology Assessment. (September 1 988) Power On! New Tools

for Teacfiing and Learning. OTA-SET-379 Washiington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

3. U.S. Congress, Office of Tecfinology Assessment.

(1990) Worker Training: Competing in the New International Economy (OTA-ITE-457). Washiington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

4. "Report on the Effectiveness of Technology in Schools

1990-1992," conducted by Interactive Educational Systems Design and commissioned by the Software

Publishers Association, 1993, p. 2.

5. Orlansky, J., & String, J. (1979) Cost-Effectiveness of Computer Based Instruction in l\/lilitary Training (IDA Pa- per P-1375). Institute for Defense Analyses, Alexandria,

Virginia.

69
6. Fletcher, J. D. (1991) Effectiveness and cost of interactive videodisc instruction. Machine Mediated Learning,

3, 361-385.

7. Fletcher, J. D., Hawley, D. E., and Piele, P. K. (1990) Costs, effects, and utility of microcomputer assisted in- struction in the classroom. American Educational Research Journal, 27, 783-806.

8. National Council on Disability, "Study on the Financing

of Assistive Technology Devices and Services for Indi- viduals with Disabilities: A Report to the President and

the Congress of the United States," March 4, 1993.

9. Henry Jay Becker, "How Our Best Computer-Using

Teachers, Differ from Other Teachers: Implications for Realizing the Benefits of Computers in Schools," Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 26 (1994).

10. Corporation for Public Broadcasting Study of School Uses of Television and Video, Spring, 1991.

11. Withrow, F. Personal Communication , 2 March 1994.

12. Investor's Business Daily, 17 February 1994.

13. Treese, Win (December 1993) "Internet Index."

14. Melmed, Arthur (June 1993) A Learning Infrastructure

for All Americans . Fairfax, VA: Institute of Public Policy, George Mason University.

15. Treese, W., op. cit.

16. "Information Intrastates," State Government News, publication of the Council of State Governments, October

1993, p. 19.

17. ibid.

18. Melmed, A., op. cit.

19. Princeton Survey Research Associates. NEA Communications Survey, Spring 1993. Weighted sample of 1,206

NEA member teachers.

20. Honey, M. and Henriquez, A. (1993) Telecommunications and K-12 Educators: Findings from a National Sur- vey. New York, NY: Bank Street College of Education.

21 . Worker Training, op. cit.

22. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment

(1993) Adult Literacy and New Technologies: Tools for a Lifetime (OTA-SET-550) Washington, DC: Government

Printing Office.

23. Worker Training, op. cit.

24. The Heller Report (January 1994).

70
Environmental Monitoring and the Nil

DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

PART I: What Is the Application

Arena?

Description of Environmental Monitoring

Environmental monitoring is fundamental to our

ability to understand and predict changes in the

environment, and to respond to the range of en- vironmental issues facing the Nation today. It starts with the multitude of systems for spaceborne, airborne, land-based, and ocean-based

observations of physical, chemical, and biological characteristics and extends to dissemination

of such information for safeguarding public

health, life, property, and our Nation's natural and cultural heritage. It is absolutely essential for supporting the range of human endeavor, in- cluding transportation, commerce, education,

and day-to-day activities. It encompasses

phenomena both natural and man-made that occur on scales from seconds to millennia and

from local to global.

Just as we monitor financial, labor, and other in- dicators of economic health, so must we monitor

environmental indicators to judge the state of the environment. Environmental monitoring tells us how well we are conserving biodiversity, how

our activities are impacting the planet, and how

to plan for and assess environmental remediation actions. Our national capability to perform

comprehensive environmental monitoring is currently limited by an infrastructure that is extremely fragmented and which will not allow

the kinds of capabilities envisioned for a multi- disciplinary and global view of the environment.

An improved Nil will be a critical link in supporting the process of environmental observation,

analysis, and information dissemination.

The Vision : Develop a nationally integrated net- work of observing systems, computational

centers, archives, libraries and information

dissemination systems to address the Nation's

needs for environmental data and information.

Such an infrastructure will serve as an enabling

integrating agent for the diversity of observational data and information by building upon the

national investment (both public and private)

in environmental monitoring and protection

activities.

Historically, environmental monitoring has been

limited by our lack of understanding of the

"interrelatedness" of environmental factors and

the technological capability to make detailed,

comprehensive environmental measurements,

and then to integrate and interpret them in support of a host of scientific, policy, and operational uses.

Consider the following scenario.

The supertanker EXXON Valdez runs aground in the Gulf of Alaska. Authorities are informed of the mishap and an oil spill emergency management team is called into action to assess the

situation. They call for an aerial reconnaissance

of the region requesting that the airplane observations be distributed in real-time to a team of environmental experts located in various cities in the U.S. The experts determine that, based

71
upon the rate of spillage and spread of the oil, a major environmental disaster is in the making.

The emergency management team swings into action. It assembles a panel of experts (including fisheries and wildlife biologists, oceanographers, and meteorologists) through video

teleconferencing. Within minutes it determines

via on-line databases the resources available in the local area to combat the oil spill including

ships, personnel, and appropriate equipment.

Because of the remoteness of the spill region

and its areal extent, it becomes clear that satellite imaging will be essential to monitoring the

situation on a broad scale, to guide the local

aerial and ship reconnaissance, and to support the spill containment operations.

Invoking emergency authority, the team

issues a direct request to an environmental

satellite to adjust its imaging schedule so as to increase the rate of data taking over the site from once per day to once every orbital over- pass.

The team of scientific experts utilizes advanced

high-resolution numerical models, accessible re- motely at supercomputing centers, to predict the

likely path of the oil spill so that spill containment and clean-up operations can be focussed

to minimize environmental damage. Real-time

observations of winds and ocean currents are

fed to models to guide their output. The expert

team accesses a remote, nationally distributed

database containing the national biological

inventory to determine the locations and populations of local fish spawning areas and wildlife habitats and to plan for appropriate safeguarding

actions. Tha experts team devises a program of long-term monitoring to track the effects of the

oil spill on the region and to assess environmental recovery. Economic models running at re- mote computational centers are invoked by the

experts to assess the potential short-term and

long-term economic impacts of fisheries degradation. Thanks to easy and timely access to real-time and historical observational data, advanced computational facilities, on-line databases, communications networks to link observing systems to emergency managers and

analysts, resources have been effectively marshalled just in time to avoid serious, long-term

damage to the area's environment and econ- omy.

Such a scenario for dealing with a potential environmental disaster is technologically feasible

today, but requires overcoming a set of nontechnological barriers that limit the implementation of such a decision-support system.

Studies of the environment were once limited in scope to studying small regions and specific

phenomena, generally in isolation from others.

From the 1960s to the present, certainly our per- ception of the interrelatedness of environmental

phenomena has changed. Equally as important, our capacity to make ever more accurate and

precise regional and global measurements of the environment has expanded geometrically,

particularly with the advent of advanced satellite- borne sensors as well as improved airborne,

ground-based, and ocean-based instrumentation. However, our ability to fully utilize these

measurements in support of decision making

still lags behind our ability to make the measurements. A major cause of this lag is our inability

until now to cope with the avalanche of data

emanating from widely diverse systems, stored

and disseminated in varied formats, and

acquired in support of different agency or organizational missions. Technological solutions exist now that will allow acquisition of large volumes

of disparate data, transmitting them to users,

storing them in large capacity storage devices,

retrieving them from databases, and manipulating them for analysis and decision support.

Environmental monitoring is primarily a federal

responsibility although state and local governments also play a significant role. For example,

all levels of government and the private sector

participate in water resources monitoring for a

total investment of several billions of dollars annually across hundreds of organizations. Federal

agencies having major programs in the environmental monitoring arena include the National

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

(NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA), Department of Energy (DoE),

Department of the Interior (Dol), and Department

of Defense (DoD). The roles of these agencies

are extremely diverse, yet complementary. Ex- amples of the functions performed by these

agencies are: daily weather forecasts and severe storm prediction (NOAA), space-based atmosphere/ocean/land science research (NASA),

fossil fuel-generated pollution monitoring and

assessment (EPA), nuclear dump monitoring

72
and nuclear power plant radiation release mitigation (DoE), characterization of the Nation's earth

and water resources and public lands management (Dol), global weather and ocean prediction

in support of national security operations (DoD).

The national investment in observing systems,

computational systems, and telecommunications

systems to support the environmental monitoring

activities of the various federal agencies over the

next decade runs well into the tens of billions of dollars and includes such programs as NOAA's

Weather Service Modernization, NASA's Earth

Observing System (EOS) Mission to Planet Earth

suite of environmental satellites, USGS investment in ground water obsen/ation wells and

stream gaging stations, the National Biological

Survey's "Gap Analysis Project," and EPA's

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

Program (EMAP).

Many of modern-day environmental issues raise

fundamental questions regarding sustainable

development, i.e., our capacity to maintain eco- nomic growth while preserving environmental

quality. To address the range of questions

requires the analysis of a vast array of information derived from globally distributed observing

systems (including earth-based, airborne, oceanbased, and satellite-borne) as well as historical environmental observations and analyses contained in hundreds of disparate and geographically distributed databases and libraries. To

provide the best possible decision support,

whether it be to assess effects of ozone depletion, issuance of severe weather warnings,

response to oil spills, or other natural or man- made phenomena, requires access both to real- time as well as to historical data and information.

Advanced modeling and predictive tools, and

data visualization capabilities are needed. Effective and timely environmental monitoring

requires a mechanism to integrate the array of observations and analyses and to provide the means by which those needing environmental

information (including scientists, policy makers,

educators, the general public, etc.) are provided

with the best possible information in the most

timely way.

A number of barriers exist today that prevent us from fully realizing the capability to monitor the

environment in a comprehensive way and to bring the information to those who can benefit.

To foster the conditions under which the national

investment in technology and personnel is translated into significantly improved environmental

understanding and emergency preparedness re- quires that a number of issues be resolved to make effective use of an advanced Nil as an enabling and integrating agent for environmental

monitoring and as a means by which all segments of society derive maximum benefit.

What is the Public Interest in Promoting the

Application?

Environmental information is key to a broad

range of individual and societal endeavors and,

therefore, is a logical application for the Nil. An

advanced Nil will be an enabler of activities that depend on environmental information including:

Economy and National Competitiveness

Businesses require environmental information to make critical decisions that directly affect their productivity and overall competitiveness. For example:

Agricultural companies and small farming concerns require assessments of economic

impacts of floods, droughts, insect infestation, and plant disease. They require environmental information to plan for planting

and harvesting and to assess market needs.

The construction industry requires ongoing

assessment of regional and local environmental parameters for construction codes

(e.g., to withstand earthquakes and severe

vinds), insulation standards, flood plain

boundaries, etc.

Retailers require environmental information

for targeting product sales for specific local climatic conditions and for timing the shipment of seasonal products for particular

markets.

The legal profession requires environmental

information to arbitrate issues of culpability

and liability as, for example, in the case of Hurricane Andrew property damage in South

Florida. The insurance industry requires information

to set insurance rates and to assess risks due to potential floods, earthquakes, proximity of property to hazardous materials sites,

and severe storms.

73
Electric power utilities use environmental in- formation to site and design power plants, to plan for fuel consumption, and to anticipate

power outages initiated by solar activity, severe storms or geologic activity.

Consultants and other private sector companies use environmental information to develop value-added information products

targeted at specific industry needs (e.g.,

weather and crop health information is used

by consultants to advise commodities

traders).

Environmental Change Assessment

It is generally recognized by the scientific community that the range of man's activities is leading to significant change in regional and

global environments and, in particular, on

climate. Cultural causes of environmental

change include deforestation, burning of fossil fuels, and urbanization. Environmental change

also results from natural causes such as

volcanic activity and solar activity variations.

Environmental information and the ability to accurately monitor changes over time are critical to tracking changes in biological diversity, and

hence, to monitoring the health of the planet. An

advanced Nil can enable better and earlier assessment of trends in the earth's environment

by enabling the integration of real-time observations from the myriad of observing systems and

from the historical record contained in archive

databases. It can enable the integration of environmental data with human dimension data to assess the effect of demographics on the

environment and of the environment on demographics.

Transportation

The integration of environmental information on

the Nil will support the nation's transportation

systems for both commercial as well as non- commercial uses. Air traffic can receive timely

and more comprehensive information, marine

navigation can have the latest information on

hazards to navigation and on waves and currents, the trucking industry can plan deliveries

around traffic delays caused by inclement

weather, the general public can better factor weather into local and distant travel plans.

Emergency Preparedness and Environmental

Disaster Mitigation

The integration of environmental information

from a wide range of sources and its ready

dissemination via the Nil can allow emergency

managers to access the most up-to-date and

comprehensive environmental information to support rapid decision-making and contingency

planning in the event of an environmental disaster. For example, in the event of toxic gas or

radiation release, emergency managers could access the latest satellite observations to analyze the extent of the problem or real-time,

ground-based wind measurements as well as

historical wind information to assess the likeli- hood of such emissions reaching a designated

area. Plans for evacuation, best route for evacuation, or other mitigation steps can be planned

based upon such information. Support for this

critical application mandates that the Nil be

robust, and be able to support a wide range of disaster situations. The expanding use of wireless technology can be expected to address this requirement.

Environmental Hazards Regulation and

Remediation

Many thousands of sites exist in the U.S. (and

many more world-wide) that contain hazardous

byproducts of industrial and military activity.

Many are known; many are yet to be discovered. These include dumpsites of toxic chemical

and nuclear, waste most of which are on land,

but a number are also known to exist at sea.

Pollution standards and clean water standards

are codified in federal law and are the responsibility of the federal government to monitor and

enforce compliance. The Nil can provide the means by which regulatory authorities, including

elements of DoE and EPA, have ongoing capability to discover previously unknown waste

sites, to monitor known ones, to enforce compli- ance with clean air and water statutes, to plan

remedial action to combat pollution, and to assess the success or failure of remediation

activities. This will necessitate practical, appropriate linkages among federal, state, and local authorities using the Nil.

74
Education

Environmental information from many sources can be integrated via the Nil and used to bolster

the Nation's science and technology education.

School teachers as well as students can be

given access to both real-time and historical data to explore real-world natural phenomena.

The government's volumes of science and technology information can provide excellent source

material for teachers to build lesson plans, to become more knowledgeable in a particular

subject area, and to develop materials for class

presentation. Likewise, an ability to monitor natural phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanic

eruptions, and severe storm events in a class- room environment as they happen can form an

invaluable experiential learning tool. The follow- ing application is proposed as part of the Vice

President's Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment Program. The participation of school children across the globe can be

incorporated in a real scientific experiment.

Schools will be issued devices such as the commonly available personal digital assistants

(PDAs). They will be asked to take periodic environmental measurements such as air temperature and then to transmit the readings to a

central repository using their PDA. The information will be incorporated in a scientific analysis

with feedback of results provided electronically.

Natural Resource Management

Effective policy making with regard to natural resource utilization and its impacts on our econ- omy and the economies of other nations

depends upon natural resource utilization planning, and assessments of the effects of utiliza- tion on regional and global environments.

Quality of life considerations require ongoing

cognizance of natural resource inventories and

the impacts of utilization. For example, a major

environmental concern today is the effect of deforestation, and particularly loss of the earth's

tropical rain forests, on regional and global cli- mate. Such potential environmental change has

immeasurable impacts on economic and global

habitability considerations. The Nil has the

potential to bring together widely diverse infor- mation from environmental observing systems

and historical information repositories that, when

integrated, provide the guidance needed to manage such natural resources and to predict

deleterious effects.

How Do We Know Whether We Have

Succeeded?

The positive effects of the Nil environmental

monitoring applications will be measured in ways we cannot fully predict at this time. However, the evidence of our success will be apparent over time and will be measured in terms of:

Reduction in time to assemble environmental information for emergency action in the

event of natural or man-made environmental

disaster.

Ability to locate and retrieve comprehensive,

up to date, critical data for economic analysis and environmental policy considerations.

Improvement in the quality of environmental

research results attributable to easy access

to multiple agency databases.

Enhancement in executing the government's

regulatory role in pollution control and natural resource utilization.

Better, more reliable information and access to such information by analysts, scientists, policy

makers and the general public will put an end to the perceived conflict between the economy and

the environment; the Nation will get more results

for its enormous annual investment in environmental observation and protection.

PART II: Where Are We Now?

Environmental monitoring is an activity that is primarily the purview of the federal government.

However, significant participation exists in academia and private industry in the form of research to advance environmental understanding, to develop the technologies for observing

the environment, and to provide value-added

information products.

Even with the limitations of today's information

infrastructure, there are some good examples of the power inherent in environmental collection

and dissemination. For example, the Emergency

Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986 established a Toxic Chemical Release In- ventory, which requires industries to report their estimated total releases of toxic chemicals into the environment. Able to access the information

via an innovative online service called RTK Net,

75
citizens were able to point to the iiarms and

urge polluting companies to reduce their emissions. Based on public pressure and their own

concern about the quantities released, many

companies voluntarily committed to making

major reductions, even though no regulation

mandated reductions. This demonstrates how

publicly-assessable and usable environmental can wield tremendous power, both in the eco- nomic marketplace and the marketplace of public opinion.

Federal agencies with major activities in this arena include (but are not limited to) NOAA,

NASA, Dol, DoE, EPA, DoD, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Some existing

federal programs and interagency activities provide both the impetus to move fonA^ard and a base of experience in interagency cooperation in the environmental arena.

Some Major Interagency Efforts

U.S. Global Change Research Program

The USGCRP is a multi-billion dollar federal pro- gram that involves most of the U.S. agencies

with environmental programs as well as some

that do not. It also includes academia and pri- vate sector. This program consists of research

activities that involve deployment of a number

new environmental observing systems including

the EOS satellites (scheduled for launch beginning in 1998), implementation of networks and

data processing centers to support data acquisition and distribution, and a range of scholarly

research. The networking part of this program is embodied in the Global Change Data and Infor- mation System (GCDIS), which is intended to provide the appropriate level of communications

technology, interoperability, and connectivity to allow easy exchange of data among participating

agencies.

Global Change Data and Information System

The U.S. Global Change Data and Information

Management Plan, a Report by the Committee

on Earth and Environmental Sciences approved

in 1992, commits the participating Federal

agencies to work with each other, with

academia, and with the international community

to make it as easy as possible for researchers

and others to access and use global change

data and information. Toward this end, the agencies are organizing a Global Change Data and

Information System, which takes advantage of the mission resources and responsibilities of each agency.

The GCDIS is described as the set of individual

agency data and information systems supplemented by a layer of crosscutting new infrastructure, and made interoperable by use of standards, common approaches, technology

sharing, and data policy coordination. Current

plans call for the development of network inter- connectivity, interagency data gateways, adoption of common standards for data exchange,

and the establishment of procedures and policies for data and information dissemination

among the participating agencies. As a decentralized system, the primary focus of the GCDIS

is on establishing and maintaining effective mechanisms that integrate the disparate

elements.

National Spatial Data Infrastructure

The Federal Geographic Data Committee

(FGDC), established by 0MB Circular A-1 6, has

as its goal the creation of a national digital geographic information resource. The importance of

this committee has significantly increased under

the chairmanship of Interior Secretary Bruce

Babbitt, and implementation of the National

Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) by Executive

Order is anticipated. The FGDC has taken a lead

role in the development of data exchange and

metadata standards needed to implement the

NSDI. The scope of the NSDI includes all types

of geographic information system (GIS) data

from mapping and charting to all geographic or

"spatial" data including climatic, demographic,

natural resource, oceanographic, and geophysical data.

High Performance Computing and

Communications Program

The U.S. federal HPCC program is a major multibillion dollar interagency activity designed to promote the development of technologies and

applications in high-performance computing and

in telecommunications. Several agencies with

major environmental programs are players in this program. A major element of the Program is the development of the National Research and

76
Education Network (NREN), which would ex- pand current Internet capabilities with a much

higher capacity network. In 1993 a major new

element, referred to as Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications (IITA) was incorporated in the program to advance the use HPCC

technologies in the development of the Nil. Environmental Monitoring is one of approximately

eight applications that define and establish technical requirements for implementing advanced

telecommunications systems and services under

IITA. The Nil is seen as an integrating element

and facilitator in Environmental Monitoring applications; that is, it promises to provide the trans- port mechanism and the data translation

services to allow the user to work with many

heterogeneous databases that are geographically dispersed.

Federal Agency Activities

National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration

NOAA has mission responsibility to predict the

weather, chart the seas, assess natural and

man-induced climate change, manage U.S.

fisheries, and perform environmental research to advance capabilities in these areas. NOAA is a major participant in the U.S. Global Change Re- search Program (USGCRP), within which it per- forms basic ocean and atmospheric science

research as well as conducting research in a

variety of environmental areas within its laboratories. It also participates in major international

and interagency environmental research activi- ties including the World Ocean Circulation

Experiment (WOE), Joint Global Ocean Flux

Study (JGOFS), and the Global Energy and

Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) ContinentalScale International Project (GCIP). In carrying out its mission, the agency operates a variety of observing systems including environmental

satellites, doppler weather radar, ground-based

weather sensors, ocean-going fleet, ocean- based instruments, etc.; telecommunications

facilities have been established to support the

acquisition of data from these observing systems

for operational use. The agency operates three

National Data Centers (National Climatic Data

Center, National Oceanographic Data Center,

and the National Geophysical Data Center)

charged with maintaining the nation's climate, ocean, and other earth science records and

distributing environmental information in support

of commerce, transportation, construction,

education, research, etc.

NOAA's High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Program has been established to coordinate the agency's needs for and

development of high performance computation

in support of mission objectives and the fundamental telecommunications infrastructure for environmental information acquisition and

dissemination internally and with the outside.

NOAA's Environmental Service Data and infor- mation Management (ESDIM) Program provides

coordination within the agency and with outside

organizations (including federal, international

and academic institutions) in matters of environmental information management, including

environmental information product generation,

distribution, and standards; data policy considerations; and interagency and international

agreements on environmental data exchange.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA has mission responsibility to conduct

space-based research in atmospheric, ocean,

and land science and the development of

satellite-borne sensors to accomplish this research. In support of this mission, NASA has

long been involved in the development of infor- mation systems to acquire the data from these

sensors, manage it, and convey the data to its researchers. It is currently involved in several

major interagency and international environmental research programs including USGCRP and

GCIP.

NASA has undertaken an ambitious program to launch a series of earth observing satellites beginning in 1998 referred to as the Earth

Observing System (EOS). These satellites will measure a variety of atmospheric, ocean, and

land parameters over a period of 15 years to

arrive at a better and more comprehensive

understanding of earth processes. In particular,

the measurements will attempt to provide answers to fundamental questions about how

the earth's environment is changing.

An equally ambitious program of data management, called the EOS Data and Information

System (EOSDIS), has been established to develop the systems to acquire, manage, and

77
disseminate the environmental data from the

satellites. A set of eight Distributed Active

Archive Centers (DAAC) have been established

by NASA along scientific discipline lines to receive the data, generate information products,

and distribute them to NASA's research community. These DAACs will be interconnected via a

high-bandwidth telecommunications infrastruc- ture called the NASA Science Internet (NSI) to enable data exchange among the DAACs.

NASA has initiated a program on Public Use of Earth and Space Science Data Over the Internet by developing pilot end-user remote sensing

database applications and applying new digital

library technologies that can enable and demonstrate the application and accessibility of earth

and space science databases. Remote sensing

database applications potential areas of interest include: atmospheric, oceanic, and land monitoring; publishing; agriculture; forestry; transportation; aquaculture; mineral exploration; land-use

planning; libraries; cartography; education (especially K-12); entertainment; environmental hazards monitoring; and space science data

applications. Potential Digital Library

technologies include: innovative user interfaces;

direct public access to satellite imagery;

heterogeneous databases; information retrieval; advanced search and browse techniques; data

structures; use of data and image compression;

distributed database systems; accounting and

data security; file storage management systems;

and resource discovery.

Environmental Protection Agency

EPA is responsible, through its research and

regulatory authorities, for protecting public

health and ecological resources from environmental pollution. Environmental monitoring is an

essential tool in the development and evaluation

of policies intended to protect human and

ecological health. The use of environmental

monitoring data allow EPA offices and their part- ners to better estimate the risks associated with

pollution in the environment and to more effectively manage these risks. Specifically, EPA's

environmental monitoring and research activities relate to the development and field evaluation of models that: 1) estimate concentrations of pollu- tants in the environment based on source infor- mation and 2) evaluate the risks posed by these

pollutants to human and ecological health.

These efforts are supported by programs that develop methods and technologies for measuring pollutants in the environment and approaches for assuring the quality of monitoring

data.

EPA also monitors pollutant concentration and

indicators of human health and ecological condition as a means of evaluating the effectiveness

of its policies and regulatory decisions. These

efforts include: 1) several Clean Air Act-mandated programs to monitor concentrations of the

major ambient air pollutants and their sources;

2) monitoring of water supplies and discharges

into lakes and rivers mandated under the Clean

Water Act; 3) the Environmental Monitoring and

Assessment Program (EMAP), a national scale

program to monitor ecological resources; and 4)

the National Human Exposure Assessment

Survey (NHEXAS).

EPA's environmental monitoring programs allow

the agency to continuously evaluate and

improve its regulations, decisions, and policies,

by ensuring that all relevant scientific and technology information is considered in their development. EPA provides information and data to the public and other interested stakeholders

through a variety of means: public information

centers, limited mainframe access, electronic

bulletin boards, hotlines and clearinghouses.

Key environmental systems that are of interest and importance to the public and businesses

are available such as the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). Also, the Center for Environmental

Research Information is the focal point for the

exchange of scientific and technical environmental information produced by EPA.

Department of Energy

DoE has mission responsibility to provide an

environmentally safe, economically sound, and

politically stable energy future. It conducts

focussed scientific research involving the carbon

cycle including research on the effects of fossil- fuel emissions on the earth's biosphere. To

support its research efforts and its data dissemination, DOE has established the ESnet wide

area network connecting 23 sites and with links to the Internet.

78
DoE has significant expertise and experience in using computing and information teclinology to support its efforts in environmental cleanup.

Databases currently exist for classification of waste streams and waste tank status and condition. DoE is pioneering the effort to develop and

use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the process of monitoring and managing environmental remediation. The agency is a leader

in the development and use of modeling and

simulation technology for modeling groundwater

flow and evaluating the effectiveness of remediation technology. DoE also has developed

leading edge technology in robotics and tele- operated systems.

DoE's overall objective is to leverage the large,

ongoing investment made by industry and other

government agencies in the successful implementation of the Nil dedicated to enhancing the

quality of our environment. Both managing and

remediating existing waste sources and reducing waste from U.S. manufacturing operations

through universal access to best practices infor- mation are critical. DoE will apply its information

infrastructure resources to ensure that an

information structure is developed and implemented providing significant utility to all enter- prises in the Environmental Restoration Industry

to enhance their productivity and competitive- ness by:

Reducing the time required for the industry

to identify, characterize, assess, recommend

and remediate environmental issues

Providing and enhancing the access for all environmental industry enterprises to the in- timidating amount of regulatory information

in a timely manner

Ensuring high performance access to re- sources, especially monitoring and modeling

resources, to validate remediation plans.

DoE makes environmental information available

through three major centers: the Carbon Dioxide

Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), the Energy

Information Administration (EIA), and the Office

of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI).

CDIAC is focussed on deriving information for global change analysis and is the nation's

primary steward of information on greenhouse

gases. EIA has data collection and analysis

authority for total fuel cycle especially for benefitcost analysis of environmental impacts. The data

holdings are a resource for energy production

and/or use and socioeconomic analysis. OSTI is responsible for managing the department's

scientific and technical information, particularly

it's scientific publications.

DoE researchers located at several National Laboratories are involved in major interagency and

international environmental research programs.

These include the U.S.GCRP, WOE, and

JGOFS. A major new research program in DoE,

the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement

Program acquires and analyses the environmental data necessary to characterize the climatecloud mechanisms for understanding climate

change.

Department of Interior

As the major federal land manager and a primary federal agency responsible for managing

the Nation's natural ecosystems, fish and

wildlife, and energy and water resources, Dol is particularly concerned with environmental monitoring. Dol's programs address topics such

as the quantity and quality of the Nation's fresh- water resources; geologic processes (including

earthquakes) and earth resources; land use, and

land cover; biological habitats, resources, and

diversity; past environmental change recorded in the physical, chemical, and biological record;

land surface and solid-earth processes that

relate to environmental change; geography and

cartography; polar and arid region processes;

ecosystem modeling and dynamics; and

resource ethnology. Dol bureaus collect, maintain, analyze, interpret and actively maintain

short- and long-term land, water, air, biological,

and other natural resource data and information

in support of their missions. These efforts require the maintenance and communication of many levels of data and information, whether

remotely sensed or gathered in situ, and

extensive collaboration across many organizational and technical barriers, nationally and

internationally.

PART III: Where Do We Want to Be?

What is envisioned for the environmental monitoring application area of the Nil is a virtual national monitoring system that brings together

79
data sources and data users, integrating existing

systems and building upon their strengths. In addition to providing the integration mechanism

for the disparate components of U.S. environmental monitoring infrastructure, such a system

should have strong links to international observing systems and environmental data centers so

that a truly global environmental picture can be

assembled. Developing the environmental monitoring application does not mean replacing the

existing systems used by various organizations

for fulfilling their missions, but rather developing

the layer of hardware/software linked via

telecommunications facilities providing appropriate transmission capacity and network services.

A national environmental monitoring infrastruc- ture should allow the various participating organizations (both public and private) to continue to pursue their individual independent missions

while harmonizing their activities with other organizations. It is impossible to quantify the synergy

accomplished given the implementation of the

infrastructure, but it is very clear that comprehensive environmental management cannot

occur without it. PART IV: How Are We Going to Get

There?

To achieve the goal of a national integrated sys- tem for environmental information and services

using Nil enabling technology requires a commitment on the part of federal agencies to coordinate development and implementation. Plans

that currently call for agency-specific development should be reconsidered in light of the

need to satisfy larger national goals. Leadership on the part of the federal government is required

to foster partnerships among public and private

organizations so that each sees a clear benefit

in participation and cooperation.

We should note that the federal government is providing strategic leadership, e.g., the data

management principles, 0MB Circular A-130,

Federal Information Processing Standards

(FIPS), the Nil Agenda for Action, the Government Information Locator Service proposal, the

National Environmental Index, and the National

Spatial Data Infrastructure plan. The federal government is also helping to development promote

many of the critically important technologies and

technical standards (e.g., the Internet, the

Spatial Data Transfer Standard, the ANSI Z39.50

Information Search and Retrieval Standard).

The federal government should commit to providing the organizing principles for the comprehensive framework that underlies environmental information, and should actively promote

the consolidated acquisition and other sharing of data, as is done with the National Aerial Photography Program. The federal government should

also promote consensus building using electronic mechanisms.

Making it happen will require close attention to eliminating some barriers. The following are some of the areas on which we must focus:

Interoperability Standards

Interoperability may be the single most important

issue in realizing the integration of environmental information on the Nil; without agreement on

interoperability standards and a commitment to adhere to these, we are left with the current set

of disparate and isolated environmental information systems. Multidisciplinary analysis, critical to addressing environmental concerns, will be

nearly impossible and will proceed at the slow

pace that it currently takes by necessity. Environmental observations may be single measure- ments at one location, time series at a location,

digital imagery of the entire planet, swaths of observations of the earth's surface, profiles

through the atmosphere, etc. The data types

may be text information, or numerical values,

graphics products, or digital imagery. The size of environmental data sets may range from singlepoint measurements to hundreds of terabytes.

A proliferation of data formats currently exists to support the myriad of data types. For environmental data to be transported from various

observing systems owned and operated by a

variety of agencies, integrated into information

products, and distributed to the appropriate user on the Nil, a set of data formats and electronic

information exchange protocols must be universally adopted.

Interoperability also implies the existence of user

interfaces that are intuitive and common across

the various environmental databases. However,

the valid integration of information presents

fundamental problems of data consistency that must be addressed by the development and

application of content and metadata standards.

The user should be capable of formulating questions and receiving responses without having to be knowledgeable about how each system is organized.

80
Information Security and Reliability

To maintain user confidence in environmental in- formation on the Nil, appropriate measures must

be taken to preserve the integrity and reliability of data. Any system deployed for information

dissemination must incorporate the appropriate

safeguards to ensure against the intentional or

unintentional corruption of the information.

Further, uniform quality standards must be

adopted and enforced that ensure that data

derived from a number of sources and inte- grated into information products that are then

used by policy makers, scientists, educators or the general public are of consistent high quality

regardless of source. The environmental monitoring information must be highly reliable not only in terms of quality but also in terms of timeliness to maintain the confidence of those segments of society who rely on the information for routine forecast purposes, issuing emergency

natural hazard warnings, recreation, or in conducting day to day activities.

Very Large Data Volumes

Planned or currently deployed environmental

observing systems, both satellite- and earth- based systems, produce data at ever-increasing

rates as the observing technologies extend the

spatial, temporal, and spectral coverage of measurements. Some systems are capable of producing hundreds or gigabytes of data daily

with much of the transmissions being "bursty"

in nature, i.e., large volumes in a short time

period. Further, the accumulated databases may

range into the hundreds of terabytes. The Nil must provide the end-to-end transmission

capacity as well as a means of prioritizing trans- missions to ensure that data needed for environmental monitoring are available when required

by the user. The bandwidth and prioritization

consideration are particularly important for real- time environmental data acquisition necessary to protect life and property.

Information Access/Connectivity (including

international)

A definition of levels of access and connectivity

must be agreed upon. In many cases, a simple

modem and data terminal are all that is required

for access to environmental information; in other cases, equipment and connectivity to support

virtual reality environments are necessary. A

hierarchy of network functions must be defined

with the appropriate communications services

and technologies. A "floor" or fundamental set

of network services available to nearly everyone

must be defined and goals should be established on the time frames for providing the

fundamental services and the higher service

levels. Since environmental issues recognize no

national boundaries, the two-way free flow of environmental information must be maintained

with other nations who are both consumers of U.S. data as well as producers of data for U.S. consumption.

For environmental monitoring considerations,

the Nil must be sufficiently robust and dependable to provide the transmission medium for data that affect protection of life and property.

The data from environmental observing systems

must be reliably transported to organizations

responsible for emergency preparedness. The

information products, including forecasts, warnings, or emergency bulletins, must be reliably

transported to the intended target and in a

timely way.

Exploiting Multiple Uses of Acquired and

Processed Environmental Data

Environmental data normally have many important uses beyond the primary purpose for which

they are acquired. For example, wind measure- ments may serve the primary purpose of short- term weather forecasting but find important other uses in long-term climate assessment, siting

power plants, building design, etc. A variety of agencies are responsible for various environmental observations specific to fulfilling the

agency's mission; more often than not, the data

are not fully utilized for other purposes and are

not integrated with other-agency data because

of difficulty of access, lack of adequate documentation, etc. The Nil may serve as an inte- grating medium leading to the sharing of environmental information to provide more comprehensive data sets and improved monitoring.

Issues and Questions to Be Addressed

The following issues and questions need to be

addressed and policies initiated to facilitate the

development of the environmental monitoring

application as part of the Nil. It should be noted

81
that these issues, in and of themselves, will not ensure overcoming the barriers described in the

previous section of this paper; but they are a

starting point. Full realization of a national environmental monitoring system enabled through

the Nil will require tackling a full range of issues

discussed in this paper.

A Global Change Data and Information System (GCDIS) is the cornerstone for collection and dissemination of global change and

other environmental data and information

for use by the private sector, researchers,

educators and others. The importance of

this activity must be recognized within the

National Science and Technology Council

(NSTC) process. How should the NSTC

Committee on Environmental and Natural

Resource Research, with support from the

Committee on Information and Communications pursue the full development of a GCDIS that fully satisfies a wide range of public and private information requirements?

What actions are required to ensure that all involved federal agencies are appropriately

funded?

Several federal agencies are conducting

research into systems to handle environmental information. Coordination is required

and the effort needs to be expanded to ensure that national needs are met. How

should the HPCC Program, through its IITA component, establish a set of environmental

information dissemination pilots to stimulate

development and test application of new

network information navigation and access

tools, such as extensions of MOSAIC, that focus on access to very large amounts of heterogeneous environmental information

distributed across agencies in many geographical locations?

There is currently no generally accepted

methodology or data format to allow easy

exchange of data from one agency's system

to another and, therefore, a user cannot

easily navigate through thousands of environmental databases of the agencies. How

should the Federal Geographic Data Committee move forward as directed in the

National Performance Review in establishing a National Spatial Data Infrastructure in developing the consensus among federal

and private concerns for standards and

technologies to facilitate spatial data ex- change? How should NOAA take the lead, in response the Executive Order, to coordinate

with other federal agencies the development

of the National Environmental Index establishing the information content and format

standards for cataloging environmental

data? How should NIST work proactively

with agencies involved in environmental

monitoring to ensure the appropriate application of federal systems and information

standards?

A very large number of agencies distribute

environmental data in electronic form, some

of which is fee-based. Currently many agencies (and many sub-agency units) manage

billing and accounting services separately,

although some use the services of the

FedWorld gateway run by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) in the

Department of Commerce. In many cases, users must make separate payment arrangements with each database distributor. How

can the NTIS or other billing and accounting

services be accessible to all government

information providers? How can users

negotiate costs and billing with a single

organization and receive a single bill?

82
Libraries and the Nil

DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

Policymakers must determine how to sustain, in the electronic age, the democratic

and equal access to information that free public libraries have provided in the age of

print.

'

PART I: What Is the Application

Arena?

Description of Libraries

The Traditional Role of Libraries. Libraries are

central to the storage and sharing of knowledge,

history, and culture. They offer access to knowledge and infornnation representing diverse sources and viewpoints. Libraries are adjuncts to education, a base for generating innovative

thinking, a stimulus to culture, and an aid to the

individual self-development of citizens. They are

also keepers of the intellectual, cultural, and his- torical memory of their community. Libraries acquire, catalog, make available, and preserve

collections in all media. These collections tradi- tionally consist of material items stored in site- specific facilities which limit access to those who

can travel to the site of that library or receive the

items through interlibrary loan. Whenever an

item is in use, it is temporarily unavailable to all other people.

Libraries have developed in response to the nature and character of the publishing communities. In the United States, libraries have served as information "equalizers" or providers of equal

' Statement by James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, at the "Delivering Electronic Information in a Knowledge-Based Democracy" (DEIKBD) conference; pro- ceedings, 4.

access for all, permitted by the first sale^ doctrine of copyright law to lend copies of copyrighted works after their initial distribution.

The Role of Libraries in the Nil. The ability of

digital libraries to store and share knowledge,

history, and culture will be central to the success

of the Nil. The digital library^ is really a library

with extensive electronic collections in a variety

of forms in different locations. Increasingly materials are being acquired in electronic form; li- braries are beginning to convert their paper and

analog collections to machine-readable formats

for both preservation and spatial reasons.

As today, the role of libraries in the future will be

to advocate and help provide information equity

for the public. Libraries will continue to coordi- nate and facilitate preservation of the records

and expressions of the nation's intellectual and

cultural life both in traditional and digital formats.

Libraries will be sources of free or inexpensive

digital information; provide access to an improved flow of electronic government information

^ The first sale doctrine of copyright is the information equalizer in that it limits copyright owners' rights by making only the initial distribution of a particular copy of a work subject to the owner's control. Section 108 of the copyright code al- lows libraries to make copies of certain works under certain conditions both for patrons and other libraries.

^ "Digital library" is used here as an aggregate, implying

electronic access to many sources of digital information. This includes libraries but does not exclude other sources such

as corporate, government, and research entities.

83
and world-wide digitized resources; request and

be sent copies of remotely stored documents

and other publications as allowed by copyright

licensing and other agreements; make digitized

reproductions of rare and unique material that is in the public domain or for which permission of the copyright owner is available as allowed un- der the copyright law; and provide long-term ac- cess to the records and expressions of culture

and scholarship.

The evolving information infrastructure is already

dramatically changing traditional operations

within and relationships among libraries and

their providers and users. It is also offering new

challenges. New forms of unpublished, and of- ten unauthenticated, digitized materials are emerging as millions of people are linked by

world-wide networks. The volume of new digital

material, if it were on paper, would eventually

dwarf the existing physical collections. The situa- tion is additionally complex because digitized in- formation can be easily updated, manipulated,

and combined with other materials, and dis- played in multiple ways. Digital data thus creates enormous new amounts of knowledge that may

be accessed and manipulated by computers, existing temporarily and never stored anywhere

permanently. Institutions, including libraries, may

provide access to these materials without ever

physically controlling them, and readers at multi- ple sites have access to the same material at the

same time.

Future Role of Librarians. The role of librarians

will change significantly as they become increasingly viewed as managers of both information

and knowledge. This forward-looking perspective was underscored at the Library of Congress

(LOG) conference on "Delivering Electronic In- formation in a Knowledge-Based Democracy"

[proceedings, 5]. These knowledge management skills may take many forms and can be ex- pected to involve librarians in all facets of the

information chain. Librarians may be present at the information generation process; they will help manage digital materials and assist people

in dealing with the plethora of information. Li- brarians will increasingly function as facilitators,

enablers, and teachers of network users; library

systems and consortia will negotiate information

access rights" on behalf of public users of the

digital library. Librarians will become guides to network tools in much the same way as they

have acted as guides to the use of traditional materials.

New Roles and Alliances. New roles and al- liances are expected to emerge. The originators

of published and unpublished information are being empowered by the new digital information

tools to carry out many of the services previously fulfilled by libraries: from subject-driven in- formation delivery to navigational services and

from onsite access to virtual access as providers

of research tools. This could expand the concept of "libraries" to include not only collections

maintained by traditional libraries but also those

held by publishers, research organizations, universities, commercial enterprises, and new play- ers of all kinds.

While the digital library within the context of the

Nil is a national initiative, there are significant in- ternational implications both for the sharing of information across national borders and for the

shift in the organization of intellectual creativity.

Questions of international cooperation and

economic competition will arise. Because the in- frastructure permits international access to digital information in a way that is impossible in the

traditional library model, new international rela- tionships and models can and will emerge.

Without taking into account from the outset rules

for effective protection of intellectual property,

the development of an international system (the

Global Information Infrastructure (Gil)) will be

severely hindered. In a global system a user in

" "Access" implies a complex of possibilities. It includes online viewing either by one or many users, printing, downloading, transmitting ttie work to ther libraries, modem access,

public performance, and public display. This list while not all- inconclusive does suggest the complexity of the access is- sue which must be addressed by copyright law as well as by

vision and technology. To paraphrase Barbara Ringer's statement at the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration Hearing on March 3, 1994: It is obvious that we are

at the beginning of an enormous revolution in communications. What isn't obvious is that the copyright law is at the

center of this revolution and will determine the course it takes. The bulk of the material to be transmitted on the su- perhighway is copyrighted, it is intellectual property that is owned by someone.

84
one country will be able to manipulate information resources in another country in ways that may violate that country's copyright laws. Copyright laws are territorial; international copyright

conventions and other multilateral agreements

allow for significant differences in national laws.

Work must begin on international harmonization

of copyright laws to accommodate a digital

world.

The Application. Digital libraries in the Nil will contain vast amounts of digitized data: text, pic- tures, audio, and video. The data will not be lo- cated at any single site, but rather will consist of digitized materials and processing methods from

many sources. The development of digital col- lections in libraries will depend on the following

components:

Interconnected and Interoperable Net- works. Digital libraries are premised on the ex- istence of a network of networks, interconnected

and interoperable.

Decentralized Data and Processing. A

second assumption concerning the digital library

is that information and knowledge can exist and

processing can take place at multiple, decentralized sites. Databases. Digital libraries will contain data

that only exists digitally and digitized data that has been converted from another medium such

as print, sound, or audio. Developing techniques

to consistently collect, store, and archive digital

material using automated methods is an important first task for the digital library community.

The conversion of existing material to digital

form also is important. This converted material

will form the nucleus of the digital database and

provide a bridge to traditional collections.

Navigation and Retrieval Tools. Navigation

and retrieval tools capable of identifying, accessing, and retrieving the digital resources must be

developed. When practical, major navigation and

retrieval tools will be based on standards that ensure the ability to communicate in order to share both data and processing.

Document Delivery. The ability to deliver

physical copies in print or in any of several fixed

digital formats must be supported.^

Presentation. Presentation standards and

techniques to assure reliable and effective repre- sentation of Intellectual content must be created.

Mass Storage. The ability to store increasing amounts of data at steadily decreasing costs

is a technological trend that is vital to the massive amounts of data that digital libraries will need to store and support.

Human Resources. The most critical suc- cess factor for the success of digital libraries will be the human resources component. This component assumes the education of a new generation of librarians as knowledge navigators;

training and retraining of current librarians; and

training of the public in the new technology and

the use of electronic information resources.

Benefits of Applications in This Arena

The benefits of linked digital libraries include

continued and expanded access to current

information and access to historical material in unparalleled detail. Technical barriers to information sharing will largely disappear. Using libraries as gateways to the digital network can help en- sure that information is accessible to all and

prevent the formation of a society divided into in- formation haves and "have-nots." Libraries must

continue to play their vital role of information

safety net for the public by providing access to and promoting literacy of digital materials much

as they have for printed materials. This is particularly true of libraries' role in providing access to and navigation of the plethora of government in- formation that is to be made available electronically.

^ Document delivery, while a technical component of the applications, involves significant copyright issues that must be

resolved. Downloading substantial amounts of copyrighted

material will require license agreements with related questions of who will pay and how will they be administered. Guidelines must be developed as to what are insubstantial amounts of downloaded materials, subject to fair use exemptions.

85
As Senator Edward Kennedy recently stated

[quoted in McClure et al, 38]:

Public libraries are a vital information link between the government and the public. ..libraries must continue to play a critical role in providing broad access to the public. .[and guiding] citizens of all ages

through the world of computer net- works... [L]ibraries will make the government

less remote and more responsive to the

needs of individual citizens.

Measures of Success of Digital Libraries

An important measure of library success is use. An example of this is LOCIS, the Library of Congress Online System, that was made available

via the Internet in April 1993. While Internet LOCIS was only available for 8 months of fiscal year 1993, Internet transactions accounted for 6

percent of the total number of LOC mainframe

computer transactions in 1993. It is projected

that Internet transactions will account for more

than 12 percent of the total number of mainframe transactions in fiscal year 1994. Rising

usage statistics and positive public response

demonstrate that Internet access to LOCIS is a

success. The same type of measurement must

be applied to the digital environment. When

there is substantial use of electronic information,

particularly of items not otherwise available, then success that can be measured has been

achieved.

Other indicators of success of digital libraries are changes of patterns of patron service and demands. If patrons indicate a preference for digital forms, then this new form of material is a success. This has already happened in large

part for library catalogs.

Some indirect measures of success include decreased costs of processing, managing, and

storing materials and increased availability of re- sources. PART II: Where Are We Now?

Libraries

Demograptiics. There are 87,000 public and

private school libraries, 9,000 local public li- braries, 4,600 college and university libraries.

plus hundreds of specialized business libraries and federal and state libraries in American to- day. More than 182,000 professionals work in li- braries [Billington, 109].

Connectivity. Based on the preliminary results of a national survey of public libraries sponsored

by the National Commission on Libraries and In- formation Science (NCLIS) and executed by Pro- fessors Chuck McClure (Syracuse) and Doug

Zweizig (Wisconsin-Madison), approximately

21.1 percent of the responding libraries are currently connected to the Internet and 78.9 per- cent are not. However, 84.6 percent of the

responding public libraries serving populations

of 500,000 or more are connected, while only

13.3 percent of the libraries serving populations

of less than 5,000 have Internet connectivity.

Of the 1,400 depository libraries, 929 (68.1 per- cent) have access to email via Internet, Bitnet, or other electronic service; 716 (52.5 percent) depository libraries have file transfer; a survey

question concerning telnet or remote database

access capability was not included in the survey

[US/GPO].

Government Applications

Several federal agencies of importance to li- braries have been mandated to develop applications using the Nil. The applications have

involved electronic publishing and conversion,

navigation and retrieval tools, interoperability

standards for information transfer between differ- ent networks or different hardware and software

systems with reliability and accuracy, copyright

management in an electronic environment, and

archival efforts. Of the programs cited, the Government Printing Office (GPO) Access Act and

the National Telecommunication and Information

Administration (NTIA) Grants program support

operations. All of the other programs noted are research and development (R&D) efforts. Some

agencies, recognizing the potential of networked

information, have begun network efforts as part

of improving existing services. These are listed under Operational Efforts.^

^ Most government funding of the Nil to date has supported

R&D rather than operations. The notable exception is the funding for the telecommunications backbone funded

through the NSF which connects the regionals.

86
Government R&D and operational programs of note are:

Research and Development.

High Performance Computing and Communications Research and Development. The

Federal High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Program provides funding

for research in library and information science

and systems required to advance the development of digital libraries. NSF, ARPA, the Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and

Space Administration (NASA) and others participating in the HPCC Program are funding a vari- ety of projects to support the creation of digital libraries and advance the technology base avail- able to operate digital libraries. Under a new

program component, Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications, ARPA funds the

development of hypermedia systems with intelli- gent human interfaces; NSF funds digital li- braries research; NASA is developing prototype

digital libraries and advanced methods for ac- cessing their data; the National Institutes of Health are developing advanced medical database technology; the National Security Agency

supports research in mass storage and database management; and the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration are expanding ac- cess to environmental data. Research on Digital Libraries. HPCC R&D

includes cooperative initiatives, combining

agency funds and efforts. A recent endeavor of importance to libraries is the Research on Digital

Libraries Initiative, a joint effort of NSF, ARPA,

and NASA. This initiative provides grants for re- search on systems for data capture, software for searching, filtering, and summarizing large vol- umes of data in various formats, and networking

protocols and standards that can accommodate

the high volume and bandwidth requirements of

digital libraries.

Other. R&D projects such as the Digital

Technical Reports Library project involving ARPA

and other players, and the NSF Digital Library

Initiative, have emphasized the manipulation of large data collections, including models for policy and technology tools necessary to make

large amounts of data available. The use of sophisticated text retrieval techniques, including

statistical and semantic analysis, continues to be

explored through activities such as the Tipster

project and the Text Retrieval Conference

(TREC), both sponsored by ARPA. ARPA also is providing support for the CS-TR (Computer Sci- ence Technical Reports) R&D project. This is an

effort to share university-generated computer

science literature in a linked digital library

among the participants (MIT, UC-Berkeley,

Carnegie-Mellon, Cornell, and Stanford). The

overall project is coordinated by the Corporation

for National Research Initiatives (CNRI).

Operational Efforts. The GPO Access Act of 1993 encourages electronic availability of federal

information. The NTIA Grants is intended to stimulate the building of the infrastructure. Due to demand and perceived value, some agencies

are striving to make use of the Internet to make

data available electronically. Some federal databases are only available through private sector vendors, and several of the most important of these are candidates for low-cost distribution to the public (for example, the Security and Ex- change Commission's EDGAR database). Several dozen federal agencies already provide

points for distribution of publications and other

agency-generated information on the Internet. Other efforts include the management and distri- bution of copyright information pilot and federal

preservation and archiving projects.

GPO Access. The Government Printing Office "Access" Act, which became public law in June 1993, requires the Superintendent of Documents to maintain an electronic directory of federal electronic information; provide a system

of online access to the Congressional Record,

the Federal Register, and other appropriate publications; and operate an electronic storage facility for federal electronic information. These

sen/ices are to be operational by June 1994. Depository libraries are to have free access to the

services while others will pay a fee to cover the

incremental cost of dissemination. The law also

requires the Superintendent of Documents to ac- commodate, to the extent practical, agency re- quests to include their information in the GPO

online access system.

NTIA. P.L 103-121, appropriating FY 1994

funds for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary, and related agencies.

87
includes $26 million requested by the Administration to begin an information infrastructure

grants program to support demonstrations of new telecommunications technology applications. Libraries are among the institutions eligible to receive matching grants under this program to expand telecommunications net- works and to access existing and new sources

of electronic information.

Federal Information Online. Use of electronic bulletin boards systems (BBS) and online

databases has grown rapidly within the government over the past decade. More than 40 organizations within the federal government operate

BBS as part of their information dissemination

activities. These BBS can be accessed directly

through a modem, and, in some cases, through

the Internet. The Fedworld BBS, operated by the

National Technical Information Service (NTIS),

provides easy access to a plethora of government information sites, including digital libraries, more than 130 other federal BBS, and digital

documents such as Presidential speeches and

health care legislation. The White House routinely posts the text of speeches, press brief- ings, press releases, reports, and legislative

proposals to various bulletin board systems, in- cluding some available through consumer-oriented services like Compuserve and America

On-line. A few members of Congress have begun posting the text of their speeches and press

releases to publicly accessible bulletin board

systems; one member has set up a Gopher

server. Several dozen federal agencies provide

Internet distribution of publications and other

agency-generated information through public

Gopher, World-Wide Web (WWW), Wide Area In- formation Server (WAIS), and other servers or

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) sites.

Publishing and Data Creation. More than

50 separate organizations within the federal government were listed as database producers in a 1992 directory of online databases. Among the

175 publicly available federal databases, per- haps the best known are the National Library of Medicine's MEDLARS system, the National Agricultural Library's AGRICOLA system, the Library

of Congress information system LOCIS, and the

Federal Election Commission's Direct Access

system.

Electronic Copyright Management System

(ECMS). ARPA, the Library of Congress,

and CNRI are collaborating on the development

of an experimental Electronic Copyright Management System to explore the use of high-performance computing systems and networks, tools,

and procedures to manage copyright information

and other intellectual property and associated

rights in a network environment. This system will serve as a testbed for the evaluation of the concepts and issues of electronic copyright deposit,

registration, and recordation of transfers of ownership and licensing transactions. This development effort is an interagency effort involving

agencies from both the executive and legislative

branches.

Archival and Digitization Projects. The

United States National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) continues to evolve mechanisms for management of digital archives.

NARA's Center for Electronic Records appraises,

collects, preserves, and provides access to U.S.

federal records in electronic format. The Center

maintains electronic records created by the U.S. Congress, the courts, the Executive Office of the

President, Presidential commissions, and nearly

100 bureaus, departments, and other components of executive branch agencies and their contractors.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is developing the capacity to acquire, store, and dis- tribute large collections of digital images,

including digital pages created as part of the

System for Automated Interlibrary Loan (SAIL),

diagnostic radiology images used by the Diagnostic X-ray Prototype Network (DXPnet) project,

and the 2-D and 3-D anatomic images acquired

as part of the Visible Human Project.

Other federal agencies actively exploring efforts to convert traditional-media material to electronic

form to improve access and preservation include

the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress (American Memory project).

Non-Government Applications

R&D and pilot projects are being undertaken by

many non-federal government organizations rep- resenting both commercial and non-commercial

entities interested in participating in the Nil. These efforts are vital both for the continued development of the infrastructure and for the establishment of roles and policy in the electronic

environment.

88
Publishers. There are currently a number of ex- perimental projects under way to use networks

to deliver documents or provide access to images of print publications. These include ser- vices offered by Colorado Alliance of Research

Libraries (CARL), Engineering Index (El), University Microfilms International (UMI), and Faxon of- ten in partnerships with secondary database

access providers such as the Online Computer

Library Center (OCLC), the Research Libraries

Group (RLG), or Dialog.

El, UMI, AT&T (InterNIC), Faxon, Elsevier, and

Springer-Verlag are also undertaking projects to develop the infrastructure for digital publication

and conversion, navigation and retrieval, and in- teroperability standards.

Several scientific journal publishers such as El- sevier and Springer-Verlag are conducting ex- periments with universities to make the contents

of certain journals available electronically to the

university either under site licenses or pay-perview agreements. Third-party aggregators and

relicensers such as UMI and Information Access

Corporation are licensing full-text or journal-page

images for specific areas directly to institutions. A number of publishers are making the text of

their publications available for searching through

database access providers such as Dialog or BRS on a transactional basis.

Journals published only in electronic form are

well established and growing in number. Most

are free; only a few are refereed and those constitute a minor force in the academic tenure pro- cess. The growing number of respected free electronic journals and newsletters include Psycoloquy , Public Access Computer Systems Review, and the Library of Congress Cataloging

Newsline. Some subscription journals have begun to be published electronically. These in- clude OCLC/AAAS (Online Computer Library

Center/American Association for the Advancement of Science) Online Journal of Current Clini- cal Trials, which is peer-reviewed, and John

Quarterman's Matrix News, published both electronically and in print. Copyright issues relating to electronic journals still need to be resolved.

In the sciences, distinguished print journals are now or soon will be published in digital as well as print form. Mathematical Reviews and the

Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society

are available in electronic and print form. Plans

have been announced to publish digital forms of both the Physical Review Letters and the Astro- physical Journal Letters . The same is true of several popular magazines (i.e.. Mother Jones

,

Wired).

Academic and Research. Academic and re- search institutions and professional associations

have also pioneered digital library or infrastruc- ture building projects, with spectacular success

in forcing the expansion of the Internet and re- lated electronic mail services, and are becoming

increasingly influential in the areas of navigational software development and retrieval applications. All but one of the most common

navigational tools on the Internet was developed

at research or academic organizations (Gopher,

Archie, WWW, and Mosaic; the original WAIS implementation was developed by commercial or- ganizations). Academic institutions are also at the forefront of diverse and active electronic

publishing ventures, facilitated both by the LIST- SERV software, and increasingly by Gopher and

WWW.^ Gopher was developed at the University

of Minnesota. WAIS was developed cooperatively by Thinking Machines Co., Apple Computer, Dow Jones & Co., and KPMG Peat

Marwick. WWW was originally developed by

CERN (the European Particle Physics Laboratory) and is currently being implemented along

with Mosaic, an interface developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications

(NCSA) facility at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. The Internet LISTSERV soft- ware was developed by Anastasios Kotsikonas

at the University of Boston.

Other academia-private sector cooperative ventures are the University of Massachusetts (at Amherst) Inquery and Tipster projects, funded

with NSF and other federal money, and developed in collaboration with several major commercial publishing partners. Another tool of

interest that is being developed by public and

private funds is the Knowbot Information Service

(KIS). KIS is designed to act as a personal digital assistant to locate, evaluate, and retrieve

^ Gopher is used extensively for Campus-Wide Information Systems and is widely implemented in academic and gov- ernment communities. The hypertext-based WWW is being

Implemented along with Mosaic software for searching mixed-format data. WAIS is widely used for text indexing and

searching on the Internet. The Internet LISTSERV software is used extensively for email forums.

89
information based on the user's requirements

and other constraints (such as the willingness to pay for information). Elsewhere software vendors

and database publishers are making important

strides in the development of powerful retrieval engines (e.g., Oracle's ConTEXT).

Community. Community projects of interest in- clude the Blacksburg, Virginia Electronic Village

(BEV), the San Francisco Public Library Community Electronic Information Infrastructure (SFPU

CEII), and NYSERNet's Project GAIN (Global

Access Information Network). Community-focused projects tend to produce a model where

library services have an integral (but not necessarily a central) role in a large set of information

delivery and communication tools and services.

These projects are typically intended to promote

interactivity among members of the communities.

The BEV project is a collaborative effort between

the town of Blacksburg, Virginia Polytechnic In- stitute, and C&P Telephone to create a network

of high-capacity data communications and ser- vices with the objective of linking members of the community with each other and with the In- ternet. Information available through BEV currently includes electronic mail and access to

local and Internet resources. Potentially, all resi- dents of Blacksburg will be able to connect to BEV from their homes.

The SFPL/CEII initiative, is another ambitious

community project that is still in the planning

phase. This project focuses on the use of worldwide resources to support the information needs

of a specific community, in this case San Francisco.

The NYSERNet GAIN project extended Internet access and training to five rural New York State

public libraries and one Indian national school.

The project clearly demonstrated that public li- brarians in a very rural setting with limited re- sources... could in fact get connected to the

Internet, use a broad range of equipment and

electronic services, develop new types of ser- vices to the community, and create a sense of excitement that came out of the library. Their sense of excitement and discovery translated

into programs and applications that often put the

public library at the foreground of technology

application in the entire community [McClure et

al, 40].

Standards

Standards-setting Groups. Several major groups

are developing standards for the information

technology, electronic information, and computer

networking components of the Nil. The groups

are the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and its U.S. counterpart, the Ameri- can National Standards Institute (ANSI); the

National Information Standards Organization

(NISO), an ANSI-accredited standards developing body serving the publishing, library, and in- formation services communities; the National

Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),

which develops and coordinates standards for the federal government and leads U.S. stan- dards development generally; ad-hoc standards

groups, which usually focus on a single problem

such as UNICODE or the Open Software Foundation (OSF); the Internet Engineering Task

Force (IETF), an informal standards making

group that generates Internet standards; and the

Internet Society which is responsible for the In- ternet standards process. A newly formed group

known as the Cross-Industry Working Team is striving to create a consensus view of the re- quired standards.

Dafa Description. Standards are needed for the

description of data. Tangible, traditional library

materials are physically described, classified,

and given a physical location code. In the past

all these operations have been carried out by li- braries. When retrieval is necessary, access is gained by looking up an item's classification number indicating where the physical item is lo- cated and where it may be retrieved. Currently,

the extension to the USMARC (U.S. Machine

Readable Cataloging) record for data description

is a stable standard which can be used for electronic items.

In digital libraries both the access scheme and

the retrieval needs have changed. To access an

electronic item, additional information may be re- quired, including information about the medium

or system requirements (such as in the case of a computer program). A standard for this description must be implemented. ANSI/ISO and

the IETF are currently working on such stan- dards.

90
While a formal standard for information description is highly desirable, the cost, the slowness of the process, and the demands and politics of the international networking arena make this a

difficult area. With the transition to electronic

material, the need for such manual descriptive

techniques may be supplanted by electronic

methods for abstracting, indexing, or othen/vise

capturing the high-level descriptive information

necessary for efficient access.

Computer-to-Computer Communications. One

standard that is stable, and that has the potential

to be of use initially, is the ANSI/NISO Z39.50

standard for system-to-system communications

for retrieval. The ARPA CS-TR project is exploring new approaches for computer-to-computer

communications that go beyond the existing

Z39.50 standard.

Cryptograptiy, Security, and Privacy. Cryptographic technology, essential to ensuring electronic information integrity, must exist before

large information providers will participate in the

network. Standards for cryptography will only be

developed in a policy framework that does not impede their development. The issues of intel- lectual property and export controls on cryptographic technologies must be resolved before

proposals in this area are internationally ac- cepted and implemented.

Crude measures such as restriction by password and network address are common ways to provide security for access to restricted information today. Measures for providing privacy to information seekers need to be defined, implemented, and made widely available.

Otiier Standards. Other standards which must

be agreed upon are ones for exchanging and in- terpreting networked materials formats, and for assuring security of operations and information.

There are multiple standards for sound, while

standards for images are in their infancy.

Some progress has been made in the area of transmitting documents in specific formats. For

text. Standard Generalized Markup Language

(SGML) is frequently proposed for use as a document content standard for non-structured text. Standards mentioned for exchanging structured

data include ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation

One), which is used in library applications, and

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange).

Several of the Internet navigation and retrieval tools discussed earlier have become de facto

standards in a relatively brief period of time.

These include Gopher, WAIS, and WWW.

Private industry also is actively developing tools

that may provide meta-standards (standards for the conversion of diverse ad hoc standards to a common form), such as Adobe's Acrobat and

Common Ground software for the presentation

of formatted text and other data.

These examples (not exhaustive) are illustrative of an extremely volatile, complex, active, and

sometimes competitive mix of parties involved in building the portions of the Nil of concern to li- braries. PART III: Where Do We Want to Be?

Nil Long-Term Goals and the Role of Libraries

The long term goal of the Nil is a world of ubiquitous information.

The realization of this vision for libraries depends on the reliability and universal accessibility of the information infrastructure. Society must

not only have the ability to support projects to gather and control electronic information but

must also underwrite funding to assure basic ac- cess. The realization of this vision is dependent

on technological advances and policy that will allow all of the interested entities to work to- gether within a single network and policy framework, whether corporate, library, government,

research, or entertainment.

Achieving this long-term goal requires that commercial providers of information, libraries, and

user communities discuss, explore, and develop

a new paradigm for their roles in the evolving

electronic community. Copyright, funding, stan- dards, and privacy and security issues must be

addressed in both the short and long runs.

Sfiort-Term Goals

Copyrigtit. It is obvious that we are at the beginning of an enormous revolution in communications. The copyright law is at the center of this

91
revolution and will determine the course it takes.

The bulk of electronic material will be copyrighted, as is the bulk of published material to- day. The issue of the protection of copyrighted

material must be addressed (effective and administratively feasible licensing systems will be

the key). For now, there is a standoff. Copyright owners (publishers, information providers, authors), librarians, and others with interests in this area must come together to model agreements

covering on-premise online access, transmission

to the public, downloading and reprinting, and

feasible payment mechanisms.

Funding. Library budgets have not kept pace

with the costs of materials. As the prices for serials, monographs, and other materials have

soared, library budgets have declined.^ If li- braries are to participate in the Nil, funding is re- quired to support all aspects of their electronic

evolution. Funding to continue current operations is basic. To become digital libraries,

funding is required to purchase and install equipment, provide connectivity, digitize core

materials, and educate both the staff and the user communities.

Standards. The provision for international stan- dards for interoperability, data description and

storage, navigation and retrieval, authentication

of retrieved material, cryptography, privacy, security, and preservation are essential before in- formation providers will offer their data over networks or users will accept the network as the

central provider of their information needs.

PART IV: How Are We Going to Get

There?

Today's libraries, facing the challenges of developing improved electronic capabilities and addressing standardization and privacy issues, can work toward making a reality of the long-term Nil vision and strengthen libraries' roles as information purveyors by working incrementally on a number of fronts. The government has a leading

role in supporting many of these efforts, among

them new applications of copyright regulations

^ See Mellon Foundation Study. For the 24 public and pri- vate universities libraries included in the study, library budgets and expenditures as a percent of educational and

general expenditures had declined from a high In 1974 of 4.05 percent to a low in 1990 of 3.20 percent [Cummings,

192].

and law to deal with the emerging digital world;

privacy protection; research and development in digital libraries; support for demonstration

projects; education, training, retraining for those

who will staff digital libraries; and ensured ac- cess to government information. Some of these

government activities are outlined below.

The Government's Role

Funding of Operations. Governments currently

support libraries at the state, local, and federal

levels. While the costs of acquiring materials and

administering collections have continued to rise during the past 20 years, library budgets have

shrunk. Funding, therefore, is vital if libraries are

to develop comprehensive electronic capabilities

while continuing to offer existing services. Funding is needed to ensure the existence of equipment, connectivity, and education at the local

level. This is particularly true of K-12 schools

and public libraries. Many school and public li- braries currently lack network access and knowledge of how to use the technology once access

is achieved. Funding is also needed for prototype projects to explore the roles and relation- ships of libraries to the commercial and

scholarly communities.

Facilitation of Standards Development. The government can play a leadership role by working

closely with standards-setting groups to define

standards and to clarify and expedite the stan- dards-setting process. The federal government,

with its need for broad government-wide con- sensus on the use of de facto as well as formal

or de jure standards, is in a key position to help

establish consensus on key standards. The Government Information Locator Service (GILS)

group has made progress in this area by identi- fying and promoting the use of interoperability

standards where they exist. For the progress

made by GILS to be extended and utilized, government dissemination of information efforts must be coordinated with standards-setting ef- forts.

Providing a Testbed: Federal Information. The

tremendous information output of the federal

government is an ideal testing ground for the

development of information retrieval and delivery

because of its vast quantity and broad utility and

interest, and because it is nearly all in the public

domain.

92
Providing a Test Group: Depository Library Pro- gram.^ Since 1983, the Joint Committee on

Printing, tlie Ad Hoc Committee on Depository

Library Access to Federal Automated Data

Bases, and GPO have initiated projects to as- sess the viability of depository distribution of federal publications or products in electronic form.

An analysis of the projects concluded that, "The

primary implication of the pilot projects is that in- put from depository libraries is essential from the

ground level in future planning efforts if electronic products are to succeed in depository li- braries" [Aldrich and Jobe as quoted in Hernon

and McClure, 73]. This group of 1,400 libraries

is an ideal subset of libraries for a variety of test projects.

Policy Setting: Copyrigtit. Resolution of the

complex but important copyright issues will stimulate the growth of the national information in- frastructure, including digital libraries. Copyright

law encourages both creativity and the open dis- semination of the products of creativity. The

benefits which accrue to authors under U.S. Copyright law have spurred the U.S. to become

the largest creator and exporter of copyright material in the world. From an Nil or digital library

perspective, the major issue is how to encour- age copyright owners to make electronic material widely available under terms and conditions

that are not administratively burdensome or unduly expensive. Related significant challenges

are to develop guidelines which set forth permitted uses of digital information under the "fair use" exemptions to the Copyright Code (Section

107) and appropriate downloading or reproduction of digital information under Section 108 by

libraries and archives.

Dissemination Issues. Publishers and

other information providers are currently addressing many of the issues involved in electronic dissemination of their products and new

bases for compensation. Today the answer to

®The Depository Library Program (DLP) is a national re- source network designed to ensure free public access to all government produced and published information. Depository

libraries are located in each state and congressional district to assure wide distribution of these documents. This commit- ment to public access to government information can be

traced back to 1 857 when it was resolved that printed docu- ments should be made available to the public through official sources. The Depository Library Act of 1962 established the network of Regional Libraries and increased the potential number of depository libraries.

the acquisition and use of most electronic materials is individual contracts with publishers or other copyright owners. However, it is impossible for any library to negotiate thousands of contracts, and publishers will not want to do this

either. Unfortunately, the results of efforts to standardize contracts, e.g., the Coalition for Net- worked Information's READI project, have been

discouraging. Therefore, the possibilities of an

information broker, a clearinghouse, or a collective rights organization for permissions and payments become attractive. Any system must be

flexible enough to allow copyright owners to control rates and other conditions of access. Model contracts or blanket or site licenses must

be considered. Additionally, the critical issue of

fair use in a digital environment must be addressed. The development of guidelines to set

forth permitted uses under the fair use section of the copyright law would be extremely useful; such a task, however, is formidable.

Current Material. For libraries, the issues

are different for retrospective and current materials. With government encouragement and support, publishers, information providers, and

librarians should be able to work together to develop effective and efficient mechanisms to safe- guard the rights of copyrighted digital materials.

There are already projects under way that are addressing this problem. One of these projects

is the Electronic Copyright Management System

sponsored by the LOC Copyright Office and In- formation Technology Services, ARPA, and

CNRI. The system will provide mechanisms for electronic copyright deposit, registration, and

recordation of transfers of copyright ownership

as well as licensing transactions of works owned

in a network environment.

Retrospective Material. For older materials,

different solutions may be necessary. Here,

copyright owners are difficult to find, and, in- deed, the copyright status of works may be

difficult to determine. For a library to convert materials to machine-readable form and make such

works available digitally requires permission to reproduce and distribute them. Creative solutions must be developed that do not disadvantage authors and copyright owners.

Definition Issues. There are other difficult issues that must be explored. Only copyrightable expression is protected. Ideas, methods, systems, facts and the like are not. Works

93
with expired copyright terms are free for all to use. Copyright terms vary from country to country; the Internet is increasingly international, and

the Nil will have international linkages. A national

plan must consider the international implications.

A number of questions will arise in a networked

and digital environment: (1) How is "a work"

defined? (2) How is authorship defined? (3) What about subsequent contributions when the

author's contribution is similar to what is considered an adaptation? (4) What constitutes public

communication or performance? and (5) How

should the rights of reproduction, distribution,

public performance, public display, and the making of derivative works be adapted to digital

technology and networking?

Groups Addressing the Issues. The Intel- lectual Property Working Group of the Information Policy Committee of the Information

Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) is directly addressing these and other issues. Others working on these issues are: the Coalition for Networked

Information; the Copyright Clearance Center; Ted Nelson in his Xanadu project; the Information Industries Association with its "Digital Li- brary" issues paper written by Joseph Ebersole;

Gary Griswold of InfoLogic Software, Inc., with

his proposal for a copyright tracking mechanism;

Peter S. Graham, Librarian at Rutgers; and

Carnegie Mellon's Information Networking Insti- tute project for an Internet Billing Server prototype. The Library of Congress through its Digital

Library Coordinating Committee also is addressing this area.

Industry Regulation (Cable, TV, Telecommunications). Key industries are currently making and

implementing plans to move into the world of electronic information. Among them are the cable companies, the seven regional Bell companies, and various entertainment companies. All have pieces of the electronic infrastructure -cabling, a user base, or digitized data- upon

which to build major information-providing busi- nesses. These companies are undertaking

mergers and acquisitions to supplement their ar- eas of strength for the information industry they see evolving. Deregulation without safeguards

could lead to the formation of oligopolies with

price structures that effectively preclude the use

of major amounts of timely information by the

average citizen.

The federal government has an imminent and

critical role in determining that affordable access

by the public is assured.

Education. ^° The federal government plays a key role in the nation's education infrastructure,

and the priority, direction, and support it pro- vides to educational institutions at national, re- gional, and local levels will be critical to the

ability of these institutions to gain meaningful ac- cess to the Nil.

Important opportunities exist for the development of network connectivity in schools, and for the promotion of distance learning and other ex- tensions of educational opportunities across

age, economic, and geographic barriers. Early

steps in this direction could include a program

of grants to extend at least primitive access to the Nil to virtually every school, and to support a broad program of distance learning curriculum

development and teacher and librarian, particularly those who staff public and K-12 libraries,

training drawing on the resources of the Nil.

Once consistent connectivity exists for educational institutions, the foundation will have been

laid for sharing the resources of digital libraries with students and educators. This means that li- braries will continue to fulfill their traditional role as adjuncts to education.

Opportunities in the Coming Year

The most important opportunities in 1994 for the

application of the Nil to libraries may be the confrontation of copyright issues and policies, and

the need to monitor and respond appropriately

to the shifts taking place in the telecommunications and cable industries. All legislation that is passed in support of Nil and Nil-library pro- grams is obviously of major importance.

^° See study done by D'Elia et al (funded by the Department

of Education). The survey consisted of a sample (1,001) of the general public who were asked to evaluate ten roles of the public library (the ten categories included libraries' roles

in the community, education, recreation, and as information

provider), using four response categories ranging from "not important" through "very important." The three roles ranked most important were educational support center for students

of all ages (88 percent); a learning center for adult independent learners (85 percent); a discovery and learning center

for preschool children (83 percent).

94
The Transition of Libraries to the Nil There is great divergence between current li- brary services, technology, and funding on the one hand and the vision of the Nil for digital li- braries on the other. There will, of necessity, be

a transition period in which libraries continue to acquire, organize, collect, and preserve tradi- tional materials in specific geographic sites, and

continue to receive funding in much the same

ways that they do currently.

The Nil envisions "universal access," yet the in- frastructure is incomplete. Work to be done in- cludes everything from the fiber optic cabling to

installing modems at the local public library, to the creation of software to make the navigation

of diverse systems on diverse platforms easy,

and the creation of standards to make it all work. It is unlikely that acquisitions will become

fully electronic on a large scale- meaning that an information item can be ordered and deliv- ered electronically -until issues concerning the

roles and rights of authors, publishers, libraries,

and users are clarified. Some type of descriptive

record, such as the descriptive and subject

record currently created by catalogers, will continue to be required for efficient searching and

retrieval until hardware and software can create the abstract data for accurate searching of massive text files; or until libraries' hardware and

software platforms are so powerful that searching massive amounts of textual and image data no longer presents a constraint.

Other components which must be addressed

during the transition in order to fulfill the vision

of the Nil is the conversion of existing non-digital

data and the assurance of access to and preservation of data in digital form. Due to the amount

of material to be considered for digitization

(500+ years of printed material, 150 years of photographs, 100 years of movies) and the

number of problems associated with conversion

(the lack of image standards, selection and or- ganization practices for digital materials, the ex- pense of the process, the strategic problem of mutilating an item in order to digitize it easily,

copyright issues), building an efficient model for the digitization of analog must be considered

early in the transition. Similarly, material created

and only existing in digital form is not being

archived or preserved in an orderly fashion. The

issues of collecting digital items with a view to

long-term archiving and preservation, particularly

those without broad market appeal, are of little interest to entities interested in immediate eco- nomic reward. Archiving and preserving for posterity are largely being ignored at this time.

Methods to assure the preservation of material

of value to succeeding generations must be cre- ated.

In times of transition, sufficient funding to continue current operations while converting to and

adopting new operations is critical. The libraries that make up the U.S. library community are funded through diverse and uncoordinated

sources. Public libraries depend on local budgets; research libraries depend on their respective institution for their funding; government

agency libraries are part of the federal budget;

repositories depend on endowments and donations for funding. In times of economic restraint,

such as today, funds to educational institutions, of which libraries often are a part, are among the

first to be cut.

If libraries are to continue to perform the ser- vices currently provided and, at the same time,

adopt technology that will make their participation in the Nil a possibility, then a national plan

to coordinate and supplement both the required

efforts and funding is essential.

After the Transition: Digital Libraries

The transition to an information age will continue

to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The

need for physical access will decrease and demand for network-based access to information

will increase. The evolution will occur for a vari- ety of reasons: increasing demand for timely

information; increasing costs of traditional material; lower costs and faster and cheaper net- works which make digital knowledge networks

feasible. Not the least of the reasons for the evolution will be a preference for access to material

that is easily searched and manipulated.

The national digital library will be geographically

distributed. It will consist of a network of publishers, vendors, libraries, other organizations, and

individuals, public, commercial, and private, any

of which can offer an item or collections of items. Digital libraries will allow users access to knowledge worldwide. Similarly, digital libraries

will make their own databases available to users

95
of the worldwide network. At the same time, it will provide programs and services that will build a sense of community and meet the needs for access to information and knowledge for that community [Dowlin]. Digital libraries collectively

will strive to contain all past and future knowledge in electronic form. In the United States,

public libraries will try to assure that digital infor- mation is made available to all either for free or

at a reasonable cost. Policy makers will have to resolve the copyright licensing issues as well as

the issue of fair use in the electronic world to the

satisfaction of authors and publishers, and to the

continuing benefit of the public.

The role of librarians could evolve from electronic archivist to knowledge navigator of the

network of data which is the library. Librarians

will continue to acquire, organize, preserve, and

make available information, but they also will be

required to function as managers of electronic

information. This role may require librarians to participate in all aspects of the knowledge chain,

from advising authors on outlets, to placing digital material under control, to organizing data for ease of access, to instructing and guiding users.

Issues and Questions to be Addressed

Copyright

The advanced information infrastructure presents

three significant and qualitatively new challenges

to protecting intellectual property. First, digitiza- tion offers an unprecedented, easy, and inexpensive method to produce an indefinite number

of perfect copies. Second, information in dis- parate media can be converted into a single digital stream and can be easily manipulated to create a variety of new works. Third, digitized in- formation can be instantaneously distributed to and downloaded by thousands of users of the

network.

If the Nil environment is to prosper as expected,

then contributions to it must flow from all sources: commercial, private, public, and government. If the information provided by these sources is to be valuable, creativity must continue to be remunerated.

Since the issues of intellectual property rights are critical to further development of the Nil, how

should the federal government work together

with representative members of the information

community to provide leadership to clarify the

existing intellectual property laws' ^ as they relate to electronic information in the networked environment? Should this include a review of the appropriateness of the current public policy

objective of the copyright law -the attempt to

strike a balance between copyright rights holders and the public good? How should the federal government help create an intellectual property rights model for the network environment? How should such models contribute to fu- ture collections of material in digital form?

Any new models must continue to encourage

creativity while addressing the public and re- search communities' continued and legitimate

information needs. Authors, publishers, scholars,

librarians, information technology and service

providers, the Copyright Office, and the public

all must be represented in any modeling and decision-making efforts. Consideration must be

given to the impact that the recommendations of the Intellectual Property Working Group of the

Information Policy Committee of the Nil will have.

What kind of pilot projects are appropriate to ex- plore issues, establish precedents, clarify roles,

and identify standards, policies, and models for

fair use and protection of rights in the digital

environment? Such projects should include ex- ploring prototypes that protect the rights of copyright owners while at the same time allowing use of material in research and public li- braries (i.e., browsing, research by one or a

small set of users for the advancement of knowledge).

The Electronic Copyright Management System

pilot currently being developed by ARPA, CNRI,

and LOC will provide an electronic means for handling the deposit, registration, and recording

of copyright ownership as well as licensing

transactions of works already owned. This project can begin the process of building future digital collections and serve as a model for nonCopyright in the United States is established by the Constitution and confirmed by statute. Its original purpose was to encourage intellectual productivity by securing intellectual property rights for authors while promoting fair public access

to their output. Only expression is protected; the manner is which the expression is packaged is not.

96
participating publishers. Once It is operational

the challenge will be how to expand it to include more partners.

Equity of Access and Education

The specter of Information "have-nots" in the

midst of the wealth of Nil Information must be

averted. Access and education are two key ways

to Increase the probability that the number of the

Information "have-nots" will be reduced. What

should the federal government's role in reducing

the potential for Information "have-nots" be and

how can It achieve the vision of universal ac- cess? How should the federal government fund

programs for public gateways and for the education of librarians In the new technology.

What institutions will act as gateways for those

not having access or technical knowledge suffi- cient to make use of the Nil? Isn't this the

emerging role of libraries? What funding should

be extended, refocused, Initiated to stimulate

connectivity for gateway institutions such as li- braries?

What role will the federal government play In funding the education of the Nil knowledge or- ganizer-navigator? Isn't this the emerging role of librarians In the Nil? Who will be trained to be

the knowledge organizer and navigator of the Nil databases?

Providing access and strengthening the technical position of libraries offers a strong possibility

for providing equitable access. One means of doing this is to extend and re-focus the Library

Services and Construction Act (LSCA) through

FY 1998 to explicitly encourage libraries, particularly public and depository, to become public

gateways to the National Information Infrastructure.

LSCA-funded gateways could begin to provide

for universal access to the national digital li- brary's information. Is it appropriate to substitute

funding for the purchase of necessary computer

and network hardware and software and training

of staff by public and depository libraries for the

current LSCA funding authority for public library

construction?

The LSCA currently is set to expire at the end of FY 1994. The Administration's FY 1995 budget

request proposes to continue at level funding

the largest LSCA program for improvement of public library services. President Clinton's pro- posal in the State of the Union address to ex- tend the Nil to every school and library is partially addressed in the proposed budget by

continued funding of the LSCA program for in- terlibrary cooperation. Although level funding is requested for this program, the "requested level would enable the States to expand their net- working capabilities and library participation in development of the National Information In- frastructure."

What means are there to provide funds for librar- ians so that they are prepared for the technological challenges of advanced networks and

search tools and also able to undertake digitiza- tion of unique resources in academic and re- search libraries?

Funding to provide broader access and to strengthen the technical position of public, depository, and academic libraries offers the possibility of providing equitable access for all. Education of the leaders in the library community could strengthen the technological knowledge of librarians so that they are able to employ the technology optimally and train others

to do the same.

Digital Conversion

Much of the concern of the National Information

Infrastructure has been with connectivity and ac- cess. There is an Increasing need to focus on

content, as reflected by the Committee on Applications and Technology (CAT) mandate. While

discussions of digital initiatives are generally

broad and imply the existence of digitized data

through the conversion of existing holdings in major libraries, the issues surrounding the digi- tization of these holdings are frequently avoided.

Who Is going to do the digitizing? Should this be

undertaken by a single Institution or by multiple

institutions? What Institution (s) have the holdings

and the expertise to Initiate significant pilot

projects in this area? What comprises a signifi- cant set of material worthy of the funding of such major projects? How should the federal

government fund these initiatives? It is clear that market forces are unlikely to produce the re- sources required to initiate this effort on a meaningful scale. However, are there private entities

97
that could help supplement federally initiated digitization projects?

One set of materials that should be digitized^^ is held by the Library of Congress. This material

consists of more than 200 collections that repre- sent the American cultural heritage. These col- lections contain more than one million items:

books, manuscripts, microfilm, photographs,

recorded sound, music, and maps. The suggestion that the Library's Americana collections be

considered for digitization is based on the col- lections' reflection of the nation's heritage, the

broad public interest in the material, and their specific value to education. The digitization of these collections presents a less significant

problem than many others would in that the materials are either no longer subject to copyright

or permissions for re-publication have already

been granted. It is also attractive for a project of

this magnitude to be broached initially by a sin- gle institution. Such a project could serve to establish a model which could then be expanded

to other libraries holding important Americana

materials. The objective would be to create a networked set of distributed, network-accessible

databases on the American experience for education within this decade.

In the long run, creation and implementation of appropriate intellectual property protection models will permit the future collection of material in digital form. This, however, will not address the

rich heritage of material that exists now in li- braries and which will never be accessible over

the network unless digitized. It is essential that some of the legislation under consideration, as

well as some of the budget proposals being

drafted, address digitization.

Federal Investment in R&D

Which areas to be considered for research have

the potential to contribute the most rapid development and orderly growth of digital libraries as

part of the Nil? What searching aids could be

'^The Library's Americana holdings are much greater than

the estimated 1 million items contained in these 200 collections. The Library's Americana holdings are estimated to be

closer to 40,000,000. These 200 collections are those that have been identified as important to the culture of the United

States and for which copyright protection either no longer

exists because the materials are in the public domain or per- mission for use is a reasonable certainty.

designed for the short term? for the long term?

What basic architectural components of the digital library are in place? Which are missing? What

issues must be resolved before the public will be willing to depend on the network in the same

ways It trusts traditional libraries and the voice

network? What are the models for preservation

in the Nil, both for material that only exists in digital form and material that exists in other

forms that are endangered? Who will provide a

testbed for digital repositories? What should be

included in this testbed?

How should the federal government deploy its funding support to focus the necessary research

efforts on the following areas: Schemes for classification and the building

of lexicons and thesauruses are vital. Given the

magnitude of data that will be searchable in the

electronic environment, more efficient searching

mechanisms must be built. Broader, more or- derly, and more up-to-date classifications are one way to do this. Similarly, well-designed electronic lexicons and thesauruses can reduce the

number of search query iterations and improve

the precision of the response without excessive

user intervention.

The basic architecture to guide the implementation of library systems is needed. Many

components are already in place: processing,

storage, networking, authoring tools, and intel- lectual property law. Components missing from

this architecture are: full technological interoperability; mechanisms to determine availability and

ownership of items; a means to electronically re- ceive permission for use. "Smarter" tools are needed. Currently, the

amount of information retrieved from the network

(directly and precisely related to the topic) is highly correlated with the expertise of the user searching the network.

The issues of privacy and security must be

resolved before the public will be willing to trust the network.

Models for preservation, both for material

that only exists in digital form and material that

exists in other forms that are endangered, are

currently lacking.

Finally, testbeds for digital repositories must

be established. Any testbed must provide: ac- ceptance of digital items; authentication of the

98
item and its source; the ability to interface the

item(s) with other systems as required (for ex- ample, copyright management); a means to authenticate and respond to requests to identify or provide access to stored items; the ability to provide a multimedia response; a means to impose conditions on the use of an item; and on- going management of all stored items.

Coordination and Review of Standards

Better coordination of standards-setting groups

should be initiated so that standards on internet- worl<ing, interoperability, and security are cre- ated and adopted in a more timely way. In a dynamic and quickly changing environment

such as the Internet and the future Nil, stan- dards groups must consider streamlining the

process for setting de jure standards and creat- ing a process to adopt de facto standards when

they are useful.

How can the federal government most effectively

participate in the setting of appropriate stan- dards for libraries?

Any national efforts to review standards-setting

groups and methods should be undertaken with a clear sense that the network is already an in- ternational entity and that its international component is likely to grow as quickly (or quicker)

than the national entity.

Conclusions

Libraries are central to the success of the Nil. Li- brarians have already begun to explore the chal- lenges presented by electronic materials and

navigation tools. Enhanced skills, roles, and al- liances in the electronic environment must be

explored and developed before the vision of Nil digital libraries becomes a reality. Libraries and

librarians are anxious to assume their place in this electronic world, but basic issues must be

addressed. These issues include copyright li- censing schemes, collective rights administration

and guidelines for fair use in an electronic environment, the availability of sufficient resources to ensure reliable connectivity and staff knowledge

in network use, and databases of sufficient quality and quantity to be useful to those in need of

reliable information. While the growth of the In- ternet has been impressive, the Nil is a much

more comprehensive, ambitious initiative which

necessitates resolving significant issues and

meeting critical objectives for Libraries as well as

other application areas.

Finally, the network world is now international. Any national efforts, therefore, must consider the

international context and implications.

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100
Government Service Delivery: Reengineering

Through Information Technology

DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

PART I: What Is the Application

Arena?

Description of Government Service Delivery and

Information Dissemination

President Clinton has spoken often about the

"trust deficit"— the sad reality that the American

people lack confidence that government will do

the right thing. Improving customer service is the most direct way to attack this trust deficit. In the National Performance Review (NPR) report,

Vice President Al Gore recommended an executive order to create a customer-driven government. The President signed this order on September 7, 1993. It sets the standard for government services to equal the best in business,

and it requires federal agencies to survey their customers on what they want and whether they

are satisfied. In announcing the NPR on March

3, 1993, the President said: "... We intend to re- design, to reinvent, to reinvigorate the entire national government..." These comments were

motivated in part by the lack of public confi- dence in the federal government's ability to deliver services. Focusing on "Putting Customers

First" as one of the four major themes in the

NPR, Vice President Al Gore, in one of his many

town hall meetings had this to say: "... we are going to make the federal government customer

friendly. A lot of people don't realize that the federal government has customers. We have cus- tomers. The American people."

One of the NPR teams, Reengineering Through

Information Technology (IT), examined ways to better serve customers through the use of IT.

The findings and recommendations contained in the IT report form the basis for this Application

Paper. The NPR IT Team confronted the fact that dealing with the Federal government is often

complicated, slow, and confusing. Compounding

the problem is that public access to government

services is uncoordinated, cumbersome, and pa- per based. Further, if more than one agency is involved, an individual or business entity usually

goes through two or more rounds of inquiries

just to find a cognizant office. Contrast this maze

with credit card companies who can resolve an

issue at 1:00 AM, or an express delivery company which can find your package anywhere on

earth -why can't the government do as well? Al- though a big part of the problem is due to the

large amount of information that the government

processes and files, it is equally true that where

technology solutions do exist, the government is falling far behind the private sector in using

technology to deliver services.

What is the Public Interest/Benefits in Promoting

the Application?

Information technology has brought the convenience of revolutionary change to everyday life, from bank Automatic Teller Machines to global

transfers of funds, from 800 telephone services

to personal home computers, "e-mail," and the

world-wide Internet computer telecommunications system. Whatever its problems, the infor- mation revolution is upon us. Many authors call such technology the most powerful tool for change in the modern era. American busi- nesses, particularly the smarter ones, are taking

notice.

101
The Clinton Administration wants to reenglneer

governmental processes using information technology to improve Americans' quality of life and

reinvigorate the economy. The administration

has identified technology as the "engine of eco- nomic growth." Further, public expectations for good service in a service based economy are at an all time high. Providing high quality government service to Americans is no exception.

Good service includes good access to information. Government information is a public asset. The government should make information avail- able to the public on timely and equitable terms.

It should foster the existing diversity of information sources, in which the private sector, along

with State and local governments, libraries, and

other entities are significant partners. These

principles apply whatever the medium, printed

or electronic, in which the information has been

collected or stored.

The development of public networks such as the

Internet and NREN (National Research and Education Network) will contribute significantly to

this diversity. They will enable government infor- mation to be inexpensively disseminated to a broad range of users. In June, 1993, the Office

of Mananagement and Budget (0MB) issued a

revision to its Circular A-130 that sets forth these

principles and provides specific management

guidance to agencies regarding their implementation.

Evidence of the Benefits of an Electronic Government

Today, information technology can create the

government of the future, the electronic government. Electronic government overcomes the

barriers of time and distance to perform the

business of government and give people public

information and services when and where they

want it. It can swiftly transfer funds, answer

questions, collect and validate data and keep

information flowing smoothly within and outside

government.

In electronic government, high speed telecommunications links (information highways) will carry the data necessary to support government

operations. These information highways will connect federal, state, and local governments, and

help form a National Information Infrastructure

(Nil) made up of public and private transmission

circuits and information services. The development of this infrastructure will enable the cre- ation of "virtual agencies" which will give

citizens access to integrated program information and services organized around service

"themes" (e.g., unemployment assistance),

rather than bureaucratic -and often -idiosyncratic -structures. In a virtual agency, several in- terconnected intergovernmental entities will be

able to provide information and services in a seamless manner.

Examples of some of these services and the as- sociated benefits are:

Citizen Semces - One-stop shopping for common government information and services,

kiosks in shopping centers, electronic town hall meetings.

l-lealtficare Services — Remote diagnostics

and expert consultations, more efficient sharing

of healthcare resources, improved access to medical records, realtime training on new medical procedures.

Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice - Ar- raignments and parole board hearings via video

technology, near real-time fingerprint identifica- tion via a national law enforcement public safety

network.

Research and Education - Distance learning, more efficient sharing of super computing and

educational resources, improved access to large

volume data libraries, and others such as tax law

training.

Human Resources Management -Job as- sessments and training via video technology at convenient locations, increased accessibility for individuals with disabilities, and flexible workplace.

PART II: Where Are We Now?

The NPR validated the lack of a cohesive approach to service delivery. The NPR report emphasized that citizens and government workers

contend with an increasingly complicated array

of federal agencies, organizations, processes

and forms. The existing service delivery system

is largely based on hierarchical design struc- tures developed in the 1930s. The result is slow,

inefficient service that may not satisfy actual

102
customer needs. The information needed for sound decision-making and high-quality cus- tomer service is not coordinated across government agencies, thus increasing cost and time to provide services. In short, today's government

structures, processes, and business practices

which were designed for a different era, cannot

keep up with the existing types and volumes of customer demands. Information technology will be the key to providing more cost-effective and

user-friendly government services. Industry ex- amples illustrate how exploiting technology can

provide superior customer service, significantly

decrease costs, increase quality, and improve

overall effectiveness and competitiveness.

For various reasons -some regulatory, some

legislative, some cultural -the federal government lacks appropriate access to the most effi- cient, cost effective information technology

products and services. The government has

lacked not only strong leadership in this area, but also a coherent plan on how to most effectively tap information technology's potential for service to the public. When it comes to applications of information technology, the federal government is woefully behind the times, unable to use even the most basic technology to conduct

its business in some cases. To correct this problem, the NPR IT Report focused on three areas where improvements must be made in order for the government to reap the full benefits available

through the use of information technology.

These include:

Strengthening Leadership in Information

Technology

Creating an Electronic Government

Establishing Support Mechanisms for Electronic Government

Leadership

The recently created Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) can provide leadership in inte- grating information technology into systems that support government's operation. This task force

is responsible for articulating and implementing

the President's vision for advanced telecommunications and computing technology. It is uniquely positioned to help develop the governmental aspects of America's information

infrastructure. The IITF's Committee on Applications and Technology has established a Government Information Technology Services (GITS)

Working Group which, in turn, will collaborate

with state and local governments as well as the

private sector.

The GITS Working Group is developing a strate- gic vision and an implementation plan for using

government information resources across and

within agencies, and developing steps to improve how government provides information and

services to the public. In addition, the GITS

Working Group is developing strategies to empower information technology management in federal agencies and setting priorities for sharing

information among agencies.

Creating an Electronic Government

As the NPR IT Team recognized, information

technology, with its ability to electronically store and rapidly access, sort, and transmit information, is the key to improving information dissemination and service delivery. When used to its full potential, information technology goes beyond

the automation of paper processes -it allows

agencies to rethink and redesign work pro- cesses to eliminate steps and make them more

effective. The vision of "electronic government"

extends the idea first seen in electronic banking.

Just as ATMs, plastic access cards, and nationwide networks have made banking more convenient, electronic government will make

communicating with government easier and

faster. To inaugurate the concept of "electronic

government," the NPR IT Team identified seven

illustrative IT initiatives, which if implemented,

will provide substantial return on investment

through increases in productivity. These include:

Integrated Electronic Benefit Transfer - Electronic benefit transfer will use information technology present in the financial industry to

deliver, nationwide, fast and efficient government

assistance -including Food Stamps, Social Security benefits, and veterans benefits.

Integrated Electronic Access to Government In- formation and Sen/ices - Access to government

is a right of Americans. Existing technology

makes possible the integrated electronic access

to government information and services. The

use of a single nationwide 800 telephone number would simplify access to government agencies. Electronic government kiosks that use

technology similar to that in ATMs can provide

103
"one-stop shopping" for both government infor- mation and services. Personal computers may

also be used to access electronic bulletin board

systems, databases, and agency directory ser- vices.

National Law Enforcement/Public Safety Net- work— A National Law Enforcement/Public

Safety tactical network will improve coordination

and communications among federal, state, and

local law enforcement and public safety agencies, and will save money. It must focus on es- tablishing standards for sharing information and

implementing appropriate privacy and security measures.

Intergovernmental Tax Filing, Reporting, and

Payments Processing —The Internal Revenue

Service (IRS) already has on file all the tax infor- mation to calculate the taxes due for about 60

million taxpayers because financial institutions and employers are required to report this infor- mation. Yet IRS and state tax agencies still re- quire taxpayers to compute what the IRS already

knows. If IRS computed taxes and sent a state- ment, and if electronic filing were used for all others, IRS could forgo the mailing of 75 boxcars of forms to taxpayers -and certain classes

could ultimately not need to file. For others, they

will need to file only once. Enormous administrative savings would accrue to government and

the burden on taxpayers would be reduced.

International Trade Data System - To help en- sure the nation's competitiveness in global markets, the Treasury Department should create an

all-inclusive database for disseminating international trade data, for use by the government and

the trade community.

National Environmental Data Index — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

should create a National Environmental Data In- dex to coordinate the development and use of environmental data gathered by various government agencies. Its goal -to give government,

the private sector, academia, and citizens easy access to environmental information.

Governmentwide Electronic Mail -\r\ the private

sector, e-mail and messaging systems are becoming as common as the desktop computer.

Government wide electronic mail is a natural progression from paper-based government to an

electronic government. E-mail allows rapid communications among employees across agency

boundaries. The administration should work to connect all federal employees by electronic mail.

Support Mechanisms

The NPR IT Team also recognized that in order

for "electronic government" to become a reality,

support mechanisms to address specific issues

must be put in place. These include:

Establishing the Government Information In- frastructure—On a broad scale, the National In- formation Infrastructure (Nil) will revolutionize the

way we work, learn, shop, and live, and provide

Americans the information they need, when they

need it, and where they need it— whether in the

form of text, images, sound, or video. This capability will "enhance the productivity of work and

lead to dramatic improvements in social ser- vices, education, and entertainment

The public and private sectors both must

help improve the nation's information infrastructure. The Government Information Infrastructure

(Gil) as a sub-set of the Nil must adopt forwardlooking policies that promote the development of new technologies in the delivery of government

information and services.

The infrastructure will allow the government

to consolidate and modernize its data processing centers and standardize many of its basic

administrative functions ranging from payroll to management information systems. The GITS

Working Group is developing an implementation

plan for consolidating data processing installa- tions and reengineering common application

systems.

Developing Systems and Mechanisms to En- sure Privacy and Security — Success in implementing electronic government also depends on

public confidence. Electronic government must

protect the information it processes and insure

individual privacy. It must also protect national

security interests, permit legitimate law enforcement activities, enhance global competitiveness

and productivity for American business and in- dustry, and ensure civil liberties. The government must define uniform privacy practices and

generally accepted principles for information security. It must adopt a digital signature standard,

and it must promulgate encryption standards for sensitive information.

Improving Methods of IT Acquisition — The

government also must expedite and simplify how

104
it acquires information technology. The market

for computer hardware and software involves

products for which the shelf life can be as short as a few months. In this environment, the government needs to establish more aggressive, in- novative purchasing methods.

Provide Incentives for Innovation -The administration recognizes that initiatives to bring

electronic government to the public require

strategic relationships between government and

the private sector. These relationships must in- clude necessary incentives for innovation. Agencies should be able to retain a portion of savings

produced through information technology for reinvestment, and use multi-year funding for in- formation technology projects. The government

should promote performance-based contracting

for information technology products, allow the

private sector to increase its profits if it can find ways to make government run more efficiently

and cost effectively. It should create an innovation fund to finance innovative information

projects within agencies.

Provide Training and Technical Assistance in IT to Federal Employees - Federal, state, and lo- cal employees must get training and technical

assistance in information technology. The

government should create a program to train nontechnical senior executives and political appointees. Moreover, the Office of Personnel

Management and GSA should establish information resources management (IRM) competencies

for federal employees pursuing appointments to IRM management positions.

Current Actions

Information technology must not be applied

haphazardly or sporadically. It also must not be

used simply to automate existing practices. In- stead, information technology must be used to exponentially improve business practices in the

government of the 21st century.

FedWorld

One operating example of an integrated electronic access service exists today within the

marketplace called FedWorldTM, established by

National Technical Information Service. FedWorld is an online information service which pro- vides the general public with a user-friendly, central resource for government information.

FedWorld offers both dial-up and Internet ac- cess, thus serving the needs of those using the

developing "information highway" as well as those operating with current dial-up technology.

Since FedWorld was established eighteen

months ago, NTIS has received over 400,000

calls from nearly 75,000 registered users, who

have downloaded files over 330,000 times from

the system. It currently serves many in the policy

community as one of the primary points of dis- semination for White House information. For ex- ample, over a gigabyte-worth of copies of the

President's Report to America and the Health

Security Plan were downloaded from FedWorld

within 48 hours of the President's address to Congress.

FedWorld also allows users to "gateway"

through the system to over 130 other publicly

available government information systems, effectively providing "one-stop shopping" for many

types of government information. As a result of the gateway, many of these systems are accessible from the Internet for the first time. NTIS

does not charge agencies for these services.

Moreover, the public is not charged to use basic

FedWorld services. Instead, NTIS is recovering

system development and maintenance costs through the sale of products online and through

subscriptions to a small number of specific databases and files in the system. FedWorld also

provides information dissemination services on

behalf of other agencies, for which NTIS charges

the agencies based on their costs. The incremental cost of adding another agency's information, even in a highly customized way, is substantially lower for the agency than it would

be for the agency to create its own stand-alone

system with comparable support and customer

service.

FedWorld is currently handling about 3,000 calls each day, but is in the process of a series of hardware and telecommunications upgrades that

will allow a peak of 6,000 to 10,000 calls a day.

The Administration's plan for expanding FedWorld's capacity are included in an overall onetime $18 million request for FY 1995 to support

three initiatives developed by NTIS that are aimed at expediting the transition to full electronic dissemination of scientific, technical, and

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other government information to all users. The

request targets $6 million specifically for FedWorld to gain capacity and other enhancements

that will permit FedWorld to serve the tens of thousands of daily callers that a fully operational

system ought to be able to handle.

Government Information Technology Services

The Government Information Technology Ser- vices (GITS) Working Group is chartered to provide clear, strong leadership to integrate IT into government business processes to make

government a customer-driven enterprise; define a vision and oversee implementation; encourage

and facilitate cooperation; and serve as a catalyst for change. The GITS Working Group has

begun work to develop an action plan that will address the following:

Develop a strategic vision for using information resources within the federal government.

This vision will define an overall strategy and

master plan for information technology in the

federal government and should include goals

and objectives for improving government use of technology in mission performance - both across and within agencies -and measures for assessing service improvements to the public.

Develop strategies to improve leadership

and authority within federal agencies, and to continually benchmark against the best of pri- vate and public sector business practices.

Set priorities for federal information re- sources management and assess the adequacy

of resources to support and facilitate important

goals.

Develop an implementation plan for the IT recommendations in the NPR report and over- seeing the execution of the plan across the government.

Work with state and local governments and

private sector advisers to promote cooperation

and information sharing.

Establish a continuous improvement process

to design, develop, and implement technologyenabled governmentwide business initiatives

the electronic government.

Identify additional opportunities and oversee

follow-up on additional opportunities for sharing

information resources across agencies to improve program performance.

Use existing interagency groups such as the

Federal IRM Policy Council (FIRMPoC) for assistance where applicable.

Working Group

In addition to the work being done by GITS, a

sizable portion of the government services area being handled by the Information Policy Committee of the IITF in the areas of privacy,

intellectual property rights, and information dis- semination. One item in the information dissemination area -the government information locator

service (GILS) illustrates the potential in this area.

On July 2, 1993, 0MB revised Circular No. A130, Management of Federal Information Resources, to strengthen polices for managing

government information. Circular A-130 encour- ages agencies to utilize new technologies to make government information available to the

public in a timely and equitable manner, via a di- verse array of sources, both public and private.

It states that availability of government information in diverse media, including electronic for- mats, permits the public greater flexibility in using the information, and that modern information technology presents opportunities to improve the management of government programs

to provide better service to the public. It also

notes that the development of public electronic

information networks, such as the Internet, pro- vides an additional way for agencies to increase

the diversity of information sources available to the public.

In the spirit of the above polices, 0MB has committed to promote the establishment of an agency-based GILS to help the public locate

and access government information. Being a lo- cator, GILS will be an information resource that

identifies other information resources, describes

the information available in those resources, and

provides assistance in how to obtain the infor- mation. A key concept of GILS is that it uses

network technology to arrange information to support many different views.

GILS will be a collective set of agency-based lo- cators that is decentralized in order that ongoing

maintenance responsibilities stay as close as

possible to those who understand and care for the information. Each agency is responsible for

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assuring that its GILS are continuously accessible to GILS direct users on the network, whether

through agency computer resources or through

other arrangements. Among the agency GILS

are those designated as part of the GILS Core.

The GILS Core is comprised of high-level descriptions of agency holdings in a specific format

and maintained by the various agencies. These

agency locators can be aggregated by direct users of GILS to provide a view of all Federal

Government holdings, and they can be supplemented by non-GILS information sources of all kinds, or by non-Federal locators that are inter- operable with the GILS Core.

Many people will use GILS by accessing re- sources directly on networks, but many others

will use GILS through intermediate services. A

researcher interested in government operations

may access GILS directly over the Internet and

explore issues from a variety of perspectives.

Network service providers may offer GILS ac- cess to users as an option to their bulletin board

services. An educator interested in education

materials may access GILS once a month over a

dial-up connection to the Internet. An information

service may access GILS hourly and construct a value-added directory for sale to users with

specific needs. When accessed directly as it exists on the network, GILS will provide maximum

flexibility to create specific views of the full complement of available information. It should be

noted that GILS will include some redundancy

and will present information from a variety of perspectives. Casual users and those lacking

network access facilities will be serviced typically

through products created by agency or non-government intermediaries such as public libraries and private sector providers.

Participants in GILS will use formal standards

processes to promote interoperability of search

and retrieval mechanisms, network communications, user authentication, and server descriptions, among other essential components.

Although near-term implementations of GILS

may utilize the Internet and TCP/IP communication protocol for practical reasons, the GILS core

will be based on the international Open Systems

Interconnection (OS!) model and is designed to be compatible with other network technologies.

GILS will take advantage of the network technology known as client-sen/er architecture, which

allows information to be distributed among multi- ple independent information sources. Applications can then be constructed to allow a user to question many sources concurrently and have

the answers automatically combined. Because

GILS will adopt existing information search and

retrieval standards, direct users of GILS will gain access to a wide range of additional Federal

sources. Other major Federal government infor- mation systems, such as the proposed Government Printing Office Access System, the NTIS

FedWorld systems, the National Geospatial Data

System, and the Global Change Data and Infor- mation System, can also be made readily accessible to GILS users. In fact, the Department of Commerce already has a prototype Commerce

Information Locator System (OILS), in operation

and available to the public, on NTIS' FedWorld.

PART III: Where Do We Want to Be?

Since formation, the GITS Working Group has

adopted the vision of creating a Government

that "uses Information Technology to Interact with and to serve its customers on their

terms." To achieve this vision, the GITS Working Group will strive for the following goals:

Develop a national vision which includes an

institutionalized process that ranks IT priorities for the Administration, provides support and

funding to achieve them, and coordinates partnerships with industry and state and local governments.

Provide our customers with a modernized,

electronic government to give them responsive

and efficient access to information and services.

Develop and implement information technologies, policies, procedures, and standards

that empower leadership and support and enable customer-driven government, rather than

constrain it.

Critical Success Factors To achieve the vision and goals, the GITS Working Group will promote total customer satisfaction and make the U.S. Government a model

and leader in the use of information technology

in service delivery. Success can be measured

based on performance criteria established for the following areas:

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Customer Satisfaction

Is the product the "right" product?

Is the service level adequate?

Is service delivery timely, accurate, accessible, affordable, ubiquitous, dis- creet, reliable, and easy to use?

Productivity/Efficiency

Are there any cost reductions and/or improvements in the level of service?

Has customer demand for IT services to solve business problems increased?

Has the government eliminated unnecessary paper-based services?

Leadership

Has the government become a model

and leader in the use of information

technology?

Is IT being recognized as a strategic re- source in agency plans?

Has electronic access to information

and services become more available?

Infrastructure Has easy and effective government-wide

electronic mail communication been

achieved?

Are federal/state/local government ser- vices interoperable?

Is service delivery integrated?

Partnersfiip

Is government/industry partnership

working?

Is federal/state/local government partnership working?

Continuous Improvement Program

The continuous improvement program is a "shared vision" of the GITS Working Group to provide a cross-agency environment for "open"

communications and feedback within the government enterprise. Feedback coupled with a road map to the future being developed by the

GITS Working Group will ensure a customer and

stakeholder focus on an interactive basis. Customer suggestions will be evaluated and acted

upon. Performance goals will be established and

met. The GITS Working Group is focusing on

system thinking, guiding principles, critical suc- cess factors and teamwork to form a cohesive

way of approaching intergovernmental systems

and services.

Critical success factors that measure the "to be"

state require continuous monitoring with obstacles quickly handled. Stakeholder involvement in the overall improvement process is also re- quired. Performance based contracting will re- ward contractors for continuous improvement in technology furnished to the government under

contract. Agencies will be rewarded for identifying and implementing innovative customerdriven services in concert with the GITS Working

Group strategic vision. PART IV: How Are We Going to Get

There?

To facilitate discussion in this area, this paper

ends with three questions for the reader to consider in the development and deployment of the

Nil. How can the government fund innovative

IT projects? Resource constraints, incremental

budgeting practices, and a lack of incentives of- ten discourage federal managers from investing

in innovative information technology applications

that might yield long-term benefits and that cut across program and agency boundaries. How

could the government provide a source of fi- nancing for projects that might not otherwise re- ceive agency funding due to the experimental

nature of the technology, long payback periods,

benefits that accrue to a number of agencies, or funding needs that exceed the normal one-year

funding cycle?

What steps should the government take

to issue a final digital signature standard? A

digital signature standard is considered a prerequisite for an electronic government. Initiatives such as electronic filing of tax returns depend

on such a standard that can provide assurance

of the integrity and authenticity of messages.

Other applications such as financial transactions

between governments, business and the public,

equally depend on the establishment of such a

standard. Patent problems and the cryptography

debate have thus far stalled this initiative. One

element that can be addressed independently of these concerns is the establishment of a "public

key infrastructure" to support digital signatures.

What are the appropriate next steps to making

that infrastructure a reality?

How should the government use its buying power to promote investment in the national and local information infrastructure?

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The federal government is a major purchaser of

IT, spending over $25 billion on commercial IT goods and sen/ices. As a major buyer, it can sometimes influence the market place and thus

the direction of the Nil.

For example, the vision of electronic government

requires high levels of interoperation and inte- gration among diverse networks. Although inte- grated voice and data services, can be provided

through a technology called Integrated Services

Digital Network (ISDN), interoperable ISDN ser- vice between networks remains elusive. The root

of the problem is the lack of a common standard

and reluctance in the private sector to invest in building the infrastructure to support ubiquitous

ISDN service. The government has had limited success, through its FTS2000 network, in influ- encing the adoption of common standards and

the building of this infrastructure. The FTS2000

contract put in place the first, national, multi-network intercity ISDN sen/ice. However, the in- frastructure of the local carriers does not support

extending this service beyond major metropolitan areas. This infrastructure deficiency severely

limits the utility of ISDN service for government

applications such as telecommuting and train- ing. On a broader scale, the inability of the local carriers to support ISDN service to communities

located at the outer edge of metropolitan areas and rural areas deprives the citizens a vital communications tool for accessing government ser- vices of the future. This example illustrates both

the potential and the limitations of the using the

government's buying power to influence markets. More strategic attention may be needed in using this tool to leverage investment in the Nil.

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Electronic Access to These Papers

In addition to receiving printed copies of "Putting the Information Infrastructure to Work: A Report of the Information Infrastructure Task Force's Committee on Applications and Technology" from NTIS or GPO, the document is also available electronically from the following sources:

1) . The Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) Gopher Server: gopher, telnet (login = gopher),

or anonymous ftp to iitf.doc.gov. The document is located within the Speeches/ Testimony/Documents category, documents/papers subcategory. Access is also available over the World-Wide

Web (WWW).

2) . The IITF Bulletin Board: Dial by modem to 202-501-1920. Modem communication parameters

should be set at no parity, 8 data bits, and one stop (N, 8, 1). Modem speeds up to 14,400 baud

are supported.

3) . FedWorld: Telnet to fedworld.doc.gov or dialing by modem to 703-321-8020.
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