The only way to nurture knowledge is to support a distributed approach to knowledge. The proposed legislation tackles these two points. The supporting elements of this new vision include connectivity, content, and coordination, among others. The Center for Civic Networking, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization, has done a good job of ensuring that the concept of universal access has been fully integrated into the NII blueprints, but the other four elements have been completely overlooked by the Clinton administration. As Noam Chomsky points out, we citizens must instruct our government in the basic truths of the Age of Information.
Content is the key to national security and national competitiveness.
Right now there are curtains between sectors, curtains between institutions within those sectors, and curtains between individuals within those institutions. Our highest priority as a nation should be to break down these barriers. More importantly, we must make available to each citizen the richest possible information commons. National intelligence is the empowerment of the individual citizen. With the passing of the Cold War the national intelligence community as it once existed has lost its mandate and its mystique.