My job tonight is to kick off discussion at this conference on equitable information access issues. By asking a series of questions, we'll see that the issues may be more complex than we might think at first glance. Many nations are building their own electronic super highways. Depending on where you live, values differ on privacy, freedom of information, and intellectual copyright. A capital intensive investment to interconnect services.
All cultures have communications infrastructures.
We are now building an infrastructure based on communications technology, which is of the same magnitude as the introduction of printing technology. We must ensure that values are protected as the balance of power changes. These figures do not include government, public, and non-profit information providers. HPCC II, which focusses on applications, is now moving slowly through the Senate and the telephone companies are freaking. Cross ownership issues from the merging of large cable, telephone, movie, and newspaper corporations are impacting on the NII plan.