In a year of major events for networking, perhaps the biggest was the
global explosion of interest in the Internet. Demonstrating the same
synergy that has made it so valuable in academia, the network is
catalyzing revolutionary change on a world stage that is no longer
limited to research and education. Still doubling in size every year,
the total number of computer systems connected to the Internet passed
two million in early fall.
Leading the network charge and generating the greatest public visibility
is the Clinton Administration. From its glitzy launch of a new
Democratic Party technology policy in February at Silicon Graphics in
California, to the opening of an Internet mailbox for Bill Clinton
([email protected]), to the creation of a cabinet-level National
Information Infrastructure Task Force, it's been hard not to be
impressed with the enthusiasm of the new inhabitants of the Executive
Office Building.
In the private sector, the dawn of interactive digital television in the
home is approaching, and with it a demise of the old order in media and
telecommunications businesses equal in its own way to the fall of the
Berlin Wall. Empires constructed on one-way analog systems are
crumbling. The ramparts of the mighty regional Bell telephone companies-
-$100 billion strong--have been breached.
Within research and education, pride in the success of a technology that
was nurtured in our midst through years of external skepticism is
tempered by the bittersweet recognition that the Internet is no longer
our sandbox. We worry that handing over Internet stewardship to the
unknown and invisible hand of private-sector network competition may not
only destroy a treasured value system but also threaten the future
utility of the network for serious scholarship if pop culture takes a
dominant role.
Let us therefore fashion a tough-minded set of resolutions for the New
Year of 1994.
* We will partner with industry and government to achieve a humane
vision of the information infrastructure that serves the national
interest and fosters economic and social well-being.
* We will invest our resources in the use of networking technology to
maintain world leadership in research and undertake qualitative and
quantitative improvements in education.
* We will join with others in advocacy for a network infrastructure that
preserves democratic values and promotes a healthy public sector in our
society.