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Realizing the information future: The internet and beyond
Reviews
419
REFERENCES Crawford, Walt & Gorman, Michael (1995). Future libraries: Dreams, madness & reality. Chicago, IL: American Library Association. Parker, Marilyn M., & Benson, Robert J. (1988). Information economics: Linking business perfrmance to information technology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
NRENAISSANCE Committee, National Research Council. Reufizing fhe Information Future: The Internei and Beyond. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1994.301 pp. $24.95 (ISBN: o-309-05044-8). Reviewed by Jian Liu, Assistant Reference Librarian, Reference Department, Indiana University Libraries, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 47405. This book is a study report for the National Science Foundation (NSF) that provides reviews of the past and current networking situations and makes recommendations for future developments toward an integrated national network infrastructure. It is available online from http://xerxes.nas.edu/nap/online/rtif/. The study was conducted by the NRENAISSANCE Committee formed for this purpose under the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the National Research Council, the same organization that produced the influential report for NSF in 1988 (Toward a National Research Network. National Academy Press, Washington, DC.) What the 1988 report is to the NREN, this 1994 report is to MI (National Information Infrastructure). The two reports should be read together. From APARNET to NSFNET, to NREN, and now to MI, Internet has, within 25 years, evolved from a network that was highly experimental, highly specialized and restricted to only a few nodes scattered in this country to a widespread network of networks that is used and talked about by millions of people all over the world. At this crucial moment, the NRENAISSANCE Committee presents a vision, a vision, based on the Internet experience, that can be summarized in one word: integration. Integration will involve diverse needs, means and objectives of many players: education, research, community, ETC complex (Entertainment, Telephone, Cable TV); various media: text, video, audio, fax; and various delivery methods: copper, fiber, satellite, wireless. In the Committee’s own words: “Such a network should be capable of carrying information services of all kinds, from suppliers of all kinds, to customers of all kinds, across network service providers of all kinds, in a seamless accessible fashion” @. 3). Implicit in this grand description of the future network is the pivotal concept of openness, that is, open to users, open to service providers, open to network providers, and open to change (pp. 3-4). Indeed, the architecture, the framework that will guarantee integration and openness as envisioned by the Committee, is called Open Data Network (ODN, another initiahsm that will appear as frequently as MI). The whole second chapter of the report (also the longest, pp. 43-l 11) is devoted to the elaboration of ODN. Key to this new open architecture is a four-layered structure composed of (1) the bearer service (aptly compared to the waist section of an hourglass. Above the waist are the other three
420
Reviews
layers, and below it the network technology substrate, a term created by the Committee to refer to all kinds of physical and communication links and switches.); (2) the transport layer, which is roughly equivalent to the Internet’s TCP layer; (3) the middleware (another new term used by the Committee to describe such functions as security, authentication, name service, accounting, directory service, privacy protection, etc.; and (4) the applications layer, where email, telnet, fax, www, etc. take place. If this chapter of the report concentrates on the technical aspect of the Committee’s vision, the following chapters address equally important, aspects. Research, education and libraries have been the major driving forces as well as the chief beneficiaries of Internet technologies. What roles will they play beyond Internet? What new and more powerful applications can be developed for research? For education (higher, K-12, adult)? Libraries are involved in developing digital/virtual libraries, in support for research and education, especially distance education, in establishing electronic publication standards. These and many other related issues are discussed in Chapter Three. Chapter Five covers issues related to funding and financial support and benefits, which, needless to say, is one of the crucial issues for the current maintenance and future development of NII. The last chapter, Chapter Six discusses the vital roles the federal government should and can play in providing guidance, in balancing diverse interests and in exerting influence, to realize the vision of a national information infrastructure that is based on and beyond Internet. If your purpose is to keep up-to-date with the general direction of NII, you should read the introductory chapter, which provides a summary of the whole report and lists all the major recommendations which are repeated within context throughout the chapters that follow. If you are interested in the more abstract issues related to NII, Chapter Four is where the Committee presents an excellent analysis of such important issues as equity, affordability, ubiquity, privacy, information flow, intellectual property protection, first amendment issues, and ethics. Inserted throughout the chapters are boxed passages that introduce independent but related topics that expand the issues currently under discussion. The report ends with six appendixes and an index. It is worth noting that Appendix E touches upon the international issues, which, though brief, precedes GII (Global Information Infrastructure) initiative proposed at The G7 Ministerial Conference: Information Society, held in Brussels, February 1995. Overall, the report is pragmatic, analytic, and rational. It does not attempt to hide or equivocate on issues. Balanced, based on serious studies of the past and present, the report nonetheless presents a clear vision for the future. It is highly loaded; every paragraph counts. We may not agree with all the arguments or recommendations the Committee makes, many of which require further study and elaboration, but we can’t afford to ignore them.
419
REFERENCES Crawford, Walt & Gorman, Michael (1995). Future libraries: Dreams, madness & reality. Chicago, IL: American Library Association. Parker, Marilyn M., & Benson, Robert J. (1988). Information economics: Linking business perfrmance to information technology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
NRENAISSANCE Committee, National Research Council. Reufizing fhe Information Future: The Internei and Beyond. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1994.301 pp. $24.95 (ISBN: o-309-05044-8). Reviewed by Jian Liu, Assistant Reference Librarian, Reference Department, Indiana University Libraries, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 47405
420
Reviews
layers, and below it the network technology substrate, a term created by the Committee to refer to all kinds of physical and communication links and switches.); (2) the transport layer, which is roughly equivalent to the Internet’s TCP layer; (3) the middleware (another new term used by the Committee to describe such functions as security, authentication, name service, accounting, directory service, privacy protection, etc.; and (4) the applications layer, where email, telnet, fax, www, etc. take place. If this chapter of the report concentrates on the technical aspect of the Committee’s vision, the following chapters address equally important, aspects. Research, education and libraries have been the major driving forces as well as the chief beneficiaries of Internet technologies. What roles will they play beyond Internet? What new and more powerful applications can be developed for research? For education (higher, K-12, adult)? Libraries are involved in developing digital/virtual libraries, in support for research and education, especially distance education, in establishing electronic publication standards. These and many other related issues are discussed in Chapter Three. Chapter Five covers issues related to funding and financial support and benefits, which, needless to say, is one of the crucial issues for the current maintenance and future development of NII. The last chapter, Chapter Six discusses the vital roles the federal government should and can play in providing guidance, in balancing diverse interests and in exerting influence, to realize the vision of a national information infrastructure that is based on and beyond Internet. If your purpose is to keep up-to-date with the general direction of NII, you should read the introductory chapter, which provides a summary of the whole report and lists all the major recommendations which are repeated within context throughout the chapters that follow. If you are interested in the more abstract issues related to NII, Chapter Four is where the Committee presents an excellent analysis of such important issues as equity, affordability, ubiquity, privacy, information flow, intellectual property protection, first amendment issues, and ethics. Inserted throughout the chapters are boxed passages that introduce independent but related topics that expand the issues currently under discussion. The report ends with six appendixes and an index. It is worth noting that Appendix E touches upon the international issues, which, though brief, precedes GII (Global Information Infrastructure) initiative proposed at The G7 Ministerial Conference: Information Society, held in Brussels, February 1995. Overall, the report is pragmatic, analytic, and rational. It does not attempt to hide or equivocate on issues. Balanced, based on serious studies of the past and present, the report nonetheless presents a clear vision for the future. It is highly loaded; every paragraph counts. We may not agree with all the arguments or recommendations the Committee makes, many of which require further study and elaboration, but we can’t afford to ignore them.