Blueprint For the Information Superhighway

EXECUTIVE MEMO

Blueprint For the Information Superhighway

f the federal government is to successfully direct the construction of the Information Superhighway, it will need a blueprint. In February, the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIIAC) left one in the President's toolbox.

President Clinton created the NIIAC by Executive Order in September 1993. The council, composed of 36 leaders from business and labor, state and local governments, public interest groups, education organizations and the technology world was chaired by Delano Lewis, president and chief executive officer of National Public Radio, and Edward R. McCracken, chairman and chief executive officer of Silicon Graphics Computer Systems.

The executive order gave the council two years to devise a strategy for promoting the development of the National Information Infrastructure, a cat's cradle of communications networks the Administration wants businesses to knit together to provide Americans with nearly instant access to information. Before the council dissolved itself on Feb. 13, it presented the Clinton Administration with its recommendations in a report called A Nation of Opportunity. The report urges the country to:

• Ensure information technology advances the United States' constitutional precepts, diverse cultural values and sense of equity.

• Make the superhighway accessible to all Americans, regardless of income, education level or place of residence.

• Ensure the superhighway results in a stronger sense of community at both the local and national levels.

• Have Americans take responsibility for building the superhighway.

• Maintain its leadership in developing services and products for the superhighway.

The council advocates a limited role for the federal government in constructing the highway. For example, with respect to issues like ensuring universal access to the superhighway, agencies should act only "when commercial and competitive forces are failing to achieve the goals," the council says.

More information about the NIIAC's recommendations can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.benton.org/ or through Highway 1, a nonprofit resource center that counsels government leaders on communications technology, at 202-628-3900.