Describes the Pan-Pacific Education and Communication Experiments by Satellite (PEACESAT), a public service telecommunication program developed to facilitate the use of telecommunications and information technologies. Highlights include the historical development; digital capabilities; cooperation and collaboration with users, government, and…

Reviews current federal legislation that concerns the National Information Infrastructure. Highlights include telecommunications deregulation; activities of cable and telecommunication industries, including Regional Bell Operating Companies; allowing telephone companies to provide video services; plans of the Clinton administration; and concerns…

Describes a vision of the NREN (National Research and Education Network) as a set of public interest user organizations existing within the framework of the larger National Information Infrastructure to provide public information services that are the responsibility of government. The role of the private commercial sector is also discussed.…

This document contains transcriptions of testimony and prepared statements on national technology policy with a focus on President Clinton and Vice President Gore's initiatives to support the development of a national information infrastructure. On the first day of the hearing testimony was received from Edward H. Salmon, Chairman, New Jersey…

Discussion of the National Information Infrastructure and changes in telecommunications highlights the roles of the Clinton administration and the Department of Commerce; congressional activity, including regulatory committees; state regulations concerning local exchange carriers and cable television companies; the private sector; and the role of…

Describes the Canadian Database Promotion Initiative (CDPI), which was created to develop projects that link telecommunications with information technologies for a variety of business and educational organizations. Topics discussed include computer-mediated communications; networks for businesses, research organizations, and universities; and the…

This report describes the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) initiative of the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology. This program is supportive of and coordinated with the National Information Infrastructure Initiative. Now halfway through its 5-year effort, the HPCC program counts among its…

Discusses the addition of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration database to the National Science Foundation's NSFnet data communication network. Outlines the history of databases in the United States and enumerates proposed upgrades from a new Office of Science and Technology policy report. (TW)

This hearing was held to explore the use of technology in education, and how the government can better encourage its use across the country. It is hoped that hearings of this nature will draw attention to the nation's deficiencies in telecommunications and technologies in schools, and that the country will be able to fill those gaps in the near…

Examines various approaches to establishing nationally available videotext systems, in which text and graphics are offered to a mass audience on television screens with keypad converters. Asserts that a successful approach creates a hybrid between the competitive approach found in the United States and a state-encouraged system. (MM)

An interconnection of computer networks, telecommunications services, and applications, the National Information Infrastructure (NII) can open up new vistas and profoundly change much of American life. This report explores some of the opportunities and obstacles to the use of the NII by people and organizations. The goal is to express how…

The objectives of this Congressional hearing on high definition information systems were: (1) to receive testimony on standards for systems that permit interoperability between the computer, communications, and broadcasting industries; (2) to examine the implications of the Grand Alliance, an agreement by high definition television (HDTV)…

New policies are needed for the U.S. telecommunications industry. The continuation of current policies--which emphasize customer and convenience services to the near exclusion of developing domestically produced equipment and improving infrastructure--will constrain the domestic growth of U.S. corporations and make it difficult for smaller…

In 1991 the Federal Government initiated the multiagency High Performance Computing and Communications program (HPCC) to further the development of U.S. supercomputer technology and high-speed computer network technology. This overview by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) concentrates on obstacles that might prevent the growth of the…

This article discusses two meetings which dealt with developments regarding the National Research and Education Network (NREN). In November 1990, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University held a symposium entitled "Information Infrastructure for the 1990s," whose participants represented a wide spectrum of economic,…