WORKING AND LEARNING VIA THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY*

by

Reid Goldsborough

I. REVOLUTION

You say you want a revolution? Well, here it comes. The future is now. Yesterday's
science fiction is today's science fact.

We're about to experience a revolution in communications no less dramatic than the

invention of the printing press or the widespread use of telephones, televisions, and computers.
You'll soon be using high-tech gear that will change your lifestyle, the way you do business, how
your kids are educated, and the ways you shop, meet people, and stay healthy.

In a nutshell, instead of having to go to information, information will come to you.

Like many revolutions, this one won't happen overnight. It has taken years to develop, and
it'll take more years to fully play itself out. Some changes will happen in a matter of months,
others after the year 2000. But right now, as you read this, the revolutionary fervor, the
excitement in the air, is reaching a pitch.

Those at the very highest levels of government are talking enthusiastically about it and
introducing legislation to smooth its way. Those in private industry are investing billions in new
technology--and pilot projects to test the technology--and millions more in donations to lawmakers
in Congress, pushing for legislation favorable to their interests. Corporate bigwigs are also
meeting feverishly among themselves, trying to work out mergers and joint ventures,
attempting to strengthen themselves in this new and highly competitive arena.

What is it that's causing all this commotion? It has been called many names. The most
common name today is information superhighway. Vice President Al Gore is sometimes credited
with coining the term "information superhighway" in the last decade...

Along with information superhighway, you'll hear other names, such as information
highway, infobahn, I-Way, electronic superhighway, data highway, digital highway, digital
interactive system, national information infrastructure (NII), global information infrastructure
(GII), full service network, open data network, national public network, national network, and
global network.

For the sake of brevity, and because I like its ring and connotations, I'm calling it the
infopike. Like a turnpike, it will be a high-speed highway; and it will cost you to travel on it, or at
least on most of it.

__________________
*EXCERPTED FROM: Reid Goldsborough, Straight Talk About The Information
Superhighway. (Alpha Books: Indianapolis, 1994). Chapter 1-4, pp. 1-77.

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 But "infopike," like "information superhighway," is really just a shorthand term for many
different networks that will be used for the delivery of information, communications, and
entertainment. Once the kinks get worked out, it's expected--or at least hoped--that most of
these networks will connect with one another, leading to a seamless national, or international,
communications matrix.

Defining Terms

What is the infopike? One definition might be: A vehicle for the delivery over distance
of instantaneous interactive multimedia for the masses. Let's look at these elements one at a
time.

The primary delivery vehicle will be a combination of coaxial and fiber-optic cable; to a
lesser extent, satellite, microwave, radio, and copper-wire transmission technologies will also be
used. Both coaxial and fiber-optic cable are "broadband" data pipelines. Compared to common
copper-wire telephone lines and other "narrowband" delivery mechanisms, they can carry huge
amounts of data--they have high "bandwidth." Coaxial cable is the delivery mechanism for
cable TV today. Fiber-optic cable consists of thin glass strands that transmit light waves--it's
more expensive than co-ax, but it has a much greater bandwidth.

The infopike will make possible the instantaneous delivery of data. Just as you can click
on your TV today to watch a soap or sitcom, you'll be able to connect to the infopike for
immediate satisfaction. A trip to the local video store, and maybe even the library, will become
a thing of the past.

What you see will be interactive, meaning that--unlike with TV today--you'll be able to
choose what you want to see, when you want to see it. Want to watch the movie Pretty Woman?
It'll be there for you. Want to find information about economic development in Peru for a
work or school project? You'll be able to find it quickly. Depending on how you're connected,
you'll be able to transmit as well as receive--send a video of the spouse and the kids to your
sister on the West Coast, instantly.

The offerings of the infopike will be multimedia in nature--the infopike will deliver
text, data, pictures, animations, music, voices, and video. As with TV, you'll receive
entertainment-oriented video and sound. As with computer on line systems, you'll receive
information-oriented text and pictures.

Info Appliances

How will you obtain this information and entertainment? There are a number of
scenarios. You'll be able to tap into the infopike with a personal computer, in much the same
way you can tap into computer databases today. Only instead of just text, pictures, and data,
you'll have access to video and voice as well.

You'll also be able to access it with your TV and a special digital "set-top-box." These set-
top boxes will be similar to the converter boxes today that connect TVs with cable systems and
satellite dishes. Using a remote control, you'll click your way to personalized entertainment and
information.

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 Finally, new hybrid devices will emerge, combining features of both PCs and TVs. These
devices--perhaps called PCTVs or teleputers--may be TVs with embedded computer intelligence.
They may look like PCs with TV-like controls. Or they may look like something out of science
fiction.

You could have a large, thin screen hanging from your wall, like a small movie screen, on
which you'd watch the news or "telecommunicate" with others. You may be able to buy book-
sized devices, similar to today's notebook computers, that you could easily carry with you. You
might wear a computerized device on your wrist, a la Dick Tracy, through which you'd talk to
others and obtain information from computer databanks.

The Great Divide

When the movers and shakers talk of the infopike, most of them think in terms of one of
two visions. The first is a cerebral highway, where information and communications are the
key commodities transferred. The second is an entertainment highway--sometimes
disparagingly referred to as a "couch-potato highway"--where movies, TV shows, interactive
games, and home-shopping offerings are the more prevalent content.

The information-based vision of the infopike has grown out of this country's experiences
with computer online services and especially the Internet. This network of networks, originally
created to help government officials and academic researchers stay in touch with one another,
is now open to all, and it has been growing at an astonishing clip. By connecting a personal
computer to the Internet, you can tap into innumerable storehouses of information--
including news, research papers, books, business statistics, government reports, and health
care tips--usually at low cost.

The data available through the Internet is largely text-based, though graphics are
becoming more prevalent. Those who see the infopike as an extension of the Internet see
additional types of information being made available to personal computer users--voice, music,
and full-motion video.

In contrast, those who favor the entertainment-based vision see the infopike as an
extension of cable TV. Only instead of waiting or movies or programs to come on, you'd be able
to watch just about anything you wanted, any time you wished. The type of programming
available would also expand to include interactive fare--movies where you could choose the
outcome and game shows where you could be a participant. Of course, you'd have to pay for
these services--called video-on demand--and this has the potential of earning some companies
a lot of money.

The entertainment vision is favored by those who would profit from it--cable TV
companies and telephone companies, both of whom will be building the broadband pipelines and
delivering the multimedia content into homes over the coming years. The information vision, on
the other hand, is favored by the computer industry and particularly by the online community,
which view the cable TV and telephone companies as threats to the low-cost sharing of
information that exists today.

Reality Check

Not everybody is enamored with the idea of the infopike. The information superhighway,
critics say, is a bad metaphor for a boondoggle that big business wants to build with your tax
dollars. If it's ever finished, you'll pay big bucks for ten times more channels featuring reruns of
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The Lucy Show. If it's ever finished. Critics contend the technology won't be ready for prime time
for years to come.

What's more, instead of solving problems, critics say, the infopike will just lead to new
ones. The potential problems include a widening gap between society's information-rich and
information-poor, heightened threats to personal privacy, increased alienation as people
meet in person less frequently, loss of a sense of community and shared values brought on
by individualized newspapers and news shows, the increasing difficulty for teenagers
mesmerized by the new technology to develop social skills and manage in the real world, and
chronic "infoglut" brought on by a never-ending cacophony of information noise.

Sounds pretty ominous. But that's not all, say the naysayers. Just as the exodus to
the suburbs and decline of cities wasn't foreseen during the building of the interstate highway
system, the building of the infopike will lead to problems we can't predict today.

The Neo-Luddite Perspective

Much of this criticism is valuable. It places warning signs in front of us, which (hopefully)
will help us minimize potholes and fill in those that form before they become sink holes. But
much criticism of the infopike comes from a natural inclination to resist change, and a fear of
technology.

Throughout history, every major technological innovation has been met with fierce
resistance and sharp criticism. The printing press will do the devil's work, said the resisters a
half millennium ago. Locomotives will kill all our livestock, said those who opposed the spread
of trains last century. We shouldn't explore outer space until we get our own house in order,
said the negativists this century.

The criticism also comes in part from ignorance. Most people have scant knowledge of
what the infopike is all about. According to a recent Harris poll, fewer than 17 percent of
Americans said they understood the concept of the information superhighway "very well" or
"quite well." The rest understood it "not very well" or "not at all well," or they had no idea what it
was.

The infopike does pose risks. And it's no panacea for all of society's ills. But just as
there will be unforeseen problems, there will be unforeseen rewards...

II. BE HERE NOW

Imagine this: You get up in the morning, but you don't inhale a cup of coffee to gird
yourself for battle with others racing to work in their pollution-belching automobiles. Instead, you
use what would have been your commuting time to eat a healthy breakfast before settling in at the
computer workstation in your home office.

There, you first look to see if you've received any messages since you last checked
yesterday evening. There's no need to type anything. You just say to your computer, "Check
mail." On the screen you see that you've got three e-mail messages, one voice-mail message,
and two videomail messages.

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 You notice from its header that one of the e-mail messages is from that pesky salesperson
who's been trying to sell you one of those new wristwatch communicators. You don't feel the
technology is mature enough yet, and you've decided to hold off for another year or so before
seriously considering buying one. So you simply ignore the salesperson's message--she'll
find enough early adapters willing to take a chance on the latest and greatest gizmos.

One of the videomail messages is from your facilitator. In an earlier day she would have
been called your supervisor. But the widespread use of telecommunications technology has
been flattening corporate hierarchies across the country; more and more people are working
with one another, not for one another. Your company, acknowledging the trend, changed job
titles and descriptions a couple of years ago.

Your facilitator wishes you a good morning before filling you in on today's plans. You
watch her on your computer monitor, and listen through the computer's speakers. The
marketing department is having a videoconference at 10:00 to discuss plans for the third
quarter. She asks you to be ready with the virtual-reality commercial you've been working on
to promote the company's new line of industrial detergents.

You feel the commercial is ready to be presented, but you want to double-check some
facts first. You use your computer to call into a commercial database and quickly find what you
need. Not that you need to hurry (as you would have had to in the old days when costs were
sky-high). With the popularity of the infopike, database publishers have more customers
and more competitors, so they've dropped prices dramatically.

At 10:00, you flick on your world screen--a large flat-panel display that's mounted on your
office wall. It lets you see each of the people participating in the videoconference
simultaneously, even though you're all in separate locations. So it's almost like you're all in the
same room together.

When it's time for you to present your virtual-reality commercial, you simply say to your
computer, "Present commercial GI," and transfer it over the fiber-optic cables connecting you
and your colleagues. You took a few seconds earlier to set up a "voice macro" that included all
the specific instructions the computer needs to retrieve the commercial from its optical
storage disk.

Your computer sends out the commercial, encrypting it automatically, just in case one
of your company's competitors is snooping around.

This scenario is no pie-in-the-sky fantasy. Over the coming years, it's likely you'll be using
technology like this to make yourself more productive and your job more rewarding. In fact,
some of these infopike tools are available in rudimentary versions right now.

The infopike will start in the workplace. When people talk about the infopike, the
prospect of having access to 500 television channels and movies on demand may create the
most initial excitement. But many infopike technologies will reach business people first, not
consumers. More than half of the U.S. work force now has access to personal computers,
and this percentage continues to rise...

... Increased business efficiency is the top reason for constructing the infopike,
according to a survey by the American Electronics Association of 3,000 of its members.
Not surprisingly, the top priority for these business people is business competitiveness--and
the resulting job creation.

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 But there's a lot of uncertainty out there. As many as 52 percent of small business
people don't even understand the concept of the infopike and have no idea how it will affect
their businesses, according to a survey by IBM. But the people who do understand it expect to
profit from it.

According to the survey, 70 percent expect to earn greater profits from the infopike, and
55 percent expect to use it to cut costs. These small business people anticipate using the
infopike to sell products and services, exchange information with customers and vendors,
and bid on projects.

The infopike will also benefit employees in many ways, if all goes as planned. You'll be
able to "telecommute" to work from the comfort of your home. Through your personal
computer, you'll attend "videoconferences" with colleagues across town and across the country.
You may not work in a completely paperless office, but you'll use a lot less paper, and trees,
than you do now.

But what about security? Just how safe will it be to transfer proprietary company
information over the infopike? And what will be lost if our primary means of business
communications becomes images and sounds from a computer?

No More Commuting Blues

Let's face it: Commuting is for the birds. Our feathered friends may enjoy traveling, but
many of us find the work of getting to work tiring, aggravating, and wasteful. Wouldn't it be
great if you could work from home, communicating and collaborating with co-workers just as
conveniently as you can in the office?

As more and more companies are finding out, you can. Telecommuting--working
from home or elsewhere away from the office and using computers, faxes, and phones to
keep in touch with coworkers--is a bona fide trend.

At least 4.5 million people in the United States telecommuted at least part-time last
year, a 15 percent increase from a year before, according to a report from BIS Strategic
Decisions. The market-research company predicts that more than 7 million of us--about 5.5
percent of the work force--will be telecommuting by the end of 1996.

In the years ahead, the infopike will accelerate the telecommuting trend. By
increasing the speed with which we can send information, it will let us more easily send full-
motion video and sound as well as text, leading to better-quality communication.

It's quite likely that for many of us, the office of today will be replaced by the "virtual
office" of tomorrow. We'll connect with one another not by stopping by each others' offices or
meeting in the conference room; instead, we'll use personal computers and high-bandwidth
cable to meet over the infopike.

John Sculley, former Chair and CEO of Apple Computer (who's currently active as an
infopike consultant), sums up this new attitude: "Just like the Interstate highway system moved
people out of the cities and into the suburbs, we're already starting to see people saying, 'I want to
work where I live, not have to live where I work.'"

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Pluses And Minuses Of Telecommuting

Telecommuting has numerous benefits, and some potential pitfalls. Telecommuting

cuts commuter driving time and consequent air pollution and fuel consumption. It reduces
office space requirements and expenses. You can dress in grungy jeans and a T-shirt, and
more easily work flexible hours. You have more control over your professional life. And, more
often than not, you're a more productive and satisfied worker.

A number of studies bear this out. According to one study by the U.S. Agriculture
Department, the quantity and quality of the work of department employees who work at home
at least several days each week was higher on average than employees who worked entirely
in the office. According to another study of California state employees, two-thirds of managers
felt their telecommuting employees were more effective than those who didn't telecommute.

These productivity studies should be taken with a grain of salt, however. Employees
who do work at home are generally highly motivated, which is one reason supervisors approve
their doing so in the first place.

What's more, telecommuting does have its downside. Despite their being able to
electronically connect with other employees, many telecommuters miss the office camaraderie--
the water-cooler chitchat and informal networking. Some also find that the distinction
between work time and personal time becomes blurred, and they wind up working more hours
than if they had stayed in the office.

----

Changing Mindsets

But the real issue with telecommuting isn't technology--it's culture. For telecommuting to be
more widely adopted, companies have to change their policies, procedures, and mindsets.
With advanced telecommunications, out of sight no longer means out of mind. Being at your
desk doesn't necessarily mean you're working, and being at home doesn't necessarily mean
you're on the way to the golf course.

Seeing Is Believing

Telecommuting lets you work from home, but it can leave you feeling isolated. Sure, you
can type messages on your computer screen and e-mail it to others. But it's not like being
there. If only you could see.

Videoconferencing lets you do just that. For several years, large corporations have used
room-based videoconferencing setups to save travel time and expenses. Why hop on a plane
when you can fly electronically?

Here's how it works: People gather in a conference room equipped with a camera and
wall-mounted screen and "meet" with colleagues or clients in a similarly equipped room
hundreds or even thousands of miles away. But such systems can cost hundreds of thousands
of dollars. And they generally don't let you transfer work, just TV-like images of yourself.

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 A new breed of systems is coming into existence that personalize videoconferencing
and make it more affordable. These "desktop videoconferencing" systems usually include a tiny
video camera that perches on top of your computer's monitor, and a speakerphone. You can
talk with other people, and see them, on your computer's monitor.

At the same time, you have the option of using your computer to collaborate on your
projects. Systems are available for about $1,000 to $6,000 per person.

The technology is still rudimentary, however, and the products aren't as polished as
they could be. If used over regular phone lines, the video can be choppy, like that of a turn-
of-the-century kinetoscope. If you're connected over a local area network (LAN) or wide area
network (WAN), there's a delay between the time and image is sent and the time it is
received--from half a second to over a second. So if you tell what you think is a really funny
joke, the person you're talking to may appear deadpan for what seems like forever.

Still, the possibilities are intriguing. Some systems permit "multipoint" connections so
you can view more than one person on your computer screen--the video equivalent of a
conference phone call. Manufacturers are creating standards to let desktop systems work with
room-size systems. But most systems can only "talk" to other systems built by the same
manufacturer.

Because videoconferencing is still a maturing technology, many business people are

taking a wait-and-see attitude. A survey by Dataquest found that 64 percent of the business
people it polled currently have little interest in videoconferencing. The survey did project that
demand for desktop videoconferencing will pick up in the future...

The potential benefits are alluring. The California Department of Transportation, one of
six California agencies that have begun to implement videoconferencing, estimates that it will
save $1 million annually in travel expenses, travel time, and increased productivity.

Desktop videoconferencing will only improve in quality as it comes down in price. As the
infopike increases the prevalence of high-speed, high-bandwidth cable, it will improve the quality
of the images transferred through desktop videoconferencing systems. And better quality will
bring higher market acceptance and lower prices.

Toward A Paperless Office

The "paperless office" as a concept has been touted for years. It may never arrive--
paper is too convenient. It's highly portable, inexpensive, familiar, and recyclable. But
exchanging information on paper is not always the most efficient way to go, and certain types of
information are better suited for other media.

As it opens up communications channels, the infopike should decrease the need for
paper in offices over the coming years. Already, many larger businesses are implementing
electronic commerce--using computers and telecommunications to conduct business--and
benefiting from it.

Wal-Mart Stores has invested heavily in electronic commerce, which has helped its sales
grow explosively, propelling it to number one in the U.S. retail business, according to the book
The Virtual Corporation, by William H. Davidow and Michael S. Malone. Wal-Mart spent a
whopping $500 million dollars on computer and satellite communications networks and "quick
response" equipment that links cash registers to distribution centers and headquarters.

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 Despite this huge expense, Wal-Mart saved money in the long run, and it has passed on
these savings to customers in the form of low prices. Among other things, it uses computerized
systems to track every sale to see what's selling and what's not. This allows Wal-Mart to keep
its stores well stocked, and maintain tight control over inventory expenses. Individual stores
also use the tracking systems to order directly from suppliers, which reduced inventory
restocking time to 36 hours--from an industry average of six weeks.

General Motors has also put electronic commerce to good use... At its Saturn plant in
Spring Hill, Tennessee, GM developed an online manufacturing database that's accessible to
employees as well as suppliers. Instead of waiting for GM to send purchase orders, the
supplier logs into the computer database and consults GM's production schedule. The
supplier ships the needed parts, then sends GM an e-mail message verifying the shipment.

When the parts arrive, one of GM's receiving clerks scans the bar code printed on it. By
reading this information, the computer is able to tell the clerk exactly where the parts should go.
The computer then initiates payment to the supplier.

In addition to reducing paper requirements, electronic commerce has many other

potential benefits. These include.

o Reduced errors, time, and overhead costs by eliminating the need to re-enter data.

o Reduced time to complete business transactions, particularly from delivery to payment.

o Reduced inventories, and the related reduction of the risk of obsolete inventories, as the
demand for goods and services are linked electronically through "just-in-time" inventory and
integrated manufacturing techniques.

o Reduced costs to buyers resulting from increased competition in procurement, as more

suppliers are able to compete in an electronically open marketplace.

o Reduced costs to suppliers as they obtain electronic access to online databases of bid
opportunities, online facilities for submitting bids, and online review of awards.

o Creation of new markets through the capability of reaching potential customers easily and
cheaply.

o Easier entry into new markets, especially geographically remote markets, as the playing field
becomes more level between companies of different size and location.

Still, the move toward a paperless office won't be an easy one. How do you convert all of
your existing paper documents into digital format? According to a Dataquest survey, many
business people are wary of the scanning and computer storage costs involved; they may balk
at the need to keep abreast of new technology. The information systems managers surveyed are
also worried about how easy it will be to access the digitized information.

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 One recent move will make the transition to a less-paper (rather than paper-less) office
easier. The National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) has approved a standard for
digital signatures--which should encourage wider acceptance of digital documents as legal
and "real." The NIST digital signature standard, or DSS, uses encryption to guarantee that
signatures are authentic. It should help open up the infopike to banks, credit card companies,
stock and bond brokerages, and other businesses that require legally valid signatures.

Something Gained...

The infopike will reach more and more of us over the coming years, enabling us to work
from home, stay in touch, gather information, and conduct business more efficiently than
ever before.

But won't something be lost when our means of contact becomes a TV screen and
speaker? How do you shake a colleague's hand over a broadband cable connection?

Throughout the millennia, every gain has brought a loss. The agricultural revolution
ended our free-roaming ways and leisurely lifestyles. The urban revolution brought on
overcrowding and sanitation problems. The scientific revolution lead to existential insecurity, the
questioning of our place in the universe. The industrial revolution despoiled the earth and
blackened our homes and lungs. And the information revolution, by bringing us closer
electronically, may push us farther apart physically and emotionally--if we let it.

III. REACH OUT, REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE

The infopike promises to open up new channels of communication and new sources
of information. It will change our jobs and create new jobs--though it will likely do away with the
jobs of many who fail to adjust.

When you travel, you'll have quick access to information through "personal
communicators"--advanced versions of today's personal digital assistants. If you're looking for
work, you'll have more opportunities to find the right job for you. You'll be able to find any
information more quickly and less expensively.

There are risks involved any time you traverse new territory, but the potential rewards
are enormous.

Get Smart!

Electronic commerce and paperless offices may be efficient, but personal communicators
are cool. These devices, also called personal digital assistants (PDAs), will keep you connected,
no matter where you are, over the infopike. Images come to mind of Maxwell Smart's shoe-
phone--it's there for you, whenever you need it. And it will likely happen... someday.

The Orbitor

Plans are in the works to create more sophisticated versions of these personal
communicators. Canada's Bell-Northern Research is working on a product called the Orbitor, a
handheld device that will let you make cellular phone calls by simply speaking the name of

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the person you want to reach. The unit will recognize the name, retrieve the person's phone
number from its database, and dial the number.

If all goes as planned, you'll also be able to choose who can get through to you directly,
and who can only leave messages. An earpiece will let you listen to your messages privately if
you wish.

When responding to messages, you'll have the option of choosing from a selection of
prepared responses, such as "Can't make it" or "I'll be there" for invitations to meetings. The
Orbitor will come with a pen-like device for writing messages, and a small screen for displaying
them.

Researchers working on the Orbitor compare it to the personal communicators used by

crew members on the TV series Star Trek, according to an article in Bell-Northern's corporate
magazine Telesis. Like those devices, it will keep you in touch anywhere, anytime.

----

Voice technology promises to open up computers, and infopike, to more people. It's
particularly valuable to people whose jobs require them to use their hands--assembly-line
workers, doctors, post-office employees, Wall Street brokers, and so on. It's also useful to
people who suffer from repetitive-motion injuries such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and can no
longer operate a keyboard.

What's more, voice technology will be a boon to anyone who can't type, hates to type, or
would simply rather speak than type. And this is just about everybody. In the future, you'll be
able to direct a combination personal computer/television set to provide you with information over
the infopike (and all kinds of other services) simply by talking to it.

Keeping Connected

Let's stay in touch. Really.

People are sometimes insincere when they say that, but companies need to stay in
touch with employees, customers, shareholders, and other companies to stay in business.
The infopike will make it easier for companies to do just this, by improving communications
channels.

----

The most common electronic linkage today is electronic mail (e-mail) systems. With e-mail,
you no longer have to find people in their offices--and play phone-tag when you don't--or
exchange paper-based memos. Instead, you use a computer to send and receive messages
inside the building--over a local area network (LAN)--or outside the building, over a wide area
network (WAN). More and more businesses are using the Internet for e-mail. Even more will use
the infopike.

How does e-mail affect the quality of communication? You might be surprised.

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 On the positive side, computer-mediated communication (CMC) lets more people chip in
with their opinions compared to face-to-face talk. One or two people are less likely to dominate
the discussion, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, who've studied e-
mail and other forms of CMC more extensively than anyone else.

E-mail also opens up communication where none may have existed before. Rank-and-
file workers, for instance, are able to talk directly to top executives. While online, your ranking in
the corporate hierarchy means less than the quality of your ideas. As a result, discussions
over computer networks generate more proposals for action.

Other researchers have found that CMC brings out people who are otherwise shy and
quiet. People who regard themselves as physically unattractive feel more lively and confident.
Those who have small statures or soft voices find they no longer have to struggle to be taken
seriously at meetings.

But the open, free-ranging nature of CMC has a dark side. People communicating with
computers "tend to express extreme opinions and vent anger more openly," say researchers
Lee Sproull and Sara Kiesler in an article for Scientific American. The reason: Without the
face-to-face contact, people ignore their social situation and stop worrying how others will
evaluate them. They're more honest about what they think, but they devote less time and effort
to posturing and social niceties.

The same conclusions about e-mail discussions can be made about online discussions
over local bulletin board systems(BBSs), commercial online systems such as CompuServe and
PRODIGY, and the Internet. Once online, people tell it like it is--or at least the way they think it
is.

BBSs

Compared to other forms of communication--particularly the postal service ("snail mail") and
the plain old telephone system (POTS")--electronic communication is fast and efficient. This is
why many businesses have set up their own BBSs to stay in contact with customers and clients.

BBSs were popularized by hobbyists, but roughly 70 percent of new BBSs today are being
set up by businesses, according to Online Access magazine. A BBS allows customers or clients
to log on, check the status of any orders they've placed, and ask questions about a product
or service they've purchased. It can provide businesses with an efficient way to deal with
customer inquiries, and it assures customers that the company is always there when they need
it.

Some BBSs link employees at offsite locations to the company's local area network
(LAN)... Other company BBSs are designed as sales mechanisms--for real estate offices
offering listings, for instance, or for natural gas carriers conducting auctions. Still other BBSs
are in business to provide publicity. Both the U.S. Olympic Committee and the National Football
League have set up BBSs where members of the media can log on for the latest information.

Experts warn that establishing a business presence online is different from simply providing
an 800-number phone service. Online customers expect access to more information than
they could receive by phoning. They're also used to instant gratification--they become
frustrated when something they're able to order quickly takes week to arrive.

12
 What's more, if you make a marketing or delivery mistake, it can be costly. When users
have a bad experience, they'll share it online with others--possibly millions of others.

Pounding the Electronic Pavement

Networking is still the best way to find a job-contacting people you know and people they
know. But sometimes it pays to spread your job search net a little wider, and going online can
be an efficient way to do this. Online job hunting is largely for computer types today, but the
infopike will change this as it makes online access a possibility for more people.

"The information superhighway clearly will impact the way we do job searches, the way we
send out resumes," say John C. Malone, President and CEO of Tele-Communications Inc., a
major infopike player. "We'll see servers that have video resumes of people in certain
specialities. Similarly, employers will post help-wanted ads in a much more compelling
format for job seekers."

Even today, searching for work online has a number of advantages over using your
local newspaper's "Help Wanted" section. You can find jobs that interest you, and find them
more easily, by using "keywords." In the newspaper classifies, a public-relations job might be
listed under "Public Relations," or it might be listed under "Marketing" or "Advertising." If you
look only under "Public Relations," you might miss it. But if you search online for the keywords
"public relations," you'll find every job that includes these words in its description.

Online job searches can tip you off when a company is staffing up. While online, you
can search for openings at specific companies you'd like to work for. Just because a job
you're interested in isn't advertised doesn't mean it isn't available. According to experts, as
many as 80 percent of job openings aren't advertised.

Online job service also let you post an electronic version of your resume. Employers and
recruiter peruse online resumes looking to fill positions.

The most extensive electronic help-wanted-and-resume system is Online Career Center,

a national Internet-based service located in Indianapolis. The center is run by a nonprofit
organization supported by more than 40 major corporations. If you're looking for work, it's totally
free.

When you log on, you can browse job openings by company name, region, state, city, or
keyword. While online, you can also post an electronic version of your resume, which stays
online for 90 days. After that point, you can reenter it if you like.

If you don't have access to the Internet, you can still log on by modeming the center
directly, or you can reach it through CompuServe, America Online, Delphi, and other services. If
you don't have access to a computer, you can mail them your resume--for a fee of $10
they'll post it online for you.

If you're an employer looking to fill a position, the center also has services you can use to
your advantage. Along with posting notices about job openings, you can browse resumes by
region or state, or search for candidates by keyword. You can request that applicants reach you
by e-mail, fax, phone, or mail.

13
 The cost for employers is pretty steep, though--there's a one-time membership fee of
$3,900, and a $60 fee for annual access (starting the second year). However, if you don't plan
to use the service frequently, you can pay smaller fees to have ads placed online for you by
one of the center's "recruitment advertising agencies."

Another national Internet-based career service is available through Academe This Week.
It specializes in education positions--listing are from the journal "Chronicle of Higher Education."

There are also many local bulletin board systems (BBSs) that specialize in offering career
services. Online Opportunities is one such BBS, located in Philadelphia. If you're looking for
work, you can read local job listings and post your resume locally for free.

The BBS is networked with similar services nationwide; for a fee, you can read national
online listings and post your resume so employers and recruiters elsewhere in the country can
read it. The BBS also charges employers and recruiters to place help-wanted ads and read
online resumes.

Just the Facts, Ma'am

We live in the Information Age. We have an information economy. Information is a raw

material that more and more businesses are using (and need to use) to manufacture quality
products and offer services valued by customers.

The infopike will make gathering this information--about your industry, the competition,
foreign markets, and other vital business matters--considerably easier than it is today. Instead of
having to deal with cryptic computer commands, as you often do today, you'll type in commands
like "Find import requirements for New Zealand." Or you'll simply speak those words.

Even though it's not always easily accessible, an incredible amount of information is
available online today. What's out there now is a preview of what's to come.

Net Wealth

The Internet is a veritable gold mine of facts and figures. As long as you have Internet
access, you can hunt for nuggets. Many business services require additional fees, but you can
find useful information at a number of university and government sites for free.

One good place to start is MountainNet's AMI "gopher server." Gopher servers are
common on the Internet, and many are connected to one another. You log onto one for
information, then tunnel your way through "gopherspace" to get to other gopher servers for
additional information. Tunneling is easy--you just press the number that's in front of the next
place you want to travel to.

What isn't always easy is finding just the information you need. MountainNet's AMI
gopher server makes this easier ("ami" is French for "friend"). The selections you have
available are organized according to subject matter, such as Agriculture, Education, and
Politics and Copyrights.

Under the selection Business Resources and Services, you can tunnel to places where you
can find chemistry stock closing prices. You can travel elsewhere to read or download the full
14
text of the book A Basic Guide to Exporting from the U.S. Department of Commerce. You
can access Securities and Exchange Commission filings at another side. And at still another
site you can read or download the U.S. Commerce Department's U.S. Industrial Outlook--
buying this 650-page book would cost you $34 plus postage through the mail, but it is one of
countless informational resources that are free online.

MountainNet is a commercial Internet provider based in Morgantown, West Virginia. It

offers its gopher service free as a way of promoting its commercial services, says Mike
Digman, company president. If you're a business, MountainNet can sell you services it has
developed to help manage your information online.

One of its services, called MORE Plus, lets you provide customers and would-be
customers with information--not only in the form of text, but also in the form of still pictures and
even video. These services are based on Mosaic, a free computer software program
developed by the National Center for Supercomputer Activities at the University of Illinois.

Multimedia offerings like this, which are just starting to trickle out, are a precursor of what
the infopike will make widely available. And it will make it available not only to businesses,
but also consumers, students, voters... anyone who has access.

Commercial Databases

If you don't mind paying for information, you have many more choices. It may even be good
practice. You'll probably have to pay for a good deal of the information that will become available
over the infopike. Fortunately, prices for access to commercial databases will likely be much less
than they are today.

The cost of some commercial databases is sky-high. You can wind up paying more than
$60 an hour, for instance, in online time alone just to access some databases on Dialog, a
popular information service owned by Knight-Ridder. To read some of the financial information
can cost as much as $100 for each record. This is on top of $295 startup fee and a $75 annual
charge after the first year.

Many large companies, however, find the service worth the cost--more than 80 percent of
Fortune 500 companies are Dialog subscribers.

CD-ROMs

Buying a reference book can be more efficient and economical than going back and forth to
the library all the time. Likewise, depending on the topic and how you use the information,
obtaining information on a CD-ROM can make more sense than tapping into today's
commercial databases or tomorrow's infopike.

A single CD-ROM disk can hold a staggering amount of data. Thinner than a hardback
book cover and measuring just 4.75 inches across, CD-ROMs typically hold about 650 megabytes
(MB) of data. This is the equivalent of 600,000 typewritten pages, or 500 full length novels. CD-
ROMs that use compression techniques can pack in even more.

Computer CD-ROM technology sprang from the same roots as audio CD technology, and
CD-ROM disks look much like audio CDs. Made primarily of reflective aluminum, the material
used in bulletproof glass, a CD-ROM disk is etched with a single, amazingly thin, spiral
15
track that's a staggering three miles long. This track can hold not only music and other sound,
but also text, photos, animation, and video.

Many personal computers sold today come with CD-ROM drives, or the option to buy
them. And you can buy many business-oriented CD-ROM titles to use with your CD-ROM
drive.

Out with the Old

Businesses have the resources to explore new technologies, such as online services and
CD-ROMs. But they still have to overcome institutional inertia, the resistance to change that's
common in any organization. This will be particularly true with the infopike.

The infopike will lead to great changes in the way we access and use information, and it will
lead to great changes in many of our jobs. Companies will have to take into account the need for
organizational learning as they implement new infopike technologies. The shift from old to
new technologies should be gradual, and it should be planned for. No technology, no matter
how sophisticated, is worth its cost unless it's actually used.

IV. READIN', WRITIN', AND VIRTUAL REALITY

_____________________________________________________________________________

The extension of the networks to the classrooms--first the current phone networks and
eventually the great broadband networks of the near future--will cause a profound change in
education. We'll see an explosion of outstanding educational materials to serve our
children.

Federal Communications Commission Chair Reed E. Hundt

_____________________________________________________________________________

Imagine this: The bell rings--it's 9:00 a.m., the start of another school day. You take your
seat in Ms. Claire's sixth-grade classroom, just as you do every weekday.

"Good morning, class," says Ms. Claire, "Please turn on your terminals, log onto the
EduFun server, and continue with the U.S. history module we started with yesterday. If you
finish early, feel free to explore other countries. At 10:30 we'll have a discussion about what
you've learned."

You put your headphones on and touch the screen in front of you several times, which
activates the required commands. You're back on board Apollo 11, on your way to the
moon. Varoom! You hear the rockets blasting you off into space. Touching the screen again,
you see what Earth looks like behind you.

But then it happens again--there are those listings, popping up right on the screen.
You know you can't continue your space travels without choosing one of them. So you tap the
screen to read about the Cold War.

After you finish, you first answer the multiple-choice questions. You know you won't be
able to continue until you answer them all correctly. Even though you can go back and

16
reread the text if you want, you always try to answer the questions right the first time--it's
faster that way.

Then you answer the essay questions by typing on your keyboard. These questions are
harder--you really have to think! Later Ms. Claire will read and grade what you've written.

That afternoon during study hour, you decide to log onto the sixth-grade section of
KidForum to see if anyone has left any interesting messages. There's one from a Russian guy
who wants to practice his English. You decide to ask him to talk to his parents about what it was
like during the Cold War. Hey, maybe you and he can work on a history project together!

At the end of the day, the whole class does an interactive with Senator Margolis on the
world screen, a large TV-like monitor in the front of the class. She's a U.S. senator from your
state, who earlier recorded answers to commonly asked questions about U.S. history for
classroom use. Your dad said it'll help her get re-elected. It's your turn today to ask a
question, so you pick one about the Cold War.

In the evening, as part of your homework assignment, you log onto the National Library
and read through some more stuff about the Cold War. There's something about the Bay of
Pigs. What a funny name! You decide to check it out.

This scenario is pure science fiction--not! Infopike technologies like these are already
under development or in existence. Those that do exist, however, are either not widely
available or fairly elementary. Still, they promise to dramatically change the way kids
learn. And they have the potential to dramatically raise the level of educational
achievement in this country.

In the coming years, if all goes as planned, textbooks and chalkboards will be replaced, or
at least be supplemented, by computer monitors and keyboards. Students of all ages will
become active participants in the learning process, rather than mere recipients. They'll learn
not only from reading and listening, but also from watching and even feeling, using more of
their sense to keep the learning experience stimulating.

The infopike will break down the school walls that currently act as barriers to
learning and socialization. Students will have easy access to the world beyond the
classroom. They'll work with other students from across the country--and even around the
world--collaborating on homework assignments and school projects, learning far more about
faraway lands and cultures than they could from any textbook.

Need additional information? Students will be able to tap into multimedia electronic libraries
containing text, pictures, speeches, video, music, and simulations.

But many challenges are ahead. The infrastructure--the cable and other electronic links--
will have to be built and paid for. Schools will have to be properly equipped--all schools, not just
the ones in wealthy districts. And teachers will have to learn to use the new technology at least
as well as the students.

Sights and Sounds

Text is boring. You're reading this sentence, and you're ingesting whatever information it
includes. But reading takes some effort, and words alone can effectively communicate only so
much information.

17
 Graphics--drawings, photographs, diagrams, charts, tables, and so on--can enrich the
information stream. A picture may not always be worth a thousand words, but it can
communicate more quickly than pages of text.

Moving pictures--video--more closely approximate our visual experience of the world than
text and graphics. Video with the inclusion of sound is captivating, as any teenage fan of MTV--
or any film buff--can attest.

But text is the best medium for communicating detailed information, and still pictures are
often better teaching tools than moving ones. Combining text and still pictures with video and
sound--multimedia--can be the best of all information worlds.

Multimedia can be a great teaching aid because it can make learning fun. "There's no
reason in the world for education not to be fun," says Richard C. Notebaert, Chairman and
CEO of Ameritech. His company has organized an educational pilot project in which students
use video-on-demand to help them with their homework.

Ameritech's project, called ThinkLink, lets 125 fifth graders (in two schools in Warren,
Michigan) use fiber optics to connect their home televisions directly to their schools. Students
can view programs on subjects like reading, social studies, math, and science, which are
selected by their teachers to complement the day-to-day curriculum.

The system isn't much different from watching educational programs on public television.
But self-paced computerized learning programs are in the works.

Says Notebaert: "When we give students computers and give them the opportunity to
interactive, you should see the changes. It's exciting. Learning is fun. The problem with
out educational environment right now is that it's not a fun environment. But it could be,
using software, technology, as a catalyst."

Encyclopedias

The fun factor is the reason video games are ten times more popular than educational
software. But as the quality of multimedia educational software improves, this "fun gap" will
narrow. One category of educational multimedia software that's improved dramatically in
quality lately is CD-ROM based encyclopedias.

These reference works include not only the text and pictures of traditional paper-based
encyclopedias, but also sound bites, instructional animation, and video sequences. An
otherwise dry subject can really come alive when you can see it in action and hear about it as
well.

The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, for instance, includes all the text in the 21
volumes of the hardback Grolier's Academic American Encyclopedia --33,000 separate
articles, and 10 million words. You'll also find, on a single disk that looks just like a music CD,
more than 3,000 color and black-and-white images, from Michelangelo's "David" to Alaska's
Columbia glacier, plus over 150 video and animation sequences, and excerpts of 21 famous
speeches.

You can view, for instance, footage of Neil A. Armstrong's first step on the moon. You can
hear the best part of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. And you can both view
and hear Richard Nixon's farewell speech when he resigned from the Presidency.

18
 As with many other maturing technologies, however, the technical quality is lacking. The
video occupies just a small part of the screen, and it can be jerky. But you still get the picture.
Other good CD-ROM encyclopedias are Microsoft's Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia and
Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia.

Future Enhancements

The technology can only improve, offering ever greater realism. In the coming years,
students will learn using "virtual reality" tools. Along with seeing and hearing, they'll also feel
their learning environment by wearing special "data globes" and even entire "data outfits." By
moving their hands or legs, they'll feel as though they're moving through and manipulating a
virtual environment.

Delivery options will also improve. In the near future, you and your kids will be able to call
up encyclopedias and other reference works over the infopike. Compton's NewMedia, the
developer of Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, is currently involved in a pilot project:
Viewers in Denton, Texas, will be able to access its encyclopedia (and other educational
works) over a cable-TV channel by using a simple TV remote control.

Subscribers there will also be able to access on-demand news, weather, sports, shopping,
travel information, a CD music sampler, television and movie guides, and soap opera and
horoscope updates. Tomorrow's interactivity, like today's TV fare, won't necessarily be food for
serious thought.

Used properly, however, interactive multimedia can be a boon to the learning process.
According to a Congressionally mandated review, multimedia instruction (as compared to
more conventional approaches) leads to improved achievement, time savings of 30 percent,
and cost savings of 30 to 40 percent. Experts say that interactive multimedia is particularly
valuable for building complex problem-solving capabilities and for improving writing quality.

Many multimedia CD-ROM programs, however, are more style than substance. Despite
all the bells and whistles that are possible, content is still king. Both students and teachers
need compelling applications that take advantage of the technology while not losing sight of
the educational imperative
_____________________________________________________________________________

Multimedia teaching materials let students "work at their own pace, in environments where
progress and evaluation are... nonthreatening; interest and motivation are piqued by novel
methods of presentation (graphics, color, animation), and by elements of fantasy, challenge, and
creativity inherent in the media themselves; achievement rises because the materials
themselves give rapid, frequent, and exact feedback on a student's work; thinking skills and
the ability to 'higher order' cognitive tasks also improve."

Stephen Keer, in his book Alternative Technologies as Textbooks and the Social
Imperatives of Educational Change
_____________________________________________________________________________

So Far and Yet So Near

The infopike will make it possible to learn no matter where you or your children happen to
be. Today, the best education can be had at the best schools and colleges, and getting that
education requires, you to go to those schools. Tomorrow the schools will come to you.
19
 "Distance learning" will be particularly valuable to those living in rural areas. "There's often
a lack of qualified instructors pin rural areas], and advanced courses are typically not available,"
says Rick Boucher, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia who's
introduced key legislation in Congress about the Infopike.

Today, a number of efforts point to where we may be headed tomorrow.

Students at California Polytechnic University are participating in a pilot project that

provides them with "education on demand." Using Windows-based, Macintosh, or PS/2
personal computers, they can call up full-motion video lectures, demonstrations, self-paced
tutorials, and e-mail.

These services are currently available only in classrooms. But plans are in the works to
make them available in residence halls and eventually in homes off campus. Plans are also
underway to provide "video mailboxes." Students and instructors will be able to communicate,
any time of day or night, by sending videos to one another over the network.

Students at Ohio State University are involved in a similar distance learning project.
Currently they can submit their assignments electronically from dorms and off-campus
residences, and have them returned electronically. They can also direct questions to those
instructors who participate in the network.

Ohio State's computer department is looking into ways to allow students to study
together, no matter where they are, through "virtual study groups," says Mervin Muller, the
department's chair. They're also exploring ways to let students review lectures from their
dormitories through digital video stored in university computers.

----

Still, distance learning systems have great potential. They improve both education
access and communications. A survey by Interactive Educational Systems Design concluded
that "courses for which computer-based networks were used increased student-student and
student-teacher interaction, increased student-teacher interaction with lower-performing
students, and did not decrease the traditional forms of communications used."

Opening Up The Channels Of Communications

Even if students don't have access to full-fledged distance education systems, they can still
take advantage of today's online networks as they evolve into tomorrow's infopike. Many
students--and teachers--tap into Usenet newsgroups to stay in touch. These are discussion
groups available through the Internet.

Alex L. Brown, a marketing instructor at the University of Delaware, uses a newsgroup to

help teach his marketing course. Students can log on and ask questions if they're unclear about
a concept he's explained in class. This is more convenient for students than having to go to
Brown during office hours and pose the question in person.
More importantly, it also allows other students to see the question. "If one student is
confused by my lectures, it is quite likely that others are too!" says Brown. Some students try
to answer the question themselves, while others simply read the answers posted by Brown and
by the other students.

20
 Students and teachers at the high school level and earlier also make use of newsgroups.
There's an entire category of newsgroups, called K12Net, devoted specifically to the needs of
students and teachers from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

Students and teachers use K12Net for classroom projects and foreign-language practice.
Students also exchange casual conversation with students of the same age, from their class or
from around the world. There's also an area for teachers to exchange ideas about teaching
in general, and using telecommunications for teaching in particular.

_____________________________________________________________________________

There is a wonderful opportunity to use the national information infrastructure to extend what
has been one of the more exciting developments on the Internet, namely, situation of curiosity
and an increased interest in learning and support for teaching in K-12 education. In those few
schools where access to the Internet has been made available, there has been a tremendous
influence for the good. Unmotivated students are "turning on;" teachers are networking to
share ideas and resources; collaboration among students across the world is taking place; and
new modes of learning and of seeking information are developing.

Realizing the Information Future, a white paper by the National Research Council
_____________________________________________________________________________

Commercial Online Services

Along with the Internet, students also use commercial online services to communicate and
obtain information. The Scholastic Network, available on America Online, lets students
access information resources, receive help with their studies, and participate in online
discussions.

Among other things, it provides access to the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian
Institution, the CNN NewsRoom, National Geographic Online, and selections from Scholastic's
paper publications about such subjects as current events, math, social studies, and foreign
languages.

Students can also participate in interactive forums to work on their writing and math skills
and debate social issues. For teachers, there are professional forums for getting advice from
experts and colleagues, and for downloading free educational resources.

Accessing the Scholastic Network involves extra fees above America Online's normal
connect charges. Scholastic is also planning to provide services through the Internet.

On PRODIGY, a new service called Homework Helper should be available by the time you
read this. It's an electronic library specifically for kids. One interesting aspect of it is that you
can type a question in standard English--you don't have to use the arcane expressions and
symbols of traditional database searches.

Another interesting feature is that the service responds according to the age and ability
level of the child asking the question. If a six-year-old child asks, "Who shot JFK?", the
language used in the answer will be more basic than if a 16-year-old asks the same question.

Along with various databases to provide answers to questions like this, Homework Helper
also offers more than 35 publications and news services, including TIME, Forbes, USA Today,
Los Angeles Times, Newsbytes News Network, Journal Graphics, and Reuters. Additionally,
21
thousands of digitized photographs, graphic images, and maps are online as well as over 700
major literary works, CNN television transcripts, Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia, and the
World Almanac and Book of Facts.

PRODIGY users wanting access to the service have to pay an additional fee above their
normal Prodigy Service connection charges. Infonautics, Homework Helper's developer, says
it also plans to offer the service over the Internet.

Info Surfing

If you're just looking for information, the infopike will provide many ways for students of
all ages to find it. Today, it's often difficult to find specific information online. There's no national
repository or comprehensive index to point the way.

One useful place to look on the Internet, though, is Global Network Navigator (GNN).
O'Reilly & Associates makes this service available free--the service is supported by
businesses who advertise their products and services on GNN. The service uses an Internet
tool called World Wide Web, which links related information, even if it's located on
computers in different countries.

You can find an amazing array of information through GNN--it's designed to help you
navigate the Internet's vast resources. Through GNN's Whole Internet Catalog, you can tract
down the meaning of FUBAR (F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition), look up how many gallons
there are in a barrel of petroleum (42), sniff out Argentina's literacy rate (95 percent)--and
thousands of other facts.

If you're looking for a specific book, or a book on a specific subject, you'll have a
tougher time. Some individual libraries offer online access, but they usually provide only
listings of their holdings, like what you'd find in a card catalog. You still have to go to the
library in person, or arrange for your local library to borrow the book you want from the library
where the book is held.

You can often access these online bibliographic listings through the Internet by using
"telnet," a program that enables you to log onto a distant computer using your personal computer.
Yale University has compiled a comprehensive catalog of libraries that provide these online
listings. Anybody can access this catalog through Yale's gopher server.

Access to library holdings will become easier in the future as the infopike rolls out. Work is
already underway to "digitize" the books and other reference works in libraries, which will make it
possible for you or your kids to obtain the complete text right from your personal computer.
Says U.S. Representative Rick Boucher: "Anybody with a personal computer will be able to
dial up an electronic index, identify the document they're interested in, call up the document, and
print it out with a laser printer."

One of the most ambitious efforts to digitize books is Project Gutenberg, coordinated
by Michael Hart at Illinois Benedictine College. The project's aim is to digitize 10,000 of the
most-used books by the year 2001, making them easily and inexpensively available to anyone
who wants them. Already, you can download hundreds of books for free over the Internet,
ranging from Alice in Wonderland and Moby Dick to the CIA World Fact Book and Roget's
Thesaurus.
Questions, however, still have to be answered concerning copyright and compensation.
If current books are available through the infopike instead of the bookstore, how will writers be
paid for their toil?
22
CD-ROMs

Going online isn't the only way to go today for easy access to hundreds, even thousands,
of books. A number of CD-ROMs provide the equivalent of an entire library on a single
silvery disk.

Library of the Future is one such disk. This CD-ROM title should be named Library of the
Past--it includes the complete, unabridged text of 1,750 of history's greatest literary works.

The scope of the material boggles the mind. It includes such religious works as the King
James Bible, the Koran, the Egyptian book of the Dead, and the Bhagavad Gita. It includes
such political treatises as the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist
Papers

Papers, and the U.S. Constitution. And it includes such literary opuses as Chaucer's
The Canterbury Tales, Milton's Paradise Lost, Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Emily
Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula,
Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, and Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, along with the
complete works of Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, and Edgar Allan Poe.

And this just scratches the surface.

Admittedly, reading a book on a personal computer isn't like curling up in bed with a
paperback. But having all these books on a single CD-ROM makes finding specific information
infinitely more efficient than poking around a dusty library.

Library of the Future's computerized searching tools, like those of most CD-ROMs, are
excellent. You can quickly search for any word or any combination of words--within a single
book, within an author's collected works, within a category of books such as religion or poetry,
within all the books in a given time period, or from a particular country.

Creating a library with all these books would cost a small fortune. Library of the Future has
a list of price of $149.95.

Another culture-packed CD-ROM is Microsoft's Art Gallery. Loading it on your personal

computer is like visiting London's National Gallery. You'll find a rich collection of 2,200
paintings from the thirteenth to the twentieth century, the National Gallery's complete
collection. And you won't have to leave your seat.

Viewing the paintings on your computer screen isn't quite like being there. But in some
ways it's better. Like all good multimedia works. Art Gallery actually improves upon reality. It
includes animations that demonstrate the artistic techniques and symbolism the painters used,
and how damaged paintings are restored. If you don't like a painting that you see, you can
draw a mustache on it--and you won't get arrested.

Microsoft plans to produce similar CD-ROMs for other great art collections.

****

23