Key Roles

When the Information Superhighway is deployed to every school, library, and community center in America by the year 2000, the Nation will have accomplished a great feat. The accomplishment will be achieved through the hard work and vision of thousands of men and women all over the country who have decided to "make it happen" in their communities. It will also be achieved because many people will have made the tough decisions to go forward.

In this section, the Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure answers the questions: Who will make the Superhighway happen? How does the Nation get the job done? Who should act now to get things started? The Council examines key roles played in each of several important sectors.

Builder: The private sector must be the builder
Access and Learning: Communities are the key to access and learning
Catalyst: Government plays the role of catalyst
Taking Charge: Individuals must take charge

This section provides additional ideas for moving forward, and access to other resources, including the KickStart Homepage and information about Greenhouse Projects, Incentives for Students, and Cyberschool Certification.

The Council has discussed implementation of the Superhighway with knowledgeable people all over the United States, and concludes that the key players in this effort will be:

Private sector leaders, both nationally and locally, and in institutions of learning;
Leaders in all levels of government;
Community partnerships and coalitions, often with wide public involvement; and
Individuals who decide to step forward and champion Superhighway activity for themselves and their communities.

Each of these key players has a distinct role to play, and those roles may on occasion overlap. Each player also has the responsibility to partner and cooperate with other players in pursuit of common successful outcomes.

Diversity of representation in partnerships and coalitions will, the Council has found, contribute importantly to success. By diversity in this instance, the Council means a broad range of stakeholders at the national, State, or community level, as the case may be. The Council also means ensuring that all elements of a community are represented in political organizations formed to support KickStart Initiative programs, as presented in the Council's publication of that name. The Information Superhighway should serve everybody, and it must be designed for that objective.

In Part 5, the Council answers the questions: Who will make the Superhighway happen? How does the Nation get the job done? Who should act now to get things started? The Council examines key roles played in each of several important sectors:

Builder: The private sector must be the builder;
Access and Learning: Communities are the key;
Catalyst: Government plays this critical role; and
Taking Charge: Individuals must do this, or progress will falter.

The Private Sector must be the Builder

The Council defines the private sector to include a broad array of nongovernmental entities. Thus, the private sector includes corporations and other private industry entities, labor unions, nonprofit organizations, grantmaking foundations, colleges and universities, religious institutions, and consumer activist and public interest groups.

The private sector must have primary responsibility for the continued design, deployment, and operation of the Information Superhighway. The Information Superhighway can enhance and improve business opportunities by sparking a new wave of entrepreneurship and innovation. This wave will also create and transform products, industries, and jobs. The Information Superhighway also will provide increased opportunities for creativity and cultural development. Vigorous competition in private industry is essential for continued investment in the technologies and applications that will make the vision for the Information Superhighway a reality. The private sector, in collaboration with a variety of user groups, should continue to design the Information Superhighway, as well as develop the high-quality products and innovative services for the Information Superhighway that will create opportunities for new markets and for improvement in the lives of all individuals.

Where appropriate, the private sector should take a leadership role in working with the government in the continued development of innovative uses for the Information Superhighway in socially beneficial areas such as education and lifelong learning, cultural enrichment, public safety, and health care. The private sector should also do all it can to foster equitable, informed, and convenient access to information, services, and products.

Communities are Key to Access and Learning

Development, deployment, and use of the Information Superhighway are not really national undertakings, although national policy can help achieve them, and the Nation as a whole will benefit from a successful outcome. Rather, the Information Superhighway will first be built and used and will generate its greatest effect at the community level.

It is the connections from local institutions, especially schools, libraries, and community centers, that will introduce the Superhighway at the neighborhood level, that will open the first opportunities to young students, working people, and older persons alike. In recognition of that reality, the Council has published a volume, KickStart Initiative, intended to spur connection of every school, library, and community center to the Information Superhighway by the year 2000.

The Council presented the following messages in the KickStart publication:

The Information Superhighway should be designed to enhance lifelong learning, job skills, and community building.
Training teachers, librarians, and community service providers is critical -- the country is now very far from having every teacher or librarian ready to train and help others to use the Superhighway for learning and skill building.
Software and other kinds of creative content are critical to providing the real benefits of the Superhighway.
Everyone is both a consumer and creator of intellectual property. The rights of creators and owners of intellectual property must be observed and respected.
Costs are manageable and sources of funds are available to the committed and persistent.
There are many diverse and varied stakeholders in every community who can and should be counted on to be part of KickStart Initiatives.
A large body of useful information, both in print and online, can serve as a good starting point for KickStart Initiatives.

In another dimension, the effect of the Information Superhighway on communities is likely to be extraordinary -- and highly beneficial. The Council believes that dispersed communities, such as those in rural areas, will be brought together; that distressed communities, such as those in the inner cities of many metropolitan areas, will be joined in helpful communication; that neighbors will be better able to help neighbors online; that family members will keep in touch via e-mail; and that many people will join "virtual communities" of like-minded individuals wherever they may be. Similarly, the Information Superhighway will invite disabled persons to reenter the workplace, to enjoy entertainment with others, and to become full-fledged members of the emerging electronic community.

Government has a Significant Role as Catalyst

While the Information Superhighway is primarily a private sector initiative, all levels of government have significant roles to play in ensuring the effective development and deployment of the Information Superhighway. The role of all levels of government is to ensure fair access regardless of geography, to make sure people with disabilities can use information services and technologies, to ensure basic levels of service, to encourage interoperability of the Information Superhighway, and to encourage women- and minority-owned businesses and not-for-profit organizations to participate in the Information Superhighway.

For example, all levels of government must work together to create a public policy and regulatory climate that allows the Information Superhighway to thrive. They should stimulate the development and use of the Information Superhighway by working with the private sector to promote the vision of the Information Superhighway and the benefits it will bring to all Americans.

All levels of government should also work together to ensure vigorous competition, to encourage private investment, to foster flexible and responsive governmental action including the harmonization of laws and regulations, and to provide privacy and security protection to Information Superhighway users-both consumers and producers. Open market competition should not be displaced where it exists, but appropriate government policies may be necessary to ensure open and competitive markets. Government also plays an important role as a user of the Information Superhighway to improve delivery of its services.

The Federal Government has a vital role in sustaining a strong research and development base in information technology through university and corporate programs.

Government R&D support for the Superhighway is essential for a broad variety of reasons, including:

The ideas may be so speculative and the likelihood of breakthroughs sufficiently risky as to be outside of reasonable return-on-investment expectations of commercial interests;
The results (information or technology produced) may be such that no single party could expect to benefit from making the investment on its own; and
The expected breakthroughs may pertain to technologies that are so inherently expensive or special-purpose that no market may ever exist for generating commercial returns, but the technologies may otherwise be critical to progress in the field.

The Federal Government's role for the Information Superhighway is to:

Provide visionary leadership [publish best practices, give awards to technically competent schools ("CyberSchools")];
Provide support and funds for appropriate projects, including retraining, enhancement, and enrichment;
Provide funds for precompetitive research and development;
Promote partnerships and dialogue with the private sector (joint setting of standards, precompetitive research, pilot projects, etc.);
Protect rights by clarifying and enforcing laws on intellectual property, security, and privacy and providing dispute-resolution mechanisms for the protection of rights;
Promote public understanding through copyright awareness and similar campaigns;
Encourage the private sector to take the lead in providing value-added information and services over the Information Superhighway;
Stimulate Superhighway activity in its role as purchaser and user;
Provide services where the services are not available in the private sector (such as public safety); and
Protect and promote the country's interests internationally.

While the Council's focus on the roles of State and local governments has been primarily to emphasize the importance of connecting local communities to the Information Superhighway, it also recognizes that they are key partners in:

Funding new levels of electronic services in such areas as education and lifelong learning, emergency and public safety, or government information and services;
Stimulating private sector efforts to develop the Information Superhighway, partly through State/local governments' roles as purchasers and users;
Enforcing State laws regarding intellectual property, privacy, and security;
Promoting public-private partnerships;
Leveraging existing resources to maximize the educational value of the Information Superhighway; and
Promoting and ensuring universal service and access.

Individuals Must Take Charge

Achievement of the Council's five fundamental goals for the Information Superhighway may not be as spectacular as the Apollo Lunar Landing, but it is likely to have more far-reaching effects for individuals. The purpose of the Superhighway is, after all, to improve the lives of individuals, and to do so by opening opportunities to them in family life, work, entertainment, retirement, and other aspects of living. The benefits to individuals are limited only by their own imaginations.

With those benefits come responsibilities, however. The Council believes that individuals have responsibilities to:

Champion: Become advocates of the Superhighway for their local school and library systems and community centers, and generally throughout the community;
Learn: Educate themselves about the Superhighway to ensure that they and their families enjoy the benefits and avoid the downside risks, which can include job displacement. Individuals should make this matter a challenge that they will meet; and
Respect: Respect the rights of others, including privacy and intellectual property rights.

As individuals all over the country rise to the occasion, the Superhighway will be built, deployed, and put to use. Individuals can help bring the Superhighway to their neighborhoods, can work to ensure universal access, and can personally reap the benefits.

Additional Ideas for Moving Forward

The Council here proposes four ideas that could help to implement the Information Superhighway and help communities to share their learning with their counterparts around the country, and motivate school administrators, teachers, and students to excel through use of the new technologies. All levels of government and all community leaders play a key role in making these ideas a reality. Therefore, reallocation of resources for training and many other purposes may be necessary.

KickStart Homepage

Participants in KickStart activities in their local communities would benefit from having an "online place to go" to share success stories and allow communities to see and replicate successful models from around the country. A KickStart Homepage would enable a dialogue and permit schools, libraries, and community centers to share ideas and information and to "link up" with one another. The Council's KickStart Initiative includes examples of existing homepages where educators and librarians are having ongoing dialogues on "best practices."

The Greenhouse Projects

In developing its recommendations on the Information Superhighway, the Council has identified a need for and formulated the idea for a national network of nonprofit resource centers, or "Greenhouses," whose mission would be to improve the quality of education and lifelong learning in this country by facilitating the use of Information Superhighway technologies. The goals of The Greenhouse project are 1) to provide a structure for more systematic sharing of information, ideas, and models about effective uses of instructional technology; 2) to link educators who want to initiate particular types of Information Superhighway projects with comparable groups across the country who already have developed similar, quality programs; and 3) thus to help all members of society to have access to richer learning opportunities through Information Superhighway technologies.

The Greenhouse centers for learning and technology would accomplish these goals by 1) collecting and generating critical information in the use of Information Superhighway technologies in educational environments; 2) developing and delivering innovative support services such as forums for professional networking and technology consulting services; and 3) proactively reaching out to people and communities who need assistance. The Greenhouses would focus their efforts on educators who currently have little access to information infrastructures and thus are cut off from online sources of information and expertise and on groups that are at risk in educational outcomes or that seem unlikely to realize the full learning benefits of the Information Superhighway without proactive assistance.

Incentives for Students

State and local governments and school boards should seriously consider the creation of programs that will reward students for:

Displaying technical competence in the use of the Information Superhighway; and
Displaying an understanding of the rules of the road, including their rights and responsibilities as participants on the Information Superhighway.

Some communities have established "Information Superhighway Driver's Licenses" that require students to pass a test on rights, responsibilities, and technical competence.

CyberSchool Certification

The Federal Government should work with private industry to create a nonprofit foundation that would establish and make awards for schools that achieve their standards for effective use of technology and learning. Criteria for such awards need to be created and should include both capabilities and student achievement. Such criteria might include:

Multiple measures of student achievement;
Incentives for students;
Teacher training in use of technology for instructional goals;
Adequate connection, networking, and equipment;
Sufficient integration of technology in coursework; and
Access solutions for students/faculty with disabilities.

This proposal is intended to create momentum among all schools to meet the criteria necessary to be designated as a "CyberSchool."

It is the States' responsibility to ensure that the initial certification and continuing education requirements for teachers include specific mandates for preparation on how to utilize technology for instructional purposes. Teacher education institution accreditation requirements should include preparation of all incoming teachers on use of technology as an instructional vehicle regardless of their areas of teaching expertise.

Return to the KickStart and Nation of Opportunity index page.