Background on the Clinton-Gore Administration's Next-Generation Internet
Initiative, White House Press Release, October 10, 1996
The Internet
is the biggest change in human communications since the printing press.
Every day, this rapidly growing global network touches the lives of millions
of Americans. Students log in to the Library of Congress or take virtual
field trips to the Mayan ruins. Entrepreneurs get the information they
need to start a new business and sell their products in overseas markets.
Caregivers for people with Alzheimer's Disease participate in an "extended
family" on the Cleveland FreeNet. Citizens keep tabs on the voting records
and accomplishments of their elected representatives.
We must invest today to create the foundation for the networks of the
21st Century. Today's
Internet is an outgrowth of decades of federal investment in research networks
such as the ARPANET and the NSFNET. A small amount of federal seed money
stimulated much greater investment by industry and academia, and helped
create a large and rapidly growing market. Similarly, creative investments
today will set the stage for the networks of tomorrow that are even more
powerful and versatile than the current Internet. This initiative will
foster partnerships among academia, industry and government that will keep
the U.S. at the cutting-edge of information and communications technologies.
It will also accelerate the introduction of new multimedia services available
in our homes, schools, and businesses.
Economic benefits: The potential economic
benefits of this initiative are enormous. Because the Internet developed
in the United States first, American companies have a substantial lead
in a variety of information and communications markets. The explosion of
the Internet has generated economic growth, high-wage jobs, and a dramatic
increase in the number of high-tech start-ups. The Next Generation Internet
initiative will strengthen America's technological leadership, and create
new jobs and new market opportunities.
The Administration's
"Next Generation Internet" initiative has three goals:
1. Connect universities and national labs with high-speed networks that
are 100-1000 times faster than today's Internet: These networks will connect
at least 100 universities and national labs at speeds that are 100 times
faster than today's Internet, and a smaller number of institutions at speeds
that are 1,000 times faster. These networks will eventually be able to
transmit the contents of the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in under a
second.
2. Promote experimentation with the next generation of networking technologies:
For example, technologies are emerging that could dramatically increase
the capabilities of the Internet to handle real-time services such as high
quality videoconferencing. There are a variety of research challenges associated
with increasing the number of Internet users by a factor of 100 that this
initiative will help address. By serving as "testbeds," research networks
can help accelerate the introduction of new commercial services.
3. Demonstrate new applications that meet important national goals and
missions: Higher-speed, more advanced networks will enable a new generation
of applications that support scientific research, national security, distance
education, environmental monitoring, and health care. Below
are just a few of the potential applications:
Health care: Doctors at university medical centers will use large archives
of radiology images to identify the patterns and features associated with
particular diseases. With remote access to supercomputers, they will also
be able to improve the accuracy of mammographies by detecting subtle changes
in three-dimensional images.
National Security: A top priority for the Defense Department is "dominant
battlefield awareness," which will give the United States military a significant
advantage in any armed conflict. This requires an ability to collect information
from large numbers of high-resolution sensors, automatic processing of
the data to support terrain and target recognition, and real-time distribution
of that data to the warfighter. This will require orders of magnitude more
bandwidth than is currently commercially available.
Distance Education: Universities are
now experimenting with technologies such as two-way video to remote sites,
VCR-like replay of past classes, modeling and simulation, collaborative
environments, and online access to instructional software. Distance education
will improve the ability of universities to serve working Americans who
want new skills, but who cannot attend a class at a fixed time during the
week.
Energy Research: Scientists and engineers across the country will be
able to work with each other and access remote scientific facilities, as
if they were in the same building. "Collaboratories" that combine videoconferencing,
shared virtual work spaces, networked scientific facilities, and databases
will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our national research
enterprise.
Biomedical Research: Researchers will be able to solve problems in large-scale
DNA sequencing and gene identification that were previously impossible,
opening the door to breakthroughs in curing human genetic diseases.
Environmental Monitoring: Researchers are constructing a "virtual world"
to model the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, which serves as a nursery area for
many commercially important species.
Manufacturing Engineering: Virtual reality and modeling and simulation
can dramatically reduce the time required to develop new products.
Funding: The Administration will fund this initiative by allocating
$100 million for R&D and research networks to develop the Next Generation
Internet. This increase in FY98 funding will be offset by a reallocation
of defense and domestic technology funds. As with previous networking initiatives,
the Administration will work to ensure that this federal investment will
serve as a catalyst for additional investment by universities and the private
sector.
Implementation: The principal agencies involved in this initiative are
the National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency, the Department of Energy, NASA, and the National Institutes of
Health. Other agencies may be involved in promoting specific applications
related to their missions.
INTERNET TIMELINE
1969 Defense Department commissions ARPANET to promote networking research.
1974 Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf publish paper which specifies protocol for
data networks.
1981 NSF provides seed money for CSNET (Computer
Science NETwork) to connect U.S. computer
science departments.
1982 Defense Department establishes TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol) as standard.
1984 Number of hosts (computers) connected
to the Internet breaks 1,000.
1986 NSFNET and 5 NSF-funded supercomputer centers created. NSFNET backbone
is 56 kilobits/second.
1989 Number of hosts breaks 100,000.
1991 NSF lifts restrictions on commercial use of the Internet.
High Performance Computing Act, authored
by then-Senator Gore, is signed into law.
World Wide Web software released by CERN, the European Laboratory for
Particle Physics.
1993 President Clinton and Vice President Gore get e-mail addresses.
Mosaic, a graphical "Web browser" developed at the NSF-funded National
Center for Supercomputing Applications, is released. Traffic on the World
Wide Web explodes.
1994 White House goes on-line with "Welcome to the White House."
1995 U.S. Internet traffic now carried by commercial Internet service
providers.
1996 Number of Internet hosts reaches 12.8 million.
1996 President Clinton and Vice President Gore announce "Next Generation
Internet" initiative.
[Source: Hobbes' Internet Timeline, v. 2.5]
Business and University Leaders Endorse the Administration's Next-Generation
Internet Proposal
"Silicon Graphics applauds the current Administration for recognizing the
power and limitless value of the Internet. Their forward-thinking Next
Generation Internet initiative sets an example by leadership that will
encourage organizations, in both public and private sectors, to fully leverage
the Internet, and to become a part of the Information Age." Edward R. McCracken,
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Silicon Graphics
"I include myself among the many who have encouraged judicious Government
sponsorship of research beyond the horizon of normal product development.
The Next Generation Internet initiative builds on the foundation of earlier
research sponsored by far-sighted funding agencies seeking to solve real
problems but willing to take risks for the sake of high payoff. As in the
recent past, the results of this program will almost surely trigger serendipitous
discoveries and unlock billions of dollars in corporate product/service
development. With any reasonable success, America will enter the 21st Century
surfing a tidal wave of new networking technology unleashed by the Next
Generation Internet." Vinton G. Cerf, Senior Vice President of Data Architecture,
MCI
"There is no question that the Internet would never have happened without
the leadership of the government and universities working together. The
Next Generation Internet will have an even bigger impact on the world."
Eric Schmidt, Chief Technology Officer, Sun
"The continued advance of computer networking
technology is fundamental to our nation's continued leadership in scientific
research. Just as higher education, in partnership with industry and government,
led in the development and realization of the Internet, this effort will
once again focus our best minds on another significant advance in the use
of network technology. The result will not only strengthen our research
capability, but will also lead to innovations that provide broader access
to education." Homer Neal, President, University of Michigan
"The promise of a new generation of networks that will enable collaborative,
multi-disciplinary research efforts is essential to meeting national challenges
in many disciplines, and to ensure a continuing leadership role for the
United States' academic community. Higher Education welcomes the opportunity
for a renewed partnership with the federal government and industry to develop
the advanced network infrastructure upon which these networking capabilities
depend." Graham Spanier, President, Pennsylvania State University
Qs and As on Next-Generation Internet Initiative, October 10, 1996
Q 1. Why does
the government need to do this, given that the commercial Internet industry
is growing so explosively?
The U.S. research community and government agencies have requirements
that can not be met on today's public Internet or with today's technology.
For example, the Department of Defense needs the ability to transmit large
amounts of real-time imagery data to military decision-makers to maintain
"information dominance." Scientists and engineers at universities and national
labs need reliable and secure access to remote supercomputers, scientific
facilities, and other researchers interacting in virtual environments.
The productivity of the U.S. research community will be increased if they
have access to high-speed networks with advanced capabilities. These new
technologies will also help meet important national missions in defense,
energy, health and space.
An initiative of this nature would not be undertaken by the private
sector alone because the benefits cannot be captured by any one firm. The
Administration believes that this initiative will generate enormous benefits
for the Nation as a whole. It will accelerate the widespread availability
of networked multimedia services to our homes, schools and businesses,
with applications in areas such as community networking, life-long learning,
telecommuting, electronic commerce, and health care.
Q 2. What
are some of the capabilities that the "Next Generation Internet" will have
that today's Internet does not?
Below are just of the few of the possibilities. Many new applications
will be developed by those using the Next Generation Internet.
-
An increased ability to handle real-time, multimedia applications such
as videoconferencing and "streams" of audio and videoóvery important for
telemedicine and distance education. Currently, the Internet can't make
any guarantees about the rate at which it will deliver data to a given
destination, making many real-time applications difficult or impossible.
-
Sufficient bandwidth to transfer and manipulate huge volumes of data. Satellites
and scientific instruments will soon generate a terabyte (a trillion bytes)
of information in a single day. [The printed collection of the Library
of Congress is equivalent to 10 terabytes.]
-
The ability to access remote supercomputers, construct a "virtual" supercomputer
from multiple networked workstations, and interact in real-time with simulations
of tornadoes, ecosystems, new drugs, etc.
-
The ability to collaborate with other scientists and engineers in shared,
virtual environments, including reliable and secure remote use of scientific
facilities.
Q 3. Is it still Administration policy that the "information superhighway"
will be built, owned, and operated by the private sector?
Absolutely. The Administration does believe that it is appropriate for
the government to help fund R&D and research networks, however.
Partnerships with industry and academia will ensure that the results
of government-funded research are widely available.
Q 4. Will
this benefit all Americans, or just the research community?
By being a smart and demanding customer, the federal government and
leading research universities will accelerate the commercial availability
of new products, services, and technologies. New technologies have transitioned
very rapidly from the research community to private sector companies. For
example, Mosaic, the first graphical Web browser, was released by the National
Center for Supercomputing Applications in 1993. By 1994, Netscape and other
companies had formed to develop commercial Web browsers. Today, millions
of Americans use the Web.
The public will also benefit from the economic growth and job creation
that will be generated from these new technologies, the new opportunities
for life-long learning, and research breakthroughs in areas such as health.
Q 5. What will it do about "traffic jams" on the Internet, or the ability
of the Internet to continue its phenomenal rate of growth?
The lion's share of the responsibility for dealing with this problem
lies with the private sector. Internet Service Providers will have to invest
in higher capacity, more reliable networks to keep up with demand from
their customers.
However, this initiative will help by investing in R&D, creating
testbeds, and serving as a first customer for many of the technologies
that will help the Internet grow and flourish. One
of the goals of the initiative is to identify and deploy technologies that
will help the Internet continue its exponential rate of growth. Examples
include:
-
Ultra-fast, all-optical networks;
-
Faster switches and routers;
-
The ability to "reserve" bandwidth for real-time applications;
-
A new version of the Internet Protocol that will prevent a shortage of
Internet addresses;
-
"Multicast" technology that conserves bandwidth by disseminating data to
multiple recipients at the same time;
-
Software for replicating information throughout the Internet, thereby reducing
bottlenecks;
-
Software for measuring network performance; and
-
Software to assure reliability and security of information transmitted
over the Internet.
Q 6. How does this initiative relate to existing government programs, such
as the High Performance Computing and Communications
Initiative? Will this be a totally new network?
The initiative represents an increase in the HPCC budget. The initiative
will include both: (1) an expansion and augmentation of existing research
networks supported by NSF, the Department of Defense, the Department of
Energy, and NASA; (2) new networks; and (3) development of applications
by agencies such as the National Institutes of Health.
Q 7. Are more technical details on the initiative available?
The Administration intends to consult broadly with the research community,
the private sector, and other stakeholders before developing the final
technical details for this initiative.
Remarks by President Clinton on Education Technology and Connecting
Classrooms, The Rotunda of The Exploratorium, San Francisco, California,
White House Press Release, September 21, 1995
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. First of all, I'd like
to thank Mr. Delecourt and all of the people who hosted us here.
To Mayor Jordan and your outstanding California Commissioner of Education
Delaine Eastin and to all of the others who are gathered here todayóthank
you very much for being here with us. (Applause.)
I want to say to all the students here that the Vice President
and I are delighted to see you. Normally, we would not want
to be responsible for taking you out of class, but today we think maybe
we have a good reason, and we hope we have a chance to shake hands with
a lot of you as soon as this brief ceremony is over.
I want to say to all of the executives of the information companies
that we just met with how very grateful I am to you and I'll say
a few words about them in a moment.
I came here
to San Francisco today to issue a challenge to America to see to
it that every classroom in our country--every classroom in our country
is connected to the Information Superhighway. To demonstrate that
this is possible, we are all here today to announce a giant step
toward that future.
By the
end of this school year, every school in California, 12,000 of them,
will have access to the Internet and its vast world of knowledge.
By the end of this school year, fully 20 percent of California's
classrooms, 2,500--kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools,
from one end of this state to the other, will be connected for computers.
If that can be done in California, we can do it in the rest of America.
But the key is to have the kind of partnership that we are celebrating
here. The job of connecting California schools will be undertaken
by a wide alliance of private sector companies--among them, Sun Microsystems,
Apple, Xerox Parc, Oracle, 3Com, Silicon Graphics, Applied Materials,
TCI, Cisco Systems and others.
Our administration has brought these companies together, we have
set goals, but they are doing the rest. Just as the connecting
of our classrooms is a model for the 21st century, so is the way we are
doing it here today--with government as a catalyst, not a blank check.
So today,
I challenge business and industry and local government throughout
our country to make a commitment of time and resources so that by
the year 2000, every classroom in America will be connected.
Tens of millions of parents all across our nation have watched
their children play every kind of video game from Mortal Kombat and
Primal Rage to Killer Instinct and Super Streetfighter. But the
really important new computer game in America is learning. And we
are going to put it at the disposal of every child in this country by the
end of the century.
Last month, I announced a broad initiative to stop our children
from being addicted to tobacco because it was bad for them. Today
I hope to encourage a good habit--a lifelong commitment to learning.
I want to get the children of America hooked on education through
computers.
Our country was built on a simple value that we have an obligation to
pass better lives and better opportunities on to the next generation.
And we see them all here. Education is the way we make this
promise real. Today, at the dawn of a new century, in the midst of
an information and communications revolution, education depends upon
computers. If we make an opportunity for every student, a fact in
the world of modems and megabytes, we can go a long way toward making
the American Dream a reality for every student. Not virtual
reality--reality for every student.
The facts speak for themselves. Children
with access to computers learn faster and learn better. Scores on
standardized tests for children taught with computers, according
to "Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow," a 10-year report that is coming
out in a few days, caused scores to go up by 10 to 15 percent.
Children mastered basic skills in 30 percent less time than would
normally have been the case. Also, they stayed in school.
Absenteeism dropped from over eight percent to under five percent.
I cannot emphasize how important this is at a time when we want
people to stay in school and get as much education as they possibly
can. Technology enriches education, it teaches our children how to
learn better, as the Vice President and I saw with the young people who
walked in with us in their three different exhibitions of learning, and
we thank them for that today.
We must make technological literacy a standard. Preparing our
children for a lifetime of computer use is now just as essential as
teaching them to read and write and do math. With this effort, we
are also reinforcing the core convictions that have stood us so well
for so long. Computers offer a world that lives up to our highest
hopes of equal opportunity for all. And look what we need equal
opportunity for all for.
Computers
give us a world where people are judged not by the color of their
skin or their gender or their family's income, but by their minds, how
well they can express themselves on those screens. If we can
teach our children these values, if they can learn to respect themselves
and each other, then we can be certain we'll have stronger families,
stronger communities, and a stronger America in the 21st century
I could think of no better place for us to begin than here in
Californiaóthe state that leads the world in technological innovation.
Until now, this leadership too often has stopped at the schoolroom
door, for California ranks 45th in the nation in the ratio of students
to computers. While suburban children often have access to
computers in their homes, other children in rural areas and inner cities
pass their school years without coming close to the Information Superhighway.
The longer they're kept away, the less chance they have of building
good lives in a global economy.
Well, thanks to the dedicated Americans gathered here today, all that
is going to change. These companies who compete vigorously
every day in the marketplace have come together in the classroom.
We shared with them our vision, and they shared with us their ideas,
their resources, and their know-how. Every company represented
here today is making a different contribution, but they're all committed
to the goal of connecting California because they know the future
depends upon it.
Sun Microsystems is organizing a coalition of companies and volunteering
in Net Day, an effort to install networks in at least 2,000 schools.
And the number is growing with each new company joining the effort.
In the morning, volunteers will arrive at each school. By noon
they will have wired the library, the labs, the classrooms. By
nightfall, those schools will have the technology they deserve.
Smart Valley, a coalition of Silicon Valley companies, has contributed
$15 million to putting technology in our schools. Smart Valley has
agreed to develop 500 model technology schools over the next two
years.
America Online has offered Internet services for a year. Even
those phone companies that are always going after each other on TV
have joined forces in this cause. AT & T will provide Internet
access and voice mail to all California schools. Sprint will
help to connect the schools. MCI will provide software for
entry into the Internet and help to connect the schools. And Pacific
Bell, which has led the way in linking California schools, is accelerating
its efforts this school year by hooking them up to high-speech phone lines.
I want to thank them all, and I'd like to ask the leaders of these
companies here to stand, and I hope the children will give them a
hand, because they've done a great thing for your future.
Please stand up, all of you who met with me earlier today. Thank
you so much. (Applause.)
This is an enormous effort. It will take the same spirit and tenacity
that built our railroads and highways. It will take leadership and
dedication of groups like the advisory council I have appointed on the
Information Superhighway. So let us begin. Let today
mark the start of our mission to connect every school in America by the
year 2000.
If we can connect 20 percent of the schools in the largest state
in the nation in less than a year, we can surely connect the rest
of the country by the end of the decade. In the coming days, I will
announce the winners of our Technology Learning Challenge. And over
the next several weeks, I will put forward a public-private partnership
plan that lays out how we can move our entire nation toward the goal
of technological literacy for every young person in America.
Here are its guiding
principles: Modern computers in every classroom, accessible to every
student from kindergarten through 12th grade, networks that connect students
to other students, schools to other schools, and both to the world
outside. Educational software that is worthy of our children
and their best aspirations and, finally, teachers with the training
and the assistance they need to make the most of these new technologies.
Make no mistake: You can count on us for leadership, but
the goal we have set cannot be set and cannot be achieved by government
alone. It can only be met the way these companies are doing it--with
communities, businesses, governments, teachers, parents and students all
joining together--a high-tech barn-raising.
What we are doing is the equivalent of going to a dusty adobe
settlement in early 19th century California and giving every child
a slate and a piece of chalk to write with. It's akin to walking
into a rough-hewn classroom in the Sierras of the 1860s and wiring
it for electricity for the first time. It's like going to the Central
Valley in the 1930s to the canvas classrooms of the Dust Bowl refugees
and giving every child this book. Chalk boards, electricity,
accessible books--there was a time, believe it or not, when all these
were rare. Now, every one is such a familiar part of our lives that
we take them for granted.
If we stay on course, we'll soon reach a day when children and
their parents and their teachers will walk into a classroom filled
with computers, and not even give it a second thought. Let's go to
work. Our future depends upon it, and these children's lives will
be better for it.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
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