KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT^_:

Raising Education and Training

To A New Level

Boulton B. Miller Ph.D.

Colonel USA-Ret.

Professor Emeritus SIU-E

31 December 1994

I wish to thank my wife Marian who has tolerated my various interests over half a century. This report was carried out at our own expense without applying for a grant from any organization. My efforts are to make a contribution and a difference.

The book is designed to provide information with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If such services are desired, then a competent professional person should be employed.

All suggestions and recommendations will be appreciated. Contact the author at 7373 E. 29th St. N. E222, Wichita, KS 67226. Tel: (316) 634-1184.

Copyright 1994 by Boulton B. Miller

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-94000

ISBN: Hard Cover 0-915234-08-4

Paperback 0-915234-07-6

Published by Bainbridge Publications

Wichita, KS 67278-1944

Tel: (316) 634-2187

Book manufactured by Printing, Inc.

344 N. St. Francis, Wichita, KS

Using a XEROX DocuTech

KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT^_:

Raising Education and Training

To A New Level

1. INTRODUCTION, 7

2. THE INFORMATION INDUSTRY, 9

GOVERNMENT INFORMATION RESOURCES, 10

Retrieval of Data, 11

Census Data, 12

Patent and Trademark Data, 12

Library Resources, 12

ON-LINE RESOURCES, 14

News Service Example, 15

Financial Data Example, 15

Search Service Example, 15

Information Network of Kansas (INK), 15

CD-ROMs (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory), 16

PROJECT GUTENBERG, 17

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER (CIO), 17

INFORMATION INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS, 18

3. COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY, 19

DEREGULATION, 19

COMMON CARRIERS, 19

TELEPHONES, 20

SATELLITES, 20

NETWORKS, 21

Local Area Networks (LANs), 21

Wide Area Networks (WANs), 21

INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY, 22

INTERNET and NREN, 22

BITNET, 24

Congressional Hearings On-Line, 24

Standards, 24

Copyright, 25

OTHER SERVICES, 25

On-Line Services, 25

Fiber Optics, 25

Wireless Communications, 26

Cable TV vs the Telephone, 27

Multimedia and Communications, 28

Global Communications, 28

COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS, 29

4. COMPUTER INDUSTRY, 30

USA LEADERSHIP, 30

INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS, 32

Programming, 32

Client/Server, Distributed, End-User Computing, 33

Reengineering, 34

Data Administration, 34

Supercomputers, 35

Microprocessors, 35

Microcomputers, 35

Personal Computers, 36

Operating Systems, 36

32-Bit Computing, 37

Portable, Lap-Top, Palm-Top, and PDAs, 38

Multimedia Computing, 38

COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS OVERLAP, 39

ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY, 39

COMPUTER INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS, 39

5. EDUCATION INDUSTRY, 40

Grade Inflation, 40

Is Teaching A Game?, 41

Scholars, 41

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT), 41

Using Information Technology, 42

STUDENTS ARE A MAJOR RESOURCE, 44

Creativity, 45

Foresight and Vision, 45

Visualization, 45

CAMPUS LIBRARIES, 46

DATA/INFORMATION OVERLOAD, 48

CIOs IN ACADEMIA, 49

EDUCATION IN COMMUNICATIONS, 50

USE OF THE INTERNET, 51

EDUCATION IN COMPUTING, 52

EDUCATION IN HOW TO USE AND MANAGE INFORMATION, 54

Executive Information Systems (EIS), 55

Administrators and Faculty, 55

APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT, 55

Development of Applications Software, 56

EDUCATIONAL COMPETITION, 60

CONTRIBUTING ORGANIZATIONS, 61

Coordination of Effort, 63

Examples of Coordination of Effort, 63

Outsourcing, 64

EVALUATION, 64

STUDENT HONOR SYSTEM, 65

AUDIT, ETHICS, PRIVACY, AND SECURITY, 66

LIFE-LONG LEARNING, 67

Senior Citizens, 69

NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE AGENDA, 70

FUNDING, 70

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, 71

Student Ownership of Computers, 71

Textbooks, 72

Integrating Instruction, 73

Changing Academic Product Mix, 74

Changing Instructional Methodology, 74

COMMUNITY COLLEGES, 75

K-12 RESPONSIBILITY, 76

Tool Subjects, 76

Year-Round Education, 77

Schools the Centers of Communities, 77

Busing Students, 78

Teacher Preparation, 79

SOFTWARE, 79

EDUCATION INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS, 80

6. KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY AND THE NII, 81

EARLY RECOGNITION, 81

KNOWLEDGEABLE INDIVIDUALS, 84

APPLIED INTELLIGENCE, 84

KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY, 86

Core Knowledge, 86

AN EDUCATED VS A KNOWLEDGEABLE PERSON, 87

KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY DEFINED, 88

KNOWLEDGE INDUSTRY, 88

Operations Research, 89

Artificial Intelligence, 89

Simulation, 92

Fuzzy Logic, 92

Multimedia, 93

Virtual Reality, 94

NII PROMISE, 95

KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY HIGHLIGHTS, 95

7. DEPARTMENT of KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT, 97

KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY/DEPARTMENT, 97

Bipartisan Efforts, 98

Private Sector and Knowledge Development, 98

NII Implementation, 98

International Education, 99

Student Honor Code, 99

National Software Crisis, 99

Libraries As Knowledge Centers, 99

Data Retrieval, 100

Vendors For Student/Home Computers, 100

Core Knowledge Foundation, 100

Schools Operating Year-Round, 100

K-12 Schools As Centers of Communities, 100

Distance and Life-Long Learning, 100

Teacher Preparation and Conduct, 101

Cooperating With Many Organizations, 101

FORMULATING KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT COURSES, 101

Consortium, 102

Knowledge Development Course Objectives, 103

Entrance Requirements, 103

Students and Gathering Intelligence, 103

Student Recognition of Intellectual Capital, 104

Students and Campus Applications, 104

Students and Application Development, 105

Student Lessons From Historical Development, 105

Students and Executive Information Systems (EIS), 105

Students and Communication Instruction, 106

Students and Computer Programming, 107

Students and Fuzzy Logic, 107

Students and Virtual Reality, 107

Students and Creativity, 107

Students and Foresight, 107

Students and the Learning Organization, 108

Other Areas of Interest to Students, 108

GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS, 108

Recognition of Home-Grown Computer Applications, 108

Outsourcing Within the Education Industry, 109

Students As Resources, 109

Competition Between Four-Year and Community Colleges, 109

Critical Thinking Research, 109

Community College Involvement, 109

Evaluation of Knowledge Development Concept, 109

Criticism of Knowledge Development Courses, 110

FUNDING, A SAVINGS, 111

School Busing, 112

LESSONS FROM CORPORATE AMERICA, 112

AFTERWORD, 112

REFERENCES, 113

Note: The numbers in brackets at the end of each reference indicate the page number or numbers where the material is cited in the printed edition.

INDEX, 137

KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT^_:

Raising Education and Training

To A New Level

1. INTRODUCTION

Since The Closing of the American MIND by the late Allan Bloom, many reports have appeared about the education industry. The real time reporting of the Persian Gulf War demonstrated how the military and news services had changed. This indicates how the education industry must change.

The taxpaying public as well as all students need to be educated so that they can benefit from and guide the developing National Information Infrastructure (NII). Contrary to the Luddites' claim that the NII will never materialize, the NII is happening now. Many of us already use the Internet, one of the infrastructure's building blocks. According to Vinton G. Cerf, president of the Internet Society, the Internet was expanding as much as 100 percent per year (Bollag 1994).

The Internet is an international network of thousands of computer networks allowing users to work together as if in neighboring offices although they may be continents apart. The Luddites never expected to see more TVs than telephones in American households. Neither did they expect to see K-12 students carrying their own calculators. Soon, students will be carrying their own computers. It is no longer a case of whether or not the NII will happen, but rather how long it will take. This time frame is dependent upon the public's understanding of the implementation of the NII, an ability only education can provide.

Before American taxpayers can be expected to support the NII they must be educated. Just as we endorse driver education in America, we must educate the computer drivers on the NII. Students need to be educated first so that they will assist in educating their parents and neighbors. We accept the need and accompanying cost of drivers education. The taxpaying public will also accept the cost and time for computer driver education if they understand the reasoning for the need to do so. Without proper education the NII cannot be expected to fulfill its potential.

The following statement was extracted from an NII Executive Summary:

All Americans have a stake in the construction of an advanced National Information Infrastructure (NII), a seamless web of communications networks, computers, databases, and consumer electronics that will put vast amounts of information at users' fingertips. Development of the NII can help unleash an information revolution that will change forever the way people live, work, and interact with each other (NII 1993).

The May 1994 Report of the Information Infrastructure Task Force Committee on Applications and Technology identifies eleven federal agencies actively in support of the development of the future NII from among the many other agencies that support instructional activities involving telecommunications technology (NTIS 1994, 62). This number of agencies is an indication of the coordination problem the Executive Branch has in the implementation of the NII; and why public support is so important.

The methods used to educate America during the past half-century require redirection. Instead of acquiring a paperless office, as so often promised a few years ago, the public is attempting to survive under an information overload, called the INFOBOG by Rick Tetzeli. Technology, according to Tetzeli, made the infobog possible which has resulted in a 51 percent increase in the shipments of office paper since 1983, and since 1987, an increase of 365 percent in E-mail addresses, cellular phones, pagers, fax machines, voice mailboxes, and answering machines. Adding to the infobog problem is the absence of many secretaries and executive assistants, the human information filters so valuable to business managers in the past (Tetzeli 1994).

The application of information technology has been carried out by technical experts who speak their own language and have failed to encourage functional area managers and end-users to become equal members of design, development, implementation, operation, and maintenance teams. This problem is made worse by a division between academic and administrative computing in many colleges and universities. Contributing to the problems in application development are the vendors who use many campuses as testing grounds for their development efforts and then resell what they learn to other colleges and universities without allowing the educational industry to benefit from their contributions. A similar situation exists in the private sector where industries are unable to dictate or benefit from their education of vendors at some other company's expense. Functional area users are as beholden to IT professionals and vendors as are their counterparts in academia.

The knowledge development concept (KDC) described in this report is designed to prepare the public to take full advantage of the implementing NII. The KDC will encourage students of all ages to take advantage of life-long learning. The implementation of the concept will redirect the efforts of the education industry from stressing information technology as tools and skills to their use for educating individuals in knowledge development.

The next four chapters describe the information society. Unfortunately, the whole country has not reached the desired level of information technology implementation. However, many of the goals have been reached and most have been accepted. Sincere efforts now underway form a foundation upon which to build the knowledge society described in Chapter 6. A new Department of Knowledge Development is one of the recommendations in Chapter 7.

2. THE INFORMATION INDUSTRY

The term Information Society describes the environment in which we live today. Four major industries make up the information society: the information industry, the communications industry, the computer industry, and the education industry. A fifth, the entertainment industry, is joining the group.

The magnitude of the information industry is hard to comprehend because of its vastness. As a national and international resource, improvements are causing continuous changes to be made. For example, a reference showing what the information industry includes is the Information Industry Directory (IID), published annually by Gale Research, Inc. The fourteenth edition published in 1994 continues to require two volumes. Volume 1 is a Descriptive Listing requiring over 1500 pages. Volume 2 is a listing of a variety of Indexes filling an additional 800 pages.

Volume 1 of the IID provides a guide to the entire information industry with approximately 5,100 information organizations, systems, products, and services involved in the production and distribution of information. These are arranged in alphabetical order and include worldwide locations in 67 countries, plus references to over 5,200 computer accessible databases. In addition, there is a listing of on-line vendors, consultants, database producers and related associations, research organizations, publishers, optical publishing services, library networks and management systems, information storage software, and information retrieval firms.

Volume 2 of the IID provides 31 indexes to materials appearing in Volume 1, 23 of which are grouped within the Function/Service Classification section. For example, about 100 pages are required to index such items as abstracting firms. Other indexes include data retrieval, indexing, and library software systems. These are examples of representative items making up the information industry today. (Novallo 1994).

The information industry includes books, newspapers, magazines, microfilm, video tapes, television, and CD-ROMs (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory). Networks are additional information resources. In 1993, it was estimated that there were 42,000 U.S. book publishers. This total includes some very small publishers as well as those extremely large. The number of total book titles released in 1992 was actually 147,000 (Appelbaum 1993). Books are only one portion of the information industry.

A software package called InfoMapper^Ô, designed and developed by Forest Woody Horton, Jr., supports the management of information resources, both internal and external, for any type of organization. The software is available from Information Management Press, Washington, DC (IMP Newsletter 1992).

GOVERNMENT INFORMATION RESOURCES

The largest sources of informational data are government agencies. International, foreign, federal, state, and local agencies make up these numerous governmental resources. The volume alone indicates the need for learning how to identify and access these extensive resources. Numerous policy initiatives are currently being considered to enhance the availability of information in the hands of the federal government.

An example of the data available is the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), a self-supporting agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. This agency operates a national clearinghouse to collect and distribute scientific, technical, and engineering information, both foreign and domestic. An increasing amount of the material is in digital form. NTIS is sustained by its sales revenue. This includes salaries, marketing, postage, and all other operating costs paid from this revenue (NTIS 1993).

NTIS operates an integrated electronic access service called FedWorld^Ô as an on-line information resource. This service provides both dial-up and Internet access and provides a gateway through the system to over 130 other publicly available government information systems, including over forty agencies that operate bulletin boards, and identifies 175 publicly available federal databases (NTIS 1994, 88).

The United States Government Manual is the official handbook of the federal government, published as a special edition of the Federal Register. This manual, with over 900 pages, provides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. Information is included on quasi-official agencies; international organizations in which the U.S. participates; and boards, commissions, including committees. A typical agency description in the manual includes a summary statement of the agency's purpose and role in the federal government. The principal officials are listed with a brief history of the agency, including its legislative or executive authority, a description of its programs and activities, and a "Sources of Information" section. This section is of special importance to this discussion as a major information resource. The section includes information on consumer activities, contracts and grants, employment, publications, and many other areas of public interest.

The Sources of Information section for the Department of State includes instructions for requesting documents under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552). The persons who can request information under the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) are described. The section gives information for obtaining a videotape on the safety of international travel and on the issuance of U.S. passports. Similar helpful instructions are included for other agencies.

The Federal Register is published every federal working day to provide a uniform system for publishing Presidential documents and others required to be published by statute. Companion documents are the Code of Federal Regulations, the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, and the Public Papers of the Presidents. For more information see the "Sources of Information" section for the Government Printing Office (U.S. Government Manual 1993/94). An example is a listing of the GPO Bookstores across the country. The Federal Register is also available on-line as FREND (Federal Register Electronic News Directory).

The Congressional Record is issued when Congress is in session to publish the proceedings. This publication was the first record of debate officially reported, printed, and published directly by the federal government. A Daily Digest, summarizing the proceedings of that day in each House, and before each of their committees and subcommittees, is printed on the back of the Congressional Record. The Digest also presents the legislative program for each day, and at the end of the week, the program for the following week (U.S. Government Manual 1993/94).

Retrieval of Data

During 1990, the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency initiated a four-year, $8 million TIPSTER Text Program. The objective of this program is to design and develop innovative approaches that lead to or enable revolutionary advances in the state of the art of multilingual text retrieval (CBD 1990). Within this program, one of the projects was a two-year award for $689,000 for two professors at Syracuse University School of Information Studies. According to a report in Information Today, this effort was for the construction of a broad-based document retrieval system to be hardware, language, and domain independent. In addition, it would retrieve all kinds of documents from many sources (Information Today 1991).

The TIPSTER project entered Phase II during April 1994. Phase I, referred to above, was directed toward technology development. The results justified a continuation with the objective toward technology deployment. This includes continuation of the research and development of the technology, the deployment of actual model systems, and the creation of a common architecture that will provide rapid porting of the data in many environments. The TIPSTER project is a key effort necessary for the NII to meet its expectations. The project has the support of the National Performance Review group, Vice President Gore's 'Reinvention Team' of the federal government (Doddington 1994).

The increasing use of multimedia makes the retrieval of full-motion video and sound, in color, a much greater problem than text retrieval alone. A step in the right direction is the result of efforts by a dyslexic programmer, Jim Dowe, now marketed as Excalibur, by a San Diego-based firm by the same name. Dowe used his knowledge of nature's pattern-recognition system in DNA teaching his computer to do the indexing on-the-fly (Rothschild 1994).

Under Item V, Principles and Goals for Government Action of The National Information Infrastructure: Agenda For Action, Point 9 specifies that the federal government is to take every step to improve the process of information collection, manipulation, and dissemination. To help the public find government information "an inter-agency project has been formed to develop a virtual card catalogue that will indicate the availability of government information in whatever form it takes." Legislation has also been enacted to improve electronic dissemination of government documents (NII 1993).

On January 3, 1994, the National Archives and Records Administration opened its sleek new building in suburban Maryland to researchers. However, it will be another two years before all the documents will be in place. The installation is known as Archives II, unofficially. An initial shortage of staff has generated some comment concerning the use of the new facility (Coughlin 1994). It will take additional time to properly evaluate the services and to learn how well the new surroundings interface with the latest in information technology. The old and well-known Archives facility in the District of Columbia will continue to operate.

Census Data

Gathering U.S. Census Data illustrates how the census has grown from a survey to determine political representation to the American corporations' most important planning and marketing tool. The century between the 1890 U.S. Census and the 1990 U.S. Census demonstrates the increasing importance of gathering data for providing information. A major difference in the 1990 data gathering was the ability to cross-reference the basic demographic information with computerized maps of every city block in the nation. This method permits the creation of a staggeringly detailed portrait of consumers. These maps, called TIGER (Topographically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing), permit marketers to refine their efforts to gather detailed data. Most of the 1980 census was broken down by census tract and zip-code areas. These provided larger geographic areas and permitted data showing greater fluctuations of income and lifestyles (Farhi 1990). Unfortunately, the Census data omits individual SSNs; however, the data are available on CD-ROMs for the first time.

Patent and Trademark Data

Most states have Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries that give independent inventors a place to go and do patent research on their own. A major factor in the geographical location of the facility in the state is the number of recognized inventors within a specific area. This was true in the location of the first Kansas patent depository at Wichita State University's Ablah Library. The many inventors in the Wichita area were a major factor in deciding to locate at WSU as opposed to other universities. Wichita, Kansas is known as the Air Capitol because of the concentration of small airplane companies and suppliers. Before the establishment of the patent depository, inventors who wanted detailed patent information had to use patent depositories in Kansas City or at Oklahoma State University (Weber 1991). Like the census data, the patent and trademark data are also available on CD-ROMs.

Library Resources

The Library of Congress opened in 1800. In 1833, three decades later, the first tax-supported town library in the U.S. opened in Peterborough, NH. In 1854, the Boston Public Library opened as a free service and the tax-supported library became part of American life. Melvil Dewey published the first edition of his Decimal Classification in 1876, and 11 years later organized and directed the first library school at Columbia University (Gates 1983). The number of volumes in library holdings is still used as a primary measurement tool for ranking libraries based on data from the Association of Research Libraries (Almanac 1993). A portion of a footnote comment on the chart listing the Holdings of Research Libraries is appropriate as it points out that the index does not measure a library's services, the quality of its collections, or its success in meeting the needs of users (Gragasin and Thompson 1994). Evaluations based on the number of volumes should be replaced with a measurement of how well information is made available to users.

Within the library portion of the information industry there are two contradictory roles described by Herbert S. White: self-service and information intermediary. Many librarians see themselves simply as educators to prepare students for self-service. The other role, that of information intermediary, is most commonly performed by special librarians in the corporate sector. In the special library environment, the user is not to perform self-service, but rather be provided with information required for whatever purpose the user desires (White 1992).

There are many different specialists among library professionals. For example, special librarians hold their own annual meeting. They are a small group when compared with the membership of the American Library Association (ALA). The 110th Annual ALA meeting returned to Atlanta in 1991 after a ninety-one year absence. The ALA program ran 312 pages in fine print, with more than 7,000 exhibitors, 10,000 registrants, and 12,000 visitors (Nelson 1991). In spite of limited budgets, over 8,000 attended the 112th meeting of the ALA when it was held in New Orleans during June 1993 (Webb 1993). These numbers are not so staggering when it is realized that there are approximately a hundred thousand libraries in America.

According to those attending national meetings for professional librarians and others interested in information storage and retrieval, the most notable change taking place is that individuals participating are no longer made up of only librarians. Attendees from the business world include attorneys, CPAs, engineers, doctors, and faculty from various disciplines.

Library automation is beyond being a form of status symbol because it discontinues the need for the old card catalogues. Unfortunately, the total discard of the cards is hard to accomplish because of cost of manpower and shortage of funds. A large portion of the funding problem is due to the increasing costs of subscriptions to professional journals. Fortunately, the introduction of electronic journals is helping eliminate a portion of this problem. Library automation extends beyond card catalogues and into nearly all functions performed such as acquisition, costing, circulation, serials control, and provision for access to bibliographic records.

During the fall of 1991, the New York Public Library announced plans to open a new library described as a "library without walls." The new library will be the Science, Industry, and Business Library (SIBL). The SIBL will use information technologies to provide new kinds of targeted services to small businesses, entrepreneurs, corporations, scientists, secondary and college students, and research scholars. When the SIBL opens in 1995, it will be the largest library of its kind in the world. As a library without walls, the SIBL will have a national and international reach, making its electronic data bases available with 24-hour dial-in access, telephone reference, and access to the INTERNET (Information Today 1992).

Similar to the library without walls, the virtual library concept is a system by which a user may connect transparently to remote libraries and data bases. This is possible by using the local library's on-line catalog system and a local area network as a gateway to external networks. An increasing amount of the information a user requires, such as bibliographic, journal citation, or full text, is stored somewhere and available for retrieval in digitized format (Mitchell and Saunders 1991).

According to John Garrett, digital libraries will be the grand challenges of the future, requiring structures for building information and knowledge, not just data. Of course, he points out that his digital libraries do not reside in buildings. With correct design, their information arrives as needed at the user's screen (Garrett 1993).

Brian Hawkins of Brown University recently pointed out how Andrew Carnegie's philanthropic contributions to our nation's libraries fundamentally changed the fabric of the country. Dr. Hawkins' concept for the National Electronic Library model to be an independent nonprofit organization is worthy of serious consideration for making a national contribution. Professor Hawkins believes that the library of the future will be about access and knowledge management, not about ownership, (Hawkins 1994). His view seems consistent with the knowledge development concept being developed in this report.

ON-LINE RESOURCES

Less than a decade ago the literature contained numerous articles about the advantages of on-line searching capabilities. A 1985 Fortune magazine article was entitled "Life Will Be Different When We're All On-Line." The article stated that examples of those trying to change the world by the use of on-line databases included Lockheed, Mead, Dow Jones, Reader's Digest, H&R Block, and the SEC (Seligman 1985). Since that time, the growth of on-line databases has exceeded all expectations. For example, the first edition of what was then called Computer Readable Databases listed only 301. The eighth edition in 1992 listed about 6,800. The growth quadrupled between the third and fourth editions, and nearly doubled between the next two editions (Marcaccio 1992). The publication is now the Gale Directory of Databases, from Gale Research, Inc., with the 1994 edition containing over 8,700 references (Miller 1994).

There are a number of organizations that provide data and information as a service and for a price. College and university libraries most often have access to some of these services. Due to the cost, restrictions are to be anticipated. Again, the volume of information available is staggering. The following examples are only representative of the many organizations that provide similar services.

News Service Example: NewsNet^®

This service provides full text of over 600 newspapers, magazines, and business newsletters on-line. For example, the service can retrieve an article that ran 10 minutes ago. The NewsFlash^® service will sift the news for the subscriber by scanning over 15,000 articles each day, 24 hours a day, to compile a concise, personal news briefing.

Financial Data Example: Dow Jones News/Retrieval^®

This service provides business news and information, including the full text of The Wall Street Journal and Barron's, plus the breaking news from the proprietary Dow Jones newswires. The full text of more than 30 major U.S. newspapers, 20 of the most prominent business publications, such as Forbes, Business Week, Fortune, and the Economist, are included. There are more than 1,000 other local, national, and international publications and newspapers, from the Alaska Business Monthly to the Miami Review. There are also many databases available.

Search Service Example: Dialog^® Information Services, Inc. is one of the largest on-line full-text sources of information. These services could be listed as a news and financial service as well as a search service. However, the search option makes this and other search services distinctive. Dialog's search capability allows the user to search groups of databases as well as a single specific database. The user can access over 400 databases from a broad scope of disciplines. A special service is provided for students to access information on virtually any subject under a Classroom Instruction Program.

Information Network of Kansas (INK)

The Information Network of Kansas is unique by being a private/public adventure organized by the State of Kansas. INK is governed by a 10-member board appointed by the governor. According to the INK's marketing information:

INK has leveled the playing field for Kansas Attorneys by allowing real-time electronic access to a host of services such as: Complete Legislative information including Full Text of all current bills making their way through the legislature and Enrolled Bills prior to their publication in the Session Laws, Kansas statutes Annotated, Session Laws,Kansas Administrative Regulations, Kansas District Court access to Sedgwick, Shawnee, Wyandotte and Johnson Courts, UCC Searches and Filings, Kansas Corporation Records, Drivers License Records, Vehicle Title Registration and Lien Records, the Federal Register, Kansas Bar Association Network and much, much more. In coming weeks, INK will be adding Full-Text of Legislative Committee Minutes with Testimony going back to the 1971 legislative session, a Kansas Public Policy Bulletin Board and other services" (Staab 1994).

Kansas is only one of several states moving ahead with their own information highways. Others are Alabama, Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia (EDUPAGE 1994d).

Barbara Quint, of Information Today, recently asked the key question, applicable to all search services: "Will the search services last?" (Quint 1994). Perhaps this question had a bearing on the Mead Corporation's decision to sell its Lexis/Nexis electronic data services to Reed Elsevier PLC, the Anglo-Dutch publishing giant (Narisetti and Steinmetz 1994).

CD-ROMs (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory)

The use of CD-ROMs by many different organizations for the storage of databases created what is known as portable databases. By providing a new CD-ROM either quarterly, monthly, or sooner, the databases are updated and the data kept current. This makes portable databases very competitive with on-line databases. The first issue of the Directory of Portable Databases in 1990 listed 600. This number made the ratio of on-line databases to portable databases about 7 to 1. By 1991, the number of portable databases had increased to more than 1,500 with a ratio of about 3 to 1 (Cuadra 1991). By 1992, an international directory of compact discs listed 3,000 from 2,600 publishers (Briefly Noted 1992).

CD-ROMs are becoming one of the most attractive and inexpensive methods to store and deliver vast amounts of data. Initially, CD-ROMs were useful only for the storage of reference data where frequent updates are not required. Now that frequent updates of the discs are more feasible, numerous computer-based databases are being replaced. The use of discs will reduce the number of reference books, computer storage requirements, manuals, and papers. In addition to the reduction in space, communication costs are reduced or eliminated.

Quality control has not been well carried out in the production of CD-ROMs according to numerous reports in the press. For a well balanced account of CD-ROM products as of the end of 1993, see Peter Jacso's article (Jacso 1994a).

There are numerous unexpected areas profiting from the use of CD-ROMs for interactive information and entertainment. A major asset is that personal computer vendors are making CD-ROM drives available at reasonable prices. Many companies market CD players that make use of TVs as display screens. Although the CD-I (Compact Disc-Interactive) concept marketed by Phillips Electronics as a CD-for-TV has not been widely accepted, it is an important resource (Schwartz 1993). The major competitor is the Multimedia PC (MPC) developed by a consortium of hardware vendors using IBM-compatible personal computers. Three popular programs are Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, and Microcoft Encarta.

At COMDEX FALL '93, Compton's president announced that a patent was held on the multimedia information storage and retrieval methods developed for Compton's Encyclopedia. According to Jacso's definition, he describes multimedia as the integration or some combination of audio, video, images, and text (Jacso 1994b). Since that time, several press reports have confirmed that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had overturned the Compton patent. At COMDEX FALL '94, Microsoft Corporation Chairman William Gates, a keynote speaker, updated his concept of information at your fingertips, (Clark 1994).

PROJECT GUTENBERG

Michael S. Hart, when a student at the University of Illinois in 1971, entered a copy of the Declaration of Independence on a university computer system and began what is known today as Project Gutenberg. The objective of the project is to have 10,000 books recorded in electronic form and available to all Internet users by the year 2001 (Graham 1991b). The project is not without opposition. Even though the contents of the books in the project are intended to be available in the public domain, many librarians consider the material to be trash because important reference information such as edition, typeface, version, etc. is omitted. Hart's concept is to reach the vast majority of the public (Wilson 1992a,b). A Project Gutenberg CD-ROM is now available from Walnut Creek CDROM in ISO-9660 format with all files using plain ASCII. Updates are automatically available by subscribing (Walnut Creek 1994). Hart's efforts are an example of what one individual can do to make a difference.

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER (CIO)

Credit for suggesting the chief information officer (CIO) title is given to William R. Synnott (Synnott and Gruber 1981).

His critics charged that the CIO idea was a ploy to increase the

stature and control of the MIS boss, since it came from a data processing veteran. In a later book, Synnott describes how control will slowly be transferred away from the technocrats and into the hands of business managers. Unfortunately for Mr. Synnott, this happened to him after he acted as CIO at the Bank of Boston for many years without the title, then took early retirement. Prior to his departure, he had to report to a banker who was given the title of CIO (Carlyle 1987).

Corporate America is reluctant to accept the designation of an individual as CIO to be responsible for the management of information. A review of the list of attendees at a Society for Information Management (SIM) conference showed only four out of over 400 attending were using the CIO title. A 1991 survey mailed to all SIM International members disclosed that only 10 percent of the 580 responses from 620 members gave their position as CIO (SIM 1991). According to the 1993 Business Week profile of the typical boss in their group of 1,000 organizations, not a single CEO included CIO or information management on his or her career path to the top (Bhargava and Jespersen 1993). Only 13 of the top Computerworld 1994 Premier 100 company executives were listed as CIOs (Premier 100 1994). The position title information resource manager is used more often in the federal government than CIO.

Corporate America is not satisfied with the results of spending billions of dollars on information technology. Their dissatisfaction is shown in the turnover of individuals in the position of CIO who, no doubt, in many instances are the fall guys for the CEOs who did not have sufficient background to make the proper decisions. As stated previously, it is the CEO and the functional area managers who are truly responsible for their computer applications.

The responsibility for the leadership in managing information must rest with the president and CEO, not the CIO, not the director of IRM, not the vice president for information technology. These are technical staff positions and not management positions other than for the management of the personnel and operation of their immediate offices. From the CEO, the responsibilities for information management flows downward or outward, depending on the type of organizational structure in place, to the managers of functional areas. This management should include the computer and networking systems and applications that support their functions. When there are multiple functional areas involved or supported by the same application, then the primary user should be held responsible.

Managers have responsibility for their budgets, their personnel or human relations management, and day-to-day operation of their functional areas including the management of the information they use to support their endeavors. This should include the management and operation of the computer supported systems and applications for their areas. Strategic planning for the management of the IT functions of an organization should be included within the strategic plans for the organization as a whole. For many years it was recommended that the IT strategic plans be separate; then the IT strategic plans were to be adopted to carry out the organizational strategic plans.

INFORMATION INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS

The library portion of the information industry is beginning to redirect its objective away from buildings and the number of books in inventory toward distributed facilities making access and service the primary concerns as digital libraries.

The information industry is no longer concerned with only text material. A decade ago, the use of micrographics, computer output in microfilm that could be cut into microfiche, were examples of technology. Now, multimedia has compounded the problem by adding the need for integration of audio, video, and images in full color in addition to text. Information is needed by individuals at their own personal computers from resources available. After watching bombing missions and other expolits brought into our living rooms during the war in the Persian Gulf, our demands on commmunications technology increased.

3. COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY

The invention of the telephone in 1876, the wireless telegraph in 1893, and Claude Shannon's information theory in 1948 provided the base for the communications industry today. Shannon developed a quantitative means of describing communications systems by treating bits of data as physical quantities. In application, this theory showed that messages can be retrieved from badly garbled versions of themselves through probabilities. If the probability of various kinds of garbling is known, an estimate can be made of the original content of the garbled message (Shannon and Weaver 1949). This theory proved to be a major development in communications.

The communications industry has grown into a very massive and complex effort, now on a global scale. The developing National Information Infrastructure makes it urgent for the public to learn about communications. This urgency is prompted by the fact that NII makes greater use of communications than ever previously attempted. Without a program to educate students of all ages, the public will not be able to take advantage of the resources available.

DEREGULATION

The date 8 January 1982 is important for both the communications and computer industries. A thirteen-year-old antitrust suit against IBM was dropped by the Department of Justice, termed without merit. The seven-year antitrust suit against AT&T was dismissed in return for a modification of the 1956 Consent Decree. This decree confined AT&T to regulated businesses only. The 1982 modification eliminated these restrictions, but introduced additional specifications that have undergone continuous review. In summary, these actions permitted AT&T to compete in the computer industry and IBM to compete in the communications industry. Since 1982, both organizations have encountered many problems competing in these areas. AT&T's purchase of NCR is a good example of its effort to become a major player in the computer industry. AT&T changed the meaning of NCR, which once meant National Cash Register, to AT&T's Networked Computing Resource (Verity and Coy 1992). In January 1994, according to the Associated Press, the NCR Corporation name was changed to AT&T Global Information Solutions. This meant the loss of a famous name as it was the late Thomas J. Watson, Sr. who gave NCR national recognition. Watson later left NCR when selected to head C-T-R, which he renamed IBM in 1924.

COMMON CARRIERS

Companies that provide voice and data transmission services for the public are common carriers. Examples of these are telephone companies, telegraph companies, and satellite companies. In foreign countries there are competing organizations such as Post Telephone and Telegraph Administration (PTT) organizations; an example is the Bundespost in Germany, a government entity. These and other common carriers are all competing for their share of the communications market. The advertisements by AT&T, MCI, Sprint, and LDDS in newspapers and on TV indicate the level of competition. In addition, there are approximately 1,300 independent U.S. telephone companies.

TELEPHONES

The telephone portion of the communications industry now makes it possible to dial, or use voice-activated dialing, to reach a person or an organization almost any place in the world. AT&T has an international language translation service over voice lines from any one language into one of the 140 languages available (AT&T 1993). This eliminates much of the former language barrier that the Esperanto language never accomplished. On the other hand, musical scores make up the most common international language in existence today. Musicians may not be able to carry on a conversation, but they can read almost all music, regardless of its country of origin. An orchestra can be made up of musicians of many different nationalities, all playing the same music, but unable to communicate due to different languages (Thompson 1991).

Unfortunately, over half the country's business calls go unanswered, and the caller ends up playing what is known as telephone tag. The use of computers for voice mail is reducing the telephone tag problem; however, being unable to speak to a human continues to be a major irritant.

The Easyreach 700 Service announced by AT&T in May, 1994, is to allow customers to be reached in any of 127 countries. The service is $10 to acquire a number, then $7 a month, plus the cost of the calls made (EDUPAGE 1994a). It has also been reported that CD-ROMs are published with a nationwide telephone directory and updated frequently.

SATELLITES

In 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the first U.S. communications satellite. That same year, the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) radar early warning system was introduced and continues as NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) in Colorado. Satellites operate at a fixed location about 22,300 miles above the earth. Although there are some transmission delays in their use and some problems of security, their popularity is increasing. The use of satellites speeds up the transmission and accuracy of data such as keeping track of a trucking company's vehicles as they move from coast to coast. Another common use is for satellite traffic to absorb some of the volume of data moved over trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific cables. These cables across oceans have been in place and upgraded for over a century. AT&T has installed enough undersea cable to circle the earth f