Elon University

Subtopic: General

Building the Open Road: The NREN As Test-Bed for the National Public Network

The diverse needs of these many users will create demand for thousands of information proprietors on the Net, just as there are thousands of producers of personal computer software today and thousands of publishers of books and magazines. It should be as easy to provide an information service as to order a business telephone. Large and small information providers will probably coexist as they do in book publishing, where the players range from multi-billion-dollar international conglomerates to firms whose head office is a kitchen table. They can coexist because everyone has access to production and distribution facilities – printing presses, typography, and the U.S. mails and delivery services – on a non-discriminatory basis.

Building the Open Road: The NREN As Test-Bed for the National Public Network

[I recommend we] act now to create a level and competitive playing field for private network carriers, (whether for-profit or not-for-profit) to compete. Do not give a monopoly to any carrier … Encourage information entrepreneurship through an open architecture (non-proprietary) platform, with low barriers to entry … Everyone agrees in the abstract with universal service … But that’s only a platitude unless accompanied by an inclusive pricing plan … The ideal means of accessing the NPN will not be a personal computer as we know it today, but a much simpler, streamlined information appliance – a hybrid of the telephone and the computer … The National Public Network will need an integrated suite of high-level standards for the exchange of richly formatted and structured information, whether as text, graphics, sound, or moving images … full support for First Amendment values.

Building the Open Road: The NREN As Test-Bed for the National Public Network

To both local and long-distance communities, accessible digital communications will be increasingly important; by the end of this decade, the “body politic,” the “body social,” and the “body commercial” of this country will depend on a nervous system of fiber-optic lines and computer switches.

Building the Open Road: The NREN As Test-Bed for the National Public Network

At its best, the National Public Network would be the source of immense social benefits. As a means of increasing social cohesiveness, while retaining the diversity that is an American strength, the network could help revitalize this country’s business and culture … It will increase the amount of individual participation in common enterprise and politics. It could also galvanize a new set of relationships – business and personal – between Americans and the rest of the world.

Building the Open Road: The NREN As Test-Bed for the National Public Network

A debate has begun about the future of America’s communications infrastructure. At stake is the future of the web of information links organically evolving from computer and telephone systems. By the end of the next decade, these links will connect nearly all homes and businesses in the U.S. They will serve as the main channels for commerce, learning, education, and entertainment in our society.

Harley Hahn: Author

I really think that there is a watershed here, starting with computers in the ’50s and the Net in the ’80s and ’90s, that you’ll look back and everything before that will be called primitive times.

Harley Hahn: Author

It’s a democratic anarchy. There’s nobody in charge. There’s no police, there’s no rules, there’s only etiquette and guidelines. Wouldn’t you love to live in a world where everything is run by etiquette rather than rules and law? And people enforce things because they want to be nice people and they voluntarily act nice rather than having police or parents or teachers telling you what to do.

Harley Hahn: Author

The economies of all the different countries and all the divisions within a country because of the Net and global trade and less tariffs and television will become so dependent on one another that no one will be able to afford to make war anymore or to fight on a large scale, and it will become unthinkable.