BACKGROUND ON CLINTON-GORE ADMINISTRATION'S
NEXT-GENERATION INTERNET INITIATIVE
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 video-conferencing. 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
video-conferencing, 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.
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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 can not 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 wide-spread 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 video-conferencing and "streams" of
audio and video -- very 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 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, if anything, 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.
----------------------
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.
President Clinton and Vice President Gore announce
"Next Generation Internet" initiative.
[Source: Hobbes' Internet Timeline, v. 2.5]
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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
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10:20 10 Oct CLINTON TO PROPOSE $100 MLN UPGRADE TO THE INTERNET--WHITE
HOUSE'S MCCURRY
10:39 10 Oct Clinton to propose $100 mln Internet project
KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Oct 10 (Reuter) - The White House said Thursday that
President Clinton would propose a $100 million project to upgrade the Internet.
Spokesman Mike McCurry told reporters on a flight from Washington to
Knoxville that the project is proposed for fiscal year 1998 and would span five
years.
He said the objective is to develop a partnership between the public and
private sectors to promote more Internet connections with libraries and
classrooms, and to increase the overall speed of the Internet.
Thursday, 10 October 1996 10:20:25
ENDS [nWAT1254]
11:07 10 Oct Clinton plans for free Internet access in schools
KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Oct 10 (Reuter) - President Bill Clinton will announce
plans to provide basic Internet access for free to every school in America and
create a $500 million program to install more advanced Internet access at
selected sites around the country, the White House said on Thursday.
It was not clear, however, who would pay for this.
White House documents outlined a plan to develop a "universal service fund
that provides free access for schools to the information superhighway."
But an hour before Clinton was to announce the initiative at a campaign
speech in Knoxville, Tenn., White House officials were unable to explain just
who would contribute to this fund and how it would work.
The president, appearing with Vice President Al Gore in the latter's home
state, also planned to announce a five-year program called "Next-Generation
Internet' which will link 100 sites, including universities, to the Internet
with speeds 100 to 1,000 times faster than currently possible.
A White House official said the program, estimated to cost $500 million over
five years, would be funded in its first year by the White House seeking $100
million from Congress in its fiscal year 1998 budget request.
The White House will then study just where the rest of the money will come
from, the official said, saying public-private partnerships were one option.
The president also plans to announce the formation of a commission by seven
chief executives that will seek to provide computers, software and teacher
training to every school in the country using private funds.
Clinton and Gore have both pushed high-technology issues in this campaign
year, challenging the country to connect all of its school classrooms to the
Internet.
Leading Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole by double digits, according
to most national opinion polls, Clinton was scheduled to campaign in Ohio and
Kentucky later in the day before returning to Washington late on Thursday.
Thursday, 10 October 1996 11:07:56
ENDS [nN10187117]
14:02 10 Oct Clinton: "Every home connected to the Internet"
By Steve Holland
KNOXVILLE, Tenn, Oct 10 (Reuter) - President Bill Clinton proposed on
Thursday a $100 million plan to expand the reach of the Internet while his
running mate accused Republican Bob Dole of supporting big cuts in
technological research.
"Let us reach for a goal in the 21st century of every home connected to the
Internet and let us be brought closer together as a community through that
connection," Clinton told Democratic supporters.
Appearing in an area dependent on government-funded science research,
Clinton said he wanted to see the day "when computers are as much a part of
classrooms as blackboards."
Leading Republican rival Dole by double digits according to most national
opinion polls, Clinton clearly was trying to paint himself as a man of the
future by emphasizing high technology and to put a spotlight on running mate Al
Gore, fresh from a successful vice presidential debate.
Clinton announced a three-pronged strategy to make Internet access
universal.
-- He urged the Federal Communications Commission to approve at a Nov. 8
meeting a proposal that schools and libraries be given basic Internet services
free. Telecommunications companies would pay for this by putting money into a
fund, much as they currently subsidize poor and rural phone users.
-- He said industry leaders would help raise money to match government
technology-literacy grants to buy computers for schools and ensure that
teachers are properly trained.
-- And he said the $100 million Internet upgrade project would help develop
a new generation of the information superhighway that would be 100 to 1,000
times faster than the existing computer system that is rapidly reaching
capacity.
"Like any other piece of critical infrastructure, it has to be repaired and
upgraded to meet all of our education, medical and national security needs. It
is now time to invest in the next generation of Internet," he said.
The $100 million would be included in the budget for the 1998 fiscal year.
It would be paid for with $70 million from the defense budget and $30 million
from domestic discretionary funding, Gore's technology adviser, Greg Simon,
said.
The initiative is part of a five-year, $500 million program to install more
advanced Internet access. The White House planned to study where the rest of
the money would come from, according to one White House official who said
public-private partnerships were one option.
Clinton said the improvements envisioned would enable the Internet to
transmit the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in less than a second, allow the
Defense Department to send intelligence to troops anywhere in the world and let
doctors scan patients for cancer by tapping into supercomputers.
Clinton made the announcement on a visit to Gore's home state. The Knoxville
area is home to the research-oriented Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the
Tennessee Valley Authority, a regional utility that also conducts much
esearch.
Gore, aglow from his debate performance against Republican vice presidential
candidate Jack Kemp on Wednesday night, said Republican budget cuts supported
by Dole in technological research "would have amounted to unilateral disarmame
nt in the face of growing world competition in research, development, science
and technology."
"They wanted to cut America's science and technology budget by one-third,"
Gore said.
Clinton gave his running mate a slap on the back for his performance in the
debate, which most opinion polls showed he won. "Last night it was Al Gore who
sacked the quarterback," he said, referring to Kemp's early career as a
football quarterback.
Clinton and Gore were hoping to hang on to a state Dole would like to steal
from the Democrats. The latest polls give Clinton an edge of five to 10
percentage points. He was to campaign later in Dayton, Ohio, and Louisville,
Kentucky.
Thursday, 10 October 1996 14:02:26
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