|
1998 Networks for People
Society and Information Infrastructure:
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) |
. CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
Technology Trends: Options for the Future
Opening Plenary Session
Evolving Community Networks
First Breakout Session
Creating New Locations for Service Delivery
Second Breakout Session
Networking and the Transmission of Sensitive Information
Third Breakout Session
Workable Mechanisms for Meeting Community Needs
Fourth Breakout Session
Networks and Accessing Services from the Home
Fifth Breakout Session
Moving from Information Access to Analysis: Empowering Communities
Sixth Breakout Session
Network Technologies and Organizational Change
Second Plenary Session
Update on TIIAP’s Progress
Closing Plenary Session
Appendices:
- List of Conference Participants
- Links to Technology Demonstrations & Presentations
- Contact Information for Panelists — includes links to online panelist biographies
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PREFACE
On behalf of the National Telecommunications and Information (NTIA), I am pleased to share the following report from the 1998 Networks for People Conference on Society and Information Infrastructure: The Next Generation. This annual conference highlights the work that NTIA's Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP) has accomplished to date. Since TIIAP's inception in 1994, much has changed. Amid rapid diffusion of technology and the emergence of private-sector Internet-service providers, the very concept of computer networking has evolved substantially. Nonprofit organizations have discovered new ways to connect disadvantaged populations and to use networking technologies to deliver services more efficiently. Community-based organizations have developed innovative techniques to compile and analyze data that help communities understand and empower themselves. And new issues — including security, privacy and interoperability of diverse networks — have assumed growing importance.
The 1998 Networks for People Conference addressed all these issues, and more. We believe this report offers valuable insights into how society is using information technology and how TIIAP projects have been at the forefront of this change. In addition, the conference and this report highlight the emerging societal and technological trends that will change our lives even more as we approach the 21st century.
We trust you will find this conference report valuable and encourage you to stay informed of what TIIAP is doing in communities across America. I encourage you to visit the NTIA website (www.ntia.doc.gov) or call the TIIAP office at 202-482-2048 for more information.
Finally, we look forward to seeing you at the 1999 Networks for People Conference to be held in the fall in Washington, DC.
Larry Irving
Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information
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INTRODUCTION
On December 8-9, 1998, more than 600 leaders in the networking movement gathered in Washington, DC, for the 1998 Networks for People Conference to share the lessons they have learned and to consider what the future holds. Conference participants, who came from 45 states and two foreign countries, had much to discuss. The five years since the inception of the Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP) have seen sweeping changes.
According to Larry Irving, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, Department of Commerce and Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), "the telecommunications and information technology industries have undergone astonishing changes. We've seen a transformation from telecom networks primarily carrying voice to networks primarily carrying data. Because of the development of the Internet, pagers, wireless devices, satellites, and computers, we have seen the creation of millions of jobs and a change in our culture and even our vocabulary. Today, we are witnessing in greater numbers companies merging with or working with competitors, as everyone looks for new ways to grow and to capture the promise of the Information Age."
Larry Irving kicked off the conference with a speech noting that, amidst this rapid change, conference participants shared a common "underlying credo." All are committed to bringing new technologies and their benefits to underserved communities. But, while the information revolution is gaining momentum, it still has a long way to go. According to Larry Irving, "We still have a country in which there are people who are not online. For far too many people in this country, the information revolution is still a rumor — it's something they have heard about, seen on television, but it doesn't affect their lives."
For TIIAP, the conference represented an opportunity to learn about what model projects the program should fund in the future, and what policy issues need to be addressed to make the opportunities of the Information Age available to everybody. But in the final analysis, Irving said, communities should be in the driver's seat. "We want to make sure this movement is community-driven, not Washington-driven," he said.
"We want to go beyond giving basic access to information services and just connecting people," Irving concluded. "We want to build an intricate web across this country, and the web, we hope, will result in stronger communities and better services and, most importantly, better and greater opportunity."
TIIAP's values were summed up well by Robert F. Kennedy 30 years ago, noted Irving. Quoting Kennedy, Irving said:
Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product, now, is over eight hundred billion dollars a year, but that GNP — if we should judge America by that — counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud to be Americans.
Following Irving's speech, conference participants met in a plenary session to hear speakers describe efforts by the government, universities and the private sector to develop newer, high capacity networks to succeed the current Internet. Speakers discussed what kind of applications might be possible as the new networks get built. Next, after a series of presentations by sponsors of various TIIAP-supported technology projects, the conference featured six breakout sessions focusing on particular aspects of networking. These sessions, like the conference itself, brought together community network builders, health-care providers, educators, economic development leaders, public safety officials, and social service providers and some representatives of private business. TIIAP believes that technology issues often are overlapping, and that people in one sector can have much to learn from people who face similar challenges in other sectors.
On the second day of the conference, participants returned for two plenary sessions. One examined how organizations can adapt to new network technologies. The other, which concluded the conference, examined TIIAP's progress; a group of panelists discussed what TIIAP has achieved to date and what its priorities should be in the future.
Technology Trends — Options for the Future
1st Plenary Session
. Speakers:
Heather Boyles
Chief of Staff, Internet2
George Strawn
Director, Advanced Networking, Information, and Research
National Science Foundation
Kathryn Condello
Vice President, Industry Operations
Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association
John Leahy
Director, Government Strategies
Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc.
Bernadette McGuire-Rivera (Moderator)
Associate Administrator
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
The Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program seeks to nurture public-interest applications of cutting-edge technology. The Networks for People Conference, therefore, began with a look at what new tools will emerge during the next stages of the Information Revolution. Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, Associate Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, urged conference participants to start thinking about these new applications now, noting that TIIAP is eager to support projects that will quickly introduce newly-emerging networking tools to communities and population groups that otherwise might fall behind. "We're trying to make sure that there is no divide in the next generation," she said.
In a field where rapid innovation has become the norm, it is difficult to predict what will come next, but a panel of experts agreed on one thing: the coming years will bring changes as profound as those that have accompanied the emergence and explosive growth of the Internet. "The last 25 years have been breathtaking," said George Strawn, Director of Advanced Networking, Information and Research for the National Science Foundation (NSF). "The next 25 years will be even more breathtaking."
Strawn described the Next Generation Internet project, an interagency federal initiative to develop new, high-end networking capabilities. The Federal Government contributed $110 million in fiscal year 1999 to this effort, which eventually will see the creation of about 200 experimental network testbeds able to carry 100 times more data per second than the Internet currently can, plus another 20 testbeds that will have a capacity 1,000 times greater than the current Internet. The NSF, for its portion of the project, has awarded 131 grants to universities to start work on building the new infrastructure. The universities, in turn, each have agreed to invest about $500,000 a year in perpetuity. For every 10 cents the NSF has provided for such networking efforts, Strawn said, about $1 has come from universities, research institutions and other sources.
Another speaker gave conference participants some hints about what applications might be possible with such a high-speed network. Heather Boyles is chief of staff for Internet2, an effort by approximately 135 universities and a number of private-sector partners to develop advanced applications for information technologies. These new applications will involve far more interactivity, and will ensure a more complete convergence of audio, visual and data communications than is currently possible, Boyles said.
Some applications being developed include digital libraries that can transmit orchestral music with the same fidelity as CD players, "virtual laboratories" such as one that allows high-school students to use electron-scanning equipment at a remote location, and "shared virtual reality" projects such as three-dimensional "virtual tours" of the body that can compress an enormous amount of medical education into a short period of time. Boyles said the advanced networks of tomorrow also will allow "distributed computation," in which information from separate databases can be compiled and analyzed. Old Dominion University in Virginia, for instance, is working with multiple databases to create a three-dimensional portrait of varying levels of salinity in the Chesapeake Bay.
"When you go on the web (today), you're basically retrieving information," Boyles said. "We're looking forward in this next stage of applications to more collaboration rather than just pure information."
Internet 2 and the Next Generation Internet initiative also are working to improve the quality and reliability of service over the Internet or successor networks. That will become increasingly important, Strawn and Boyles agreed, as these networks become means of transmitting vital information such as surgical consultations and air traffic control communications.
Two other speakers offered a glimpse at what networks of the future will look like to end users. Kathryn Condello, Vice President for Industry Operations of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, predicted that the coming months and years will see an "explosion in application development." In particular, she said, people will be able to gain access to the Internet or other networks using cell phones or other small, hand-held devices.
The World Wide Web has changed customer expectations, according to Condello. Today, individuals demand access to enormous amounts of information, and they want it in "highly visual," multimedia formats. In addition, she said, "we want to be able to talk anywhere, anytime." Condello said wireless communications companies are racing to meet this demand. More than 400 wireless companies now serve more than 64 million customers, and can reach 98 percent of the U.S. population. What's more, there is enough spectrum available — at declining prices — to allow a wide variety of uses beyond personal communication and Internet access. Cellular communications increasingly can be used to monitor and control assets (the city of Sarasota, Florida, for instance, uses a wireless system to control its sprinkler system), and to build databases. For a closer look at developments in the wireless business, Condello recommended her association's website (http://www.wow-com.com).
The growth of the wireless business is part of a larger trend, judging from comments by John Leahy, Director for Government Strategies at Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc. In the future, he said, people will be able to use a number of devices other than personal computers to gain access to the Internet: telephones, television set-top boxes, pagers, cell phones, calendar devices, and even watches. "Web tone" will become the equivalent of today's "dial tone." People will have "web phones," which Leahy described as "intelligent" telephones with touch screens and small keyboards that will provide web browsing and other custom information services. The personal computer "won't disappear, but it will become just another network access device," Leahy said. "In the ‘emerging network computing economy,' the network is the computer."
On that note, conference participants broke into smaller groups to explore what lessons have been learned, and what challenges lie ahead, in the effort to use networking technologies to improve the quality of life and strengthen communities.
Evolving Community Networks:
1st Breakout Session
. Speakers:
Laura Breeden
President
Laura Breeden & Associates
David Eisner
Vice President, Corporate Relations
America Online
Peter Krasilovsky
Vice President
Arlen Communications
Susan Myrland
Principal
Interactive Media Management
B. Keith Fulton (Moderator)
Director, Technology Programs and Policy
National Urban League
Participants in the conference's first breakout session focused on a bittersweet dilemma: the very success of nonprofit community networks has helped spawn a robust commercial sector providing Internet access and community information. As a result, nonprofit community networks that considered these their primary mission are being forced to redefine themselves.
"We work in an area in which the frontier keeps moving and the definitions keep changing," said Laura Breeden, president of Laura Breeden & Associates. "Not only do you have to keep up with technology, not only are you working in an area that is relatively new, but as soon as a technology or service becomes commercially attractive, commercial providers are likely to come in and start providing it."
Panelists argued emphatically that nonprofit enterprises still have a crucial role to play in bringing the benefits of networking technologies to communities. Breeden suggested that community networks should emphasize technology training as communications infrastructure becomes more widely available. She also urged community networks to focus more on helping low-income communities take advantage of new technologies. And she urged community networks to identify and serve needs — for after-school programs — that may not attract commercial interests.
Community networks must remain agile, adaptable and continually on the lookout for new markets, argued Susan Myrland, a principal with Interactive Media Management. She cited one project that set out to become a traditional community network but evolved, almost without planning, to become a set of community technology centers. The metamorphosis occurred, she explained, as project leaders came to understand that people in the community wanted something more tangible than an electronic network.
Such changes in direction are common among community networks, said Myrland, adding that community networking groups should strive to share their lessons and experiences. One good way to accomplish that goal, Breeden noted, is to connect with the Association for Community Networking.
The discussion then turned to the opportunities that could arise from forging closer partnerships between nonprofit community networks and profit-making companies. Far from seeing the two sectors as competitive, speakers emphasized their common interests and complementary capabilities. David Eisner, Vice President for Corporate Relations at America Online, suggested that some of his company's biggest business opportunities lie in areas that long have been central to the missions for nonprofit organizations: education, philanthropy (using the new medium to organize, attract publicity and encourage volunteerism), and improving civic discourse.
Private Internet service providers have much to learn from community networks, Eisner argued. "Tell us what we need to do," he said. "We are really good on the technology side, we are really good at creating tools that help people interact, we are really good at making content interesting so people want to see it. But . . . we have not had the same experience that a lot of other people have had in building passionate communities, in helping people feel they are part of a cause and they want to stay part of a cause, in helping people take these communications tools and actually use them to move forward."
Peter Krasilovsky, Vice President of Arlen Communications, urged community networks to form partnerships with private entities in order to attract more users. Only 6.5 percent of Internet users, or only about 2 percent of the overall population, currently tap into online community and nonprofit resources, far short of what is needed for networks to be self-sustaining.
To increase that dismal figure, networks must go beyond simply listing community resources, Krasilovsky said. They must create features that will induce people to return to their websites over and over again. And, he said, they must form alliances that help attract new users. In Texas, for instance, the Austin FreeNet exchanges links, co-sponsors events and distributes web guides jointly with Austin City Search, a for-profit site listing entertainment guides and other local information. In Colorado, a group of high schools agreed to send the Denver Post various sports scores in exchange for web publishing services. The Denver Post has since sold the site to the Wendy's fast-food chain. Similarly, a community network in Portland, Oregon, arranged for a temporary-services company to sponsor information on technical training.
One challenge for community networks, Krasilovsky suggested, lies in defining acceptable boundaries of commercialism. Other speakers put relatively more emphasis on the limits of the business model. The number of users a network attracts is important, but it is not the sole measure of success for a nonprofit community network, Myrland argued. And Breeden said nonprofit community networks create important secondary benefits such as fostering collaboration among different community organizations, and creating hope and opportunity for residents of low-income communities.
"Mastering the computer can be a very powerful experience for someone who is disenfranchised and who has not experienced tremendous success in school or in the work place," Breeden noted. "To walk into a community organization and be greeted in a way that is positive and to have an opportunity to explore this very powerful technology . . . and actually to master it is a very opening-up kind of experience for a lot of people."
Creating New Locations for Service Delivery:
2nd Breakout Session
The "Digital Divide" has widened between certain groups of Americans. There is a widening gap, for example, between Americans of different income levels and different races. Reducing this divide is a primary goal for TIIAP grantees. A panel of experts explored some promising locations and strategies for introducing technology into disadvantaged communities.
. Speakers:
Ken English
Literacy Project Director
New York Public Library
David Glover
Executive Director
Oakland Citizens Committee for Urban Renewal
Don Samuelson
Owner and Manager
Don S. Samuelson and Associates
Marie K. Sayles
Education Coordinator
Zeum
Judith Sparrow (Moderator)
TIIAP Program Officer
NTIA
Don Samuelson, whose firm promotes economic development and self sufficiency in public housing, said the 50,000 government-assisted housing developments in the United States are fertile ground for efforts to connect low-income communities. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is attempting to turn assisted housing projects into "service-enriched environments." As part of this effort, HUD has established 400 "neighborhood networks," each with its own business plan for using a computer learning center. But HUD cannot make these centers work by itself, Samuelson said. While it can provide space, general oversight and equipment, it needs partners to provide technical assistance and instructional programs in order to ensure the centers' success.
David Glover described efforts to transform a deteriorating shopping mall in Oakland, California, into a new "town center" that houses a computer center along with various public agencies and commercial establishments. The TIIAP-funded computer center in the Eastmont Town Center, as it is known, introduces residents to networking technologies, helps them find jobs, and is building a network among community-based organizations, nonprofit organizations, churches, schools and organizations like block clubs and public safety and cultural services groups. As Glover sees it, the close proximity of the computer center to key nonprofit organizations and commercial establishments will help demonstrate how technology can serve community needs and promote economic development.
Ken English, Literacy Project Director for the New York Public Library, discussed how libraries can introduce networking technologies in inner-city neighborhoods where large numbers of people lack basic literacy skills or do not speak English. The key to success, English said, is finding online resources that are accessible to end users. "You can't just plop somebody down in front of a computer and hope that they are going learn something." With support from TIIAP, the New York Public Library works with an organization called the Literacy Assistance Center to find websites that are user friendly, provide desired information, do not overwhelm users, and use language people can understand.
Marie Sayles described the Zeum, a new arts and technology center in San Francisco that offers another model for encouraging wider use of networking technology. One of its projects, funded by TIIAP, integrates arts and technology into the classroom by supplying schools with multi-media computers, cameras and video and audio recorders. Students use these tools to collect images, sound clips and video clips, which they then bring into the Zeum's production lab to turn them into movies. The goal, according to Sayles, is both to reach people who normally would never come to a museum and to encourage teachers to see the museum as a resource they can use regularly rather than "just a field trip destination."
The panelists discussed at length strategies for getting communities involved in their projects. Samuelson said a computer learning center in a Chicago housing project, Northwest Tower, did not really flourish until a group of organizers went through the building "floor by floor, unit by unit, resident by resident," asking people what programs they wanted from the center. Now, residents are enthusiastic. "There is a buzz going on, where people actually feel it is their development, that they are the people responsible for it," he said.
The project went further, though, reaching beyond Northwest Tower to develop an inventory of resources in a surrounding 16-block area. Besides helping residents find services, such efforts help identify potential new sponsors for new computer learning centers, generate interest in nonprofit training efforts and even highlight business opportunities for local companies. Using strategies like this, a computer center can evolve from being part of a housing project into a learning and employment network, a community network and ultimately an "electronic village," he said.
Similarly, Glover said, the Eastmont computer center strives to demonstrate its value to political leaders, church congregations, various neighborhood organizations and private companies, all of whom can become sources of referrals. Sayles recommended involving people who will use a technology project in planning and marketing. Zeum began bringing teachers and students into a "Digital Garage" even before the project opened its doors, and it invited teens to review its advertisements before they were issued.
Panelists also noted that projects can use communications technologies to demonstrate their own successes. Zeum, for instance, publishes student art work on line. In some cases, the success of networking projects is clear to everyone. Samuelson said buyers agreed to raise the $14 million price tag for one development, a 367-unit building in Schaumburg, Illinois, by $1 million just because the building has a computer center. Said Samuelson: "We are beginning to find that many of the buyers are large chains of housing developments, and their conclusion is: How can you NOT have computer learning centers?"
Networking and the Transmission of Sensitive Information:
3rd Breakout Session
Computer networks are creating unprecedented opportunities for diverse institutions to compile and share databases in ways that will enhance the quality of health care, strengthen law enforcement and improve social services. But the transmission of sensitive information raises complex political, technical and ethical issues. The third breakout session brought together people from various sectors to explore strategies to overcome jurisdictional barriers, maintain the security of information and honor privacy rights.
. Speakers:
Mark N. Greene
Vice President, Security
IBM
Elliot M. Stone
Executive Director
Massachusetts Health Data Consortium
Lt. Dotty Veldey-Jones
Commander, Internal Affairs Unit
City of Minneapolis Police Department
Myra Lee Wall
Director
ChildLink
Stephen J. Downs (Moderator)
Director
TIIAP
Of these issues, panelists stressed the importance of addressing public concerns about privacy. Shared medical databases could lead to improved medical care and make health-care providers more accountable, but these goals could be thwarted by concerns about the confidentiality of medical records, said Elliot Stone, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium. To build trust, Stone advocated strong federal penalties for misuse of medical records, and he called for stepped-up deployment of encryption and other technological tools to guarantee confidentiality. Stone also challenged the health-care industry to "convene a public debate" to explain the value of information-sharing efforts.
In law enforcement, networks linking disparate police agencies make it possible to track criminal suspects who cross jurisdictional boundaries. "Sharing information is a good thing, but a lot [of police departments] are reluctant to do it for liability reasons," said Lt. Dotty Veldey-Jones, Commander of the Internal Affairs Unit of the Minneapolis Police Department. She helped design the TIIAP-funded Multiple Jurisdiction Network Project, an information-sharing system in the Minneapolis region. To satisfy security concerns, the network allows participating departments to retain tight control over their own records. One department can use the network server to learn whether other departments have had contact with particular suspects, but officials must follow up with a telephone call or a personal visit to view each others' actual records.
Minneapolis officials set their network up as an "intranet" using dedicated telephone lines, but more and more networking projects use public telephone lines and the Internet. While several speakers acknowledged public doubts about the security of Internet-based communications, Mark Greene, Vice President of Security for the IBM Corp. Network Computing Software Division, said tools such as encryption and "digital certificates" (which allow the authentication of email messages) have "almost perfectly dealt with" that issue.
The bigger challenge now, according to Greene, involves preventing misuse of information once it reaches its destination. To deal with this issue, he said agencies should develop procedures for auditing exactly who taps into databases and how such individuals use the information they retrieve. Technology can help in this regard — by creating electronic audit trails, for instance — but networks also must design policies spelling out exactly what information they need, who will have access to it, and how it will be used, Greene suggested.
Much work remains to be done to address this and other aspects of the privacy issue. Despite advances in encryption, relatively few networks actually employ the technology, according to Stone. And Greene said a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) audit of 1,200 websites found that only 14 percent currently meet FTC privacy standards by including on their home pages statements explaining what type of information they collect, how they use it, how they do not use it, their policy on redistributing information, how users can prevent information about them from being used, and how individuals can complain about misuse of personal information.
Privacy is just one of the challenges network-building projects face. They also must work out cost-sharing agreements and address a raft of technical issues ensuring interoperability of their different information systems. In Minnesota, where police departments initially plan to share fewer than two dozen specific data elements, officials spent about a year creating a "data dictionary" prescribing standard formats for information in police databases, according to Veldey-Jones. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act required health-care providers to adopt standardized formats for their business records, but the job will not be done until 2001, and data sets for clinical information will not be standardized until 2005, Stone said.
But resolving technical problems will prove fruitless unless projects also succeed in enlisting public support. Panelists recommended casting a wide net to engage groups that would be affected by their projects, as well as members of the public at large. Because networking projects require people to give up at least some privacy, the public must be persuaded that the benefits outweigh the sacrifice.
In Lane County, Oregon, for instance, the Public Safety Coordinating Council, using a TIIAP grant, is bringing eight disparate agencies together in a network designed to serve as an early-warning system for identifying children who are at risk of becoming abuse victims. By pooling their databases, officials believe they will be able to get a fuller picture than they can get individually, thus detecting patterns among seemingly minor contacts with social services that point to families in trouble. But acknowledging public concerns about the potential invasion of privacy by "Big Brother" government, project sponsors engaged civil liberties advocates in planning the network from the outset. "When we're talking about stretching beyond people's comfort zone, we have to put that up front," says Myra Wall, principal planner for the Public Safety Coordinating Council.
Workable Mechanisms for Meeting Community Needs:
4th Breakout Session
Another breakout session focused on practical aspects of building and sustaining community networks.
. Speakers:
Robert Bullock
Information Services Director
Caracole, Inc.
Andrea Kavanaugh
Director of Research
Blacksburg Electronic Village
Tim Mills-Groninger
Associate Executive Director
Information Technology Resource Center
Barry Forbes (Moderator)
Director of Community Programs
Civil Rights Forum
Tim Mills-Groninger, Associate Executive Director of the Information Technology Resource Center, discussed three "laws" that define the practical realities involved in creating computer networks.
First, he said, the value of information increases exponentially as connections are added to a network. "A (single) fax machine is worthless," he said. "Two fax machines add a little bit of value, four a whole lot more." The same is true with connecting computers or individuals.
Second, computer speed doubles and prices drop by one half every 18 months. Often, organizations hope that a single, one-time investment, frequently involving grant money, will pay for a network that will last then 10 years. But in fact, we live in a very fluid information economy, and continuing costs associated with information infrastructure must be built into overhead calculations.
Third, as the sophistication and size of a network grows, the system becomes more costly. Indeed, "as soon as you start making it more complex, costs start to go up precipitously" — doubling, tripling or even quadrupling, according to Mills-Groninger.
Mills-Groninger cited several indicators of success in a community network. Not surprisingly, adequate funding topped his list. In addition, staff resources — both what staff can contribute and, significantly, how enthusiastic employees are about networking — are crucial. Other crucial indicators include whether organizations are able to change and whether people who have responsibility for network operations also have the authority to make things happen.
Turning to signs of failure, Mills-Groninger said projects that involve "technology in search of a problem" are likely to get in trouble. He said organizations should focus first on their underlying goals, and then see if technology can help. It also is important to avoid starting out too high on the cost-complexity curve; it is better to start small, with manageable projects, and learn. Other trouble signs include constituents who lack a sense of ownership and inadequate training, Mills-Groninger added.
Andrea Kavanaugh, Director of Research for Blacksburg Electronic Village, agreed that encouraging a sense of ownership among constituents is essential. "The Blacksburg Electronic Village view of community networks requires some local ownership to keep the private sector from trying to take over," she said. To that end, she said, a crucial function is to train community members to use the system and create content themselves.
In Kavanaugh's view, community networks should be judged on whether they enhance social relationships and build social trust in ways that lead to collective action. Surveys suggest Blacksburg Electronic Village has scored some successes in that regard: 43 percent of the electronic network's users say it has led them to become more involved in issues that interest them, and 46 percent say it made them feel more connected to people like themselves.
Overall, 68 percent say the network had not led them to become more involved in their community, compared to 22 percent who said they had become more involved. These numbers may appear to contradict those cited earlier, but Kavanaugh suggested a possible explanation: the electronic village may make the biggest difference to people who already are involved in the community. She noted that an electronic newsletter published by the chairman of the school board grew in three months from having 140 subscribers to having 370, and that 82 percent of its readers said it led them to become more involved in school issues.
Experiences like these have led Blacksburg Electronic Village to target community organizations and groups that already have assembled groups of people eager to communicate with each other, such as a local rugby club or parents of school band members. The network offers such groups their own websites, two email accounts and a listserv for $20 a year.
Robert Bullock is Information Services Director for Caracole, a nonprofit organization that provides services and housing for HIV/AIDS victims in the Cincinnati area. Some of the lessons Caracole learned from its activities underscored comments by earlier speakers.
First, Bullock said, "start with what your users need, develop for the need." Caracole did not simply decide one day to develop a housing database for its clients; instead, it already was providing housing and started looking for a better tool for accomplishing the job. Accordingly, the organization decided not to have information-systems experts or consultants design the database. Instead, it went to case managers and asked them how they thought such a system should work.
Listening to clients and other system users is absolutely crucial, Bullock argued. When Caracole set out to establish a health-care tracking system for homeless clients, Bullock was surprised to encounter strong resistance from people in various agencies that deal with the issue. At first, he thought they simply did not understand, but slowly he realized that their distrust stemmed from a genuine concern for the well-being of clients. Later, when Caracole was designing information kiosks for people with AIDS, they consulted an AIDS sufferer who pointed out that many people with the disease have an eye condition that makes them sensitive to bright colors. Caracole subsequently toned down the original colors they had planned.
These various lessons share a common theme, according to Bullock. Network builders must resist the idea that they know what is right, and instead must let users design and control the systems according to their needs and preferences. "The Internet was developed by the powerful military and defense complex," he noted. "The challenge is to build in humanity."
Moderator Barry Forbes, Director of Community Programs for the Civil Rights Forum, concluded by stressing the importance of community networks working together. "Everything is for naught without the funding," Forbes said, adding "All the foundation giving and all the government giving is not enough."
Forbes urged nonprofit groups to start organizing coalitions to press for an extension in the concept of universal service. "It's a matter of bringing people in and understanding how they can benefit from the type of services you provide, then helping them understand how policy drives both the funding as well as the access to a technology, and then, finally, (taking) action," he said.
Networks and Accessing Services from the Home:
5th Breakout Session
As more and more households go online, the hearth is starting to serve as a virtual medical clinic, classroom, community center and workplace. A breakout session highlighted a number of projects that are using the Internet to bring services directly into people's homes.
. Speakers:
Eric Boberg
Associate Researcher
University of Wisconsin
Center for Health Systems Research
Frank Odasz
Founder
Big Sky Telegraph
Alan Shaw
Director
Linking Up Villages
Ellen Wagner
Vice President
Informania
Lammot du Pont (Moderator)
TIIAP Program Officer
NTIA
Eric Boberg, an associate researcher at the University of Wisconsin's Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (CHESS) described how health-care services now can be delivered directly to patients in their homes. The Internet-based CHESS offers three types of services: information, including web links to high quality health information on the net; communications services, including private email between the patient and provider as well as online support groups facilitated by trained moderators; and assessment and decision-making tools that help people change unhealthy behavior and track their health status over time. All this comes via a "very simple interface with all the instructions on the screen so that folks who have never sat down in front of a computer before can use and benefit from the system," said Boberg.
CHESS bases its programs on careful research into how people respond to health crises. For every illness the system covers, project staff spend six months to a year studying what a person with the affliction experiences. The project looks not just at medical issues patients confront, but also at how illnesses affect their relationships with their spouses, children, parents, employers and associates. CHESS also addresses financial issues and other aspects of living with an illness.
In addition, CHESS seeks to discourage behaviors that create health risks. It shows heart attack patients how they can reduce cholesterol by changing their diet and increasing exercise, for instance. Boberg believes that the program can reduce health care costs by "training patients to be effective users of the health care system" — thereby avoiding unnecessary visits to the emergency room. Studies indicate that CHESS cut costs for HIV patients by about a third, for example.
Convenience is a critical advantage of CHESS. The information it provides is available around the clock and in a comfortable environment. What's more, CHESS allows patients to ask questions that they might feel uncomfortable asking doctors face-to-face. Boberg pointed out that CHESS is not a replacement for physician care, however. Instead, it "reinforces what the patient learns in the clinic."
Frank B. Odasz, founder of Montana-based Big Sky Telegraph, described how interactive reading and writing instruction can be provided via the Internet. With support from TIIAP, Big Sky Telegraph created an online correspondence school for home schooling families in far-flung native Alaskan villages. The School District in Galena, Alaska, put computers in the homes of 80 village families and helped secure funding for Internet training programs for teachers, students and community members of all 11 Native villages in the Yukon-Koyukuk Regional Consortium. Odasz also is working with the University of Alaska to offer a self-directed course for teachers entitled "Making the Best Use of the Internet for K-12 Instruction."
Odasz said his experience shows that "content can be delivered in a self-directed format and be successfully mentored by non-content experts." Self-paced learning brings down the cost of learning, and is very valuable for those who cannot afford an instructor, he added. One problem, however, is that "economic models that encourage teachers to create quality learning resources and put them on the web really do not exist." Organizing and distributing all the Internet service innovations that are already available is another challenge. Said Odasz: "The World Wide Web is rather chaotic right now."
Alan Shaw described a program called "Linking Up Villages." His Multi-User Session In Community, or "MUSIC," software enables communities to conduct electronic forums, and organize neighborhood-based programs and social activities. "Linking Up Villages," according to Shaw, is designed to facilitate the delivery of service BY homes, not just TO homes. "If I was to give a motto for ‘Linking Up Villages,' it would probably be: It's not about information access," Shaw said. "It's about information activists. It's not about delivering services. It's about enabling homes to deliver services."
As Shaw sees it, MUSIC creates a "commons" for communities. "It's a website that many groups build," he said. The software includes a "room" where community stories are told, and others where residents can present their own creative writing and music. Shaw's experience suggests that the Internet is more than a "global village." It also is a place where people can collaborate locally. "We will always have a local context for our lives," Shaw said. "We will always have a neighbor. We will always have a community that is where we live."
The business sector, too, is very interested in location-independent communication. Economic transactions are moving faster and are more far flung than ever before. Ellen Wagner works with a organization called Informania to help companies integrate information and knowledge-based systems for delivering services and managing internal business operations. The company's specialties include online banking, customer service call centers, professional training and telecommuting.
Informania is helping roving sales forces answer customer questions on the spot and complete orders through the use of hand-held, computer Palm Pilots. The Silicon Valley-based firm, Cyberstar, is installing satellite dishes at the homes of its employees so that they can retrieve and send information via Cyberstar's Intranet. According to Wagner, the telecommuting project is designed to help the company recruit and retain valued employees. She said the cost is recouped within three to six months.
Moving from Access to Analysis — Emplowering Communities
6th Breakout Session
Communities are using geographic information systems and other analytical tools to develop a better understanding of themselves, and to promote economic development, improve the health of citizens, strengthen planning efforts and fight crime. Panelists in the conference's sixth breakout session discussed how these new tools work.
. Speakers:
Moustafa Mourad
Director, Planning, Design, and Development
Enterprise Foundation
Rex Peterson
Director, Information Systems
Missouri Department of Health
J. Jeffrey Richardson
Director, Information Technologies Program
Colorado Advanced Technology Institute
Nancy La Vigne
Director, Crime Mapping Research Center
U.S. Department of Justice
Steve Saleh (Moderator)
TIIAP Program Officer
NTIA
Moustafa Mourad, Director of Planning, Design and Development for the Enterprise Foundation, described a technological solution to one of the biggest challenges that planning agencies and their communities face today — an information glut. The issue is significant when considering how to effectively achieve economic development in a community. According to Mourad, planning agencies often "overdose" on raw information, collecting more than they need and then getting bogged down trying to absorb it. As the information-choked planning process drags on, the public can lose interest, and coalitions can evaporate, leaving communities unable to address problems.
The Enterprise Foundation has been working on ways to make the planning process more efficient — first, by defining and collecting just the information needed, and then by accelerating the process of analyzing it so that information can be translated quickly into action. In a TIIAP-supported economic development project in York, Pennsylvania, residents are going door to door interviewing neighbors to create an inventory of individual job skills. They use carefully-crafted, standardized questionnaires, and record the information on hand-held Palm Pilots. This structured, electronic process eliminates the laborious and time-consuming process of collecting data manually and then separately entering it into a database. With the Palm Pilots, data can be transferred instantaneously to a database, where information on the capabilities of residents can be immediately run against a separate inventory of employers' needs, matching people to jobs.
Efficient management of information also is becoming increasingly important to public health agencies, according to Rex Peterson, Information Systems Director for the Missouri Department of Health. Public health agencies seek to improve health by providing immunizations, tracking communicable diseases, inspecting health care providers and public facilities like motels and restaurants, screening people for certain diseases and educating the public about the importance of exercise, a healthy diet and the dangers of smoking. In many of these activities, the key to success is collecting health data, organizing it, and then returning it to the community in ways that can be used to promote health, Peterson said.
Different community players need different kinds of information, he noted. Public health professionals often need very specific data; a public health nurse, for instance, may need a particular child's immunization record. For them, Missouri has developed the Missouri Strategic Architecture and Information Cooperative (MOSAIC), a centralized health information system. Epidemiologists and research analysts do not need health data about individuals, but they do need aggregate data such as the rates of immunization among people of different age groups, races or neighborhoods. To meet this need, the Missouri Department of Health gathers information from MOSAIC and combines it with other information in a computer "data warehouse" where professionals analyze it in order to develop overall public health policies and strategies.
Communities need health information, too, according to Peterson. To meet this need, the Missouri department publishes numerous general health indicators — the frequency of specific health problems among specific population groups, for instance, or the most common reasons people are hospitalized or use emergency rooms in different communities — on its website. The site (http://www.health.state.mo.us) also includes a tool called the Missouri Information for Community Assessments (MICA), which people can use to track and analyze health issues.
Schools, neighborhoods and advocacy groups can use such data to set priorities and organize public health efforts. Community-based public education can make a big difference, Peterson noted. Missouri has an unusually high rate of teenage smoking, for instance, but the number of pregnant, African-American teenagers who smoke has declined — apparently because of public education efforts aimed at this group.
"Maps for People," a TIIAP-supported project of the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute, uses the Internet to give the public detailed geographic information systems data involving land use. For some time now, planners have recognized that geographic information systems (GIS), which present social, geographic or environmental information graphically as overlays on maps, are a powerful analytical tool. But until recently, such information generally was inaccessible to the general public. When the institute launched its program in 1996, for instance, users needed special software to read GIS data. But now, the information can be presented as images over the Internet without requiring the user to acquire any software.
"We wanted to move the public decision-making process having to do with land-use closer to the people," said Jeff Richardson, Director of the Information Technologies Program at the Institute. "We thought the Internet made this possible." Richardson envisions a wide range of uses. Someone working for a local land conservation trust can use the GIS maps to figure out which parcels of land in a community to buy for a conservation easement, a community group can better plan strategies to preserve wildlife diversity in a river corridor, or a town planner can more effectively design regulations to preserve mountain skylines.
Nancy LaVigne, Director of the Crime Mapping Research Center of the U.S. Department of Justice, described one of the best-developed uses of geographic information systems — crime mapping. Communities have made various use of this tool, she noted: to display where crimes occur so that communities can deploy crime-fighting resources where they are most needed; to analyze the relationship between crime and other community characteristics (such as abandoned housing or inadequate lighting, for instance); and to enlist community members in prevention efforts.
According to LaVigne, some police departments, such as New York City, use crime mapping as a top-down management tool to inform management decisions about deployment of resources. Others, such as San Diego, strive to put crime mapping information into the hands of patrol officers to help them in their daily jobs. And some, such as Chicago, strive to put crime maps into the hands of residents so that communities can better understand and address the causes of their crime problems.
LaVigne said communities must ask themselves some difficult questions as they move to adopt crime mapping. Exactly what type of information should be mapped? What other information — community resources, after-school programs, the location of drug treatment centers — should be included in crime maps? What steps should be taken to preserve confidentiality? And what safeguards are needed to prevent misuse of crime information?
All are questions that communities surely will be asking more frequently as crime mapping becomes more commonplace. A good start toward understanding the possibilities and pitfalls might be the center where LaVigne works.
Network Technologies and Organizational Change:
Second Plenary Session
Information Age tools can profoundly improve the way organizations interact with clients, but only if organizations successfully adapt to the new technologies. On the second day of the conference, a panel explored some of the opportunities that technology is creating, and discussed strategies for taking advantage of them.
. Speakers:
Tora K. Bikson
Senior Scientist
The RAND Organization
Jerry Mechling
Director, Strategic Computing and
Telecommunications in the Public Sector
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
Michael Schrage
Research Associate
MIT Media Lab
Stephen J. Downs (Moderator)
Director, TIIAP
Tora Bikson, senior scientist at the RAND Organization, illustrated the opportunities and the challenges by focusing on email. By eliminating differences of time and space and reducing status hierarchies, email creates enormous opportunities for "greater participation and more even and fair participation" in community and national life, Bikson said. But its diffusion has been uneven. Suggesting that the Information Revolution as yet remains more a "half revolution" than a full one, she noted that government and other organizations still do not use email for official or important correspondence, and she noted that a significant portion of Americans remain "unwired," and therefore unable to use this technology.
Bikson participated in a 1995 RAND study that proposed a national effort to achieve universal email access. Although the nation is moving closer to that goal, it is far from achieving it. According to Bikson, while 42 percent of Americans have access to a computer at home, only 23 percent have access to a computer network and communications services anywhere (including from work or libraries, as well as from home). Further, there are troubling gaps between people who have access and those who do not. In fact, comparisons between the 1997 CPS data and those collected in 1993 show that differences in network access based on income, education, gender, and ethnicity actually grew wider during that time as advantaged groups acquired new technology at a faster pace than the disadvantaged.
Bikson argued that government should assume a special role in making access more universal — in part by making greater use of email to provide information and information-based services to its citizen-clients. But she noted that substantial efforts would be required to increase public access to networks and to train people how to use technology. (A RAND report to be released early in 1999 will provide a detailed account of the research background for Bikson's presentation.)
Jerry Mechling, Director for Strategic Computing and Telecommunications in the Public sector at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, agreed that the glass is half full. "We've clearly come an incredibly long way with technology acceptance," he said, "and the tools themselves are incredibly more powerful." But he suggested these developments so far have not produced a lot of organizational change in the public and nonprofit sectors.
Mechling noted that data processors are getting much more powerful. "We can find needles in haystacks," he said. Our ability to communicate also is greatly improved, he said. With these tools, he said, organizations are eliminating much of the friction arising from the division of labor. In some cases, technology enables organizations to eliminate "hand-offs" completely — by having one caseworker armed with the appropriate software do work traditionally handled by many. In other cases, where a division of labor remains necessary, technology allows faster and more efficient hand-offs, Mechling said. Finally, he noted that technology enables different organizations to share information in new ways.
Different types of organizations have pursued different strategies for adapting to new technologies, according to Mechling. "Stable" organizations, which he defined as ones undergoing relatively small and infrequent changes, often manage change simply by hiring experts to help them adapt to technology. "Evolutionary" organizations, where changes remain relatively small but occur more frequently, devote increased resources into technology, and try through consensus building to get front-line staff involved in managing change. "Revolutionary" organizations, which are undergoing more substantial changes, encourage creative employees to develop entirely new technology strategies, even if that creates opposition and dissension. This strategy, Mechling argued, requires "serious, committed leadership," and is most often found in the private sector, especially among start-up companies. A fourth organizational strategy, which Mechling described as "turbulent," is characterized by big and rapidly-paced changes. He said this model has not met with much success in the public sector.
The dominant technology-adaptation strategy in the public and nonprofit sector, Mechling said, has been characterized by the statement, "I'd rather be third." Many organizations are reluctant to take risks with technology, and instead prefer waiting until others have developed and proven the new tools, he explained.
But the pace of change will increase, Mechling predicted. He said organizations should focus as they adopt technology on increasing productivity. In this regard, he said, there have been a lot of failures, but there are substantial opportunities for success. As technology diffusion continues, he added, equity and governance will be two looming issues. How will we as a society ensure that everybody has access to the benefits of new technology? And as technology breaks down hierarchies within organizations and allows more cooperation among organizations, how will the resulting partnerships be governed?
Michael Schrage, a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, concluded the discussion by reminding conference participants that new networking technologies ultimately will be judged by whether they improve the quality of human relationships. "The most important product of the network is the networker," he said. "The real impact of these technologies is not about information, it's about the quality of relationships."
Schrage argued that terms like "information age," or "information revolution" obscure what is truly important about new technologies. The most successful advertising campaign of the old Bell telephone system, he pointed out, did not declare, "Reach out and inform someone." It said, "Reach out and touch someone."
As organizations design networks, they should concentrate on the "shared space" they are creating, Schrage suggested. "All collaboration requires shared space," he said. "As you change the quality of the shared space, you change the nature of the collaboration."
Just as technology can flatten hierarchies within organizations, it levels the playing field between organizations. For organizations embarking on networking projects with other organizations, Schrage proposed a "Golden Rule of Networking." Increasingly, he said, "organizations will have to come to grips with the question of whether they will network unto others as they would have others network unto them."
Update on TIIAP's Progress:
Closing Plenary Session
The conference concluded with a panel discussion addressing the impact and possible future directions for TIIAP.
. Speakers:
Jason Boehlert
Legislative Representative
National Association of Development Organizations
Laura Breeden
President
Laura Breeden and Associates
B. Keith Fulton
Director, Technology Programs and Policy
National Urban League
J. Jeffrey Richardson
Director, Information Technologies Program
Colorado Advanced Technology Institute
Arthur Sheekey
Coordinator for Learning Technologies
Council of Chief State School Officers
Jillaine Smith
Senior Associate, Communications Policy
The Benton Foundation
Bernadette McGuire-Rivera (Moderator)
Associate Administrator
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
An assessment of 1994 and 1995 grants suggests that the majority of projects launched with support from TIIAP have proven themselves useful and viable, according to Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, Associate Administrator of NTIA's Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications. She said fully 90 percent of those projects were still operating at the end of 1998. Some 54 percent were in full operation, and 17 percent have actually grown beyond what their founders originally intended.
The study found that TIIAP programs have benefitted a number of underserved populations, including Native American tribes, the illiterate, people with disabilities, and the urban and rural poor. In the health arena, TIIAP programs have improved the quality of information, improved health monitoring and assessment, promoted effective policies, increased equity, reduced illness by promoting preventive care and better delivery of service, and nurtured community-wide health services. In education, TIIAP projects have improved learning resources, increased teacher skills, promoted lifelong learning, strengthened student skills and competency, increased parental involvement, and led to cultural enrichment. And TIIAP-supported community networks have created new opportunities for training and learning, coordinated community information efforts, helped meet telecommunications needs, facilitated delivery of social services, promoted economic development, increased employment, encouraged civic participation and provided cultural enrichment.
J. Jeffrey Richardson, Director of the Information Technologies Program at the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute, said TIIAP has proved invaluable in bringing information technologies to fruition in rural communities. "There is no other force to help rural communities try out new technologies in advance of the market," he said.
Jillaine Smith, Senior Associate for Communications Policy at the Benton Foundation, said TIIAP has provided models for foundation funding of information projects. Historically, foundations have been slow to back technology projects, she said, but TIIAP has helped nonprofits demonstrate to potential funders the value of such activities. She said nonprofits should listen to see what they can learn from the commercial sector, but that they must remain "mission-driven," not "market-driven."
Jason Boehlert, a Legislative Representative of the National Association of Development Organizations, said TIIAP has been "invaluable" in overcoming barriers to economic development in communities that are geographically isolated or suffering economic troubles due to over-specialization. In particular, he said, TIIAP projects have reduced barriers to access, demonstrated how technology can promote economic development, and addressed some of the need for technology training in such communities. He said TIIAP should help ensure that advances in electronic commerce are available to rural communities. And he urged TIIAP to concentrate in the future on shrinking the divide between the information "haves" and "have-nots."
B. Keith Fulton, Director of Technology Programs and Policy for the National Urban League, cited the role of TIIAP in promoting strategic alliances and catalyzing collaborations among diverse organizations and individuals concerned about economic and social development. He urged TIIAP to concentrate on promoting scalable infrastructure, innovative content, and professional development and evaluation. He also urged the program to help grantees "make program and policy connections" — that is, learn how they can influence policy in ways that affect how their projects work.
Arthur Sheekey, Coordinator for Learning Technologies at the Council of Chief State School Officers, noted that TIIAP has supported numerous model projects for use of technology in education. He said many states are interested in scaling up projects, and he urged TIIAP and its supporters to invite state governors to see what educational technology projects are achieving.
McGuire-Rivera closed the session by asking panelists what they believed are the "killer applications" of new technology for nonprofits.
Richardson said the killer applications are the same for rural and non-rural communities: networks that enable transactions and allow users to search and retrieve information, communicate and collaborate. Laura Breeden, President of Laura Breeden & Associates, talked about improved search tools such as "natural language" tools and interactive video. Smith said nonprofits are looking at new ways to get their data out to the public via database-driven websites. Fulton said emerging broadband networks will enhance lifelong learning, promote jobs and economic development, improve health and generate a growing amount of electronic commerce. Sheekey predicted that television sets increasingly will be used as network-access devices.
Boehlert, however, suggested that rural communities are "in a rut, still trying to figure out how we can use what we've got now." He noted that there continues to be a lack of infrastructure and training in many rural areas.
In short, much progress has been made, but much work remains to be done.
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