Global Information Infrastructure: The Birth, Vision and Architecture addresses three levels of the information superhighway in terms of their information content and technological implementations. This book is a futuristic view of the major components of the new global world.

While societies have always had information infrastructures, the power and reach of today's information technologies offer opportunities to transform work and family lives in an unprecedented fashion. This volume, a collection of six papers presented at the 1994 National Academy of Engineering Meeting Technical Session, presents a range of views on the subject of the revolution in the U.S. information infrastructure. The papers cover a variety of current issues including an overview of the technological developments driving the evolution of information infrastructures and where they will lead; the development of the Internet, particularly the government's role in its evolution; the impact of regulatory reform and antitrust enforcement on the telecommunications revolution; and perspectives from the computer, wireless, and satellite communications industries.

Today millions of technologically empowered individuals are able to participate freely in international transactions and enterprises, social and economic. These activities are governed by national and local laws designed for simpler times and now challenged by a new technological and market environment as well as by the practicalities and politics of enforcement across national boundaries. Borders in Cyberspace investigates issues arising from national differences in law, public policy, and social and cultural values as these differences are reformulated in the emerging global information infrastructure. The contributions include detailed analyses of some of the most visible issues, including intellectual property, security, privacy, and censorship.

Will the emerging global information infrastructure (GII) create a revolution in communication equivalent to that wrought by Gutenberg, or will the result be simply the evolutionary adaptation of existing behavior and institutions to new media? Will the GII improve access to information for all? Will it replace libraries and publishers? How can computers and information systems be made easier to use? What are the trade-offs between tailoring information systems to user communities and standardizing them to interconnect with systems designed for other communities, cultures, and languages? This book takes a close look at these and other questions of technology, behavior, and policy surrounding the GII. Topics covered include the design and use of digital libraries; behavioral and institutional aspects of electronic publishing; the evolving role of libraries; the life cycle of creating, using, and seeking information; and the adoption and adaptation of information technologies. The book takes a human-centered perspective, focusing on how well the GII fits into the daily lives of the people it is supposed to benefit. Taking a unique holistic approach to information access, the book draws on research and practice in computer science, communications, library and information science, information policy, business, economics, law, political science, sociology, history, education, and archival and museum studies. It explores both domestic and international issues. The author's own empirical research is complemented by extensive literature reviews and analyses.

Infrastructure represents the core underpinning architecture of the global economic system. Adopting an approach informed by realism, this insightful book looks at the forces for the integration and fragmentation of the global infrastructure system. The authors undertake a thorough examination of the main internationalised infrastructure sectors: energy, transport and information. They argue that the global infrastructure system is a network of national systems and that state strategies exert powerful forces upon the form and function of this system.