ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ A p ril 1998 / 253 W a s h i n g t o n H o t l i n e Rick Weingarten The Next G eneration In tern et Government policy and the future of the Internet T h e N ext G e n e r a tio n In te r n e t (N G I) program was first announced by Presi­ dent Bill Clinton in the fall o f 1996 i sp eech on research and technology policy. The announcem ent reflected a renew ed fed­ eral co n cern with the developm ent o f the Internet and desire to find appropriate ways for the governm ent to help move it forward. If the adm inistration exp ected that the bipartisan popularity o f the Internet would m ean an easy sell in Congress, the first year must have b een a disappointm ent. The FY 98 budget request submitted in March 1997 asked for $105 million for the program, but final appropriations fell significantly short o f the request. D espite those problem s, the program seem s to b e entering its seco n d year with stronger political legs. Som e o f the early problem s and questions have b een dealt with, although there remain som e dif­ ficult issues. E v o lu t io n o f In t e r n e t p o lic y The scien ce agencies created the Internet principally as an experim ent in data co m ­ m unications and as a tool for their research­ ers. As other public uses such as education, libraries, and health care w ere folded into the p ack ag e, the federal govern m en t re ­ m ained the principal sponsor. But over the last several years, as the Internet has grown into a huge global netw ork, federal govern­ m ent policy has com e to assum e that the net is a viable com m ercial enterprise w hose growth would b e mainly driven by private investm ents in infrastructure and in content. National Scien ce Foundation (NSF) su bsi­ dies, w hich had helped stim ulate and guide th e ea rly g ro w th o f th e In te rn e t, w e re Rick W eingarten is se n io r p o lic y analyst a t the A L A Washington Office; e-mail: rww@ alawash.org n a eliminated. Only long-term, basic research in netw orking and support for an exp eri­ mental netw orking testbed, the vBNS (very High Speed Network B a ck b o n e ), rem ained. In the last few years, problem s and co n ­ cerns with the growth and viability o f the Internet moved som e to suggest a renew ed effort by the federal governm ent to help m ove it to the next threshold o f capability. Congestion and the rapid growth in use o f the Internet have created som e disappoint­ ment on the part o f many users. R esponse can be slow, particularly w hen using m ore com p lex services that demand higher band­ width, and many new proposed applications place technological demands on netw ork­ ing technology that it was not designed to provide. In som e sense, the netw ork has b een a victim o f its own success. Having tasted a limited set o f possibilities, many w ould-be users and service providers are beginning to dream about what could b e offered with ev en m ore band w idth and so p h isticated transmission services— multicasting o f mul­ tim edia, interactive ed u cational program ­ ming, allocating capacity and capability a c­ cording to need, and so on. An advanced netw ork could provide full-im mersion vir­ tual m eeting places for users from rem ote areas to gather to collaborate on tasks (or just visit). Large, distributed databases could be linked and search ed rapidly and effi­ ciently. Although experts argue about the details, the general characteristics o f a future Internet have b een set out by the netw orking co m ­ munity. It has to be scalable in order to sup­ port its growth into a truly universal m e­ dium. It has to support a w ide range o f new applications, only a few o f w hich we can imagine today. It must integrate sm oothly mailto:rww@alawash.org 254 / C&RL News ■ April 1998 into the existing infrastructure in which so much has already been invested. We ca n ’t just simply call the first generation a suc­ cess, and throw it away, replaced by a newer, better one. Clearly, the governm ent’s role will be much more limited and partial than when DARPA developed the ARPAnet and NSF started NSFnet. The Internet has moved too far, too fast into widespread commercial use for governm ent to replay that scen ario . Heavy investments are being made in im­ proved Internet technology by computer and com m unications firms and users. Service providers are putting in new plants to re­ lieve congestion. Despite these private efforts, the federal role can be important, particularly in re­ search and development. Private-sector in­ vestments are necessarily focused on the sh o rt-term te c h n o lo g ic a l im p ro v em en ts needed to sustain service to a growing user base. Government can work toward a wider horizon. Furthermore, government agencies such as NASA, the Department o f D efense, and NSF have applications that require them to push the leading edge of information tech­ nology. They continue to make investments in the development o f those applications, and a multiagency program could, in theory, take advantage o f these focused agency pro­ grams. N ew in itia t iv e s Early in 1996, representatives from research universities began discussing ways to im­ prove the com m u nications infrastructure available on their campuses. Out o f those discussions grew a project that cam e to be known as Internet2. It was essentially in­ tended to be a private initiative, funded by members o f an ad-hoc university coalition. As the project gained momentum, so did the number o f universities joining it. In October, when Clinton announced the NGI program, several research universities had alread y sig n ed on as m em b ers o f Internet2. Coincidentally, or maybe not, in his description o f NGI, Clinton mentioned two specific goals: linking 100 universities and research labs at speeds o f ten to a hun­ dred times faster than the current Internet and linking ten or so research labs together at sp eed s up to 1,000 tim es the current Internet speeds. The 100-university proposal sounded to observers a lot like the then ongoing private Internet2 project. Thus was born one o f the standing issues o f the NGI program— the relationship among: 1. vBNS: A federally funded very high­ speed data communications “b ack b o n e” ser­ vice, supported by NSF as a com m unica­ tions research facility. 2. Internet2: A private university, co n ­ sortium-led effort to build a new high-speed In tern et serv ice for university re search , which would use the vBNS as a core b ack ­ bone for its system, at least in the start-up stages. 3. NGI: A federally funded research and development (R&D) effort to advance state o f the art data comm unication, which is in­ corporating connections with Internet2 as a way to create the experim ental netw ork called for by Clinton. Since the three activities are designed to push Internet technology and its uses for­ ward, it is no surprise and probably desir­ able that they becom e intertwined in the NGI program. But this overlap has tended to confuse the message. Is NGI research or is it deploym ent o f advanced systems? If Internet2 becom es “part” o f NGI, is it a pri­ vate or public facility? There are arguments for both perspec­ tives, and, realistically, the program will probably always reflect both. But each per­ spective appeals to a different constituency, both politically and within the research com ­ munity. Some o f the problems NGI had get­ ting accepted by Congress last year were due to that dissonance. Some members o f C ongress b asically said, “N othing doing unless I see that institutions in my state will benefit directly from deploym ent.” Others in th e o p p o s it e c a m p s a id , “I t ’s th e governm ent’s job to do R&D; industry’s to deploy. So, why are you building another federally subsidized network?” F ra m in g th e NGI p ro g ra m The first step in deciding what work needs to be done and by whom, one needs to answer the more basic question “What is an NGI?” The honest answ er is that no one knows exactly. An infrastructure as com plex as the current Internet, coupled with the vision that users have for it, suggests that C&RL News ■ A p ril 1 9 9 8 / 2 5 5 Government information: A call to action Access to government information contin­ ues to be a high legislative priority. ALA is com­ mitted to working to support government's ob­ ligation to create and disseminate easy-to-use government information. To assist the lobby­ ing efforts of the ALA Washington Office, the Government Relations Committee would like to encourage ACRL members to send stories that dearly illustrate the value of government information in education, research, and public affairs. Effective lobbying is often a result of bringing the message home for the legislator. Following is an example of a story taking place in Florida. R e s to ra tio n o f th e E v e r g la d e s The largest environmental restoration project in the history o f the world is underway in south Florida. A multi-agency Federal Task F o rc e , a G o v e r n o r ’s C o m m issio n , th e Siminole and Miccosukee Indian tribes, nu­ merous environmental groups, state agen­ cies, and hundreds o f researchers are all involved in restoration o f the Everglades. A com m on thread o f need throughout the process is access to governm ent inform a­ tion. Thousands o f studies, reports, maps, and m onographs have b een published by federal agencies since the early 1920s d e­ tailing treatments and rem edies to “prob­ lem s” in the Florida Everglades. The Everglades exist in a swath between the rapidly growing Atlantic and Gulf coasts o f Florida and are surrounded by sugar, cit­ rus, and winter vegetable growers. In rec­ ognition o f the pressures being exerted upon the Everglades and that many o f the treat­ ments and remedies done to the Everglades have created additional problems, the 104th Congress 1995 (S.640, section 207.) passed the Everglades and South Florida ecosystem restoration bill. On the state level, the Florida Legislature passed the Everglades Forever Act, 1994. Money has been appropriated and work has begun on restoration efforts. The h is t o r y o f th e riv e r An example o f how the information is being collected and used for researchers involved in Everglades restoration is a small project at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), funded by the South Florida Water Management Dis­ trict. The Caloosahatchee River is a major river flowing from Lake O keechobee out to the G ulf o f M exico. The river has b een dredged, diked, and managed since the earl part o f the 1920s, initially to stop floods an then to serve as a link in the inter-coastal waterway from the Atlantic to the Gulf o Mexico. The South Florida Water Manage m ent District is attem pting to study the Caloosahatchee watershed to see what ha happened to the watershed over the past 7 or 80 years. FGCU is collecting all o f the docu ments available to write a history o f the rive and make the documents accessible to re searchers through the Web. This project i made possible because most o f the material are government documents, are in the pub lic domain, and are freely available to the public through government depository pro grams. The outcome o f this project is twofold: first, a history o f the river and the watershe will document the treatments and remedies and their impact on the Everglades to the south o f the river; and second, the combined collection o f local, state, and federal docu ments will provide a single resource base fo researchers to understand the studies con ducted, the changes over time, and will help researchers define a research agenda for the future. The ideal outcome will b e for polic m akers, research ers, and environm ental groups to realize the importance o f a coordi nated effort to avoid the costly mistakes o the past. The wealth of information available to re view is staggering and the accumulated data are helping policymakers and scientists come up with strategies for restoration. Without the availability o f government documents col lected and preserved through the Federal Depository Program, many o f the crucial pieces o f information may very well have been lost. S e n d y o u r s to rie s Academic librarians in particular need to find real life examples and develop stories that illustrate the strategic value o f government documents for research and education. The ALA Washington office can use these stories in their lobbying efforts with Congress. Please share your stories by sending them to Michael G o d o w at ACRL: m g o d o w @ a la .o r g .— C arolyn M. G ray is c h a i r ACRL G ov ern m en R elation s Com m ittee, a n d d e a n o f lib ra ry ser vices a t F lo rid a G u lf C oast University; cgray@ fg c u .e d u y d f ­ s 0 ­ r ­ s s ­ ­ d ­ r ­ y ­ f ­ ­ t ­ fgcu.edu 2 5 6 / C&RL News ■ A p ril 1998 many possible evolutionary paths exist. First, w h a te v e r ro le th e g o v e rn m e n t p lay s, it should not b e overly directive. Secondly, Internet engineers now talk about establish­ ing a clo se coupling betw een applications and infrastructure design. New Internet tech­ nology seem s likely to advance along a spi­ ral p ro c e ss in w h ich im p ro v em en ts are made, new applications are tried, new needs identified by the users, and new basic ad­ vances made. Four particular areas w ere identified in a federally sponsored workshop held in Wash­ ington, D.C. last spring. • R e s e r v a b le q u a lit y o f s e r v ic e . As the Internet b e co m e s m ore co m p licated and carries an increasing variety o f uses, users c h a fe a g a in st a o n e -s iz e -fits -a ll d esig n . Internet resources should be allocated ac­ cording to the needs o f the job. E-mail re­ quires one level o f service; real-time rem ote telesurgery requires another. Bandwidth is only one dim ension o f service; delay, reli­ ability, time o f day, are also important pa­ rameters. • S ecu rity. The Internet is certainly not a very secu re or re lia b le en v iro n m en t, a l­ though it is improving. As the world grows m ore dependent on this infrastructure, the vulnerabilities and potential costs o f failure continue to increase. T hese threats will e x ­ ist in the best o f systems, but the NGI will certainly need to be more secure and robust. • M id d le w a r e . Many o f today’s com m on In tern et a p p lica tio n s— e-m ail, the World Wide Web, and many others— depend on agreed standards that are im bedded in soft­ ware at user and server nodes. NGI appli­ cations, w hich will b e much more com plex, will depend not only on shared standards, but on in tellig en ce im bedded w ithin the netw ork itself. They will incorporate sets o f basic application tools and services provided by the network. • N e tw o r k m a n a g e m e n t . O n e c a n n o t m anage and im prove a te ch n o lo g y w ith ­ out p rop er m easu rem en t and to o ls. T h e se days, netw ork d esign ers and In tern et ser­ v ice providers o p erate pretty m uch in the dark, g u essin g abou t the so u rces o f c o n ­ g estio n and u nreliability m ore than a n a ­ lyzing. T h ey will need to b e a b le to in­ strum ent its p erform an ce and m odel its b e ­ havior. … th e n e t w o r k h a s b e e n a v ic t im o f its o w n s u c c e ss . H a v in g t a s t e d a lim it e d s e t o f p o s s ib ilit ie s , m a n y w o u ld -b e u s e rs a n d s e r v ic e p r o v id e r s are b e g in n in g to d re a m a b o u t w h a t c o u ld be o f fe r e d w it h e v e n m o re b a n d w id th a n d s o p h is t ic a t e d t r a n s m is s io n s e r v ic e s … S ta t e o f th e d e b a te Last year, both Senate and House com m it­ tees with scien ce oversight w ere critical o f the program for various reasons, and ap ­ p ro p riatio n s for FY 98 fell sh o rt o f the adm inistration’s request o f $105 million. D e­ partment o f Energy funding was reduced substantially. (There were no appropriations, but the agency was allowed to reprogram som e existing funds.) Furthermore, although NSF funding was, in theory, increased by $13 million over its $10 million request, the appropriations com m ittee directed NSF to take the m oney from a fund created from fees collected for dom ain-nam e registration. The dom ain-nam e issue has b eco m e a m ajor controversy in itself. The fund has b een the subject o f a law suit, and a federal judge recently froze the use o f that money. NSF has not decided what to do next. Pre­ sumably som e o f the missing money, at least the $10 million originally requested, will be found som ew here in NSF’s budget, but that would still leave overall NGI funding sub­ stantially below the FY 98 request. T here are many reasons offered for these d ifficu lties. A dm inistration o fficials c o m ­ plained about politics and m isunderstand­ ing on the part o f Congress. Members o f co n g ressio n al com m ittees and staff co m ­ plained about a lack o f leadership and d e­ lay on the part o f the administration. Congressional and administration critics may both be right. The program has b een relatively slow to com e together. And, even though the R epu blican C ongress seem ed sym pathetic toward NGI, it w asn’t about to m ake life easy for the administration. C&RL News ■ A p ril 19 9 8 / 2 5 7 But there also are several structural rea­ sons for the difficulties, the first o f which is the difficulty inh erent in co ord in atin g a multiagency program. With the exception o f the NSF, which sup­ ports basic science for its intrinsic worth and for the broad social benefits it brings, fed­ eral agencies fund research in information technology because it is vital to their par­ ticular m issions. T h ese ag en cies want to develop more sophisticated data com m uni­ cations technology to serve their own needs. The logic underlying the multiagency pro­ gram is that, by coordinating and fine-tun­ ing these various efforts, one can see that they also contribute to broader social needs. But, that is not easy. Each agency manages its R&D programs to m eet its own needs, and tight budgets and demanding constitu­ encies make it difficult for them to broaden or redirect their programs. Further, selling the program to Congress can b e tough w ork. Each agency must get its ow n part o f the program approved by its authorizing and app ropriation su b co m ­ m ittees in Congress. As o f now, there is no crosscutting NGI authorization, and ap ­ p rop riation is alw ays ag en cy -b y -ag en cy . E ach s u b c o m m itte e can h av e d iffe re n t views about its a g e n cy ’s role in the p ro ­ gram. Another structural difficulty is the confu­ sion b etw een research and infrastructure building that is inherent in so much infor­ mation technology R&D. Building systems to test concepts is a basic technique for com ­ puting and communications researchers. Pro­ totypes not only allow researchers to test laboratory ideas in a more realistic environ­ ment, they provide a testbed for higher level applications research. ARPAnet served not only as a system for testing packet-sw itch­ ing and Internet protocols, it becam e a plat­ form for research on how to use com m uni­ cations to support research. That was not a problem in the days when ARPAnet was first built. Few noticed or cared that ARPA was building network infrastruc­ ture in its research programs. But, these days, public interest in the Internet m eans that the NGI program operates in a fishbowl. No matter how experim ental the network is it creates, politicians will ask questions about w ho benefits and who gets access. Agen­ cies go to Congress expecting to sell a re­ search effort and get asked why som e uni­ versity in a rural state isn’t part o f the pro­ gram (even though that university may have no significant com m unications research go­ ing on the campus). The real dilemma is that the question is not unreasonable. The politicians know that even connections to a highly experim ental advanced network can provide important advantages to a research and educational community. President’s budget request for NGI for FY 99 (in millions) D efense Advanced Research Projects Agency $40 National Science Foundation $25 Energy $25 National Aeronautics and Space Administration $10 National Institute o f Standards and Technology $ 5 National Library o f M edicine $ 5 The NGI program, though principally de­ fined as a research program, will have to address equity o f access issues and deploy­ ment policies as an integral part o f the pro­ gram design if it is to gain significant politi­ cal support. C u rre n t s ta tu s The White House still seem s confident in the program, feeling that som e o f the mis­ understandings and confusions o f last year have b een cleared away. Clinton m entioned NGI in his State o f the Union. The budget request calls for a significant increase over last year (see chart). It also reflects two ALA priorities expressed in comm ents made last spring to the administration: that the Na­ tional Library o f Medicine should participate and that NSF should play a larger role. (Last year’s NSF request o f $10 million was sur­ prisingly low com pared with m ost other participating agencies.) A b ip artisan group o f Sen ato rs have co sp o n so red an NGI authorization bill, S. l6 0 9 , that has b e e n subm itted in the S en ­ ate. T h e sp o n so rs re p re se n t the se n io r lead ership on the Sen ate C om m ittee on C om m erce, S c ie n c e , and T ran sp o rtatio n and its key su bcom m ittees on S cie n ce and 2 5 8 C&RL News ■ April 1998 ACRL’s legislative agenda The ACRL Board approved this legisla­ tive agenda at its 1998 Midwinter Meeting upon recom mendation o f the Government Relations Committee. NGI an d In tern e t2 Ac tio n s r e c o m m e n d e d : • Educate library administrators about the potential importance o f these projects for libraries. • Educate the high perform ance com ­ puting policymakers and developers at the local, state, and national levels as to the needs o f libraries for high bandwidth com ­ puter capabilities. • Publish an article by Rick Weingarten o f the ALA Washington O ffice in C&RL N ew s about NGI activities. • Follow policy and legislative devel­ opments through the Internet2 Web site: w w w .in te r n e t2 .e d u and the Presidential Advisory Committee on High Performance Computing and Communications, Informa­ tion Technology, and the Next Generation Internet: w w w .h p c c .g o v /a c . In te lle ctu a l p ro p e rty Actio n s r e c o m m e n d e d : • Encourage ACRL m em bers, through the ACRL Legislative Network and ACRL Leads, to write their co n g ressm en and senators to get co sp on so rsh ip o f critical co p y rig h t le g is la tio n . T h e s e b ills are Senator Jo h n Ashcroft’s (R-Missouri) D ig i­ t a l C o p y rig h t C la r ific a t io n a n d T e c h n o l­ o g y A ct (S . 1 1 4 6 ) and the D ig it a l E r a C op y rig h t E n h a n c e m e n t A ct (H .R . 3 0 4 8 ) , jo in tly in tro d u ced by R e p re se n ta tiv e s R ick B o u c h e r (D -V ir g in ia ) an d T o m C a m p b e ll ( R - C a l i f o r n i a ) . S e n d th e ALAWON Alert again, as the other was so clo se to the holidays and may not have b ee n acted upon. on Com m unications. There are reports that the S cien ce C om m ittee o f the Ho u se o f R epresentatives is w orking on its own bill that should b e introduced som e time in March. Staff from both House say that there is potentially strong support for som e form • Ask the ACRL President to send a letter to the directors of all ACRL institutional mem­ bers urging them to contact their institution president and lobbyist, when appropriate, to brief them on critical copyright issues. Colleges and universities are to urge their national higher education associations, such as AAU, to support pending legislation. Print the four library association presi­ dents’ “O pen letter to the library com m u­ nity” in the next C&RL N ews (Feb. 1998). Disseminate the P rin cip les f o r L icen s­ in g E le c t r o n ic R e s o u r c e s and encourage broad experim ental use. The Principles may be found o n lin e at w w w .a l a .o r g / w a s h o ff/ c o n fu . htm l. G o v e rn m e n t in fo rm a tio n The inter-association working group has sent a legislative proposal to congressional staff to amend the Depository Library Act (44 USC 19). The draft bill is entitled the “Federal Information Access Act.” If legis­ lation is introduced, we want to make sure the working group’s goals are included. The goals and explanatory text can be fo u n d at h t t p : / / w w w . l i h . h e r k e l e y . e d u / GODORT /iaw g fn l .htm l. Actio n s r e c o m m e n d e d : • Encourage a member to write, with a member of the teaching faculty, an opinion piece for the C h ron icle o f H ig h er E d u ca tio n to clarify the importance of the Federal De­ pository program to teaching and learning. • Through C&RL N ews and the ACRL Legislative Network, solicit “stories” from the field to send to the Washington Office giving real-life exam p les o f the use o f documents in teaching and learning (see page 255). • Encourage members to take action if legislation is proposed. o f leg islation , althou gh the sch ed u le to m ove a bill is grow ing tight. That m eans that the bill will have to be low -key and n o n co n tro v ersial, sin ce any delay w hat­ soever will result in the bill bein g set aside for the 106th Congress to consider. http://www.internet2.edu http://www.hpcc.gov/ac http://www.ala.org/ http://www.lih.herkeley.edu/