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the_global_information_infrastructure.docxThe global information infrastructure
Section:
GETTING ON BOARD THE INTERNET
From the Internet toward Worldwide Commerce
The Internet offers many resources, but its lack of robustness in service, security, and reliability renders it an interim solution to a true global information infrastructure (GII) that supports worldwide commerce. The development of such an infrastructure depends on more than improvements in technology however; for the GII to be commercially robust, issues concerning regulations, security, and cultural diversity must also be resolved.
The Global Information Infrastructure (GII) is defined as an environment that uses high-performance hardware, software, and communications to deliver voice, data, video, graphics and other information regardless of where the information or user is located.
The GII will be the information highway of the future. Today, the infrastructure is the Internet. This article describes the Internet and, from time to time, moves forward to the GII. The components of the information highway -- people, communications media, communications networks, data bases, agents, information providers, and bridges -- and their interrelationships are shown in Exhibit 1.
THE INTERNET: USERS AND APPLICATIONS
The exact number of Internet users is not known. Estimates range from 10 to 100 million users with interconnecting networks stretched around the world. In 1994, there were approximately 20,000 networks in the US, and 1,500 each in the UK, Germany, and Japan. In countries such as Russia, South Africa, and South Korea, networks numbered in the several hundreds. In developing countries such as China, Kuwait, and Egypt, three to five networks were typically operational.
Current Internet applications include:
· Find/learn -- through data bases and descriptions.
· Talk -- through E-mail, voice, and video.
· Work -- accomplished through cooperative work, telecommuting, and videoconferences.
· Shop --using catalogs and electronic malls.
· Play -- using games and video on demand.
· Invest -- through stock market advice, order placement, and money management.
Internet applications are delivered through a variety of services (see Exhibit 2).
E-Mail. E-mail, for example, provides capabilities for sending messages addressed to individuals or to mailing lists. It is much faster and less costly than traditional postal services. However, Internet E-mail goes through multiple nodes and is subject to delay. Furthermore, there is no address directory.
Newsgroups are a natural extension of E-mail. They allow users to post messages for anyone to read. Another extension of E-mail is computer conferencing. In essence, a computer conference is a file devoted to a specific topic being discussed by a group of people.
Telnet. Telnet allows users to access a remote computer as though it were a local machine. Regardless of where they are located, users can retrieve E-mail messages and download them to the local computer. Typically, the user pays for a local telephone call plus network charges rather than long-distance rates. Telnet can be slow over long distances because an "echo" has to travel back from the remote computer.
File Transfer Protocol. The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) allows large files to be transferred between computers at high speeds. Users can extract long files and move them from a host computer to their computer to be edited or printed at their leisure. Binary files can be moved using FTP.
The World Wide Web. The World Wide Web (WWW) has been in existence for several years. It permits the use of hypertext on the Internet. Originally, great technical skill was needed to set up the Web. Today's browser software, such as Mosaic and Netscape, simplifies the problem.
Mosaic and Netscape are typical of the new wave of interfaces for the information highway. Their highly graphical hypertext capability allows users to select information interactively. Over a million copies are currently installed. The major disadvantage with the software is that download times are quite long unless a user has a very fast modem connection or a fast network connection such as integrated services digital network (ISDN) service.
Existing business resources on the Internet include:
· Specialized discussion groups such as UseNet.
· Information files made available by governments and by companies.
· Information about updates on products as modifications are made.
· Consumer information about software bugs and fixes.
BUSINESS ACCESS TO THE INTERNET
Organizations can access the Internet in three ways, each of which entails a different level of financial investment:
· Dedicated connections.
· Dedicated dial-up.
· Modem connection.
Dedicated Connections. A dedicated connection links an entire organization to the Internet and is most appropriately used to send large amounts of data and to connect many workstations and users. Because it requires installation of network hardware and special leased lines, it is the most expensive form of connection. The typical operating cost for a single dedicated line in the US is $1,000 per month.
Dedicated Dial-Up. Smaller companies can reduce their up-front costs by using dedicated dial-up. Here the Internet connection is made from a workstation equipped with a high-speed modem linked to a telephone line, which costs about $250 per month to lease. Because this arrangement has a more limited speed and supports fewer users, it is more suitable for short-term arrangements that can be upgraded as needed. Dedicated dial-up uses Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP)/Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP).
Modem Connection. This approach allows individuals to access the Internet through a modem and a network provider. In other words, they rent the provider's access to the Internet. It results in shared Internet services and provides users with access to E-mail. Easily installed and with low up-front costs of from $20 to $30 a month, this approach is a first step toward familiarity with the Internet.
Providers are available at each of the three levels.
Internet Service Providers
A thorough Internet provider supplies complete installation and maintenance, including obtaining a network number and registering a new connection, as well as training, education, bulletin boards, and help. Being a network provider is a business opportunity.
Businesses should ask the following key questions before selecting a vendor:
· What level of security is provided? Is it possible to obtain a firewall to deter hackers?
· What level of privacy (and encryption) is provided?
· How much does the service cost?
· What are the organization's responsibilities and the provider's responsibilities regarding the operation and maintenance of equipment?
· What level of training is provided and how much does it cost?
· What other networks can be accessed?
Managing the Internet
Internet users should be aware that the Internet is not run by a company. It is an association of interconnected but separate networks. Each network is owned by someone and may perform services in addition to providing the Internet connection. The Internet itself is managed by the Internet Society -- a nonprofit, largely volunteer organization that accomplishes much of the Internet's development through task forces, research groups, and working groups.
The naming system used for Internet sites describes the type of entity. Thus ".com" represents companies, ".edu" education, and ".gov" government. Most countries other than the US show their name in Internet addresses. For example, Egypt is EG.
Several types of electronic commerce are conducted on the Internet. The Internet allows specialty stores, for example, to reach customers that they could not reach before. A classic example is the Future Fantasy Bookstore in Palo Alto CA, which specializes in hard-to-obtain science fiction books. When the bookstore went online, it was able to reach customers around the world. Because it already had a legendary reputation for finding items, it was soon corresponding with and receiving orders from many customers who previously did not attempt to order from the store. In part, this increase in orders resulted from the reduced transit time for inquiries and responses. Customers could find out much more quickly whether a book was in stock. Second, new people were introduced to the store.
The Future Fantasy Bookstore is an exception, however, because most storefronts on the Internet receive only a few orders. The Pizza Hut in Santa Cruz CA provides an example. Amid much publicity, this franchise announced that, on a trial basis, it would accept orders over the Internet. But because customers found that it was quicker to pick up the telephone rather than to sit at a terminal, type out the order, and wait for a response, Pizza Hut received few online orders.
In the Pizza Hut case, several factors combined to make the Internet a poor alternative to conventional telephone ordering: the market is local, the system is occasionally unreliable, many customers pay for each use of Internet service but can make unlimited local telephone calls, additional time is needed to connect to the system and fill out the order, and the number of Internet users is relatively small compared to the public as a whole. In addition, ordering involves a cash payment on delivery by a human being; it is not a credit card or billing transaction where cash transfer is more complicated.
A more common use of the Internet is the posting of catalog-type information by companies with Gopher or WWW sites. Here the objective is not sales but marketing. That is, by presenting a catalog, often with pictures, the business seeks to induce the viewer to contact the company through, say, an 800-number, for additional information or to place an order. Catalog-type information includes parts lists, specifications, technical bulletins, and service offerings and is generally offered mainly by computer and communications companies.
However, it is likely that this marketing application will expand rapidly to other kinds of firms and replace the sending of product sheets by mail and calls by salespeople. Because printed catalogs are usually a within-country phenomenon, online marketing gives small specialty enterprises the opportunity to expand their market reach worldwide.
TOWARD A GLOBAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE
The Internet is clearly an interim solution. Although it is used for some business transactions, the Internet is not as yet commercially robust. Specifically:
· It is not secure.
· It does not guarantee instant response.
· It has high costs for bandwidth.
· It is unreliable.
Several evolutionary steps are therefore necessary to achieve a true global information infrastructure:
1. Upgrading the technology of the network itself.
2. Providing greater bandwidth to handle more traffic.
3. Increasing the level of security.
4. Creating a commercial rather than a voluntary association to run the system.
5. Accelerating business use.
Two groups are working to develop the global information infrastructure:
· The GII Commission -- a high-level commission whose 20 members include the president of EDS, the chairman of NEC, the chairman of TIME Inc., and senior executives of the Siemens and Olivetti Corporations. The commission meets regularly.
· The US National Information Infrastructure Effort -- comprising national committees of government, university, and commercial leaders. Several studies have also been done by Congress.
The building blocks approach to the GII was developed by Professor El Sherif of the American University in Cairo and the author. The approach is based on the idea that the following seven building blocks are needed to create an effective global system:
· People.
· Agents.
· Communications media.
· Information providers.
· Communications network.
· Bridges.
· Data base.
Each building block must meet several criteria:
· Be open to users in terms of universal connectivity; to service providers in terms of competitive access; to network providers, who can attach their network to the GII; and to change.
· Have appropriate architecture.
· Be technology independent.
· Have established standards.
· Be scalable.
· Be flexible.
· Allow for decentralized operations.
· Be heterogeneous.
A series of questions needs to be answered for each building block. The questions and the blocks form the matrix depicted in Exhibit 3.
The matrix demonstrates that the GII must meet a formidable set of criteria. The following section considers the questions for a typical block, providers, and for a typical provider within the block.
The Provider Block
In some cases answers to the questions are provided; in others, alternative issues are raised that should be resolved before the provider begins operation.
What is it? The companies that supply access, data, and other services for the user.
· 2. What policies and strategies should be used? The provider should be open to all who pay for access. Should the provider cater to specific interest groups?
· 3. What are the legal implications? Responsibility for what is said on the network shall belong to the user. Should the provider also be responsible? This question remains unresolved.
· 4. What are the economic implications? Should the provider charge a flat fee per month, a fee based on connect time, a fee based on bandwidth used, or a fee based on some combination of these?
· 5. What are the social implications? What populations will have access? Should the indigent have free access? If the preponderence of users continues to be male, will the provider deal with women's issues and needs as well as with men's?
· 6. What are the cultural implications? Which language will be used? English, or a local language?
· 7. What infrastructure should be used at the national and the international levels? What level of lines will be provided? Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)? ISDN? T3?
· 8. What are the human considerations? What education levels and professional skills will be expected of users of the service? Should the service be simple so that it can be broadly used or should it require a certain level of sophistication?
· 9. What are the market and marketing implications? What customer base will be appealed to? This question relates to each of the other questions. For example, if the service is designed for sophisticated users, then marketing has to address users with the prerequisite knowledge.
ACCELERATING BUSINESS USE OF THE GII
An effective international infrastructure will be possible only when several major problems areas are resolved. They include:
· Technology that is dispersed and unstandardized.
· Regulation -- how much is needed and who should be responsible for it?
· Security, including verification of the authenticity of a call, cash transfers, and the privacy of communication.
· International and intercultural issues including translation.
Improving the Technology
Because its technology is dispersed and unstandardized, the global information infrastructure differs fundamentally from previous technological innovations. Consider, for example, the telephone, movies, and television. There was only one provider of telephone service, and the provider put its telephone in homes and businesses. To see a movie, people had to go to a central place (i.e., the movie house) and use its technology. Television receivers had to meet only two standards over time, initially black and white, and later, color. The color had to be backward compatible with the black and white.
In the case of the GII, consumers have many different types of equipment: IBM-compatibles that range from 286 to Pentium, a variety of Macintoshes, as well as advanced workstations. Some communicate through mainframes and minicomputers. Some have advanced browsers whereas others are still in an ASCII world. Modem speeds range from 1,200 to 28,000 baud.
The net effect of this diversity is that when a vendor of services on the GII decides which technology to use, it is preselecting a subset of GII users to deal with. If the technology is very low level, it lacks the capability for advanced techniques such as multimedia or encryption. Thus even though the message being sent is available to a large audience, it is inadequate for the task. A subset of the audience is likely not even to look at the message because it does not meet its standards. On the other hand, if the level of the message is very high, requiring the customer to have advanced hardware and software to receive it properly, the number of people who can deal with the message appropriately is much reduced. Vendors can resolve this problem by devising ways in which their offerings can be presented and understood by customers with varying levels of technology. For example, a vendor might include appropriate text in its Web pages notifying text-only clients that some files and images are large and require significant bandwidth to be downloaded in reasonable time.
At present, Internet service is not sufficiently robust. However, at current loads, the backbone is robust most of the time. The problem of robustness may, in fact, be in the "last mile." The weaknesses involve the servers, which are the responsibility of individual companies, and the local Internet service providers. If demand on the backbone increases because of multimedia and other high-bandwidth transmissions, the Internet would reach its limits. The problems become more severe in countries with lower levels of infrastructure.
In any case, because Internet service should ideally be instantaneous and uninterrupted, major technological improvements must be incorporated into the GII. For example, large volumes of multimedia require the availability of much larger bandwidths. Thus broadband services, such as ISDN and T3, will have to be much more universally available.
Regulation and Standards
The Internet is relatively unregulated by governments. Common consent has largely decided what online behavior is appropriate. However, it is doubtful that the information highway will continue to operate in this way. Several recent events and situations in the US and abroad portend change. For example:
· Prodigy, the online service run by IBM Corp. and Sears Roebuck, recently lost a suit for libel. Someone put a notice on the system that a particular stockbroker was unreliable. The stockbroker sued and won. The case is being appealed.
· Congress included a provision in its telecommunications bill of 1995 that would regulate sexually explicit material. A prosecutor in Germany forced CompuServe to limit access to such material. Civil libertarians oppose these actions as the first step toward censorship.
· There is currently no protection against fraudulent stock offerings. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates stocks, has not intervened on the Internet because it views the problem as minor and because it would take a massive effort to find cases of securities fraud on such a widespread network.
These as yet unresolved issues relate to the classic complexities of free speech and the regulation of unethical behavior. From a business point of view, the issue is what level of regulation is required to ensure that business dealings are ethical and honest.
At a different level, regulation involves international technical standards on such items as bandwidths and formats. Establishment of standards will make it easier to conduct business.
Security
The topic of security encompasses many issues.
Encryption and Verification. Encryption is defined as the transformation of data into a form unreadable by anyone without a secret decryption key. Current encryption efforts are focused toward allowing secure communications over insecure channels. A great deal of effort is focused on creating authentication for digital signatures. In a sense, this is an effort to provide verification. Users of the information highway need to be able to verify that the person sending a message is who he or she claims to be.
One method of encryption is public key cryptography. Each user receives a public key that is published and a private key that only the recipient can use for decoding. In the case of digital signatures, for example:
· Individual A computes based on his or her private key and the message.
· Individual B uses the message, the signature, and A's public key to authenticate the signature.
Although various forms of encryption software are available commercially, they are not yet widely used. Encryption is not practical for messages designed for large groups, such as catalogs or advertising messages that seek recipients a company doesn't know and who are unlikely to have the needed keys both to receive the messages and place orders.
The implication is that a business opportunity exists for creating fast verification services. Until these services are available, verification still reduces to mutual trust.
Protection from Hackers. As an open network, the Internet is subject to attack by hackers. Aside from transmitting viruses, which disrupt the local computer but can be handled, hackers pose the risk of false transactions (e.g., credit card fraud) and of information about a firm being obtained by competitors.
Disinformation. As the lawsuit involving Prodigy indicates, it is possible for actions on the network to create disinformation. The important point is that very large audiences can be reached at very little cost. In the past, such audiences could be reached only through the news media or through paid advertising. A nearly free environment enables many more people to engage in disinformation campaigns.
Funds Transfer. The biggest issue from the point of view of commerce on the highway is the transfer of funds. When an order is placed, a business must first verify that it is legitimate. Once the merchandise is shipped (or, for example, a stock order is executed), the business wants payment. It would be convenient if the money part of the transaction could also be executed over the highway.
Various forms of digital cash are being studied both by the private sector and by governments. Digital cash would create secure Internet transactions. One of the problems associated with digital cash is that the transaction becomes anonymous and hence untraceable by the Internal Revenue Service.
Privacy. Users are greatly concerned about maintaining their privacy. Aside from the hacker problem, the information highway makes it easy for businesses to find out who is buying what products, which, in turn, provides targeted mailing lists.
International and Intercultural Issues
Because many potential customers know only their own language, worldwide audiences are reachable only if messages are translated. Although automated translation is still some time away, considerable effort is going on in this area.
Fortunately, automated translation is easier for business transactions than for ordinary speech because business vocabulary is limited. One experimental scheme, for example, avoids the problem of having to translate all possible pairs of languages by translating all communications to a common intermediary language. Thus, business communications between Holland and Russia, for example, would be translated from Dutch to English to Russian to English to Dutch. Regional languages, such as Arabic, and widely used languages, such as English and French, have an advantage here. Conversely, complex languages such as Japanese or Chinese are at a disadvantage.
Cultural considerations also affect business. Advertisements on the GII have to take into account such factors as attitudes toward gambling and pornography, dietary laws, and the meaning of the word "yes," all of which vary from country to country.
All new technologies have downside risks. A simple example from history is the telephone and the elevator. The elevator was introduced into office buildings before the telephone. Elevators were heavily used by messengers because messengers provided the only alternative to postal services. When the telephone was introduced, the need for messengers decreased. As elevators became less crowded and more available to employees and visitors, it became possible to increase the height of buildings. Downtowns became more crowded as a result.
The downside risks of the GII are not yet fully known. The following forecasts were made at a recent symposium held by the Annenberg School of Communication in Los Angeles.
Eroding Social Bonds. As virtual communities are created, people will transfer their loyalties to them, thus weakening their social bonds with the people around them. A form of this phenomenon is already seen among professionals who have strong loyalties to their disciplines. For example, there are programmers who are more interested in writing elegant code than in the business application on which they are working.
Social Inequality. Computer literacy has already been added to the list of problems that divide society. Poor or uneducated people have less access to computing than wealthier people or the educated. Younger people are much more computer literate than older people. The global information infrastructure thus becomes an additional divisive factor in society.
Freedom of Speech. The GII faces serious issues regarding freedom of speech. What limits are to be set, and who is to set them?
Real-Time Decision Making. In theory, the fully implemented GII will facilitate real-time decision making in the political arena. Governments can poll their citizens to see where they stand at any moment on a given issue. Although real-time decision making represents the ultimate democracy, it can also lead to mob rule.
These downside risks seem remote at this stage of development of the GII and may not even be the actual downside risks encountered. History tells us, however, that downside risks of technologies are real, and they must therefore be considered in every action taken to move the GII forward.
Elements of the global information infrastructure are here. However, the Internet is already reaching its limits. New structures that come online will operate at five levels:
· Management.
· Networks.
· Applications.
· Transport (i.e., individual links).
· Information (i.e., data bases, document bases, video, and transactions).
Opportunities exist both for conducting conventional business electronically and for creating new businesses that use the GII. However, it will be some time before most electronic commerce becomes profitable.
EXHIBIT 2--Internet Services
E-Mail Text messages and all types
of files.
Gopher Menus and access to both
data bases and services.
Archie, Veronica, Jughead Archie searches for files.
Veronica and Jughead search
for the right Gopher sit.
Telnet Log on, use remote computer.
FTP Moves flies among computers.
World Wide Web (WWW) Adds hypertext capabilities.
Mosaic/Netscape Graphic interface to the WWW
and multimedia capabilities.
Voice Rudimentary phone
conversations.
CUSeeMe Elementary videonferencing
at low bandwidths.
EXHIBIT 3
Building Blocks of the Global Information Infrastructure
Legend for Chart:
A - Questions
B - People
C - Media
D - Communications Network
E - Data Base
F - Agents
G - Providers
H - Bridges
A B C D E F G H
What is it? -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Policies and Strategies -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Legal Implications -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Economic Implications -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Social Implications -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Cultural Implications -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Domestic Infrastructure -- -- -- -- -- -- --
International Infrastructure -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Human Aspects -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Market/Marketing -- -- -- -- -- -- --
DIAGRAM: EXHIBIT 1 The Structure of the Information Highway
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By Paul Gray
PAUL GRAY is a professor in the programs in information science department at the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont CA and editor of this journal's BookISMs column.
Ref.
· Gray, P. (1996). The global information infrastructure: from the Internet toward worldwide commerce . Information Systems Management, 13(3), 7–14.
