Draft Minutes of the International Issues Panel
President's Information Technology Advisory Committee
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September 19, 2000
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An open meeting of the International Issues Panel of the President's
Information Technology Advisory Committee was called to order by Co-Chairs
Raj Reddy and Irving Wladawsky-Berger at 3:10 p.m., September 19,
2000, in Room 375 of the National Science Foundation (NSF) building,
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia.
Remarks of the Science Advisor to the President
Dr. Neal Lane, Science Advisor to the President and Director of the
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, thanked the members
of PITAC for their service to the country in providing the Administration
with independent perspectives and advice on information technology
(IT) issues. The Committee has had a tremendous impact through its
influential 1999 report and follow-up activities -- in educating policymakers
about the implications of IT and helping build bipartisan support
in Congress for IT research and development (R&D).
The Administration recognizes that the implications and challenges
of IT are global in scope in particular, the challenges of developing
science and technology capacity in poorer nations abroad as well as
across the diversity of U.S. communities. Discussions at a recent
meeting of the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology
(PCAST) on global science and technology capacity raised several main
points: 1) IT is the underlying infrastructure needed in all science
fields, including medicine, health, agriculture, engineering, biotechnology,
aerospace, and many others, so IT will be central to global development
in the sciences. 2) Partnerships of all kinds will be the key to success
in developing science capacity worldwide. And 3) increased IT R&D
funding will be needed to develop the new technologies and capacity-building
approaches here and abroad.
Dr. Lane discussed the current status of appropriations bills affecting
the IT R&D Programs. He described the results to date as disappointing
but said the Administration would continue to press for the funding
levels requested in the President's FY 2001 budget.
Discussion of White House international IT initiatives
Dr. Lane introduced Elizabeth Echols and Audrey Choi, who lead Administration
programs in IT for international economic development.
Elizabeth Echols, Executive Director, White House Electronic Commerce
Working Group, discussed Administration activities related to
the summer 2000 G-8 Economic Summit in Okinawa, Japan. Echols said
the foundation of the Administration's work in e-commerce domestically
and internationally is five principles for a Global Information Infrastructure
(GII) articulated in 1994 by Vice President Gore: private investment,
promotion of competition, open access, universal service, and a flexible
regulatory environment. The Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Administration
e-commerce policy announced in 1997, the World Trade Organization
agreement in 1998, and e-commerce agreements between the U.S. and
the European Union and 12 other countries each reflect aspects of
this framework of principles. Despite differing perspectives in the
G-8 group, participants produced an Okinawa IT Charter the first
G-8 agreement on IT issues that embodied many of the Administration's
fundamental principles.
Audrey Choi, Chief of Staff, Council of Economic Advisors, and
Director, White House Internet for Economic Development Initiative,
described the Administration's longer-term interest in expanding the
reach of information technology in support of global economic development.
Noting that less than 5 percent of computers connected to the Internet
are located in developing countries, Choi said the Administration
has developed partnerships with 20 of the poorest nations that expressed
an interest in building IT infrastructures. The countries work cooperatively
to share best practices and learn from their partners. The Administration
supports these efforts by encouraging development of appropriate public
policy, infrastructure deployment, IT training, and a focus on key
applications areas such as health care and education. Choi said the
international digital divide also poses important IT research challenges,
including wireless technologies, language translation capabilities,
and easy-to-use devices and software.
Presentation on micro-economics in developing nations
Dr. Lane introduced Professor of Economics Muhammad Yunus, founder
of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and internationally known expert
on poverty and economic development.
Professor Yunus discussed how he came to establish his Bangladesh
micro-credit institution, which has made loans totaling $2.6 billion
to more than 2.3 million people in the last 20 years and still averages
only $200 per loan, with a 95 percent repayment rate. He how that
experience led him into broader involvement in international efforts
to alleviate poverty, advance education, and develop micro-economic
infrastructures in emerging countries. Professor Yunus then described
his efforts to apply the principles of micro-economics to bringing
IT into poor communities, starting with establishment of Grameen Phone
an offshoot of the bank that finances cell phones for villagers,
who then develop a service business out of making and receiving phone
calls. Another Grameen company is setting up solar-powered Internet
kiosks and community computer sites. To broaden such initiatives into
an international framework, Professor Yunus said he proposed to create
an "International center for Information Technology to Eliminate Global
Poverty."
PITAC members asked the speaker to say more about his vision for the
proposed IT center about poverty and living standards in emerging
nations, about the sociological impacts of introducing new economic
systems, and about the basis for his emphasis on women's roles in
economic development.
Irving Wladawsky-Berger thanked all of the speakers for their informative
remarks, and Dr. Lane thanked the PITAC for holding the meeting.
The Committee meeting was recessed at 5:10 p.m.
The full transcript of this PITAC session is available at the National
Coordination Office for Information Technology Research and Development,
4121 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 405-II, Arlington, Va. 22230. Tel.: (703)
292-4873.
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Draft Minutes of the
President's Information Technology Advisory Committee
September 20, 2000
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The eleventh meeting of the President's Information Technology Advisory
Committee was called to order by Co-Chairs Raj Reddy and Irving Wladawsky-Berger
at 8:15 a.m., September 20, 2000, in Room 1235 of the National Science
Foundation (NSF) building, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia.
Twenty-two Committee members, 25 Federal employees, and 12 private
citizens attended the two-day PITAC meeting, including the open session
of the International Issues Panel.
I. Wladawsky-Berger announced that Bill Joy, co-founder and Vice President
for Research at Sun Microsystems, had resigned from the PITAC because
of other commitments and would be greatly missed. President Clinton
has sent a letter to Joy thanking him for his service and for all
his contributions to the work of the Committee. There are several
vacancies on the PITAC. Wladawsky-Berger asked members to send suggestions
for new members to Lori Perine at the White House Office of Science
and Technology Policy, OSTP.
Discussion by Administration representative
Lori Perine, OSTP, discussed current Presidential activities
involving the digital divide, universal IT design for people with
disabilities, and technologies for successful aging. A White House
workshop on "eldertech" issues is scheduled for October.
With regard to the PITAC's interest in international IT issues, Perine
noted that the U.S. State Department had just appointed a high-level
advisor to the Secretary of State for technology issues. She said
that, whatever new Administration is elected in November, there is
likely to be continuing interest in global IT issues.
On the continuation of PITAC in a new Administration, Perine said
that, to the best of OSTP's knowledge, the Committee would continue,
given the bipartisan support for PITAC in the Congress and among Congressional
staff. Committee members noted that such a group was mandated by Congress
under the High Performance Computing and Communications Act of 1991
and the Next Generation Internet Act of 1997.
Report of the Panel on Digital Libraries
Panel Chair D. Nagel described the Panel's research process, including
briefings by representatives of digital libraries projects and discussions
of key structural issues. The Panel found that: the full potential
of digital libraries is far from being realized; the Federal government
has exercised early leadership with modest investments in this field
and should do much more; intellectual property issues are beginning
to seriously impact creation of and access to digital information;
and libraries, museums, and other digital archives face significant
operational and technical challenges. The Panel recommends that the
Federal government support expanded digital libraries research; provide
the policy and resources to make all Federal information persistently
available online; establish large-scale testbeds; and play a leadership
role in evolving policy to deal with intellectual property in the
digital age. Nagel said the Panel planned to forward its draft report
to the full Committee at the next PITAC meeting in February 2001.
Panel members V. Cerf and J. Gray made several observations about
the challenges of digital libraries issues, and an extensive discussion
ensued.
Report of the Panel on Transforming Learning
S. Graham, co-chair of the Panel with A. Viterbi, reported on the
Panel's activities to date, including a two-day workshop and site
visits in San Diego, held in cooperation with the San Diego Science
and Technology Council and the San Diego Supercomputer center. In
its findings, the Panel concluded that: one of the Nation's most important
goals for the information age is lifelong education and training for
all citizens; IT has the potential to provide simultaneously the benefits
of tutoring, group interaction, and access to high-quality facilities
and experiences; the role of the teacher is changing but teacher training
in uses of technology is insufficient and education R&D is dramatically
underfunded; IT has been successfully and cost-effectively applied
in industrial and military training; Web-based learning technologies
are being applied at the grassroots level but significant barriers
to more rapid diffusion remain; and research demonstrates the potential
for fundamental educational transformation but the breadth and scale
of needed research and diffusion efforts will require unprecedented
partnerships among government, industry, foundations, universities,
and schools.
The Panel recommends making effective integration of IT in education
and training a national priority; establishing a major IT in education
and training research initiative, including research in IT technologies
and applications for education; establishing focused government-university-industry-foundation
partnerships to pursue the research agenda; developing and/or disseminating
methods to enable all teachers and trainers to use IT effectively;
and defining and promoting a set of IT standards (languages, protocols,
interfaces, etc.) to facilitate wide adoption of IT for learning.
Committee members discussed the need for the report to document evidence
of the efficacy of technologies for learning and to present the negative
view of educational technology with comment as to why the Panel feels
differently. They also commented on the need to address the fact that
students in other countries that do not rely on educational technology
nonetheless fare better on standardized tests than U.S. students.
I. Wladawsky-Berger asked whether the full PITAC supported the Panel's
overarching recommendation to make integration of IT in education
a national priority. No members dissented.
Report of the Panel on Transforming Health Care
E. Shortliffe, co-chair of the Panel with S. Fuller, reported that
the Panel had completed most of its data collection and interviews
but was not yet ready to unveil its findings or recommendations. Shortliffe
reviewed the interview process, noting the number and diversity of
Federal officials with responsibilities related to health care with
whom the Panel spoke. Observations of the Panel are that: IT can facilitate
transformations in health care that will benefit all citizens; such
transformations are essential to assure a healthy populace with equitable
access to health care; biomedicine can help motivate fundamental IT
research that is applicable not only to medical research but to many
fields; and the biomedical and health care communities do not yet
recognize or accept the value of IT research. There is great confusion
in the biomedical community, Shortliffe said, about how IT research
relates to the domain application; the community views IT research
issues as relevant only when they apply directly to a biomedical application
and does not understand the concept of enabling technologies that
support many applications. A key consequence of this lack of understanding
is that there is no national consensus on the role of IT in biomedicine,
no coordination among Federal health care agencies on uses of IT,
and no agreement on the need for a national investment in IT infrastructure
for medical research and practice.
L. Vadasz commented that there was a sense of a desire for centralization
in these observations. Shortliffee responded that the Panel was not
recommending that, but rather education, guidance, and some Government
leadership in IT integration. Committee members discussed the difficulties
in developing Federal IT leadership and coordination in biomedical
research and health care. Members also discussed the possibility of
issuing the Panel's report as an interim report to solicit comments
from the Federal health care community.
Report of the Sub-Panel on the Digital Divide: Smaller Colleges
and Universities
Sub-Panel Chair C. Chen reported on a June 5-6 workshop in Arlington,
Va., co-sponsored by the Panel and the higher education organization
EDUCAUSE with funding from NSF. The meeting, attended by more than
40 officials of smaller institutions, aired many and diverse problems
of these institutions vis a vis advanced networking. None have access
to Internet2 or other high-speed networks, even though these smaller
institutions educate most of the Nation's postsecondary students.
The Panel recommends: Providing immediate incentives to enable smaller
institutions with innovative research projects to gain access to advanced
networks, and expanding access to a broader spectrum of institutions
by offering infrastructure funding opportunities for projects that
require advanced network technologies for innovative educational purposes.
Report of the Panel on International Issues
C. Chen, co-chair of the Panel with D. Dorman, noted that the IT document
approved by the G-8 nations in Okinawa has as its third main priority
for action the focus of the PITAC Panel: Building human capacity.
She said the Panel was continuing to identify existing efforts and
looking for outside experts interested in participating in the Panel.
Recognizing that offering infrastructure advice to disparate countries
would not be effective, the Panel is focusing on the idea of human
capacity-building in education and training for IT use.
Presentation on IT and the humanities
William R. Ferris, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities
(NEH), showed a short video about the NEH and then discussed the impacts
of information technology on the humanities. He noted that the NEH
has supported development of more than 300 Web sites. Examples include
Oyez, Oyez, Oyez, a Northwestern University multimedia site containing
the full text of all U.S. Supreme Court rulings, and EdSitement, a
K-12 humanities portal co-sponsored by MCI Worldcom and the Council
of Great City Schools. The NEH is also involved in efforts to standardize
archival formats to achieve greater interoperability and to ensure
long-term preservation of digital archives. The NEH supports interagency
coordination and cooperation in this work as the only effective means
of ensuring the future of digital libraries.
Questions and discussion focused on the issues surrounding intellectual
property rights on the Web, the problem of quantity vs. quality in
online information, and the lack of national focus on the enormous
potential for spreading learning through digital humanities archives.
Discussion of PITAC next steps
Over the next year, the Committee will complete work on the Transforming
Health Care, Digital Libraries, and International Issues reports and,
if asked to do so by the Administration, will conduct a review of
the FY 2001 IT R&D research program. PITAC members also discussed
a list of member suggestions for possible new research projects that
the Committee might undertake. After discussion, the Committee agreed
to take on two new areas for Panel studies -- national security issues
and individual security issues -- and to conduct a preliminary review
of a third area -- issues in wireless technologies -- to evaluate
whether a PITAC study could make a useful contribution.
The PITAC also agreed to undertake a comprehensive update of its February
1999 report, on the status of IT R&D to take account of new technology
advances that have occurred in the three to four years since the original
study was conducted, and to assess the progress to date on implementing
the report's recommendations. E. Benhamou commented that international
perspectives have not been central to most PITAC deliberations but
maybe should be factored into the report update and forthcoming PITAC
studies.
L. Perine asked PITAC members to send any suggestions they have for
new additions to the Committee to her at OSTP, indicating the individual's
areas of IT expertise.
Public comments
There were no public comments.
Adjournment
R. Reddy and I. Wladawsky-Berger adjourned the meeting at 2:55 p.m.
The full transcript of the PITAC meeting is available at the National
Coordination Office for Information Technology Research and Development,
4121 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 405-II, Arlington, Va. 22230. Tel.: (703)
292-4873.
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Attendees
September 19-20, 2000
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President's Information Technology Advisory Committee Members Attending
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Raj Reddy, Co-Chair
Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Co-Chair
Eric A. Benhamou
Vinton Cerf
Ching-chih Chen
David M. Cooper
Steven D. Dorfman
Robert H. Ewald
Sherrilynne S. Fuller
Hector Garcia-Molina
Susan L. Graham
James N. Gray
Robert E. Kahn
Ken Kennedy
John P. Miller
David C. Nagel
Edward H. Shortliffe
Larry Smarr
Joe F. Thompson
Leslie Vadasz
Andrew J. Viterbi
Steven J. Wallach |
Carnegie-Mellon University
International Business Machines
Corporation
3Com Corporation
MCI WorldCom
Simmons College
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Hughes Electronics Corporation
E-Stamp Corporation
University of Washington Health
Science center
Stanford University
University of California, Berkeley
Microsoft Research
Corporation for National Research
Initiatives
center for Research on Parallel
Computation, Rice University
Montana State University
AT&T Labs
Stanford University School of Medicine
National center for Supercomputing
Applications &
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Mississippi State University
Intel Corporation Andrew
QUALCOMM Incorporated
centerPoint Ventures
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Aubrey Bush NSF
Suzanne Camacho USAID
Frederica Darema NSF
Paul Domich OSTP
Eduardo Feller NSF
Ken Freeman NASA
Norman Glick NSA
Anne Hogan NSF
Sally Howe NCO/CIC
Suzi Iacono NSF
Ron Keohane WH
Neal Lane OSTP
Frances Li NSF
Ernie Lucier FAA
Paul Messina DOE
Jeff Moon State
Tim O'Conner USAID
Lori Perine OSTP
Rita Rodriguez NSF
Bruce Rosen NIST
Shankar Sastry DARPA
Clint Schaff WH
Mark Suskin NSF
William Turnbull NOAA
Grant Wagner NSA |
NSF
USAID
NSF
OSTP
NSF
NASA
NSA
NSF
NCO/CIC
NSF
WH
OSTP
NSF
FAA
DOE
State
USAID
OSTP
NSF
NIST
DARPA
WH
NSF
NOAA
NSA
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NCO Contractors
Yolanda L. Comedy
Vicki L. Harris
Larry Janicki
Martha Matzke
Betty S. McDonough
Laurie B. Mitchell
Terry Ponick
Ann Rutherford
Carolyn Van Damme
Robert I. Winner
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Fred Adler
Sue Fratkin
David Hornsky
David Johnson
Marvin Lawley
Paul Love
Jacki Lippman
William New
Betsy Reveel
Wayne Sibley
Brooke Stearns
Muhammad Yunus |
RCI, Ltd.
Coalition for Academic Scientific
Computation
Canadian Embassy
FBPCS
HPCA
Internet 2
Grameen Foundation
Technology Daily
UNF
Calvert
Grameen Foundation
Grameen Bank
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Minutes prepared by Martha K. Matzke
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Cita Furlani
Director, National Coordination Office for Information Technology
Research and Development
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Raj Reddy
Co-Chair, President's Information Technology Advisory Committee
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Irving Wladawawsky-Berger
Co-Chair, President's Information Technology Advisory Committee
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