Connectivity:


"The clumsy system of public gatherings had been long since
abandoned; neither Vashti nor her audience stirred from their
rooms.  Seated in her arm chair she spoke, while they in their
arm chairs heard her, fairly well, and saw her, fairly well."
(Forster, 1964)


Communications media is fundamental to society, and all of the
social, cultural, economic, and political processes of the human
experience are organized around information.  The dual keys to
global networking and a global information base are the
development and implementation of appropriate conduits for the
efficient flow of information.  Mitch Kapor (founder of Lotus
Corporation) envisions these conduits as a "national
infrastructure that will be the information equivalent of the
national highway-building of the 50's and 60's" (Rogers, 1988). 
These conduits must be able to accommodate the whole range of
data types, including audio, real time video, and high resolution
graphics.  The fiber optics technologies and satellite networks
are capable of transmitting error free data at high speeds and in
the wide band widths required to accommodate the large data
structures of high resolution graphics. The development of this
technological infrastructure will make the portability of
powerful computers analogous to the cellular telephone.  It will
eventually be possible to log onto an information service,
exchange data, participate in a video conference call, and
manipulate complex graphics from virtually anywhere in the world.
Immense digital information bases will subsequently be developed
to service a truly global information network.  

<ffile20>   Information Glut
<ffile29>   Monitoring Technological Developments
<ffile49>   Integated Services Digital Network
<ffile50>   Groupware
<ffile86>   Machine to Machine: Research
<ffile91>   Integration and Differentiation