Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Science and Technology Committee.
- Date:
- 1996
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: Information society : agenda for action in the UK : evidence received after 31 March 1996 / Select Committee on Science and Technology. Source: Wellcome Collection.
67/324 page 369
![23 April 1996] [ Continued that the proposed arrangements for regulating BT’s prices may damage the UK’s chances of building the Information Society. Getting regulation right is vital. I. VALLANCE Speech by Sir Iain Vallance, Chairman, BT, to QMW Public Policy Seminar—29th April 1996 GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THE INFORMATION SOCIETY Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I’m delighted to be here, and to be taking part in a debate which is of such critical importance to the commercial (and cultural) future of the UK. Today, we are going to be adding to the millions of words that have already been spoken and written about the Information Society. It sometimes seems that there are as many visions of this fabulous creature as people who have opinions about it. But, at the very least, I suspect we can agree that it will make possible new ways of presenting and interacting with information. Having said which, perhaps I could begin by showing you something. Those are corporate advertisements, and although you may well have seen them before, it seems to me that they make a number of points that are relevant to our discussions today. Ina way, they are interesting because of what they are not. They are not about call stimulation, they are not about telephony, and they are not particularly about BT. In fact, they are about the generic benefits of communication, and about how technology can add value to our lives. That Professor Hawking was willing to appear in the first commercial is, in itself, of significance. Here is a man whose ability to communicate and contribute to our understanding of the universe is made possible by technology. Without it—there would be no Brief History of Time. With it, as he says, “the possibilities are unbounded. But it is, perhaps, the second commercial that really captures what I want to address today. It predicts a new age of communication in which “every child will be able to read every book”, in which “doctors and teachers will share their knowledge with whoever needs it”, and where “every conversation will take place face to face”. Implicit in both is our view of the Information Society—a society transformed by access to information and the ability to interact easily and effectively with that information. New multimedia services will reach homes, schools, offices, factories, and hospitals and will impact areas we cannot yet imagine. They will alter our lives profoundly. It is not a question of computer games or video on demand, but of fundamental changes in social behaviour. In effect, I believe and will be making the most of the Information Society when the benefits that these advertisements dramatise are available to all. And these benefits are, in essence if not in delivery, simple. They are about enhancing (sometimes spectacularly) the things we already do and have always done—speaking, listening, looking. And the technology we employ to reach them must be easy and intuitive to use; it must not be difficult or intimidating. Without this vital ease of use, there will be no Information Society. But ease of use cannot of itself guarantee social change. The information revolution will be fostered and promoted by a number of other enablers. Before I go any further, perhaps I should declare a fairly obvious interest. My locus in this debate is as Chairman of a commercial organisation. For me, picturing the future is not an academic debate; it is essentially about the search for new markets, new ways of meeting customers’ changing needs and making money along the way. I have to make assumptions about the way things will go—and the risks are as enormous as the opportunities. What is clear however is that there are two major trends at work in the communications industry today. The first of these is convergence. Once separate industries are converging and will continue to converge. Publishing and entertainment are increasingly becoming the information content business. Consumer electronics and personal computing are becoming the information apparatus business. Computing and telecommunications are becoming the information delivery business. _The second major trend is that this convergent communications industry will be-indeed it is already—a global one. As customers are increasingly wishing to operate around the world, so they are looking for suppliers who can do the whole job for them, end to end. And we are already seeing the emergence of a number of major global players. Not just Telecommunications companies such as BT and MCI, or AT&T but also IBM, Microsoft and others. But in spite of all the variables and the range of companies and cultures involved, there is a (growing) consensus that several areas are likely to be impacted earliest. I’d like to say something about just a few of these. First, let’s take education. Easy access to and interaction with information will facilitate teaching and learning methods. The Internet will link schools to educational material. Virtual extended schools will meet](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32218631_0067.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
