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.
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![30 April 1996] [ Continued The Internet is often quoted as being the first incarnation of ISH. However, it is more a “B Road” rather than a Superhighway. The availability of broadband communications to all users is not a reality today. The Internet Multicast Backbone (MBone) does provide an ISH-like bandwidth capability but cannot be considered to be generally available since it requires dedicated, high speed connections as well as powerful workstation computers to drive it. The Internet does show one model of how the ISH could be built and operated. The Internet is based on collaboration and agreement between participating companies on an informal basis. Overall governance of the Internet is not the responsibility of a single corporation but is vested in all the corporations that make it up. Standards are agreed by majority vote and are “open”, in that no one company owns them, and are freely available to all comers. Standards are key to the successful operation of a major market. In terms of standards, these are still relatively early days for the ISH. However, it is in the interest of all suppliers to carve out agreement. No one can afford to back the wrong horse. So, unless standards emerge quickly, for most the answer will be to diversify risk by backing/sharing several standards. However, there is a cost associated with backing multiple standards. This cost can be avoided. Some issues which can arise from incompatible network standards are: — the cost of developing conversion mechanisms and the time required to do it — the time wasted arguing over who should change and what to change — thecost to the consumer of redundant/outmoded equipment This last issue can lead to consumer reluctance to spend until a safe standard emerges which then delays the rate of take-up, which delays return, which delays investment, etc. The net result is delay in adoption. The reasons for incompatible standards are due mainly to commercial pressures. Companies tend to develop ideas in isolation, rightly protecting their intellectual property. In most cases they are looking to lock users into their product and thus have an incentive to use proprietary standards that competitors cannot use without the payment of licence fees. Over time, market forces will sort out the winners and losers, and de facto standards will emerge. An example of this in action was the VHS and BetaMax conflict in the area of home video recording standards. Government should not be tempted into directing/choosing standards too early in the cycle. The track record of the ability of government to guess what the correct standards are early in the cycle is not good. Market forces are a better mechanism for finding de facto standards quickly. However, a free and level playing field must be provided. Also, some time must be allowed for de facto standards to emerge and, once they have emerged, government must support them. 2. What services are being provided, and (should be developed/will be required), within for example the following areas: (i) public information, (ii) commerce, (iii) finance, (iv) education, (v) industrial training, (vi) health, (vii) social service, and (vii) entertainment? We assume that “commerce” includes all aspects of doing business. That is, advertising, marketing, supplying, etc. Massive amounts of information will be able to flow across the globe as easily as a telephone conversation does today, allowing the possibility of completely new ways of communicating. Consequently, the ISH opens up a huge world of opportunity for all sorts of information providers and businesses to create exciting new applications/services for new markets. NatWest is closely involved in two consumer trials currently taking place which utilise genuinely broadband networks. These are: 1. BT’s Colchester/Ipswich trial involving approximately 2,500 households; 2. the Cambridge trial, managed by Online Media involving approximately 100 households and eight schoois. These trials currently allow the transfer of large amounts of data but, in both cases, the volume transfer is currently one way—to the consumer. In both trials, there is only a low volume data transfer in the reverse](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32218631_0071.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
