Information society : agenda for action in the UK : report / 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 : report / Select Committee on Science and Technology. Source: Wellcome Collection.
7/128 page 5
![23 July 1996 By the Select Committee appointed to consider Science and Technology. ORDERED TO REPORT INFORMATION SOCIETY: AGENDA FOR ACTION IN THE UK CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION PREFACE 1.1. This report, which is the first Select Committee report from either House of the United Kingdom Parliament to be published electronically,’ is about one of the most important technological developments of this century. Directly or indirectly, the digital and communications revolution will affect us all. Previous studies? have focused on the infrastructure which will be needed to build the Information Superhighways’ in the UK. As the physical infrastructure develops, the focus of attention needs to move on to what the superhighways will carry. Our enquiry concentrated on the applications of the superhighways in society. For the purposes of the enquiry we took the term Information Superhighway to mean a publicly accessible network capable of transferring large amounts of information at high speed between users. The terms of reference of the enquiry are printed in Appendix 3 below. 1.2 The report is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the technology behind the development of the information superhighways, and the infrastructure in the United Kingdom. Chapter 2 discusses national information infrastructure policies. Chapter 3 discusses some of the approaches which other countries, and the European Union, are adopting to the Information Superhighways, with a view to seeing what lessons the United Kingdom can learn from these international perspectives. It also outlines current parliamentary developments, including those in the House of Lords. Chapter 4 discusses the views of witnesses. Chapter 5 discusses the Opinion of the Committee and its key recommendations. 1.3. Ourmost important recommendations are repeated in Chapter 6, which outlines a 40-point agenda for action in the UK. Our recommendations include the setting up of an Information Society Task Force in the UK, similar to that which has operated successfully in the US. We recommend fundamental changes to the regulatory framework. We recommend specific actions to be taken by Government, including the promotion of electronic publishing to facilitate widespread access to Government publications. We also make recommendations on the subjects ' The Internet reference is http://www. hmsoinfo.gov.uk/hmso/document/inforsoc.htm The Committee’s e-mail address is as follows: hol.science&tech @parliament.uk Particularly, in the parliamentary context, the Report by the House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee on Optical Fibre Networks (HC 285-I, Session 1993-94, July 1994). The term ‘superhighway’ was used by the US Vice-President Al Gore to describe an infrastructure by which information could be transmitted electronically. The principal] feature distinguishing a superhighway from existing telecommunications networks was that it should be capable of handling the two-way delivery of text, pictures, sound and video (ie multimedia).](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32218643_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
