Information Superhighway at Work The changes in how we communicate make it necessary to change how we think about communicati

Information Superhighway At Work
   The Information superhighway is a new way of looking at electronic Communication. It can be broken down into four components: people, content, networks, and appliances.
   People are the travelers and builders of the superhighway. We travel the superhighway every time we make phone call, receive a fax , watch TV, or search the World Wide Web. Today, in many American communities, teachers, school administators, and librarians use the Information superhighway to find new information and materials, share ideas and lesson plans with colleagues, and bring guests and experts to their classrooms. Communities use it to relay local information and to reach out the world beyond them. Families send e-mail to each other, research vacation destinations, and share informations on child nutrition via the Information superhighway.
   The Information superhighway also create jobs. Many people plan, design, build, maintain, and develop the net- works and appliances of the superhighway. Others investigate the news, create the programming, and come up with the ideas that make our journeys on the superhighway information and entertaining.
   Content is the information on the superhighway. People created the Information superhighway to share ideas, entertainment, and data quickly, easily, and over great distances. The content that travels over the superhighway is as varied as the people who send and receive it. It can be a comedy show transmitted over broadcast or cable television networks, or it can be an email message between old friends. It can also be the voice mail of a school principal, or the online database of a small business. Today, every kind of inform action can be transmitted to anywhere at anytime. The content carried over the superhighway is immense and growing constantly. Are you looking for a play or a poem by Shakespeare? It’s out there. You need not worry if you have no time to visit a library during work hours. The library of Congress and hundreds of other public libraries around the world are electronically open for everybody, at any time of the day or night. You can even download country profiles from the CLA’s world fact book. And newspapers are making their archives available on the Information superhighway to allow readers to compile an individual collection of stories or receive a personalized copy of the paper.
   Networks are the roadways that carry content between appliances. When you make a phone call to a friend, it is a network that connects you. Today, phone, cable, fiber-optic, and satellite networks are used to carry many different forms of information in addition to voice communication. They are used to transmit data, graphics, and video across neighborhoods, states, and countries. And these networks are connected to each other thanks to the National Information Infrastructure. The Internet includes computer networks connected by satellites, cables, and telephone wires. The Information superhighway includes many different networks that can connect at various junctions, just as streets, state roads, and interstate highways all connect. Right now, we are now familiar with television, radio, and telephone networks. However, fiber-optic and wireless networks are increasingly providing us with faster and more far-reaching communications.
   Appliances are the on-ramps of the Information super- highway. They are the devices people use to access, send, and receive content. Many appliances, such as telephones and fax machines, are already used in homes and work- places. Others, like computers and modems, are becoming increasingly more common.
   The information superhighway is the combination and interaction of all .four components. People create content and use appliances to send and receive it over networks. And it has influenced us a lot.
   Beepers and cellular telephones connect doctors with their offices and patients anywhere and anytime. Cable TV brings a wealth of educational and entertainment channels in- to our homes. Teleconferencing allows us to talk face-to-face with colleagues and teachers across the country. In education, in business, and in private life, the Information super- highway benefits everyone.
    The education community benefits from access to new and exciting resources on the information superhighway. Teachers go online to discuss issues with colleagues and to download lesson plans.  Students access information, visit places of interest around the country and the world, and use university libraries to do research. Administrators exchange ideas across the country. Parents contact teachers by voice mail or email.
   The Information superhighway is an excellent forum for debate, as well as a place for like-minded individuals to come together.
   The Way we work is changing profoundly. Technology already enables networked companies to share data and ideas between offices. Soon, collaborating on a project with colleagues far and near will be as easy as walking into an office down the hall. A personal computer with a modem allows insurance agents, for example, to hook up to the database at their headquarters, to search for and retrieve client files, get up-to-the-minute rate information, and speed up processing.
    Now, the Information superhighway is under construction, but unlike a road waiting for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the superhighway is aheady open. Every month more onramps and lanes are being added, linking small towns, cities, states, and countries in an ever-growing network of communications information, innovation, and opportunity.