Fiber-optic network is urged at conference

Article Abstract:

The US Congress' failure to pass legislation that would provide $500 million over three years for the construction of a fiber-optics network prompted a reaction from academic researchers, scientists and business executives, who met in Seattle on Oct 30, 1990. The meeting came two days after Congress failed to pass a bill that would have provided funds for a high-speed network to link the nation's supercomputer centers. Industry experts complain that the US is losing its competitiveness because of barriers imposed on Bell operating companies that restricts them providing certain electronic information services. The telephone companies cannot justify the investment in building a fiber-optics network with current restrictions. Researchers maintain that the new fiber-optic network, which would carry voice and data communications for business and home, would facilitate a new economic productivity.

COMMUNICATION, Telecommunications services industry, Telecommunications industry, Fiber optics, Telecommunications transmission technologies, Activism, Political protest, Competition, Voice Communications, Political Issue, Data Communications

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U.S. supercomputer plan to spur G.N.P., study says

Article Abstract:

A report prepared for the Department of Energy by the Gartner Group, a market research firm, indicates that a proposed $1.9 billion Federal program to develop supercomputer technologies would produce more than $10 billion for the US computer industry by the end of the 1990s. The economic impact of the program would cause an increase in the US' gross national product (GNP) by six-tenths of a percent to 1.7 percent in the year 2000. According to the report, supercomputers currently represent the 'leading edge' of information technology, influencing competitiveness in other industries. Congress is considering increased funding for supercomputers over a five-year period starting in 1992. Part of the funding would create a 'national data highway' linking the nation's supercomputers at speeds in excess of one billion bits of data per second.

Computer related services, not elsewhere classified, Regulation, admin. of utilities, Finance, Technological forecasting, United States economic conditions, Market research, Supercomputers, United States. Department of Energy, Supercomputer, Gartner Inc., Economics of Computing, Future of Computing, Marketing Research

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Congress unit assails U.S. information policy

Article Abstract:

A report from the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment accuses the Federal Government of failing to make available to the public, large amounts of scientific data that could help the country's high-technology businesses. The report describes such information as the most important result of the $65 billion the US Government spends of research and development. The report urges the government to modernize its information storage and retrieval systems by implementing computerized data bases that are available to the public. The report also criticizes the President's Office of Science and Technology for failing to take the lead in this matter.

Database management systems, Technology application, DBMS software, Information resources management, Information storage and retrieval, DBMS, United States. Office of Technology Assessment

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