Public Access To The Internet: (Information Infrastructure Project at Harvard University)

This collection takes up the important issues in enabling widely growth. The 17 contributions present material that network managers, politicians and other professionals need to know in order to ask the right questions and properly analyze the various proposals that are being considered for the future of the National Information Infrastructure (NII). Chapters are grouped in five parts: the public access agenda, the sociology and culture of the Internet, establishing network communities, accommodating new classes of users, and pricing and service models.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 The public access agenda: the Internet and the national information infrastructure, Brian Kahin; balancing the commercial and public-interest visions of the NII, Lewis M. Branscomb; public access issues - an introduction, James Keller. Part 2 The sociology and culture of the Internet: the WELL - a regionally based on-line community on the Internet, Cliff Figallo; atheism, sex and databases - the Net as a social technology, Lee Sproull and Samer Faraj. Part 3 Establishing network communities: learning and teaching on the Internet - contributing to educational reform, Beverly Hunter; issues in the development of community cooperative networks, Frank Odasz; public access to the Internet - American Indian and Alaskan Native issues, George Baldwin; the role of public libraries in providing public access to the Internet, Carol C. Henderson and Frederick D. King. Part 4 Accommodating new classes of users: the Internet and the poor, Richard Civille; meeting the challenges of business and end-user communities on the Internet - what they want, what they need, what they're doing, Daniel Dern; models for the Internet local loop, Miles Fidelman; Internet architectural and policy implications for migration from high-end user to the "new user", Terrence P. McGarty and Carole Haywood. Part 5 Pricing and service models: pricing the Internet, Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason and Hal R. Varian; service models and pricing policies for an integrated services Internet, Scott Shenker; pricing and competition policies for the Internet, Michael A. Einhorn; network analysis issues for a public Internet, Hans-Werner Braun and Kimberly C. Claffy.

About the Author :
Brian Kahin is Senior Fellow at the Computer & Communications Industry Association in Washington, DC. He is also Research Investigator and Adjunct Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information and a special advisor to the Provost's Office. He is a coeditor of Transforming Enterprise (MIT Press, 2004) and many other books.