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PITAC - Report to the President
Socioeconomic Research and Policy Priorities |
 
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4. Socioeconomic Research and Policy Priorities
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Socioeconomic Research and Policy Priorities Our National well-being depends on understanding the potential social and economic benefits of on-going advances in information technology. We must also understand the problems that are arising from the increasing pace of information technology-based transformations. To realize the promise of the new technologies, we must invest in research to identify, understand, anticipate, and address these problems. We need more data, and we need to understand social, economic, and policy issues in much greater depth. The research that is required to develop this knowledge should be broad-based, long-term, and large-scale, in its scope and in its promise for continuing the beneficial transformation of our society and economy. We must ensure that all Americans are well-equipped to live in this changing world. To that end, we must improve education beginning at the K-12 level and extending through post-secondary education. To improve the skills of our information technology workforce and to increase the information technology literacy of our overall workforce, we must also concentrate on education and retraining for all of the information technology skills that are important to our society. Furthermore, we must concentrate on programs that will enable the United States to use its diverse human resources to the fullest capacity. The promise of the information age must include all citizens, regardless of ethnicity, gender, physical ability, income level, or geographic location. Access to information technology must be accompanied by the assurance of a high degree of personal privacy. Programs to provide broader access should be based on sound understanding of the social and technical conditions and emerging developments to ensure that we reach out to people wherever they are through the most efficient, effective means. Information technology can significantly improve the flow of information to all people and institutions in the Nation, and can thus be a powerful tool for democratization, equity, and access. However, to achieve the potential, we need concrete objectives and comprehensive metrics. We must conduct careful research to measure the effects of the transformations against the objectives, and we must develop appropriate policies based on knowledge gained from the research. |
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4.1 Findings
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Findings Finding: The use of information technology -- in particular the growing popularity of the Internet and the emergence of global commerce -- has introduced a series of important and complex policy issues. In addition to the many technical challenges discussed in the preceding chapters of this report, there are many barriers to realizing the benefits of information technology that are social, political, or legal in nature. For example, consider the host of problems associated with implementing our common vision of transforming the practice of health care, laid out in Chapter 1 of this report. Several challenging technical problems remain to be solved through IT research, before telemedicine can become a common practice. However, the solution of problems arising from several socioeconomic and policy issues will, most likely, present even more formidable barriers to the deployment of telemedicine. A few of those issues include the privacy and security of patient records, use of records by insurance companies, current requirements for state-by-state licensing of doctors, and the development of mechanisms for creating trust between patient and doctor in an on-line environment. Similarly, widespread use of electronic commerce will require mechanisms for insuring even greater security and trust between parties in an on-line environment. These are some of the important questions that can be addressed only by further research on the economic and social effects of computing and communications.7 Further, the use of information technology, particularly in a widely accessible networked environment, has led to new policy issues. Among the areas in which concerns have arisen are personal privacy, intellectual property rights, digital signatures, and the control over the availability of particular kinds of content (for example, pornography or inflammatory rhetoric.) An example of an important set of complex policy issues of particular importance are those related to privacy. The management and analysis of information is critical to many applications. Information about users and their usage of applications will assist service providers in business, government and the medical profession to provide informed, cost-efficient, and highly-personalized service. However, this will be possible only if individuals are guaranteed that their information is truly protected. If there is no trust in the system, its benefits will be severely limited. Guaranteeing the privacy of information is a prerequisite for many of the exciting applications that are possible to build. Our citizens must work together with government and business to ensure that only the most appropriate regulations are put into place. There is a very fine line between helping citizens to feel safe and creating an undesirable and onerous bureaucracy. On an international scale, the European Union Privacy Directive heightens the urgency of information privacy policies. Under European law, firms doing business in the E.U. are prohibited from sending personal information to countries, such as the U.S., that do not adhere to the privacy principles embodied in the European directive. This is likely to have a dramatic impact on U.S. electronic commerce. Finding: Policy decisions and IT investments are being made on the basis of incomplete research and data concerning the effects of IT on our society. Integration of IT into our personal and professional activities has not come about by accident: decisions have been made that have brought about the many transformations we are currently experiencing. As the pace of IT research and integration accelerates, more decisions will be made which have ever-expanding consequences and effects on our daily lives. Consequences will range enormously in their scope and scale, from determining the format through which our children are first introduced to IT in early primary school, to determining policies which have long-lasting effects on our national transportation, communications infrastructures and economic practices. In too many cases, decisions about IT implementation have not been properly informed by adequate research. In fact, it is often the case that the implementation of information technologies has a considerably different set of consequences than were originally intended or anticipated. Much more social science research on the impact of IT on our society is needed to inform ongoing debates and policy decisions on IT-related issues. Such research can also help IT researchers develop technical solutions for some difficult policy problems (e.g., development of new metadata tagging standards and micropayment technologies for managing intellectual property). Moreover, insights derived from social science research may be able to contribute to the better designs of information systems. The design of groupware, for example, should be driven by research on how groups of people share information and make decisions. Equity and Access Finding: All of our citizens must have access to information technology. In his remarks at the MIT commencement ceremony on June 5, 1998, the President reiterated his vision of limitless possibilities for all Americans brought about by the very technical advances that we are recommending in this document. One of the challenges before the Nation is to extend those possibilities to all Americans. In an increasingly competitive global economy, our Nation cannot afford to squander our human resources by providing opportunities only to those Americans who are favored by geographic or economic circumstance. Access to and use of information technology, particularly in educational settings (K-12 through university) is a prerequisite to building the skills that will allow our citizens to function productively in the 21st century information society. It is a critical stepping stone for instilling interest and developing the skills of the budding information technology researchers who are essential to sustaining our national research capabilities. Information technology can help eliminate social and economic inequities and mitigate problems arising from physical disabilities. Information technology tools and applications can provide opportunities that transcend barriers of race, gender, disability, age, income, and location. The enabling quality of the technology, in addition to the cultural values cultivated through its best-known application, the Internet, carry a democratizing potential that already has transformed our social interactions and economic opportunities, both at home and abroad. Public libraries have always played a critical role in ensuring equity of access to information resources and the role of public libraries is even more vital today in guaranteeing free and equitable access for all to Internet resources and communications access. It is important that we study the impact, costs and potential funding sources to support this continuing essential role for ensuring equity of access by public libraries across the country. Yet we see a gap in access to the Internet and the accompanying participation in the information technology revolution among racial groups. For instance, whites are more likely than African-Americans to have Internet access within or outside of their households, to have access to a PC at work, and to have used the Web. 8 We expect there are similar gaps with other minority groups, such as Hispanics and Native Americans. Recent research released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) suggests that the racial gap in Internet use is increasing. The consequences to our Nation of a persistent racial divide on the Internet will be severe. If a significant segment of our society fails to have equal access to the Internet, U.S. firms will have difficulty hiring personnel with the necessary technological skills, and competitiveness will suffer. Employment opportunities and income differences among whites and minority groups will be exacerbated, with further adverse consequences for the Nation. The Internet may provide equal opportunity and help level the playing field, but only for those with access. Finding: Full participation in information technology research requires access to high-bandwidth connectivity. Information technology research and education rely increasingly on high-speed network connectivity for access to information, collaboration between geographically separated colleagues, and access to advanced technology resources such as astronomical telescopes and high-power electron microscopes. Scientists, educators, and students at rural, small, and ethnic universities are often unable to participate in new research and educational opportunities because they are not connected to the vBNS9 or other fast Internet backbones. The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) exists to promote the full participation of institutions in eighteen states and Puerto Rico that have been underrepresented in research partnerships. However, small or rural universities exist in other states as well. Full participation, particularly in research partnerships such as the proposed Expedition centers, is not possible without high-bandwidth connectivity. Workforce Finding: The supply of information technology workers does not meet the current demand. By virtual unanimity, chief executive officers of a cross-section of America's leading corporations have identified the need to strengthen the technological workforce as the single greatest challenge to U.S. competitiveness over the next decade.10 It is crucial that we produce a continuous supply of well-trained, high-quality professionals in engineering and computer and information science, not merely skilled users, but researchers, creators, and designers of advanced technology. In this fast-moving field, those people must continue to update their knowledge and skills. Today we fall far short of meeting these needs, and projections for the future are not encouraging. While the information technology sector and demand for skilled personnel are growing rapidly, the pipeline for computer engineering and computer science graduates is not filling fast enough. Beginning with skills that require a BS-level of training, qualified information technology workers are in extremely scarce supply. The largest fraction of open positions exists in those requiring graduates with advanced degrees. In its Interim Report to the President, the Committee recommended increasing the number of H-1B visas as a short-term measure, but this solution is untenable for the long term. There is evidence that large pools of potential information technology personnel in the U.S. workforce exist and employers are recruiting new workers from outside information technology fields. However, there is also the problem of what economists call "appropriability", a type of "market failure." Many information technology employers who are finding hiring more difficult are unable to provide the required education or training due to resource limitations. Others are unwilling to do so because of competition for their newly trained employees. Meanwhile, many potential information technology workers may be motivated to get the education and training needed for information technology careers but unable or unwilling to pay the (often substantial) costs involved -- they are often otherwise employed and precluded from fulltime study. It should be recognized that a complete solution to the workforce problem would involve recruiting from underrepresented groups as well as nationwide excellence in K-12 education. These issues are discussed more fully in the following findings. Finding: A diverse workforce literate in information technology is critical for ensuring that our Nation is prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities of the Information Age. It is critical to tap all of this country's talent for the information technology workforce. There is, without any doubt, a vast untapped talent pool in the United States among women and minorities, currently under-represented in engineering and information sciences. African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans constitute a fourth of the total U.S. workforce, 30 percent of the college-age population, and a third of the birth rate. Yet members of these minorities collectively comprise only 6.7 percent of the U.S. computer and information science labor force (all degree levels), 5.9 percent of the engineering workforce, 1.7 percent of the U.S. computer science faculty, and 4.9 percent of the engineering faculty.11 Women participate in both computer science and engineering at low rates for all degrees and subsequently in academia and industry. These facts, trends, and issues represent a significant opportunity to build the information technology workforce we need. However, we can achieve the goal of a stronger technological workforce, remain economically competitive, and prosper only by developing and employing the talents of the currently under-utilized majority of the population. Finding: Both K-12 and post-secondary education are inadequate to meet the challenges of the information age. If our citizens are to reap the benefits of the information technology revolution, personally and professionally, and if the Nation is to have the information technology-literate, well-educated, and highly skilled workforce it needs, every student must learn some aspects of information technology and many must become highly educated experts. That is not happening everywhere now. Many children do not have the opportunity to acquire the information technology skills they will need in the future. Many adults have no access to continuing education or the retraining that would enable them to hold good information technology jobs. Furthermore, the educational pipeline is not preparing enough people for the information technology workforce. |
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4.2 Recommendations
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Recommendations Our recommendations are organized into two categories: recommendations involving education, training, and workforce policies and those calling for additional research. To begin to solve some of the problems described above, new research and substantive policy changes will be needed. Some of the research we recommend could well be supported within the agencies that traditionally fund science and engineering, but other appropriate sponsorship for this research should also be considered. Overarching Recommendation: Expand Federal initiatives and government-university-industry partnerships to increase information technology literacy, education, and access. In implementing the research agenda recommended in this report, the Government must increase its efforts to provide broader opportunities for developing information technology literacy, access, and research capabilities. The Government must also expand opportunities for information technology literacy and access as it addresses issues related to workforce skills and development. Specific recommendations are provided below. Recommendation: Expand Federal research into policy issues arising from information technology. As the information revolution introduces changes in society, the United States must continue to protect its citizens' information privacy, the rights to intellectual property, the ability to provide verifiable signatures, and the ability to exercise control over appropriate access to information. New policies and procedures are certain to be needed. As an example, we consider information privacy -- an issue that is increasingly visible. It is appropriate that industry take the lead in establishing and implementing privacy procedures. Government regulation might be required if industry fails to act properly, or in very sensitive areas like health care and protection of minors. Policies for the protection of individuals' information privacy on the Internet should be evaluated and established. Industry education programs should be developed that carry the message that protecting consumer privacy on-line will actually be good for business. The government and industry should jointly fund this effort. The Committee recommends that research in privacy issues be aggressively funded to help address the following questions:
Since an understanding of the socioeconomic issues that arise because of technological change is intrinsically a multi-disciplinary investigation, there should be research on social, economic, and policy issues. The studies could be tied to particular aspects of information technology, such as the Internet, or they could be more broadly based. As appropriate, research on socioeconomic issues should be carried out in Expedition or Enabling Technology centers, including some of those with a primarily technical focus. These centers should define and legitimize research areas, provide the scale of research activity necessary for experimental research in socioeconomic topics, allow for research teams of sufficient size for multidisciplinary research, and allow sufficient time for the maturation of a research area. Possible areas of research for such centers include (but are not limited to):
Systematic research efforts are needed to identify specific barriers experienced by underrepresented groups in their pursuit of careers in information technology. The research program should include investigations of pre-college preparation issues; barriers to undergraduate enrollment, financial aid and admissions policies; retention in information technology degree programs; graduate education issues, career access; and career advancement obstacles. Experimental programs should be developed to test the effectiveness of different approaches toward reducing those barriers. In particular, it will be important to determine if (and how) the tools of IT can themselves be used to break down these barriers. A significant proportion of this research could be carried out at the Enabling Technology Centers, and at an Expedition Center focused on socioeconomic and workforce issues. Based on the data obtained from this research, and from other effective programs already in place, the IT community should increase its efforts to recruit women and minorities into IT careers. We note that several private-sector programs have been successful in producing minority and women graduates, particularly in engineering. They have developed a high-quality research and support infrastructure that provides such services as alternative assessments to identify potential recruits among educationally disadvantaged high school students, essential academic enrichment programs for those students, scholarships, mentoring, internships and professional development. The National Science Foundation has also developed several programs aimed at improving education in under-served communities, and at increasing participation of minorities in science and engineering. Those successful programs should be extended to encompass information technology and related fields. Government support for exemplary programs operated through public and private foundations should be increased substantially. Recommendation: Create programs to remove the barriers to high bandwidth connectivity posed by geographic location, size, and ethnic history of research, educational institutions, and communities. Programs to facilitate high bandwidth connectivity, such as the NSF vBNS connectivity grant program, should be continued and expanded to address problems posed by geographical location, size or ethnic history. It is essential that such limiting factors are removed so that all institutions with efforts related to the network testbeds are included, both to provide the necessary research and to contribute needed students to the information technology workforce. Special supplements to connection funding, such as the present EPSCoR supplements in the NSF Connections program are one approach to this problem. Other approaches such as research to develop and apply new technology to facilitate access and mitigate policy/regulatory concerns should be addressed, as well. In addition, we should support community efforts to provide connectivity through local institutions, such as libraries, schools, places of worship, and community centers. High-bandwidth connectivity in every state is needed. Similar to historic large-scale national infrastructure programs such as the Rural Electrification Act or the interstate highway program, the construction of an "interstate information superhighway" system must be set as a high-priority, long-term National goal. We do not propose, however, that the government subsidize the deployment of a national high-bandwidth infrastructure at this time. Independent of any related policy considerations, the expense would be prohibitive using current technologies. Rather, the first and essential step toward attaining that long-term goal is to mount the type of research effort proposed in this report. By doing the research necessary to decrease connectivity costs, nationwide high-bandwidth connectivity will become possible. Recommendation: Accelerate and expand education in information technology at all levels -- K-12, higher education, and lifelong learning. To prepare our citizens for the Information Age, education and training are needed for computer literacy, for entry into jobs and careers that require information technology skills, and for continuing to update knowledge and skills in the face of rapid technological change. As part of preparing students to live in an information technology world, they must learn the basic use of computers and the Web to acquire information, communicate with others, and perform other daily tasks. In addition, computer science and information science material must be incorporated into the K-12 curricula as a natural augmentation of education in math and science. In order to make education in information technology available to all K-12 and college students, effective mechanisms must be developed to train highly qualified computer and information science educators, and to encourage them to teach in under-served communities. Lifelong-learning is an extremely important part of the information technology profession -- information technology professionals must continually update their knowledge and skills to keep up with this fast-changing field. Advances in personal computers and Internet access can enable learners to acquire high-quality information technology courses and training anytime and anywhere. Information technology education and training should be made readily available to motivated learners. Collaborations among schools, government, and industry will be an important factor in information technology education and training. An example of a program that facilitates collaboration between government and industry to enhance information technology education and training is the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education Program (ATE) begun in 1994.12 Other programs and incentives for such collaborative efforts should be developed and supported. Recommendation: Strengthen the use of information technology in education. Information technology has great promise as a vehicle for improving both the quality and the availability of education at all levels. Although many ideas have been advanced and tried, considerably more research and experimentation are needed to realize that promise. At the same time, it is essential that the use of those aspects of information technology that are known to be effective for education become more widely available and used. The President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) recently released the "Report to the President on the Use of Technology to Strengthen K-12 Education in the United States." They recommend that the Federal government play a leadership role in supporting an aggressive research agenda to evaluate the efficacy in both the short and long run of the educational approaches that are being fostered by the new technologies. This Committee strongly endorses that recommendation. Interest in "electronic learning" is growing rapidly among universities, community colleges, and private education providers. Yet information technology educators and trainers often don't use it. The use of information technology would be particularly beneficial for teaching people about information technology. In particular, we believe these "anytime, anywhere" approaches offer the potential for high-quality education and training to be accessible by large pools of would-be students (including high school students) who could not otherwise participate. Such approaches could be powerful responses to needs for both increased numbers undertaking initial education in information technology fields, and for information technology professionals to constantly update their skills while continuing their employment. The following numbers are in addition to current (FY 1999) funding levels. Funding increases for Socioeconomic Research ($ millions)
The committee recommends ramping up to $100 million over five years. In the first year, we recommend spending an additional $30 million, as follows:
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Endnotes |
Endnotes
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