Implementation of a national information infrastructure: science and the building of society

Abstract

The world of scientific research played a crucial role in shaping the national computer networks and the way they spread to other sectors of society, creating the conditions for today's activity toward the construction of a national information infrastructure. This study follows several strategic networking activities and identifies four basic threads that contributed to the overall outcome. The first is the series of efforts to establish resource sharing schemes in computing for higher education institutions. However, difficulties in inter-institutional cooperation in higher education delayed concrete action. The second and third threads are related to the evolution into legitimate sciences of computer science and computational science. Computer science largely developed in support of work in physics and its subsidiary role was reflected in the lack of clout of most of its academic departments and the weak standing of its programs in NSF. Computer networking figured prominently in the strategies adopted by leaders in the field do redress this situation.