Federal and state governments are funding research and pilot projects to spur innovative applications. The High Performance Computing and Communications Program is supporting university research. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) provides funds for telecommunications applications in distance education and health care delivery. The Rural Utilities Service (formerly the Rural Electrification Administration) funds educational and health care projects providing advanced telecommunications technology and services for rural Americans. Many states are offering inducements to the carriers to accelerate the upgrading of their facilities and to provide access to schools and other community locations. State governments are also providing seed money to communities and
To some extent all of the prophesies have been fulfilled, yet the potential of the technologies is far from fully realized. In many cases, it took institutional change and incentives to innovate in order for these technologies to have much effect. In North America, the more remarkable change is in these incentives rather than the technologies. As school districts face shrinking budgets and new curricular requirements, as spiraling health care budgets are targeted by governments and insurance companies, and as business realizes that people must "work smarter" to compete in a global economy, they find new and compelling reasons to turn to telecommunications and information technologies.
New technologies and services are forcing policymakers to rethink their goals of universality. In both ind
Example Essays Home
