GLOBAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE - COMPONENTS

• (Potential answer: People, communications, technology maintenance and supplies, readiness, and ability to utilize) [Hayes]

• (Potential answer: Standards, global communication means, agreements regarding information property rights, agreements on removing barriers to import and export technologies of both hardware, software, and content) [Hayes]

• Building up the infrastructure for resource sharing among particular re-gions and worldwide. [Chang]

• What is necessary at the international level for creating the GII? [Hayes]

• What is necessary in each country or each region to assure that it can effectively participate in the GII? [Hayes]

• The prospects for regional and international agreement on transborder linkages (i.e., will there be a reoccurrence of TBDF "wars" all over again?). [Horton]

• Global planning for interconnectivity. [Riggs]

• From national information infrastructure to the international GII - is it the right way? [Shraiberg]

• East-West International Cooperation: problems and prospects. [Shraiberg]

• Getting accepted into the global information community. [Swanepoel]

• Cooperation within the Baltic States. [Vilks]

• Agreeing on strategies for developing the GII and bringing it to the least developed country and to the least developed regions within countries. [White]

• Building new alliances and partnerships so that the GII is universally and equitably available to all populations; there is a danger of widening the gap between information haves and have nots. [White]

• What are the uses of the GII that will be of greatest value to more general international goals (such as world peace, world health, world education, world economic development)? [Hayes]

• Multimedia in Sci-Tech libraries: fashion or necessity? [Shraiberg]

• Information exchange: standards and formats. [Shraiberg]

• Coordinating with international partners. [Swanepoel]

• Cooperation among national libraries. [Vilks]

• Electronic delivery of documents, especially graphics and images interna-tionally. [Chang]

• Ongoing programs, projects, meetings, etc., classified, sorted, and indexed by geographic region, by function, by sector, and in other useful ways. [Horton]

• The absence of a single, central, authoritative online database with records that recap the major current, international, economic, and socio-cultural research. [Horton]

• Regional information clearinghouses, e.g., gray literature, library instruc-tion materials, manuals, C.A.I. programs, etc. [Maura and Thompson]

• Resource sharing networks. [Maura and Thompson]

• Online access to information databases or CD-ROM distribution: Where is the future? [Shraiberg]

• Processing of literature flows and national catalogs. [Shraiberg]

• Electronic document delivery. [Swanepoel]

• Document delivery. [Maura and Thompson]

• Information materials exchange. [Vilks]

• International book exchange. [Vilks]

• Baltinfonet. [Vilks]

• International DB. [Vilks]

• CD-ROM "in-house" systems as a chance for libraries to produce their own databases. [Shraiberg]

• Digitalization of Latvian materials to the world. [Vilks]

• More sophisticated public domain Z39.50 server and client software. [Chang]

• Greater speed of Internet connection. [Chang]

• What are the necessary means for creating the GII? [Hayes]

• Is the GII going to be hardware (telecommunications) only (or mostly)? [Horton]

• A broadly agreed-on focus for the "core local-level GII on/off ramps" (e.g., public libraries, schools, community centers, municipal government offices new multimedia centers, and others). [Horton]

• Standards that will be followed worldwide. [Riggs]

• Could we consider Internet as an environment for GII for the future? [Shraiberg]

• Penetration of e-mail and Internet services. [Swanepoel]

• Improving access to GII through training, user-friendly software inter-faces, and interfaces among networks, such as Fidonet and Internet; there is a danger of excluding sectors of population (women, elderly, handi-capped). [White]

• Improving quality and relevance of information available through the GII. [White]

• Designing sustainable projects. [White]

• Ways to building open and interoperable networks. [White]

• Developing programs that address basic needs, such as literacy. [White]

• Development of new communities and a new relationship between people and society as the GII becomes more universally available. [White]

• Learning from and sharing our mistakes; learning from and sharing our successes. [White]

• How can those barriers be removed or at least eased? [Hayes]

Cultural Differences

• Ignorance of the outside world and limited experience with other cultures. [Achleitner]

• General cultural differences, particularly in developing countries, inclu-ding lack of understanding and appreciation of working cooperatively, resource sharing, open communication, etc. [Andre]

• The impact of "ethnic fragmentation" on centralized data, information, and documentation holdings. [Horton]

• Different economic levels (the "haves" and the "have nots") and the con-cept of universal service. [Riggs]

• The first and third-world components of South African society. [Swane-poel]

• Ignorance of cultural or societal norms within which projects should be developed; failure to include all people who might be impacted by a project in the design and management of that project. [White]

• Working within environmental and population constraints to make deve-lopment sustainable. [White]

Language

• Language differences. [Andre]

• Language - Are we assuming that the problems of doing business are often greater than the technical ones. [Kirk]

• The language barrier. [Swanepoel]

Status of Infrastructure

• Foundation for infrastructure lacking. [Achleitner]

• Ignorance in the value of information; policymakers don't consult internal information resources to make decisions (related to poor educational system and training). [Achleitner]

• Political situation: instability of governments; high turnover of officials, especially on the ministerial level; culture; authoritarian, hierarchical structures; corruption. [Achleitner]

• Lack of political skills and connections at the ministry level to get funds/ attention for [agriculture] libraries. [Andre]

• Government's role in facilitating the construction of the infrastructure and its regulations. [Duncan]

• What are the components of national information structures critical in the ability to participate in the GII? [Hayes]

• Bureaucratic politics - where bribes and the problems of doing business are often greater than the technical one. [Kirk]

• Lack of information infrastructure. [Andre, Swanepoel]

• Lack of national policies regarding information. [Swanepoel]

• Lack of strategic planning. [Swanepoel]

• Cost/benefit of GII in relation to other development problems; demons-trating relevance of GII to development. [White]

• Little evidence of value of GII or role of information to development. [White]

• National infrastructures. [White]

• No clear idea of how to build it. [White]

• Top-down versus bottom-up project development and management. [White]

PROBLEMS IN THE ROLE OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR

• Poor regulation of information-related businesses, i.e., businesses locate their information-handling operations precisely because there is no regulation. [Achleitner]

• Solution of copyright and publisher charge-back issues expedite more full-text data online. [Chang]

• Or do we really mean it to be an "information highway," with emphasis on information products or services? There is a danger of the network ven-dors dominating the debate. [Horton]

• Defining proper roles for private sector involvement. [White]

• Protection of intellectual properties, copyright in particular. [Duncan]

• Security for transfer of information. [Duncan]

• Retaining individual privacy while developing a planetary library. [Riggs]

• Security, privacy, and protecting intellectual property rights on an inter-national basis. [White]

• Information policy: While developing countries have access to external databases developed by foreign experts, they don't have access to internal databases that may have much better data and information. [Achleitner]

• Telecommunications cost for developing countries. [Chang]

• How can the status of the infrastructure in each country be assessed for its ability to participate in the GII? [Hayes]

• Wide disparity of minimally acceptable electronic (and sometimes manual) communications infrastructures, especially in developing coun-tries. [Horton]

• The telecommunications infrastructures in developing countries that do not permit fully automated libraries. We must come up with some low- or medium-tech solutions to keep them from getting behind in receiving information. [Kirk]

• Unevenness in the level of technology among the various countries. [Riggs]

• Telecommunications. [Vilks]

• Identifying and selecting network-access technologies that make sense now and that are workable now, even though the telecommunications infrastructure is not fully in place. [White]

• Identifying roles of "other" technologies -- radio, wireless, satellite -- in building the GII. [White]

• Poor existing telecommunications infrastructure in many countries. [White]

• Poor resource base (few computers, modems, and other equipment). [White]

• Lack of understanding of fundraising and funding sources. [Andre]

• Strength for NAL international work that is the programmatic focus of both the current administration and the USDA on assistance to the inter-national community. Good support from USDA, etc. [Andre]

• What are the means internationally for supporting development of national information infrastructures so they can participate in the GII. [Hayes]

• Drying up of traditional funding sources (e.g. foundations, lending banks, other institutions) to support national, regional, and GII programs and projects. [Horton]

• Costs - technology, training, document delivery are still high-cost items. Are there less costly substitutes? [Kirk]

• Affordability of international liaison. [Swanepoel]

• Funding. [Swanepoel]

• Work with international foundations. [Vilks]

• Suspicion of motives of U.S. in pushing for GII. [White]

• Deciding who pays; finding ways to distinguish among value, cost, and price. [White]

• Lack of a "development" constituency within U.S. government, especially the legislature; poor understanding within the U.S. population of impor-tance of development. [White]

• Lack of donor coordination. [White]

• Shortage of donors' resources and poor base from which to build; urgency of such problems as AIDS, overpopulation, poverty in relation to amount of resources. [White]

• Suspicion of motives of U.S. in pushing for GII. [White]

• Unwillingness of donors to explore alternative or interim technologies in building GII. [White]

• Need for training in modern librarianship. [Andre]

• Education: underfunded and underdeveloped; gaps in what institutions offer i.e., whole disciplines are missing in university educations; instabi-lity - frequent strikes; limited funding; changes in educational policies. [Achleitner]

• Training/retraining/developing/educating staff to the needed level. [Chang]

• Shortage of experienced leaders and professionals with competencies beyond their own countries, especially in developing countries. [Horton]

• Equitable availability of services for, access to, and training of the functionally and financially disadvantaged on how to use and benefit from the information superhighways. [Horton]

• Lack of understanding of the role of information in the economic develop-ment of the countries in the region. [Maura and Thompson]

• Lack of understanding of the work of the information professionals by both public and private sectors in the region. [Maura and Thompson]

• Upgrading of library education programs in the region. [Maura & Thomp- pson]

-- a. Lack of graduate programs. b. Curriculum development. c. Resear-ch/teaching skill.

• Continuing education among Latin American countries. [Maura & Thompson]

• Distance education. [Maura and Thompson]

• EDULAC (Latin American LIS Educators Listserv). [Maura & Thomp-son]

• Development of Spanish-language teaching materials. [Maura & Thomp-son]

• Staff training in NIT. [Vilks]

• Lack of trained personnel. [White]