Computers, Communications, and Public Policy Report of a Workshop at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, August 14-18, 1978 (1981) / Chapter Skim
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TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS & IMPLICATIONS
TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS & IMPLICATIONS
Pages 12-25
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From page 12... ...
Each of these forms of representation fulfills the same function -- that of conveying a given item of information -- and each can be converted into the other without altering the item's basic information content.
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From page 13... ...
Other commonplace examples of information conveying devices that rely on analog representation include the cassette recorder, which represents sound as continuously varying states of magnetism on a tape, and the analog portions of the telephone network, which use a continuously varying electrical signal to represent human speech. That there are these two different categories of ways to represent information carries important practical implications.
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From page 14... ...
CONTEMPORARY COMPUTING AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY There abound in the world today two broad classes of computing technology -- not surprisingly, one called analog and the other called digital. In the analog device, information is typically represented as continuously varying electrical signals whose direct manipulation allows the performance of desired algebraic or mathematical operations.
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From page 15... ...
Regardless of the form in which a telecommunications system accepts information from a sender, regardless of how the information is represented in transit, and regardless of the form in which it is delivered at its destination, the information content is not supposed to be altered. A telegraphic communication system, for example, may accept handwritten messages whose representation enroute changes repeatedly -- from keystrokes to electrical signals, to radio signals to and from a satellite, to a printed telegram delivered to the recipient.
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From page 16... ...
Conversely, digital computing technology can greatly enhance the flexibility and efficiency of telecommunications capability. In the domestic and international telephone net, for example, digital computers are now used to perform such tasks as: • Selecting routing .paths and establishing circuits; • Monitoring the utilization of equipment; • Producing bills; • Accepting information flowing in on one communications channel, storing it temporarily, and then routing it outward on another; • Monitoring the reliability and overall performance of the network; and • Allowing information represented in digital form to be broken up into easily transportable units that are then reassembled at their destination to recreate the original data stream.1 In sum, digital computing technology is playing an increasingly significant role in the management, operation, and control of telecommunications systems at the same time that telecommunications systems are facilitating the spread of digital computing capacity.
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From page 17... ...
A telecommunications system uses microwave relays, satellite transmission facilities, modulating devices of various kinds, and, of course, all of the open-wire and coaxial cable technology. Likewise, a digital computing operation uses magnetic tapes, magnetic disks, various types of printing devices, and some special electronic technology such as magnetic cores.
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From page 18... ...
Some, in fact, have disappeared simply as a result of new digital techniques developed to make more efficient use of voice communication facilities. "Pulse code modulation," for instance, is now a well-established innovation that represents voice conversations in digital form, thereby enlarging the number of them that can be carried on simultaneously over a given communication link.
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From page 19... ...
NEW KINDS OF FACILITIES FOR DATA COMMUNICATIONS Because the demand for data communications capacity is growing by leaps and bounds, virtually all segments of the telecommunications industry are now working on ways to transport information in digital form. Experiments with digital broadcasting, using transmission channels assigned to local television and FM radio stations have been underway for several years, and just over the horizon is largescale exploitation of fiber-optic technology -- sometimes called optical cable -- which uses laser-generated signals instead of electrical ones to transmit digitally represented messages.
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From page 20... ...
In other words, the digital computers in a packet network act as control mechanisms that see to it that the transmission of information takes place as intended and that the network fulfills its basic obligation as a telecommunications system -- namely, to deliver information from sender to recipient in a timely manner, without errors or other changes in the information content of the original message. Packet switching, it should be noted, is also a good example of how an application of digital computing technology can have significant economic implications.
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From page 21... ...
With the advent of packet switching, such dedication is no longer essential, and thus not only can price be brought into line with actual usage, but previously underutilized circuits can be operated more efficiently. TELECOMMUNICATIONS EFFICIENCY AND OTHER ISSUES Packet services may be supplied by a specialized common carrier or as a specialized service within the framework of the classical telephone system.
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From page 22... ...
One would like to think that eventually conventional techniques for managing and using a telecommunications network, plus packet switching and other innovations that are yet to be made, will give telecommunications users all the options necessary to satisfy their requirements in whatever way is most costeffective for them. To reach that point, though, many obstacles still need to be surmounted.
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From page 23... ...
Quite apart from any consumer resistance, consider also the opposition to electronic funds transfer systems that has developed within segments of the financial industry on the grounds that the systems' remote terminals amount to branch banks and, therefore, threaten to upset the existing pattern of intra-industry competition. Consider the public concern that was voiced in the mid-1970's over the use of computer-based information technology to gather, maintain, and disseminate records pertaining to identifiable individuals, and note as well the uneven pace of office automation that appears to be due in part to concern that longestablished interpersonal or hierarchical organizational relationships will be disrupted.1*
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From page 24... ...
The joint applications of computing and telecommunications technology that have been made so far have been extraordinarily rich in services -- financial and reservations services, public data bases, shareable computing power, command and control systems for the military, corporate audit and planning capability, stock and commodity price quotations, individualized education in grammar and arithmetic, traffic-control support for air, water, and rail transportation, weather reporting, scientific data banks, newspaper morgues, specialized services for medical professionals, remote printing capability for newspapers and magazines -- and on and on. Nonetheless, the sum of what has been accomplished to date is less than what might have been accomplished if the technology had been recognized as the potentially powerful technological resource that it is.
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From page 25... ...
To this list may be added regulatory delay in authorizing various transatlantic telephone cables and "teletext," or alphanumeric information services for home television screen display. Such delays mean that new markets cannot be counted on with certainty, so that incentive lags to develop the innovative services and facilities to supply the markets.
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