Computers, Communications, and Public Policy Report of a Workshop at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, August 14-18, 1978 (1981) / Chapter Skim
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INTERNATIONAL ISSUES
INTERNATIONAL ISSUES
Pages 41-77
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From page 41... ...
THE EMERGING INTERNATIONAL CONTROVERSY OVER INFORMATION RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT Contrary to v/hat might have been predicted even five years ago, conflicts are beginning to arise over who should benefit from developing and using the information resources*
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From page 42... ...
And they include all the goods and services thereby made possible -- telephones, radio, television, newspapers, computer data banks, educational courseware, engineering advice, and so on. The term "information industry," in contrast, refers to the set of economic institutions that supply "information machines" and "information content" for use in developing a country's information resources.
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From page 43... ...
Historically, the development of each nation's indigenous information resources has been partially shaped by decisions made in international forums3 that the industrialized countries, because of the weight of their interest, investment, and expertise, have dominated. Out of this a pattern of international resource distribution has emerged, which many developing countries now want to modify in ways that will reflect more directly their own special needs and concerns.
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From page 44... ...
Maintaining the revenue base for existing postal, telephone, and telegraph services, safeguarding personal privacy, and protecting data processing workers from occupational hazards are objectives that many are now pursuing. Yet, to achieve such goals in an orderly manner, and with due regard for the extent to which the information sectors of their economies are already closely linked, the industrialized nations may have to bridge differences among their
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From page 45... ...
Since enactments of this sort are at least potentially in conflict with the principle that information should flow unimpeded across national boundaries,9 and since many countries that do not now have such legislation may soon enact it, harmonization in the sense of getting all the industrialized countries to agree to legislate a minimum set of generally applicable privacy protection requirements has seemed highly desirable. At the moment, three such efforts are under way -- one sponsored by the Council of Europe; one by the Commission for the European Communities; and a third by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
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From page 46... ...
Although these kinds of problems are sometimes portrayed as unique to the United States, many other industrialized nations are also struggling to keep the push for harmonization of their domestic privacy protection policies from unduly constraining their pursuit of competing policy objectives. Thus, while the OECD harmonization project in particular appears to be making good progress through compromise and careful drafting, no one is able to say for sure whether harmonization will succeed or fail, or even how important success or failure will be for the countries involved.
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From page 47... ...
Some U.S. observers of the debate over national and international privacy protection policy suggest that it should be interpreted as a step toward legitimizing autarkical approaches to the control of computer-based information technology, and, if they are correct, that it will inevitably lead to a spate of protectionist measures aimed at insulating indigenous information industries of some countries from foreign competition.
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From page 48... ...
are now beginning to wonder whether the industrialized countries' efforts to mold the development and use of computer-based information technology might become a pretext for imposing protectionist constraints on "foreign" suppliers of computing and telecommunications equipment and services. In the past, all of the industrialized countries, except Japan, have been chary of doing so.
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From page 49... ...
It includes merging several government telecommunications agencies into a single, national, telecommunications company capable of launching its own communications satellites.16 It includes revising government agency procurement practices so that French manufacturers of computing hardware and software will have an advantage for their wares in the domestic market, and it calls for substantial government investments in basic and i ft applied research. Further, the proposed plan would "nationalize the demand" for computer-based information technology and the services it makes possible by looking to the government to decide where productivity increasing applications of it should be made.
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information industry, and particularly changes resulting from a proposed offering of direct satellite data communications services, threaten to deprive France of effective control over the development of its own, indigenous, information resources. The argument, in a nutshell, is that whereas governments until now have been able to control the way that computers are used by channeling the way that telecommunications are used, if a foreign-based multinational corporation is able to combine both technologies into a single equipment or service offering, governments will find themselves unable to control the uses that are made of either one.23 Given the disruptions that the conjoint use of computing and telecommunications is believed to be capable of producing in a country like France, such a prospect is understandably considered a poor one and is a principal justification in the report for urging the government to take steps to develop a wholly domestic information industry that will eventually make France self-sufficient in everything from computer manufacturing to satellitelaunching facilities.
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In the Japanese case, the government, through its Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) , has managed in less than 10 years to strengthen the Japanese information industry to the point where it may soon be capable of rivaling the U.S.
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Canada, in pursuit of its information resource goals, has also been unusually innovative in the development of communications satellites, cable television facilities, and videotex systems. Nonetheless, the extent to which the Canadian information industry is domestically owned, the industry's contribution to Canada's foreign trade, and the percentage of GNP devoted to pertinent research and development are still considered by the Canadian government to be less than satisfactory.31 THE DANGERS OF THE PROTECTIONIST APPROACH: A UNITED STATES VIEW Whether protectionist approaches to information research and development will become widespread remains to be seen.
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From page 53... ...
Yet, since each country's situation is somewhat different, and since France, Japan, and Canada are not the only ones that could find a protectionist development strategy appealing, the possibility of more rather than less protectionism in the international market for computer-based information technology, and for the information processing services it makes possible, cannot be casually dismissed. To appreciate why, one need only consider a few of the undesirable conditions that could be created if the industrialized countries' efforts to stimulate and control the development of their indigenous information industries degenerated into a hodgepodge of restrictions on the utilization of "foreign" technology and services.
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From page 54... ...
Brazil, for example, has moved to protect its indigenous computer hardware manufacturers by enacting legislation to restrict the importation of minicomputers, and nationalization or mandated local ownership of computer-supply houses and data processing facilities in other developing countries is on the increase.31 * Some observers, moreover, are fearful that the developing countries may eventually try to control the use and dissemination of information originating in the industrialized world by banding together to force major changes in the way access to the electromagnetic spectrum is allocated.35 By using their votes in international forums to obtain increased allocations of the spectrum's capacity, for example, the developing countries would be in a position to lease the use of it to the industrialized countries, pending their own ability to use it.36 While most experts doubt that a majority of the developing countries would support such a move, no one familiar with their concerns and objectives seems willing to rule out the possibility completely.
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From page 55... ...
, there seems to be little doubt that the United States, in particular, should do all it can to promote modes of national and international information resource development that avoid, to the maximum extent possible, any resort to protectionist actions. Of all the countries that could suffer from a barrage of national and international initiatives aimed at restricting the utilization of "foreign" information technologies and services, the United States is surely the one that could suffer the most.
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"information industry" yields a sizeable and growing contribution to the nation's Gross National Product, and, in addition, an estimate of net annual exports in the billions of dollars. Compared to other countries' information industries, moreover, the U.S.
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government's principal policy concern has been to make the information industry's domestic markets as competitive as possible. Because of the expected links among competition, price, and innovation, that policy, all things being equal, should also be a boon to the industry abroad.
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(3) How does the international market for information technology and services currently operate, and what are the economic factors in the current situation that might shape its future development?
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Information Technology for Global Resource Management One of the benefits that computer-based information technology holds out to the world in general is the opportunity for individual countries and groups of countries to help solve their domestic and international problems using commonly accessible stores of data and knowledge.1* 3 Already a variety of international organizations, including the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU)
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'5 On one hand, the expertise necessary to harness computer-based information technology to global or regional resource management objectives tends in this country to be concentrated in the private sector, with a few important exceptions, like meteorology, earth resources sensing, and national statistics. On the other hand, few in the private sector are inclined to invest in hightechnology information gathering and retrieval services so long as they face the possibility of competing with similar ones developed by government or international agencies.
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From page 61... ...
Meanwhile, many of the industrialized nations contend that developing their own indigenous information industries is a necessary step toward assuring sustained economic growth, even though others claim equally strongly that restricting the use of "foreign" information technology and services, for whatever reason, will tend to undermine the economic health of the industrialized world generally. There are, in short, strong beliefs that affect the market, but few facts to characterize it, and almost no suggestions as to how the industrialized countries might proceed to identify and capitalize on opportunities for constructive, cooperative action.
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From page 62... ...
in enhancing the developing countries' ability to achieve their modernization objectives. What are their requirements and what do they need in the way of institutional arrangements if they are to make effective use of the information resources to which they now have access or might have access in the future?
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First, it is essential to identify the foreign regulations and standards that force unique requirements on imported information technology and services; that dictate the design of computer hardware and software; that impede the flow of information across national boundaries; that require that data bases be duplicated for domestic use; or that restrict the ownership or management of computer systems or facilities. Second, a study should be made of what other countries consider evidence of economic or cultural domination by "foreign" information industries and of how such evidence affects their decisions on specific information resource issues.
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government agencies and the private sector have worked together in preparing for international nongovernmental meetings of experts. The former might well focus on the 1977 and 1979 World Administrative Radio
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Domestic Policy on the International Information Market Government policy makers and leaders in business and education need help in understanding the economic and social importance of a nation's information industry.
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seventy-five member nations called for developing countries to: "reorganize existing communication channels which are the legacy of the colonial past, and which have hampered free, direct and fast communications among them; initiate joint action for the revision of existing multilateral agreement with a view to reviewing press cable rates and facilitating faster and cheaper intercommunication; take urgent steps to expedite the process of collective ownership of communications satellites and evolve a code of conduct for directing their use; promote increased contact between the mass media, universities, libraries, planning and research bodies and other institutions so as to enable developing countries to exchange experience and expertise and share ideas; exchange and disseminate information concerning their mutual achievements in all fields through newspapers and periodicals, radio, television and the news media of their respective countries; and formulate plans for sharing experience in this field, inter alia through reciprocal visits of delegations from information media and through exchange of radio and television programs, films, books, photographs, and through cultural events and arts festivals." Similar concerns and calls for action were reiterated at ministerial and specialized conferences of the non-aligned nations in Lima (1975) , Tunis, Mexico City, and New Delhi (1976)
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From page 67... ...
of the Intergovernmental Conference on Strategies and Policies for Informatics, August 28-September 6, 1978, Torremolinos, Spain (Paris: UNESCO and the Intergovernmental Bureau for Informatics) ; the working documents and proposals considered at the World Administrative Radio Conference, September 24-December 6, 1979, Geneva.
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and its subsidiary bodies such as Consultative Committee on International Telephone and Telegraph, International Telecommunication Union (CCITT) and World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC)
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See, for example, U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Telecommunications, Selected Foreign National Data Protection Laws and Bills.
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9. This principle has traditionally guided the work of, for example, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
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From page 71... ...
Privacy Protection Study Commission recommended against such legislation. The Commission also believed that the principal threat to personal privacy interests comes from the record keeping operations of public and private bureaucracies; that is, organizations that, unlike small businesses, tend to deal with individuals on the basis of records kept about them rather than on the basis of face-toface contact.
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From page 72... ...
, a new corporation jointly owned by IBM, the Communications Satellite Corporation, and the Aetna Life and Casualty Company. Beginning in 198l, SBS will offer satellite-based data, voice, and video communications services to business enterprises in the United States.
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From page 73... ...
31. These preoccupations with the development and protection of Canada's domestic information resources are often expressed as a concern about "national sovereignty." The following quotation from a Canadian government news release captures the mood: "The Canadian communications system is in the midst of a crisis more profound than any that has affected it since the 1930's....Many have drawn special attention to the need to safeguard Canada's cultural sovereignty....The recent hearings before the CRTC on the CBC license renewals, the spectacle of U.S.
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Although it did not succeed, the determination to succeed has not diminished. The Commission of the European Communities is actively fostering the development of a European information industry.
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, a subsidiary of the International Telecommunication Union.
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See also, International Council of Scientific Unions, Panel on World Data Centres, Fourth Consolidated Guide to International Data Exchange through the World Data Centres. Washington, D.C.: Secretariat, ICSU Panel on World Data Centres, June, 1979.
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From page 77... ...
79-95. Likewise, the formation of a new Interagency Working Group on Information, under the Office of Science and Technology Policy Committee on International Science, Engineering and Technology, bodes well in this regard.
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