Copyright c 1993 by Nicholas Johnson and the Institute for Information Studies Introduction: The Nature of Information, in Institute for Information Studies, The Knowledge Economy/The Nature of Information in the 21st Century, 1993- 1994 Annual Review of the Institute for Information Studies (A Joint Program of Northern Telecom Inc. and The Aspen Institute), 1993, pp. ix-xxiv. Introduction: The Nature of Information I This is the fifth Annual Review of the Institute for Information Studies. Previous Reviews in this series have dealt with such topics as universal service and the national telecommunications infrastructure. They have been useful and well received. But "information is our middle name," and in all those years the Institute has never before actually dealt with "the nature of information." Can it be done? As 1992 Presidential candidate Ross Perot might have put it: "We can do it, but it won t be pretty." The authors of this year s Annual Review -- and the participants at The Aspen Institute River House conference held to discuss early drafts -- have made a first effort to get their arms around this marshmallow of a topic. (The names of participants are listed elsewhere in this volume.) Authors and participants have chosen to leave to the reader any aesthetic judgments as to how "pretty" the results may be. But we would also be the first to hope, and believe, that the reader will find between these covers ideas, insights, (and "information") of profound practical application in business, government, military, academic, and other institutions -- and daily life. The challenging theme of this year s Review was put to the authors and conference participants in this way: The theme . . . is the nature of information. Within it we hope to examine information as a commons, a resource to be shared, not owned; to consider whether and how the availability of and access to new technologies are causing or influencing change in the nature and definition of information; to demonstrate how these changes are affecting the fields of education, economics, sociology, technology, business, and world affairs. The reader should know, as do the authors, that these essays represent no more than a first attempt to deal with such a theme. So, to those who ask why we have "just scratched the surface" we respond with the insight of anyone who has ever been bitten by a mosquito -- whether of the Maryland Eastern Shore variety or not -- "What is there to scratch but the surface?" The authors and conference participants believe this task, which they have begun, needs to be, and should be, continued. The implications for our international competitiveness and domestic well-being are obvious. This volume contains six informative and provocative essays that do, in fact, go well beyond the surface. They represent the insights of individuals who combine both intellectual rigor and the practical realities of life in the information age. They also represent whatever revisions the authors thought necessary as a result of the participants critiques at the River House sessions June 24 and 25, 1993. II Radio personality Michael Feldman of Madison, Wisconsin, includes in his program of humor, commentary, and quiz questions a category he calls "things you would have learned in school if you had been paying attention." This volume, like Mr. Feldman s program, is designed for readers who, while curious, informed -- and educated -- may not always have been paying attention. Stephen H. Haeckel of IBM s Advanced Business Institute, and Professor Richard L. Nolan of Harvard s Graduate School of Business Administration, open this volume with an exploration of what they call "transforming symbols into action." In doing so they address, among many other things, the value of information, note the distinction between the "potential value" of information and what they call its "value-in-use." The latter, they note, is a function of its "applicability, accuracy, timeliness, completeness, ease of use and access, and 'integrate-ability' by a user." They use the analogy of the "OODA loop (Observation, Orientation, Decision, and Action) of the fighter pilot "flying by wire." In today s fighter planes, events (that is, information about those events) come faster than a human s sensory capacity can comprehend. Thus, information technology is used to make it possible for a human to participate in "flying" such a plane. It is accomplished because, as the authors note, "The pilot is not flying the plane, but an informational representation of it." This is called "flying by wire," something the authors suggest is a useful way of thinking about the demands on (and opportunities for) today s institutional "managers." In the spirit of Michael Feldman, Professor Roger Noll, a Stanford economist, provides an intriguing and very readable introduction to the economics of information designed for those of us who are not economists, forgot what we once know, or weren t paying attention in the first place. Besides, even if we has been paying attention, it s unlikely our professor was talking about the economics of information when we were in school, let alone in the way that Professor Noll does. A couple of Texans next take on the implications of the nature of information for business. Blake Ives is at the Cox School of Business at SMU; Sirkka Jarvenpaa is at the University of Texas Graduate School of Business in Austin. What does it mean to be in business when "information" becomes not only the product but the organization (or lack thereof)? In commendable business school fashion, they provide both the theoretical bases for their conclusions and a case study: the case of the hypothetical Global Petroleum Services. As Ives and Jarvenpaa put it, "The buying and selling of expertise and information will, over time, supplant physical goods as the basis of developed nations economies." The "world affairs essay" appears next, authored by UCSD Professor Peter Cowhey and Margaret McKeown, a partner in the Seattle firm of Perkins Coie, and entitled, "The Promise of a New World Information Order." Upon hearing of the plan to establish a telegraph line between Maine and Texas in the mid-nineteenth century, Henry David Thoreau wrote in the first chapter of Walden, "We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate." That is the question Cowhey and McKeown attempt to address on the world scale: Now that (almost) everyone on planet earth can talk to (provide information content to) each other, what will be the nature of that content? Because, as the authors see it, there has not been as much growth in the content component of the global information business as there has in the conduit (the physical global networks) portion of the business. The "sociology" component falls to Professor Sara Kiesler of Carnegie Mellon University. In her paper, "Technology, Information, and Social Behavior," she explores a variety of contexts in which the members of the human species who are, after all, using this technology, have as much impact as the technology itself. "Information technology" is not just about "lights and wires in a box," as Edward R. Murrow once noted of television. Her examples will likely lead the reader to her conclusion that, "it may be as important to study people as the technology itself." In the final essay, "Information in a Networked Society: An Educational Disconnection," Syracuse Professor Charles R. McClure deals with educational implications of the changing nature of information. He uses the information resources available through the network of computer networks called the "Internet" to make the important point that there are considerably more than one kind of "literacy" in the information age. "Reading is Fundamental," to borrow from the name of a program designed to increase Americans literacy, but it is apparently not enough for the over-educated owners of VCRs who have access to printed operation manuals, and can read, but can t figure out how to program the devices to stop flashing "12:00." To make use of what the Internet offers one must not only know how to read (including computer manuals), but know about computer communications (and modems) in particular, something of the UNIX operating system, the general structure of the Internet, how to get access to it, how to navigate the Internet with commands (like "Archie" and "WAIS" and "anonymous ftp") -- and perhaps most difficult, how to make sense out of what has been retrieved (say, data from the spacecraft Voyager) once in one s mainframe account or personal computer. Obviously, in a global sense, there are then the added hurdles associated with multiple "foreign" languages and alphabets. But now it should be obvious that these essays really do considerably more than scratch the surface, and that no summaries can do them justice. Read them. Scan if you must. It is sometimes said that one must bring to good poetry 90 percent of what one will carry away. But oh, that 10 percent! None of the authors believes this is a volume of good poetry. But they have provided a marvelous catalyst for the curious and thoughtful reader s creativity. The more the reader brings to this volume, the more time and thought he or she is willing to give to it, the more will be taken away. III As we struggle with "the nature of information" we are somewhat like the six blind persons describing an elephant -- while each feels a different part of it. In our case, those are the parts of information characterized in the theme of the Review as education, economics, sociology, technology, business and world affairs." In the spirit of feeling this elephant called information, this opening essay will consume a few more pages with observations from yet a seventh point of view. Hopefully, it may be a useful overview of sorts of the elephant these papers attempt to describe. The Nature of Information To discuss "the nature of information" is a task not unlike that posed in the classic undergraduate essay question: "describe the nature of the universe and give two examples." After all, the gathering and processing of sensory input, and the creation and manipulation of symbols about that input, is what it is we humans do, as a species, that distinguishes us from other plant and animal life on earth. And all five to six billion of us do it constantly, many thousands of times a day each, from birth to death, in virtually every situation in which we find ourselves. So before attempting to formulate anything as exalted as a "general theory of information," perhaps the subject should be set up by reviewing a random sampling of some very common examples of the range of "information" familiar to all. Like the man who was so thrilled to find out he had been speaking "prose" all his life, we may be surprised when first considering the routine of our daily lives as rising to the level of "information." And yet, surely those experiences should be included. Here are some examples, selected in the most random way imaginable from thousands of possibilities. Sensing without symbols. We step outside and sense, from temperature, humidity and sky, that we d better take an umbrella. We first feel, rather than see, that mosquito on our forearm and swat at it. We smell a container of leftovers from the refrigerator and decide, whatever it may once have been, it is now spoiled and should be thrown out. No words are spoken, no symbols created but "information" is clearly involved. Being able to "read nature," whether animal tracks, weather, or landmarks, is a kind of information gathering we associate with native Americans, farmers, or those who enjoy fishing. Being able to "read a green," or fairway, is another kind of outdoor literacy. Simple technological aids to sensing. We get information from our equipment: the thermometer in the Thanksgiving turkey, our car s gasoline gauge, the timer on the clothes dryer. We glance, take in the information, and alter our behavior accordingly without giving a lot of thought to the "information processing" that is going on. The signs of our species. Humans signs are everywhere. Sale. Scenic Overlook Next Right. $29.95. Hours 9 to 9. Now showing. Exit. Some, like a stop light, are symbolic systems without words. Whatever they are, when we are seeking the information they provide they can be valuable help indeed. When we are not, however, they become "ugly billboards" or a contribution to our "information overload." Conversation. Much of the information we seek we get from conversation with each other. It s practical, serves an immediate purpose, and is often of only short-lived value. "Where s a good place to eat around here?" And, once there, "Where are the restrooms?" "Is it supposed to rain today?" "How d the game come out?" "Do we have class tomorrow?" Other, relatively informal, conversations -- whether with acquaintances or strangers -- may provide information of more long-lasting value. Then again, they may not. A seat mate s life story may provide insights into the human condition, and fascinating entertainment, during a long trip by plane or car. Or it may just be a boring, self-indulgent monologue. A chance exchange between customers at a lunch counter may lead to a salesperson s newest lead, or an otherwise unknown opportunity for employment. Chatting with a neighbor may lead to the discovery of a shared interest, and practical solutions to frustrations with a computer program or leaky basement. Morning coffee may produce insights into a martial problem, based on a co-worker s sharing of personal experience and insights. Manuals. Manuals accompanying equipment -- sometimes only a few pages or less -- scarcely rise to the level of "education" or even "training." But they provide information when we need it (though not necessarily in the form we would prefer) to resolve a particular problem: assembling a wheelbarrow, installing new word processing software -- or figuring out how to make a VCR stop flashing "12:00." Transactional information. What I will call "transactional information" makes up a great proportion of what employees, and customers, exchange. The elements are present when someone strolling along a busy city sidewalk asks a street vendor, "How much for that ring?" Or a customer in a small town hardware store asks the clerk, "Do you have any RG-58 coax cable?" and is either told where it is or that the store is out of stock -- and, if so, very likely where else in town it may be available ("Have you tried Radio Shack?"). The clerk (who may, in that instance, be the owner), either knows the answer from recent examination, or physically makes a trip to the stock room to find out. Today much of that information involves the use of global networks of 800 numbers, credit card verification systems, computer terminals, and very large real time electronic data bases. Increasingly, it may involve direct connection between the customer and the firm s information system -- as when a subscriber dials a "long distance" phone number, or gets cash from an ATM ("automatic teller machine") (tasks formerly requiring employees). But the most common transaction involves a company employee, whose work involves continuous matching of somewhat similar information from, on the one hand, customers, and, on the other, company data bases. The nature of this information can be perceived from the vantage point of the customer, the employee, or perhaps the data bases used by one or both of them. The transaction may even begin by the customer calling 800-555-1212 -- the 800-number that provides a human to "look up" other 800 numbers (actually, to access and then switch the inquirer to a computer-generated voice). Once the customer is connected to the company supplying the goods, services or information desired, she or he may first deal with routing information -- what office location, department or individual is most appropriate to their request. This may be handled by a human receptionist or operator. As likely, today, it will be a computer-generated and controlled series of questions requiring touch- tone responses from the customer s computer terminal -- the keypad we today still call a "telephone." (Although relatively uncommon for individual consumers, it is also possible the entire transaction involves computer-to- computer communication from the customer s computer we do call a computer directly into the firm s computer. Indeed, large firms dealers and suppliers are increasingly finding that the only way to order, or bill.) Once the connection is made between the human customer and the most appropriate human employee the information necessary to the transaction is exchanged. The answer to "Your name?" may result in the employee calling up on a computer screen, and repeating to the customer for verification, the customer s billing and shipping addresses. The customer may refer to catalog item numbers that correspond with those in the employee s computer, and then provide a Visa, or other credit card, number -- which the employee, in turn, may quickly run through the Visa electronic network for credit verification. Something similar occurs when a customer makes theater, airline, rental car or hotel reservations; or calls a local merchant and asks if a particular item is in stock and how much it is. Transaction-related information might also be thought to include the items we may exchange when meeting someone we will want to contact again: "What s your phone number?" or "Do you have a card?" It may involve future luncheon plans: "What day next week would be good for you?" The reader can undoubtedly think of hundreds of more, and very likely better, examples of the range of situations and types of information that makes up the day-to-day life of a member of our symbol-creating species. Imagine if you will the task of describing "the nature of the internal combustion engine, and the range of its uses." It would require a description of everything from diesel locomotives to small portable electric generators, from 18-wheelers to power lawn mowers or leaf blowers. "The nature of information" is no less daunting. So as a concession to the shortness of life, and the virtually limitless list of potential examples, we now pause in the middle of that task and take the leap of extrapolation and imagination that may permit the identification of some general categories and principles. Categories We have already identified a number of categories of information: raw sensory input, data from low-tech sensors, signs, conversation and institutional transactions. What might be some others? Consumer information. Consumers may seek pre-transaction product or service information from advertising, catalogs, Consumer Reports, the public library -- or conversation with others. Institutional operations. Any institution -- corporate, government, academic -- is, as Ives and Jarvenpaa illustrate, a network of rapidly moving information of all kinds. For purposes of this category we exclude the information used in transactions with customers (which we have already identified) and the "management information" used in administration. Institutional operations information would include personnel records, and manuals; training programs, and texts; employee newsletters and notices on bulletin boards; or e-mail systems for internal communication. Management information. So much has been written about the information needs of management, and "management information systems" and "command and control," that little need be added here to what the business literature would often leave one believing is the only form of information. Whether one is "managing by wire," as Haeckel and Nolan would have it, or in the old fashioned way, "management information" is that which an administrator needs to track and direct a collection of individuals toward group goals. It may involve information about costs and sales, projects on and off schedule, as well as general information about the state of the economy and the political environment. Applied research. Research and development (usually called simply "R and D") is yet another corporate information gathering and processing activity. Most broadly defined it could involve the test marketing of a new corporate logo or product packaging. It might involve the search for a new gasoline additive -- or petroleum reserve. Someone may be trying to improve a strain of corn -- or a stain in paint. Such activities involve yet another type of, and use for, "information" -- one that bears a great resemblance to formal education. Education. Formal education -- K 12, community colleges, private small colleges and major research universities -- is big business in its own right involving millions of citizens and billions of dollars. Some of the participants are motivated by a genuine intellectual curiosity and joy of learning. Others are simply interested in getting jobs that pay more than those in which the most common question asked of customers is, "Would you like fries with that?" Since we have not yet made the "data, information, knowledge, wisdom" distinctions we can treat the commodity of this industry as another category of "information." Training. Distinctions between "education" and "training" are a little silly perhaps; how should one most properly categorize barber school -- or law and medical school for that matter? In any event, the category is being used here to describe the acquisition of function- or product-specific information to be used for an immediate and specific purpose, most often on-the-job and after one s formal "education" is over. ("Training" would therefore include the relatively formal "continuing professional education" requirements imposed on a number of professions.) It might involve an informal bit of instruction, perhaps by a secretary for the "boss," on how to operate the new, computerized copy machine. It might involve months of quite rigorous and formal instruction, complete with simulators, on how to "fly by wire" one of the fighter planes of which Haeckel and Nolan has written. A sales force has to learn enough about the new product line to sell it. The assembly line worker has to know how to operate (and perhaps repair) the new robots. Hobbies and recreation. What is most often the self-study involved in recreational activities is, in some ways, the closest many of us get to genuine intellectual curiosity. Formal education may not fully engage the student. On- the job training mandates minimal attentiveness and mastery, but isn t exactly "fun." But those who are learning to sail, or fly a plane, or improve their photographic technique or golf swing, or upgrade an amateur radio license, approach learning and information in a different way. It is fun; and when the fun stops they may stop doing it, because it is otherwise an almost totally useless undertaking. It not only doesn t pay money, it costs money. It doesn t save time, it takes time. Entertainment. For this purpose, "entertainment" is distinguished from hobbies. Entertainment involves the relatively passive activity of watching, and listening, to audio-visual materials: television, radio, movie theaters, video tapes, and the various media used for music reproduction. Video and computer games involve considerably more interaction and skill development but are still classed as relatively passive entertainment for this purpose. When virtual reality offerings become more readily and commercially available they would be included here. The "information" represented by such entertainment is, of course, an enormous, multi- billion-dollar global industry. It is for our purposes, however, just one more "category" of information. Qualities Although far from exhaustive, the above examples give a sense of the concept, and breadth of range, of categories of information we might identify. But such information, regardless of category, can be thought of in a second dimension as well: qualities of information. Accuracy. There is a distinction between information and accurate information, between precision and truth. A malfunctioning digital thermometer, or bathroom scale, may continue to be quite precise -- it just happens to be precisely wrong. A juicy newspaper story, replete with details, may turn out to be sufficiently erroneous to support a defamation action. There are still debates about the accuracy and adequacy of the "management information" provided President Johnson about the Vietnam War. Lab results, whether for "pure" or "applied" research, may turn out to have been deliberately falsified. "Intelligence" agencies, in this and other countries, may engage in deliberate efforts at what is called "disinformation." Timeliness. Movement in a stock s price between 10:30 and 11:00 a.m. may be of little interest if the information involves a stock trading day ten years ago. On the other hand, it may be quite useful to some people, under some circumstances, if it s now 11:05 of the day in question. Those suffering the slings and arrows of the print media are sometimes consoled by friends, "Yesterday s newspapers are used to wrap fish." One of the qualities of information, one that distinguishes some types of information from others, is timeliness. The table of elements also changes over time, but much more slowly than the stock ticker. The information in an encyclopedia, or world almanac, changes more rapidly but may still be usefully for months, or even years, after publication. When evaluating timeliness the questions are, "Is this the kind of information (and use) for which timeliness is even relevant?" and, if so, "How timely is it?" Relevance. Information may be accurate and appropriately timely, but of little relevance. Like the man looking under a streetlight for a coin lost elsewhere, "Because the light is better," an up-to-date, accurate map won t help you find your way if you happen to be elsewhere. "Information overload" is sometimes simply another name for information we do not find relevant at the moment: advertising for products we neither need nor want, news stories about events that don t affect us, or TV programs we find boring or offensive. Efficiency. There are costs associated with information: the newsstand price of a magazine, tuition for a course, the notebook computer to access Internet databases. There are also costs associated with its distribution: the phone bill for "online" computer time, postal or delivery charges on a book, the transportation charges for equipment sold in stores. Storage may require another file cabinet, or bookshelf. If the user needs to move the information other efficiencies become relevant: a paperback book is often a very efficient package, but a large library may be more easily transported as microfilm or CD-ROM disks than as shelves of hardback books. And there are the costs associated with accessibility that go beyond out-of-pocket payments: the time, and hassle, involved in getting the information. Inter-library loan arrangements make books much more accessible than requiring patrons to travel to distant libraries. Indexes and tables of contents save time. If you want to find a particular phrase in, say, The Federalist Papers, the cost of reading through the book looking for it is much greater than the cost of downloading it from the Gutenberg Project (an Internet- accessible collection of electronic texts) and using a computer s "search" command to find every use of the phrase. But accessibility requires not only some money, and ease of access, but the capacity to comprehend, to make sense out of, what is retrieved. Satellite data, chemical formulas, legal regulations, the contract specifications in a request for proposals -- all may be quickly obtained, at little or no incremental cost, and yet be virtually incomprehensible to the reader. Form. In a "multi-media" age, the form in which information is presented is another important quality. Print, numbers, graphs and charts, still or moving pictures, color, sound tracks, and exhibits sometimes help enormously in acquiring information. On other occasions they can vary between kind of silly and a real impediment. Levels of abstraction. One of the essays refers to the distinctions between (a) data, (b) information, (c) knowledge, and (d) wisdom. A general semanticist would express this as differences in "levels of abstraction." Whatever we call it, useful distinctions can be drawn for our purposes between factual, verifiable, reports of events in space and time, and the generalizations, or conclusions, drawn from those facts. We all recognize a statement that "Senator Jones was elected in a three-way race with 42 percent of the vote" is somehow different from "Senator Jones sure isn t very popular" or "Senator Jones doesn t stand a prayer of getting re- elected" or "Senator Jones is the worst Senator in Washington." A statement that "I saw someone who looked like that Jones boy running from the drug store about 11:30 last night" is different from "Tommy Jones robbed the drug store last night," or "None of them Joneses is any damn good anyhow." This is not the time or place to launch into a paperback-length discussion of the principles of general semantics, but they are clearly relevant to any discussion of the "nature of information." IV Our charge, quoted in full at the beginning of this chapter, primarily deals with "the nature of information." But it also asks that we consider "whether and how the availability of and access to new technologies are causing or influencing change in the nature and definition of information." For these purposes, let us define information most broadly to include all the examples, categories and qualities discussed in Part III, above -- and more. So defined, new technologies clearly have an enormous impact on many aspects of our "information" -- indeed, so great is the impact that we can do little more here than provide a superficial sampling. o Item: Surveillance satellites are capable of "seeing" movements of fish -- and hurricanes, the location of mineral deposits -- and missile silos. o Item: With such satellite technology, plus thousands of observation devices on earth, electronic communication, and the so-called "super computers" capable of rapid evaluation of all this data, the human species now benefits from five-day weather forecasts. o Item: "The law" (court opinions, statutes and regulations) has for decades been one of the most thoroughly indexed and cross referenced of any academic body of literature; however, today s electronic searches of services such as Lexis and Westlaw not only enable radically faster retrieval of items, but uncover material formerly unavailable (as well as overlooking material older search methods would have located). o Item: Computerized library "card catalogs" (not to mention their accessibility on the Internet to anyone with a computer and modem), coupled with inter-library loan procedures, provide not only more rapid access to library information previously available, but the capacity to uncover information formerly unknowable. o Item: "Online" information services often offer clients the ability to fashion standing requests for particular categories of information as it becomes available, such as the stock prices, or news, about a particular company, or the latest cases involving some narrow point of law -- letting the computer, rather than a research assistant, do the "scanning" through dozens of magazines or other sources. o Item: So-called "artificial intelligence," or "expert systems," computer software can manipulate geological data to find mineral resources geologists might have overlooked, suggest possible medical diagnoses formerly perceived only by a handful of the very best doctors, suggest translations of foreign language texts, or editorial changes in our writing. o Item: Portable satellite dishes now make it possible for, among other things, journalists to provide voice (and video) transmissions from places on earth formerly inaccessible. o Item: Currently available "notebook computers," linked to cellular telephones, already provide mobile, wireless, access to electronic sources of information; the coming "personal communicators," with more widespread (and cheaper) communications services will only increase this ability. As we think about these examples, and the dozens of others that will spring to the reader s mind, what generalizations can we draw? How are these "new technologies . . . causing or influencing change in the nature and definition of information?" Some uncover, or produce, information formerly unavailable (the surveillance satellites, and weather forecasts). Some give us access to information formerly available, but in quantities and with speeds previously unimaginable (legal research, library card catalogs). Others give us techniques and tools for searching, processing and evaluating that information and improving its utility (standing requests of online services, artificial intelligence). Such techniques and tools can often fairly be credited with improving the "quality" of that information. Finally, they may give us a portability and mobility -- indeed, an almost ubiquitous access to that information (mobile satellite dishes, cellular/computer wireless networks). In short, information technology has become more than an engineer s intellectual challenge, a consumer s status symbol, or a hobbyist s latest toy. It is becoming, finding, and shaping the very nature of the information we seek and it provides. V Those of us who are working in, studying, or simply fascinated by "the information age," have tended to focus our attention almost exclusively on the technology of equipment: the computer networks, cable television, exotic computer software -- the smallest, the fastest, the highest level of artificial intelligence, the most convincing virtual reality. This year we pause briefly to look at what it is we are using this technology for, the "information" we are moving about planet earth in ever greater quantities and at ever faster speeds, and the impact of the technology on that information. This essay has been an opening effort to aid that process by beginning the task of evolving a multi-dimensional matrix that can help us sort out the various elements that make up "the nature of information." Hopefully, as it is further developed and refined by others it can help us see a little more clearly the impact of our new technological toys upon what it was they were supposed to be about in the first place: aiding us in the information gathering, processing, distribution and storage that makes our species unique. Nicholas Johnson Visiting Professor College of Law University of Iowa # # # *** Copyright c 1993 by Nicholas Johnson and by the Institute for Information Studies of Northern Telecom Inc. and The Aspen Institute.. Conditions: This material is copyright by Nicholas Johnson and the Institute for Information Studies. However, permission is hereby granted to download, copy and distribute the text to others if (1) the text is not altered, and (2) there is no charge to the recipient, and (3) this copyright notice and conditions are attached. It is a copyright violation to distribute this material altered, or without the copyright notice and conditions attached, or to use the material in any way for which remuneration is received without the prior permission of Nicholas Johnson and the Institute for Information Studies. Contact: 1035393@mcimail.com; Box 1876 Iowa City IA 52244; 319-337-5555. *** END OF FILE