May 13, 1993 The Honorable Rick Boucher Chair, Subcommittee on Science Science, Space and Technology Committee U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Dear Chairman Boucher: The Electronic Frontier Foundation would like to convey its enthusiastic support for H.R. 1757, your initiative to promote applications of high-performance computer networking for education, libraries, health care, access to government information, and the public at large. The bill as introduced offers a fully articulated vision of how the National Research and Education Network program can benefit all Americans. The applications it calls for in education, health care, libraries, and access to information will ensure that the benefits of high-speed networking flow broadly and respond to important national concerns. The bill also addresses other critical issues, such as the importance of local communications, network security and privacy, the integrity of information, and making the network easy to use for nonspecialists. As such, we believe the bill, if passed, would provide a strong public interest foundation for building tomorrow's data superhighways. As EFF testified before your Subcommittee in February of this year, an impressive array of basic network technology is now fully- developed and commercially available, due in no small part to enlightened Federal funding. With basic network services now widely available, we suggested, government's role with respect to the NREN should shift to: 1. Subsidizing user institutions that need network access but cannot afford it, such as primary and secondary schools, and public libraries; 2. Supporting research and development of applications that achieve the goals for widespread access outlined in the HPCA and make networks easier to use; and 3. Supporting research in leading-edge, pre-competitive network technologies. H.R. 1757 captures these essential elements and should ensure increased access to, and usefulness of, network resources for many users who have been left unserved by the current Federal networking program, including those who could not otherwise afford access to the Internet. H.R. 1757's efforts to ensure that the new networking technologies serve a variety of public interest needs deserve special praise. In particular, EFF commends your efforts to: o Support connections to the Internet for local networks of K-12 schools, libraries, and state and local government offices. The bill's support for hardware purchases and connecting local networks to the Internet will ensure that local institutions can get the on-ramps and off-ramps they need and that the superhighways also serve local needs. o Promote ease of use for nonspecialists and train teachers, students, librarians, and government personnel to use networks and the Internet. This provision recognizes that promoting access means more than just buying hardware; it includes the recognition that new, non-technical users will need education and well-designed tools to navigate these powerful facilities. o Support research into security and privacy of information and the integrity of digital information. In our testimony before your Subcommittee last February, we noted that privacy and security must become policy priorities as the NREN and the Internet as a whole is more widely used and relied on. We are pleased by your recognition of and support for work in this critical area. EFF believes that robust encryption technology is key to both security and privacy for digital network systems, and will also play a key role in addressing the intellectual property issues that networked digital information raises. o Expand the means by which the Internet/NREN program will serve crucial educational goals. In particular, your support for systems, software and networks for job-training and "life-long learning" applications outside of school will bring the benefits of this program to the full range of potential beneficiaries, from school children to adults who need to learn new skills. In addition, your call for a clearinghouse of K-12 network projects and available educational resources, as well as the creation of undergraduate-level course materials for student teachers to familiarize them with the Internet and its educational uses, helps build the necessary human infrastructure and knowledge base to ensure that the technology will meet educational needs. Finally, the bill's support for hardware and software purchases will promote more widespread access to the many benefits of network communication the provisions specify. o Address the networking needs of both rural and urban communities. To be successful and advance the bill's commitment to equity, the program must serve both areas, yet their needs may be quite different. Your recognition of the issue and the mandate to address it deserve special praise. o Develop health applications that will serve the public directly and medical practitioners at many levels and in many settings. The section on using the network to provide sophisticated health care information to the public in a variety of formats through easily accessible means promises to support disease prevention, health promotion and more effective and educated use of the health care system. The applications you describe for clinicians, other medical practitioners and social service providers will support state of the art care, foster coordinated service, and help researchers push the boundaries of medical science. As a result, networking will be put at the service of improving public health and lowering health care costs, two national priorities with widespread social benefits, even for those who are not network users themselves. o Ensure that the benefits of advanced, digital libraries will be accessible to the public. The public's traditional point of access to information resources of all kinds has long been our nation's libraries. As we develop prototype digital libraries, we should ensure that these new collections promote the traditional role of libraries: to ensure that information is available to the public and allow the widest possible spectrum of Americans to benefit from these applications. o Promote public access to information generated by Federal, state and local governments. The program to connect depository libraries and other sources of government information to the Internet to provide access to Federal, state and local government information is an excellent step to support broader dissemination of government information. Moreover, by calling for the creation of technologies that will increase access to and effective use of government information in support of research and education, economic development, and an informed citizenry, the bill taps one of the most powerful and far-reaching public-interest potentials in advanced networking, for, as Thomas Jefferson observed, "information is the currency of democracy." o Expand the range of voices and perspectives advising the development of the NREN program. The bill's addition of representatives from the K-12 community, consumer and public interest groups, and computer, telecommunications, and information industries, to the High Performance Computing and Applications Advisory Committee, recognizes a fuller range of the constituencies that will be affected by this program. o Bring the benefits of the Internet to a broader community of users. H.R. 1757 would replace one of the HPCA program's original goals, "establish a high-capacity and high-speed" NREN, with a new, and far broader mandate: to "accelerate progress toward a universally accessible high- capacity and high speed data network for the nation." The nation's economy and its people have been well- served by a policy that encourages universal access to telephone service. EFF believes that this bill's interest in a universally accessible data network for the nation -- especially with the applications and programs this bill describes -- would be similarly beneficial. Of course, in a bill of this scope, there are at least two areas in particular that we believe could benefit from further discussion: 1) the details of the connections program insofar as it expresses a preference for any one transport technology without reference to needs; and 2) means to ensure that the laudable intent of the access to government information section is fully realized. We hope to be able to work with you to improve these elements. We look forward to working with you on this bill, which is an excellent, far-sighted effort to promote public interest values in this rapidly evolving networked environment. EFF is excited about H.R. 1757, and we want to work with you to see it enacted. Sincerely, Jerry Berman Executive Director