national information infrastructure

The National Information Infrastructure (NII) was the product of the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991. It was a telecommunications policy buzzword, which was popularized during the Clinton Administration under the leadership of Vice-President Al Gore. It was a proposed, advanced, seamless web of public and private communications networks, interactive services, interoperable hardware and software, computers, databases, and consumer electronics to put vast amounts of information at users' fingertips.
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A proposed, advanced, seamless web of public and private communications networks, interactive services, interoperable hardware and software, computers, databases, and consumer electronics to put vast amounts of information at users' fingertips. Note: NII includes more than just the physical facilities (more than the cameras, scanners, keyboards, telephones, fax machines, computers, switches, compact disks, video and audio tape, cable, wire, satellites, optical fiber transmission lines, microwave nets, switches, televisions, monitors, and printers) used to transmit, store, process, and display voice, data, and images; it encompasses a wide range of interactive functions, user-tailored services, and multimedia databases that are interconnected in a technology-neutral manner that will favor no one industry over any other. Synonym information superhighway.

<project> (NII, or "information superhighway") Future integrated communications in the USA. The NII will be based on a nationwide network of networks, and will supposedly allow all Americans to take advantage of the country's information, communication, and computing resources.
The NII will include current and future public and private high-speed, interactive, narrow-band and broadband networks. It is the satellite, terrestrial, and wireless communications systems that deliver content to homes, businesses, and other public and private institutions. It is the information and content that flows over the infrastructure whether in the form of databases, the written word, a film, a piece of music, a sound recording, a picture, or computer software. It is the computers, televisions, telephones, radios, and other products that people will employ to access the infrastructure. It is the people who will provide, manage, and generate new information, and those that will help others do the same. And it is the individual Americans who will use and benefit from the NII. The NII is a term that encompasses all these components and captures the vision of a nationwide, invisible, seamless, dynamic web of transmission mechanisms, information appliances, content, and people.
http://sunsite.unc.edu/nii/NII-Table-of-Contents.html.
(1995-04-08)