Universal Service: Separating the Grain of Truth from the Proverbial Chaff

The prevailing notions of information egalitarianism impel us to seek uniform solutions for all those who lack adequate access to information and communication resources. However, a careful separation of the symbolism of universal service from the real issues reveals that uniform solutions make sense for some resources and not others. This article proposes that uniform solutions should be formulated for resources used in the communication mode, but a segmented approach should be adopted for those used in the information access mode.     

Rethinking Universal Service: Citizenship, Consumption Norms, and the Telephone

One of the reasons the proponents of expanded universal service have not made much headway is that they have not been able to provide a coherent justification for the major resource and policy commitments it requires. The lack of consensus on the very meaning of the term "universal service" has added to the confusion. This article argues that it is critically important to articulate a clear justification for universal service before we discuss what it should include and how it should be funded, the two main preoccupations of the current debate. It answers the "why" question by drawing on the literature on consumption norms and citizenship rights and thereby provides a cogent justification for universal service. A clear articulation of the rationale for universal service should reduce some of the confusion in the current debate and bring greater clarity to the ongoing debate on this important public policy issue.     

The Information Environment and Universal Service

This essay focuses on universal service and the Internet as means to support social and political participation. The emphasis on access to telecommunications systems in conventional approaches to universal service is contrasted with access to content. A model of the information environment is described that accounts for the roles of content and conduit, both of which are necessary conditions to achieve true access. A method is outlined for employing information indicators to observe or measure the information environment.     

Universal Service Expansion: Two Perspectives

It is now widely accepted that universal service will have to be redefined time and again as the technological environment evolves. Accordingly, policymakers have sought to institute a process for a periodic review of the universal service package. In order to "automate" the initiation of the review process, they have devised market-indicators-based trigger mechanisms to flag new technologies that should be considered for inclusion in an expanded universal service package. This article interrogates the majoritarian assumptions behind the design of the trigger mechanisms. It shows how the pressures generated by systems to induce adoption of a new technology by citizens/consumers play as important a role as their uncoerced choices in the emergence of new consumption norms. The article calls for balanced thinking that also considers the system perspective.     

Universal Service Expansion: Two Perspectives

It is now widely accepted that universal service will have to be redefined time and again as the technological environment evolves. Accordingly, policymakers have sought to institute a process for a periodic review of the universal service package. In order to "automate" the initiation of the review process, they have devised market-indicators-based trigger mechanisms to flag new technologies that should be considered for inclusion in an expanded universal service package. This article interrogates the majoritarian assumptions behind the design of the trigger mechanisms. It shows how the pressures generated by systems to induce adoption of a new technology by citizens/consumers play as important a role as their uncoerced choices in the emergence of new consumption norms. The article calls for balanced thinking that also considers the system perspective.     

Universal Service from the Bottom Up: A Study of Telephone Penetration in Camden,New Jersey

Ethnographic methods and geographic information systems were used to investigate the extent, causes and consequences of telephone disconnection in Camden, NJ. The results have significant implications for public policies intended to promote universal telephone penetration. Universal service is usually perceived as an issue for rural areas and the elderly, but the most extensive pockets of low telephone penetration are found in inner cities, where the problem is associated with the young, the transient, and ethnic minorities. The basic monthly rate paid by subscribers is usually thought to be the most important factor affecting affordability, but the data suggest that most marginal users are driven off the network by usage-related costs, and more generally by the problem of credit-worthiness. Given prevailing consumption patterns in low-income urban areas, ''electronic redlining'' seems less of a threat than that poor Americans will, upon exposure to the advanced features of the national information infrastructure (NII), buy services that they cannot afford. Intellectuals and policy analysts value telephone service more than cable television service, but residents of inner cities frequently do not agree with this evaluation. In reformulating universal service policy, we must take account of the growing heterogeneity of telecommunications services, and keep in mind the importance of credit risk as a factor affecting the public's ability to access and use telecommunication networks.     

Universal Service from the Bottom Up: A Study of Telephone Penetration in Camden, New Jersey

Ethnographic methods and geographic information systems were used to investigate the extent, causes and consequences of telephone disconnection in Camden, NJ. The results have significant implications for public policies intended to promote universal telephone penetration. Universal service is usually perceived as an issue for rural areas and the elderly, but the most extensive pockets of low telephone penetration are found in inner cities, where the problem is associated with the young, the transient, and ethnic minorities. The basic monthly rate paid by subscribers is usually thought to be the most important factor affecting affordability, but the data suggest that most marginal users are driven off the network by usage-related costs, and more generally by the problem of credit-worthiness. Given prevailing consumption patterns in low-income urban areas, 'electronic redlining' seems less of a threat than that poor Americans will, upon exposure to the advanced features of the national information infrastructure (NII), buy services that they cannot afford. Intellectuals and policy analysts value telephone service more than cable television service, but residents of inner cities frequently do not agree with this evaluation. In reformulating universal service policy, we must take account of the growing heterogeneity of telecommunications services, and keep in mind the importance of credit risk as a factor affecting the public's ability to access and use telecommunication networks.     

论网络时代信息资源的开放存取

信息技术推动社会发展,网络的广泛应用带动了信息存储和传播方式的变更。网络环境下,为推动资源的免费利用,国外开展了开放存取运动,这是传统出版方式和信息获取方式的变革,促进了科研工作的大力发展。在开放存取中,资源形式多种多样,资源的利用非常便利,交流十分便捷,作者提交论文选择性付费,读者利用资源完全免费。     

图书馆在线信息咨询服务模式研究

本文在分析图书馆在线信息咨询服务的内涵、特点、构成要素的基础上，阐述了图书馆在线信息咨询服务的模型，探讨了图书馆在线信息咨询网络的构建与运营。     

Tapping User-Driven Innovation: A New Rationale for Universal Service

The current transformation of communication policies, as governments turn to the marketplace as the driver of network evolution, requires a redefinition of universal service. The debate so far has focused primarily on the elaboration of new funding mechanisms and the definition of which services should be covered. We argue that a more fundamental, third area demands attention: the articulation of a new rationale for universal service itself. Without articulating a clear justification for universal service, designing its scope and funding mechanisms is problematic at best. Past justifications rested on welfare (make telephony affordable to all) and network externalities (increase the network?s value by widening its reach). Increasingly, these need to be complemented by a new rationale based on the innovative potential of universal service. This article explores how universal service can fuel innovation-driven economic growth.     

Identifying Temporary and Permanent Gaps in Universal Service

This article examines the nature of the gap in household telephone penetration among Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics. By analyzing historic and current penetration levels of the radio, television, and telephone, it suggests that most information technology gaps are amalgamations of smaller socioeconomic trends and can be discerned and reduced only with careful historical analysis of both technology choices and living patterns. It proposes localized universal service strategies, since the penetration gaps are affected by a complex array of factors more particular to localities than to the country as a whole and as such must be investigated with rigor and caution if progress toward the elimination of penetration gaps is to occur.     

我国两种大型网上学术电子期刊服务系统的考察与分析

网上学术电子期刊是传统印刷性学术期刊走向未来的必然趋势和方向，网上学术电子期刊服务系统服务内容和模式正成为人们关注的重要问题，本文通过对我国具有代表性的两种大型网上电子学术期刊服务系统所采用的服务内容和服务模式的对比分析，初步探讨了网上学术电子期刊服务系统应有的服务内容和服务模式。     

区分服务模型在Internet2中的研究与发展

综述了Internet2中的服务质量保证机制--区分服务模型的产生、发展及存在的问题，区分服务的体系结构及实现.论述了当前基于Internet2区分服务模型所展开的研究热点和发展趋势，并针对存在的问题提出了改进性意见.     

Prospects for Expanded Universal Service in Europe: The Cases of Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway

In Europe, universal service developed within a public-service-oriented institutional framework. The historical conflicts that produced these institutional arrangements are still important for national policymaking. Furthermore, the level of technological development and integration in the European Union forms the context in which decisions concerning universal service are made. Our analysis of telecommunications policies in three small European countries - Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway - shows that business actors are well networked and press for a minimal definition of universal services, whereas those actors promoting an extended definition seem to be less coordinated and therefore less successful. Hence it is unlikely that universal services will be defined more extensively in the future.     

网络环境下图书馆信息服务的探讨

本文通过在网络环境下用户对信息资源的发展和需求的分析，提出了图书馆在软、硬件等方面建设的措施，以便今后更好地为用户服务。     

网络时代之英语教学改革实践

总体而言,我国的英语学习第二课堂在各个高校均未被很好地利用起来,即使仅有的一些第二课堂活动,往往也是华而不实,个体化特征不明显。在网络时代的现如今,英语学习也应该与之紧密结合。本文围绕Skype网络英文交际展开教学实践,调查分析了受试学生的实践感觉,同时就这批学生的英文综合能力变化访谈了其所任外教,最终进行相关分析,得出相应结论。     

A Gendered Perspective on Access to the Information Infrastructure

This article provides a gendered perspective on access to the emerging information infrastructure. It examines access issues as they affect women; discusses public policy work on gender equity to national information infrastructure initiatives; and provides recommended reforms towards increasing gender equity to the information infrastructure.     

Internet与图书馆的信息服务

Internet的迅速发展,给图书馆的信息服务工作带来了巨大的冲击。本文分析了因特网上信息资源的特点,提出了信息服务的新观念。     

Leveraging Sunken Investments in Communications Infrastructure: A Policy Perspective From the United States

Bridging the digital divide between information and technology haves and have-nots has waned from the top of the national policy agenda in the United States during a time in which the sunken investments of the 1990s need to be leveraged. A national information network now exists yet this infrastructure--largely hardware--needs to be continually modernized and parlayed with commitments to building human capacity, developing relevant content, and scaling socially beneficial technology applications, such as telemedicine, in order to optimize these initial multi-billion-dollar outlays. This article makes the case that sidestepping public-private initiatives aimed at accelerating digital opportunity is imprudent, given the mounting empirical evidence highlighting the payoffs of information and communications technologies, when properly integrated and applied, especially in enhancing the life chances of underserved Americans. Policy next steps should advance the goals of expanding universal service initiatives, including hastening broadband deployment to homes and learning institutions, and deepening programs which leverage the utility of the existing infrastructure, such as expanding human-capital development, producing relevant content, and innovating socially beneficial technology applications.     

图书馆INTERNET信息服务观念和模式的探讨

分析了Internet的优势和缺陷,认为图书馆仅有信息基础设施和信息内容还不足以作好信息服务,信息服务必须借助技术的进步,在服务的观念上有所更新,在服务模式上有所创新。