NCIH A&E Report - Preparing for the 21st Century

Every few hundred years throughout Western history a sharp transformation has occurred. In a matter of decades, society altogether rearranges itself--its world view, its basic values, its social and political structures, its arts, its key institutions. Fifty years later a new world exists. And the people born into that world cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born.
Our age is such a period of transition.
--Peter Drucker

In considering the merits of a statewide information highway, we must ask the question, "What will happen if we do not build an advanced communications infrastructure in North Carolina?"

Today, society is truly undergoing a fundamental transformation from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Just as the Industrial Revolution gave rise to sophisticated national and international highway systems, which gave rise to the suburbs and great urban centers, a global information infrastructure will dissolve the miles between those cities and suburbs so that the movement of things becomes secondary to the movement of ideas. It is apparent that, although it is a global phenomenon, this will have significant local implications.

All people, organizations, societies, and nations are affected, although not at the same pace or to the same degree. Those who realign their practices most effectively to Information Age standards will reap substantial benefits. Those who do not, will be replaced or diminished. Some examples of this transformation are:

During the 1900’s, 85% of our workers were involved in Agriculture. Now Agriculture uses less than 3% of the workforce. In 1950, 73% of US employees worked in production or manufacturing. Now less than 15% do.
As recently as the 1960’s, almost half of all workers in industrialized countries were involved in making things or helping to make things. By the year 2000, no developed country will have more than 1/8 of its workforce in the traditional roles of making or moving goods.
Already an estimated 2/3 of U.S. employees work in the service sector, and knowledge is becoming our most important product. According to the National Bureau of Labor Statistics latest census, over 90% of the workforce currently produces knowledge.
By an estimate of the National Governor’s Association, almost 90% of all state employees are in information intensive jobs -- generating, accessing, manipulating or safeguarding important information on a daily basis.
The Department of Labor estimates that by the year 2000, at least 44% of all workers will be in data services--gathering, processing, or utilizing information.
In 1995, 27 million U.S. workers were using e-mail in the workplace, just under a sixth of U.S. homes had at least one computer connected to a modem, and more than 12 million Americans were using the Internet each day. Currently, the number of Internet nodes doubles every 56 days.
There has been more information produced in the last 50 years than since the beginning of the human species. The information supply now doubles every 5 years.

Over the next few years, it will be necessary for North Carolina State Government, like all governmental agencies, to significantly improve its effectiveness through better management, greater productivity, and efficient services. Changes in demographics, lifestyle, citizen expectations, and economics are resulting in a need to rethink and reshape the delivery of public services. This must be done by stretching scarce state resources. Technology, along with appropriate strategies for its use, can facilitate this transition and enable more efficient use of state resources.

While much of the future is speculative, it is clear that just about everything and everyone will be connected electronically. Stand-alone information systems no longer exist. And the number of local area networks (LANs) requiring the support of high-speed, wide-band digital communications is increasing dramatically.

The NCIH is a forward-thinking initiative that will form a key part of the state’s communications infrastructure. The information highway provides the speed, capacity, and transmission quality necessary to receive the greatest possible benefits from information management technologies.

The Legislative and the Executive branches should agree upon and adopt a common strategic communications vision for the state’s connectivity infrastructure. This vision should be flexible and responsive to the state’s needs and demands--a vision that will guide information technology planning and development over the next five to ten years.


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