Numerous agencies are involved with or planning imaging projects suitable for the NCIH. The Employment Security Commission is deploying an imaging information management system for quarterly forms employers must file. The Department of Transportation will use imaging for drivers’ licenses and vehicle registration, and the State Treasurer is implementing imaging to help manage individual account information for the state employee pension fund. Image software is also being used in agencies such as the state Personnel Office, Employment Security Commission, and the Industrial Commission.
In another project, the Department of Cultural Resources connects state libraries with an electronic card index. Duke University, NCSU and UNC-Chapel Hill also are involved in a digital library project that could involve the NCIH.
General Information
After two years of study the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council concluded that the best approach to establishing an information superhighway is by connecting communities through schools, libraries, and community centers where everyone can obtain affordable access to the superhighway. Public libraries, already responsible for providing information access and education programs, are well positioned to provide community access to the Internet and local information resources.
Citizens increasingly expect electronic access to both local and state government information systems. They believe they have a right to utilize information regarding job availability, unemployment benefits, tax records, etc. A means of accommodating this growing demand is to provide this capability over high speed data links to public libraries. Today’s computers and communications technologies are making possible the dissemination of more public information through systems of public and private efforts than formerly was feasible.
Additionally, now that all levels of government are connected, or can be easily connected, state and local governments are increasingly recognizing the need to leverage each others information resources. The NCIIN provides North Carolina the appropriate connectivity options for easily sharing electronic information. The emphasis in this area is on two things: (1) the traditional universality of public libraries in every county and almost every city and (2) the need to provide an access point for the pubic to the state’s databases as appropriate. The original application was basically high-speed data. As we have learned, there needs to be a video link established also. Public libraries, by tradition are a community information resource. The initial stages of the state’s information infrastructure with access for all its citizens could logically begin in the public libraries.Local and county governments are working on GIS for connecting Computer Aided Design (CAD) applications to state/federal government systems. These applications have extensive instructional directions and drive the need for higher bandwidth and greater transmission speeds.
Examples of NCIH Local Government Applications
The City of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County has established a regional community computer network (Charlotte’s Web). The intent of this network is to ensure that all citizens will have 7-day-a- week access to a wide range of social services, arts and entertainment calendars, traffic and transportation services, university information, library catalogs, and state and city job listings. There is a special emphasis placed on urban and rural areas that have traditionally been under-served.
Catawba County charged a planning committee with establishing its public hospital, high schools and community college as sites on the information highway. Funds from a bond issue for this furniture and textile producing county were set aside for that purpose.
Catawba, Burke, Alexander and Caldwell counties have formed a Metro Planning organization called Unifour. This organization is building on the accomplishments of Catawba County with their connection to the NCIH and the City of Hickory, staff members of the Western Piedmont Council of Governments (WPCOG) have begun to implement the core of a regional WAN, using fiber optic cable provided through an agreement with Prime Cable. The plans to date include the establishment of a server at the WPCOG that would enable all of the local governments to establish a home page on the Internet. Work is expected to continue on expanding access to the network beyond Catawba County to the other counties in the Metro Planning Organization (MPO), especially in the low and moderate income areas. The objective of this effort is the development of a broad based community network, providing access to the NCIH and Internet, available to all residents, businesses, and governments within the Unifour.Evaluation Findings of NCIH Local Government Applications
Cost Reduction and Service Enhancement of State Network
Traditionally, State-provided data services have relied on circuits leased
from telephone companies running back to a central location in Raleigh. Trunk lines from remote
sites to Raleigh are very expensive and, because of this, there may be only a small number of lines
concentrated at the remote site. The costs per line are not uniform and can be very high. 
This trunk
line approach also introduces a single point of failure for the network because a disaster at OSC/SIPS
could bring down most of the data network. As the state moves more and more of its operation into
electronic data, it is essential that close consideration be given to network architecture that will
provide a safeguard against single point failures that could bring the business of state and local
governments to a halt as a result of a single network failure.
In response to this situation the Advanced Service Topology (AST) effort was initiated at OSC/SIPS
to reduce the number of trunk lines required, and to eliminate the single point of failure vulnerability
in Raleigh. In addition to this objective the AST initiative focused on a prime objective of providing
an improved network topology with reduced costs for the service concentration points throughout the
state service areas. In the AST network OSC/SIPS has developed a distributed network design that
will address both areas with a cost effective solution. 
The AST design uses the NCIH ATM network
to provide very high-performance backbone services, reduce or eliminate the impact of a OSC/SIPS
disaster on the network and to reduce transmission costs. Remote network Points of Presence (PoPs)
will be developed across the state where data service can be consolidated and delivered statewide.
These PoPs will be interconnected using the NCIH with an initial speed of 10Mbs. Each PoP
location will eliminate at least one T1 leased line. In most cases the location will be an existing NCIH
video location. The locations are chosen based on several criteria including cost of circuits, physical
security, and space availability. A pilot PoP was implemented in December 1995 at the Weaver
Education Center in Greensboro. This PoP has allowed OSC/SIPS to eliminate or avoid buying 6 T1
lines at a cost of about $1800 each per month. All capital costs for the establishment of the PoP
location will be recovered within a few months based on this savings. Additionally, those sites that
connect to the Greensboro PoP will remain operational in the event of a complete OSC/SIPS disaster.
The availability of the NCIH as a traffic backbone was one of the key factors in the realization of the AST concept. Specific advantages of the NCIH were:
Building on these advantages it is possible to architect a network topology that provides the following characteristics:
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