The National Information Infrastructure (NII)
was the product of the High Performance Computing
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 proposed to build communications networks,
interactive services, interoperable computer
hardware and software, computers, databases,
and consumer electronics in order to put vast
amounts of information available to both public
and private sectors.
NII was to have included 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 was also to encompass
a wide range of interactive functions, user-tailored
services, and multimedia databases that were
interconnected in a technology-neutral manner
that will favor no one industry over any other.
== See also ==
Al Gore and information technology
High Performance Computing Act of 1991
Information Superhighway
History of the Internet
NII Award
