MULTI-INDUSTRY COALITION SETS TECHNICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE NATIONAL
INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE

September 12, 1994 -- Washington, D.C. -- Today, more than forty leading
communications, computing, and services companies proposed a consensus
vision of the architecture required for tomorrow's information
superhighway. In addition, the Cross-Industry Working Team (XIWT) members
detailed an example of a key component of the National Information
Infrastructure (NII) - digital cash.

The two white papers, 1) An Architectural Framework for the NII  and 2)
Digital Cash, Tokens and Payments in the NII, will be presented to the
President's NII Advisory Committee tomorrow at its meeting in New York.
"These papers provide a technical vision and goals for the NII that cut
across a range of industries," said Robert Kahn, President of CNRI and
chair of the XIWT Executive Committee. "They provide a common foundation
for thinking about the objectives and technical requirements of the NII."

In its Architecture paper, XIWT calls for an NII that promotes
interoperability and provides universal access, privacy, protection,
intellectual property, security, job creation and commerce in a
competitive business environment. Based on these objectives, XIWT defines
the NII in terms of a Functional Services Framework -- a model used to
characterize the NII by function and certain key characteristics.

According to this model, the NII has three basic components: applications,
enabling services, and physical infrastructure. Together, these components
include all the NII's information and transporting machinery, the
networked software tools that facilitate manipulation and movement of
digital information, and the information processing activities of NII
users.

To meet the goals outlined for the NII, XIWT recommends that each of these
components be addressed in terms of functionality (what it does), trust
(the conditions under which it operates), and control (how it is managed).
XIWT also provides a Reference Architecture Model for the NII -- a
description of the system in terms of the interconnection of the
functional elements of the system and the interfaces between them. XIWT
identifies four functional elements: 1) appliances: 2) networks; 3)
resources; and 4) control points. In addition, it identifies seven
categories of interfaces and protocols needed to integrate these elements
and make them interoperable.

The Digital Cash report defines ways in which the NII will facilitate
existing and new forms of commerce. "It describes the functional
requirements and technical options for conducting everyday financial
transactions in networked electronic settings with the ease and certainty
of today's cash economy -- and with more security and control," said Dan
Schutzer of Citibank who chairs the XIWT Applications Services Working
Team.

"The flexibility and choice implicit in the architecture we have described
will be a boon to the users of the NII and provide a challenging but
fertile business environment for savvy companies in many different
industries," said Niel Ransom of BellSouth, who chairs the XIWT
Architecture Working Team. "The members of XIWT are committed to making it
happen."

The XIWT papers quickly received praise from the White House. "By bringing
together the views and technical recommendations of such a diverse group
of U.S. companies, the XIWT has made significant progress in moving the
work on the NII another important step forward." said Vice President Al
Gore. "We commend the work they have done so far and urge them to continue
working to define the technical aspects of the NII."

The Cross-Industry Working Team (XIWT) was formed in 1993 to develop a
technical vision for the NII, XIWT members include over forty companies
from a range of U.S. industries.

Charles N. Brownstein, Executive Director
Cross-Industry Working Team
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100
Reston, VA 22091
Tel: (703) 620-8990,  Fax: (703) 620-0913
Internet: cbrownst@cnri.reston.va.us

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