The digital network infrastructure that is expanding throughout the Metropolitan Chicago region is composed of services provided over fiberoptic cables, copper wires, coaxial cable, and radio/wireless transmissions. These services interoperate to transport any information that can be converted into digital format (see Appendix). Information technology and access to the digital network infrastructure are profoundly changing how we live, how we do business, and how we interact as people and institutions. As these technologies become more integrated into our lives, rather than risk letting chance take the upper hand in defining our future, a careful examination is needed by public officials, policy makers, community and corporate leaders to assess the opportunities and challenges that will confront us. Much can be gained for the region if the opportunities are seized and the challenges addressed. This report begins that examination.

Today, information technology and telecommunications affect each of us ¹⁹. Our paychecks are automatically deposited in bank accounts and we use credit cards routinely to purchase clothing, tickets, and household goods. A single travel agent can coordinate airline, rental car, and hotel reservations. We can bank at an ATM machine 24 hours a day in most neighborhoods and in nearly every major city around the world. We can make business calls from a car phone while delayed in traffic. With a computer connected to the Internet from office or home, we can check the status of overnight deliveries, join a "chat room," play interactive games with friends, learn the latest news, follow a bill through Congress, or purchase books and gifts, computers and software, groceries and flowers from establishments that exist only as electronic storefronts.

We also move freely between different telecommunications technologies. We talk over the telephone, listen to music and news on the radio, watch movies and sporting events on broadcast, cable, or satellite television, and find information on the Internet through networked computers. While a different infrastructure is used to support each of these telecommunications technologies today, this is rapidly changing. Audio, text, pictures, and video can all be converted into a common digital format that is transmitted over the same digital network infrastructure.

Unlike the physical transportation infrastructure of roads, railroads, and air systems that moves goods and people, or the utilities infrastructure that is specialized to move resources like gas, water, and electricity, the digital network infrastructure can move all types of information in the form of digitized text, images, sound, and video, for many different purposes, instantly and simultaneously through a common "pipe."

“As these technologies become more integrated into our lives, rather than risk letting chance take the upper hand in defining our future, a careful examination is needed by public officials, policy makers, community and corporate leaders to assess the opportunities and challenges that will confront us.”

The Networked Economy

A recent report by the US Commerce Department on "The Emerging Digital Economy" ¹⁷ outlines the remarkable growth of the electronic marketplace and the digital economy. The number of potential consumers on the Internet grew from an estimated 40 million users in 1996 to 100 million in 1997. Traffic on the Information Superhighway is doubling every 100 days in the U.S. and the number of people connected to the Internet could reach 1 billion worldwide by 2005.

Sales on the Internet are increasing dramatically for pioneers in Internet sales and services. Sales at Amazon.com, the on-line-only bookstore, grew from $16 million in 1996 to $148 million in 1997. Dell Computer, which sells computers directly to businesses and consumers over the Internet, was selling $1 million in computer equipment per day in January, 1997. Dell's sales reached $6 million on some days in December, 1997. Auto-by-Tel saw purchase requests grow from 345,000 ($1.6 billion) annually in 1996 to 100,000 requests ($500,000) per month by the end of November, 1997.

Clearly, Information Technology (IT) is having a major impact on the economy. Information Technology ¹⁷, as a percentage of the economy, grew from 4.9% in 1985, to 6.1% in 1990, to 8.2% in 1998. IT growth is twice the growth of the economy. In 1996 and 1997, it is estimated that IT industries lowered the overall inflation rate by 1%.

Metropolitan Chicago’s Infrastructure Assets

Metropolitan Chicago is in a pivotal position to take advantage of the emerging digital network infrastructure. Already, the presence of technology-based companies is sizable ³⁶?. Over 343,000 people are employed in technology-based companies, producing 11.6% of the Gross State Product. Of the State’s technology-based companies, 75% are in the six county metropolitan area, with 56% of these in Cook County.

Nearly 25% of the 100 largest companies in Metropolitan Chicago are in electronics, computers, or telecommunications ¹⁰. There is also a major cluster of small, but rapidly growing firms that provide telephone, wireless, cable, Internet, and satellite services. Telecommunications companies with headquarters in the region include Ameritech, American Information Systems, Focal Communications, Genuity, InterAccess, Motorola, Telephone and Data Systems, Tellabs, Telular Corporation, US Cellular Corporation, USN Communications, Westell Technologies, Worldwide Access, and 360 Communications. Other companies with a significant presence in Metropolitan Chicago include 3Com (including US Robotics), Lucent, TCI Great Lakes, CellularOne, AT&T/Teleport Communications Group (TCG), IBM, and MCI.

"Traffic on the Information Superhighway is doubling every 100 days in the U.S. and the number of people connected to the Internet could reach 1 billion worldwide by 2005."

Consulting, with major practices in technology, and network integration firms also play a major role in Chicago, including Anderson Consulting, Coopers & Lybrand, Computer Sciences Corporation, Fleishman-Hilliard, Metamor Technologies, and Whittman-Hart. These companies are engaged in assisting business and industry worldwide to assess applications and deploy technologies. Further, Chicago is pioneering the use of technologies through the leading financial services and other key industries. The Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and Chicago Board of Options, to look at just one industry, conduct business twenty-four hours a day around the globe over the digital network infrastructure.

Metropolitan Chicago’s Strategic Position

The interconnection of three high-performance research networks in Chicago is solidifying the Metropolitan region’s role as a national center for high-performance digital networking and provides a foundation on which to build tomorrow’s commercial services and other applications. The three networks converging in Chicago are:

• The Metropolitan Research and Education Network (MREN) (http://www.mren.org/), created by the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois—Chicago with Argonne National Laboratory and FermiLab in collaboration with Ameritech, has been described as the most powerful high-performance regional digital network in the country. The Big Ten universities, Notre Dame, and other major research institutions in the Midwest are establishing connections into Chicago to reach this network.

  

• The National Science Foundation’s very high-speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS) (http://www.vbns.net/) spans the country. It is emerging as the basis for the Next Generation Internet (NGI), with regional high-performance networks, or GigaPOPs, connecting to it. The three founding MREN universities (Northwestern, Illinois, and Chicago), have each received funding from NSF to connect to the vBNS, making the Chicago region the first GigaPOP on the emerging Internet2.

  

• The NSF Science, Technology, and Research Transit Access Point (STAR TAP) (http://www.startap.net/) brings international high-performance networks into Chicago to connect to the vBNS. Canada has already connected, and nations from Europe, Asia, and South America are planning to connect. It is expected that all of the international research networks will be connected within the next few years through Chicago.

Other high-performance digital networks are being established by the public sector, business, and industry in collaboration with WorldCom/MCI, TCG/AT&T, TCI, 21st Century Cable, Sprint, Ameritech, and other providers.

The consequence of these initiatives is clear. Just as Metropolitan Chicago emerged as the hub of the national railroad, highway, and air transport systems, it is now emerging as the international hub on the Information Superhighway. The advantage is ours to either capitalize upon or lose.

The Challenge for Metropolitan Chicago

Metropolitan regions like ours represent huge investments, substantial concentrations of infrastructure, and readily available markets, human resources, and diverse business services that move us further into the Information Age. Now, we are being challenged to use these resources to make the transformation from managing the manufacture and distribution of products over the transportation system to managing the flow of information, services, and transactions over the digital network infrastructure ²⁷.

"The challenge for the Chicago region is to both expand the digital network infrastructure and to strategically leverage the advantages and assets of the region to lead the transformation."

It is not an easy transformation. Regions that have the necessary infrastructure and a strategic plan will meet this challenge. Other regions, like a 19th century community without a railroad station or a 20th century city off the highway system, will not. The challenge for the Chicago region is to both expand the digital network infrastructure and to strategically leverage the advantages and assets of the region to lead the transformation. Yet, there is also caution to be exercised. Even though technology holds enormous promise, it will not magically solve problems or allow us to avoid existing problems. Some problems may even be exacerbated by technology. Existing polarization on social, economic, and geographic lines will certainly increase unless deliberate actions are taken to include everyone. If the digital infrastructure does not extend to certain neighborhoods, if equipment and services are prohibitively expensive, or if technical training and support are not available to all, the social and personal costs will result in a great “digital divide.”

When the opportunities and dangers of the digital network infrastructure are well understood, strategic decisions can be made to improve social, economic, and geographic circumstances. However, because this infrastructure is invisible, it presents a special challenge to planners and policy makers who are much more accustomed to dealing with the impacts of roads, airports, and buildings.

Five Principal Policy Recommendations for Metropolitan Chicago

While there are many challenges and opportunities for Metropolitan Chicago resulting from the digital infrastructure, five principal policy recommendations should undergird our response.

1. Build the Metropolitan Chicago Digital Network Infrastructure.
   No matter what the application, industry, or initiative, each will be dependent upon the digital network infrastructure for the capacity to deliver information and services. For electronic commerce and technology-based economic development; for transportation, land use and resource management; for education, workplace training and health care; and, for entertainment and the arts, the potential opportunities and benefits described in this report will not be realized without ubiquitous access to the digital network infrastructure for the entire Metropolitan region. Communities, corporations, agencies, and institutions will need to be purposeful in planning to guarantee the internal capacity and connections to serve their constituent, business, and client demands. Further, high bandwidth lines, described by some simply as “big pipes,” must be available to all classes of users, and an adequate backbone must be deployed across the region to assure that everyone benefits. Providing universal access for business, industry, government, public agencies, and homes to the digital network infrastructure to advance economic and social development throughout Metropolitan Chicago is a remarkable task that will involve cable, telephone, satellite, and wireless service providers. Building the digital network infrastructure, with the necessary internal capacity and connections to the backbone network, will be a major challenge for communities, corporations, agencies, institutions, providers, and policy makers.

2. Advance the Region’s Information Economy “Ecosystem” ⁵⁸ and Establish Strategic Targets for Technology-based Economic Development.
   The opportunities to advance the region’s diverse economy in the Digital Age are considerable. However, these advances will not happen without concerted planning and action to support the region’s information economy “ecosystem.” This will involve assuring an educated workforce, strong university-business collaboration, a seamless infrastructure of interconnected digital networks, an expanding cluster of entrepreneurial companies, available venture capital, and a favorable quality-of-life.

   Added to these elements, the region must establish strategic targets for technology-based economic development. The Metropolitan region has particular opportunities as a testbed for the development of next-generation network technologies and in developing network applications and content for the diverse businesses and industries of the region. The more promising and “Chicago friendly” of these targets appear to be in the fields of transportation, health and the life sciences, advanced materials and manufacturing, environmental technology, telecommunications and information technology services.

3. Use Technology to Strengthen Elementary and Secondary Education, Higher Education, and Workforce Training.
   The region will not move forward economically or socially without everyone being educated to the highest level possible. In order to enjoy a vital quality-of-life and contribute to progress in the region, every citizen must not only be able to read, write, and communicate effectively, but must also have the essential skills and habits required by the emerging information economy. Elementary and secondary education must provide the strong foundation, higher education must advance new ideas and procedures, and lifelong learning must be integral to the workplace and home.

   The social and economic progress of the region is, first and foremost, dependent upon strong education goals and performance. We can advance these educational goals by effectively utilizing technology and assuring that all are prepared for the Information Age.

4. Implement Aggressive Plans to Mitigate the “Digital Divide.”
   There is considerable danger that certain segments of Metropolitan Chicago’s population, certain neighborhoods, and certain endeavors will be excluded from the advancements afforded by the digital network infrastructure. Much of this is tied to financial resources, as some families, schools, and communities are unable to afford or do not understand the imperative of information technology. Yet, the price for leaving some behind is too high.

   An organized plan is needed among community leaders, religious and neighborhood organizations, state and local policy makers, regional planners and educators, business and industry to assure that the Metropolitan region is not characterized by a “digital divide.” The health of our social, economic, and political fabric is dependent on ubiquitous access to the information, resources, services, skills, and opportunities that are being made possible by information technology and the digital network structure.

5. Establish the Metropolitan Chicago Regional Planning Network.
   The digital network infrastructure offers new opportunities, but also new challenges to regional planning and cooperation. A Metropolitan Chicago Regional Planning Network on the Internet can serve a central role in identifying and organizing regional initiatives, facilitating the timely distribution of information, developing a shared database of information from the region’s communities, and providing a model that would encourage local communities and regional bodies to use the Internet to advance planning and cooperation. A Metropolitan Chicago Regional Planning Network and its supporting organizations can use the technology to bring the region’s community and corporate leaders, policy makers, planners, and citizens together to advance the challenges and opportunities explored throughout this report.

PUTTING OUR MINDS TOGETHER...
This report examines the particular opportunities and challenges for Metropolitan Chicago to leverage the emerging digital network infrastructure. It identifies advantages the region might successfully exploit and considers some of the dangers that could have long-term consequences. Finally, it examines the social impacts and the potential actions needed to guide the development of the digital network infrastructure for everyone’s benefit. The goal for the region is to foster strategic plans and actions by public officials, policy makers, corporate and community leaders to secure Metropolitan Chicago’s place as a dynamic nexus of the Information Age.

Take a careful look at the issues raised. Then, put your minds together to use the potentials of the digital network infrastructure to promote economic and social development throughout this great region.

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