The "information superhighway" is spoken of by politicians and businessmen, is advertised on television, written about at length in newspapers and magazines, and remains a mystery to a number of Americans as to what it actually means. Its proponents and subscribers describe it as the way that Americans will not only do business, but also shop, communicate and receive entertainment in the future. Still in its infancy, the information superhighway is not the creation of any one company or organization, but rather encompasses many different offerings from a broad variety of companies. This research examines the information superhighway and where it might lead in the future.
There is no single definition as to what the term "information superhighway" actually means (Allen, 1994, p. 1). Vice-President Al Gore generally receives credit for coining the term, which generally connotes the interconnectivity of computers, information services and electronic mail services. From a single computer terminal or personal computer, individuals on the information superhighway are able to connect to a variety of other electronic resources for entertainment, information or to conduct business; most of these connections take place over telephone lines.
The telephone system that connects the world was originally developed to enable people to talk with people. Facsimile machines made it possible for machines to communicate with machines, but the printed word was still the medium of choice. The computer age also introduced the use of telephone lines to send bits of data, although voice and data generally traveled separately. Recently, technology enabled voices to be digitized, with the result that they can be transmitted along fiber-optic networks. Since fiber-optic networks can carry any type of digital information, including voice, data or entertainment, this development led to the merging of communications and computers (Allen, 1994, p. 2).