College and Research Libraries "random access") produces a weak, re- petitive organizational structure that works against the narrative, analytic, and polemical thrust of Miller's work. Per- haps his background as a columnist and broadcaster has conditioned him to break his material down into small chunks. And although Miller's sweetly reason- able voice contributes to the civilized tone of his book, it may not inspire the vocif- erous public response that he recom- mends. Strange as it may sound, Civiliz- ing Cyberspace could have used a little more rhetoric.-Jean Alexander, North- western University, Evanston, Illinois. The Unpredictable Certainty: Information Infrastructure through 2000. Prepared by the Nil 2000 Steering Committee; the Computer Science and Telecom- munications Board; the Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Applications; and the National Research Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Pr., 1996. 281p. $24.95. (ISBN 0-309-05432-X.) LC 96- 67383. This report represents the thinking of members of business, industry, acade- mia, and government. It synthesizes the discussion and papers produced at a workshop in January 1995 and a forum in the spring of 1995 in Washington, D.C. These meetings were organized by a steering committee of the Information In- frastructure Task Force, acting under the direction of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the Na- tional Research Council. The mandate for the steering commit- tee was "to access medium-term deploy- ment of facilities and services to advance the nation's information infrastructure." The project Nil 2000 sought the perspec- tives of providers of information and pro- ducers of facilities as well as the views of user groups. At the beginning of the report, there is a poem by Antonio Machado, which reads: Book Reviews 587 "wanderers, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking." Appropriately, these lines sum up the general outlook of those engaged in the project. In the report, there is no vision, no road, only the rarely questioned premise that private decision-making- markets-will somehow or other, some- time or other, lead to satisfactory out- comes. Desirable social outcomes hardly come into it. Technology is endorsed, not scrutinized. Its adoption is the report's "certainty." The unpredictability arises because potential individual users of the technology may be unwilling to assume their assigned roles. And well they might, given that there is no good reason offered to indicate that people want some, or any, of the services being thrown at them. "What will the consumer really want to do with the in- teractive services, and how much is he willing to pay?" asks one participant. But this uncertainty is not determin- ing because, as the report makes clear, ''business users will drive the develop- ment of information infrastructure." Yet, herein lies the contradiction that haunts the entire project. What disturbingly (to the report's authors) cannot be exorcised are the origins of what currently under- pins the information infrastructure-the Internet. In the report's careful words, "It [the Internet] was built to one set of eco- nomic principles and is in transition to an- other set of economic principles ... " [review- er's emphasis]. Again, quoting the report, the Inter- net was constructed "according to a so- cial benefit model." Now it is in transi- tion to a commercial standard. Unsur- prisingly, "financing for Internet access in research, education, and libraries con- tinues to be a source of uncertainty and concern .... " Project 2000's participants, working with a market frame for analysis, reject 588 College & Research Libraries European Union on CD-ROM English • Fran~ais • Deutsch COMEXT complete trade statistics 1976- 1996 Also: Binding Tariffs -from 150 ECU, $190 USD ~ra=~~ Ill EUROSTAT Government Accounts - 75 ECU, $95 USD PANORAMA of Industry Sector analyses, top company statistics - 300 ECU, $378 USD Pro: 1000 ECU, $1260 USD CORDIS R&D programs, participants, results. -100 ECU, $126 USD RegioMap GIS Harmonized socio- economic data. Over 1000 regions . - 995 ECU, $1250 USD EUR-OP, Luxembourg Office for Official Publications LIBRARY AND GOVERNMENT DISCOUNTS Promptly shipped directly from Luxembourg. Research service. Orders: EU info Distributor National Press Building Suite 300-165 Sparks Street Mall Ottawa Canada K1P 5B9 • Tel: 613-230-2208 Fax: 613-230-2209 • UK Fax : 44 181 265 54 83 http://web.eunet.ch/euro • euro@dial.eunet.ch November 1996 the "social benefit model." Government, in their view, is useful only in two ways: to reduce further the regulation of the in- formation sector, and to undertake the considerable costs and risks of research and development of information tech- nologies. Once these costs have been borne out of general revenues, the op- portunity to profit thereby should be shifted automatically to the private sec- tor. One other role is seen for govern- ment-as enforcer of private interests in the international realm. This is necessary, the report concludes, because in most other nations "there is a slower pace of deregulation and privatization." What this means is that if other countries strive to defend their cultures and institutional structures, the U.S. government should not be reluctant to exercise pressure to overcome practices on behalf of national sovereignty deemed inimical to U.S. pri- vate corporate activity abroad. This volume is a useful compen- dium for those seeking to understand how prevailing private power in the United States views the place of the new information technologies in the national economy. It reviews the op- tions they offer, the obstacles to their installation they may encounter, and the opportunities for moneymaking they represent. However, the report is less helpful to those who are interested in charting a course that takes into account the multitude of social needs that might be addressed by an informed, and so- cially oriented, information system.- Herbert I. Schiller, University of Califor- nia-San Diego.