Robert H. Anderson, Tora K. Bikson, Sally Ann Law, Bridger M. Mitchell
This report presents our considerations of the notion of universal access to electronic mail from demographic, technical, economic, social, and international perspectives. Various conclusions and recommendations may be found throughout the previous six chapters at points where they seemed salient and could be considered in context. Here we consolidate what we feel to be our most important conclusions and recommendations.
Policy Conclusions and Recommendations
We find that use of electronic mail is valuable for individuals, for communities, for the practice and spread of democracy, and for the general development of a viable national information infrastructure. Consequently, the nation should support universal access to e-mail through appropriate public and private policies.
The goal of achieving universal access has two main subgoals: (1) achieving interconnectivity among separate e-mail systems and (2) widespread accessibility of individuals to some e- mail system.
Universal connectivity among systems appears to be occurring through market forces, although the portability of e-mail addresses and current regulations that distort the prices among potentially competitive communication offerings are likely to remain an issue.
Individuals' accessibility to e-mail is hampered by increasing income, education, and racial gaps in the availability of computers and access to network services. Some policy remedies appear to be required. These include creative ways to make terminals cheaper; to have them recycled; to provide access in libraries, community centers, and other public venues; and to provide e-mail "vouchers" or support other forms of cross-subsidies.
The literature reviewed plus information gathered and analyzed in Chapters Two and Five make clear the central role of e-mail as the activity that promotes use of electronic networks; the role of these networks as social technologies is salient. Interpersonal communication, bulletin boards, conferences, and chat rooms, of course, also provide information and help individuals find or filter information from other sources.
Much study and discussion, both within our government and elsewhere, focuses on the content, design, and policies related to a "national information infrastructure." If this report demonstrates anything, it is the importance of person- to-person, and many-to-many communication within such an infrastructure. Therefore,
It is critical that electronic mail be a basic service in a national information infrastructure.
To the extent that public policy guides the evolution of an NII, it should consider universal access to e-mail as a cornerstone of that policy. Specifically, one-way information-providing technologies--whether broadcasting systems or technologies that provide only search and retrieval--are inadequate. Two-way technologies supporting interactive use and sending or dissemination by all users are key. And everyone should be able to participate:
It is important to reduce the increasing gaps in access to basic electronic information system services, specifically, access to electronic mail services.
Implementation of such policies should begin as soon as possible since it will undoubtedly take as much as a decade before full implementation is accomplished, no matter what strategy is envisioned. We recommend that the gaps that are greatest now and that are still widening be addressed first. Specifically these are deficits in access to computers and electronic networks found in the low-income and low-education segments of the population.
Directory services and addressing mechanisms must be considered core components. Additionally, any obstacles to full connectivity and interoperability must be minimized.
Virtually every study of electronic mail establishes that immediate convenient access is the single most powerful predictor of use. To the extent that national or other policies attempt to redress imbalances caused by the market for electronic access, we conclude that
Policy interventions should give priority to widespread home access.
In addition, and not as a substitute, multiple options for network access located in convenient places (including, for instance, libraries, schools, public buildings, hotel lobbies, business centers, and the like) are important auxiliary access sites. Such common facilities could be considered good locations for help or training centers as well.
Prior studies as well as information presented in Chapters Two and Five show little reason to be concerned that citizens will abandon the needs of their local (physical) communities in favor of virtual communities in cyberspace. Rather, communications are typically addressed to a community of concerned individuals, and either for reasons of subject matter or prior acquaintance, these concerns are often (although not necessarily) geographically bounded. Thus, network access can be expected to enhance rather than detract from community involvement.
Provision of community services and activities on-line should be actively supported.
Local nonprofit providers experience many of the same resource constraints--costs, technical expertise, and so on-- that households and individuals face. Engaging people in participatory democracy is not just a matter of giving citizens access but also a matter of enabling the service and information providers. Specific policies might be designed to facilitate and support the development of on-line civic activities offered by government agencies and nonprofit organizations.
Our study of the technical considerations in providing universal access to e-mail concluded that
There are no fundamental technical barriers to providing universal access to electronic mail services.
We concluded that current and evolving Internet standards for e-mail (SMTP and MIME, in particular), although perhaps not the definitive standards for electronic mail, provide a good basis for further evolution of a universal system. To the extent possible, gateways among dissimilar e-mail systems should be avoided, or be regarded as only temporary measures, because information is lost at least one way, and possibly both ways, in such transactions. Therefore, migration of Internet standards down into organization-level systems appears preferable.
We find that access to, and the location of, physical devices for e-mail use significantly affect universal access. With only about half of U.S. households containing personal computers by the year 2000, a robust set of alternative devices and locations is needed, including keyboard attachments to TV set-top boxes and video game machines, and extended telephones providing e-mail (and likely integrated voice mail) access. Public access is vital, with libraries, post offices, kiosks, and government buildings each playing a role. There might well be a market for "pay" terminals analogous to the ubiquitous pay telephones.
The state of software for "user agents," "knowbots," and similar filtering programs appears capable of handling, sorting, prioritizing, and presenting the large volumes of e- mail that may result from universal access. Similar technologies can give the user sufficient control over content (at least initially using the address or site that is the physical source of the material as an indicator of content; later "filters" may use other cues), so that avoiding objectionable materials should pose no greater problem than it does in other aspects of contemporary life.
We have concluded that e-mail white pages or yellow pages directories will be developed by market forces, and therefore conclude that
There appears to be no need for governmental or regulatory involvement in the development, or centralization, of directories for universal e-mail addresses (both white and yellow pages).
In considering the architecture of a universal e-mail system, we were strongly influenced by the recommendations developed by the CSTB (1994):
The design of a universal e-mail system should follow "open data network" guidelines, with a small number of transport services and representation standards (e.g., for fax, video, audio, text).
Upon this base, a larger but still quite bounded set of "middleware" services such as file systems, security and privacy services, and name servers may be built. An evolving, growing set of applications can then thrive without requiring redesign of the underlying "bearer" and "transport" portions of the network. This model closely resembles that developed over the last several decades within the Internet development community.
Until more is known about appropriate user-computer interfaces for all segments of our society (see our "Recommendations for Further Research," below), we believe that--to the extent inexpensive computing devices can support it--the "Web browsing" model for user interactions, including access to e-mail services, is an important, highly usable, interface model. Within the forseeable future, it is an important means of access to a burgeoning amount of on-line information and services. Because the cost of computing power continues to drop, we cautiously recommend
The "Web browser" model of user-computer interaction should at least be considered a candidate for the minimum level of user interface for e-mail access as well as other hypertext-style access to information.
This report has considered the need for a simple e-mail address system that gives every U.S. resident a "default" e- mail address by which they can be reached. Such a development would "jump start" a universal access system, because governmental and other organizations could then assume that "everyone" was reachable by this means and design procedures and systems accordingly. The advantages of this approach lead to our recommendation that
A simple e-mail address provision scheme should be developed giving every U.S. resident an e-mail address, perhaps based on a person's physical address or telephone number.
If such a universal addressing scheme were developed, services would then be required, at least in transition, to "migrate" electronic materials received into paper form for persons not capable of, or desiring to, access them electronically. Such services could be provided by third- party entrepreneurs or established agencies and companies such as the U.S. Postal Service or one's local telephone service provider.
The economic analysis presented in Chapter Four suggests that economies of scope and scale on the supply side, together with the easy substitutability among messaging and communications services on the demand side, may result in both vertical and horizontal integration--and the formation of strategic alliances--of suppliers in related markets. The growing use of bundled offerings and term and volume discount pricing are consistent with that analysis. The convergence of previously distinct messaging and communications services, and the emergence of a unified communications/messaging environment, raise a number of significant public policy issues. The following are two major areas in which policy may need to be reformed:
Nevertheless, given their very different histories, voice, data, and video communications services have been treated very differently by regulators. With the convergence of the communications/messaging market, regulatory distinctions are creating artificial distortions in the marketplace and may be creating incentives for customers to use economically inefficient messaging options. The discussion in Chapter Four of access charges and the "enhanced service provider" exemption is one example of artificial cost differences that arise from regulations designed for one application (standard telephony) that must now compete with other applications. We conclude that
Policies developed separately for telephony, computer communications, broadcasting, and publishing that create artificial distinctions in the emerging information infrastructure should be reviewed, and a consistent framework should be developed that spans all the industries in the unified communications/messaging industry.
Address portability provides an example of the need for a consistent regulatory framework. Portability reduces the switching costs of consumers and increases market competitiveness. It was shown in Chapter Four that with the use of bundling, the portability of telephone numbers could be negated through the use of nonportable e-mail addresses.
Policymakers should develop a comprehensive approach to address, number, and name portability.
Efforts at implementing the above recommendation should be compatible with, and cognizant of, our earlier recommendation that "default" electronic addresses be provided for all U.S. residents. Although there may be some important tradeoffs between address portability and simplicity of routing, policymakers should attempt to make this tradeoff consistently across all competitors.
Given the large sunk costs and nominal marginal usage costs of facilities-based providers, competition in raw transport is likely to be unstable. Providers are likely to integrate vertically or form alliances that allow them to differentiate their products. Regulations requiring the nondiscriminatory sale of unbundled transport may not be consistent with emerging vertical relationships and competition.
In the near term, regulation should adopt a light-handed approach that specifies minimum capabilities that can be transferred across networks to allow providers sufficient flexibility to develop enhanced features that differentiate their products. In the longer term, when technologies have more fully converged, subscription to multiple networks by each customer may be inexpensive and widespread, and regulations governing interconnections may not be necessary. Providers may then be free to differentiate their offerings based on market demand.
Our study of the economics of e-mail provision concluded that subsidization for current household access could require approximately $1 billion per year, but we have mentioned (in Chapter Four) interesting commercial experiments providing "free" e-mail to those willing to accept advertising; similarly, "near-free" computers might be provided to those willing to subject themselves to additional advertising (e.g., on a built-in "screensaver" display). So the $1 billion amount may possibly be a mid-level estimate, not a minimum required.
Although e-mail penetration is expanding rapidly, some program of economic assistance to marginal consumers may be necessary to achieve universal levels of services. Obligating service providers to offer subscriptions to large classes of customers at low rates that are financed by contributions from other services is unlikely to succeed in the competitive messaging industry. Instead,
Any e-mail assistance will require public funding from an industrywide tax or from general revenues. Subsidies will need to be narrowly targeted to reach consumers who would not otherwise subscribe.
There are international dimensions to "universal" e-mail within the United States. Policies to influence the development of a national e-mail system should recognize the borderless nature of this technology. Perhaps more than other national systems, an e-mail system will affect and be affected by worldwide standards, policies, and events.
The analysis in Chapter Six leads to the conclusion that democracy in the nations of the world is positively correlated with interconnectivity. In nations emerging into democracy, or attempting to, connectivity is likely to have a positive influence on democratization. We conclude that
The United States should support increased interconnectivity abroad, since this may aid the spread of democracy.
The results of this study support the conclusion that important results and benefits accrue to those becoming internetted, and that the problem to be addressed is the growing disparity among some society segments in access to that internetting. Universal access to electronic mail within the United States is an important solution strategy; achieving universal access will require dedication, focus, and cooperation by individual citizens, commercial companies, nongovernmental organizations, and government at all levels.
Recommendations for Further Research
Our research has uncovered inadequacies in the statistical data describing the phenomena we studied. We encountered other shortfalls in the existing literature or in current field experiments. We therefore recommend that the following research initiatives be undertaken to permit a better understanding of problems and issues related to universal access to e-mail and related interactive information systems.