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The term ‘information superhighways’ has vastly increased in currency in the last 12 months. Like many such terms, it may have been used by politicians and the media to mean whatever they want it to mean, but there is no doubt that its currency in the language presages a major development in access to information and resources. The first significant step on the way to the realisation of information superhighways is the increasing use, for many different purposes, of the Internet.

Suggests that one reason for the relative lack of commercial success of the information superhighway may be lack of precise information. This has led Ernst & Young to provide a thorough appraisal of the benefits and associated risks. Summarizes the concepts managers need to understand in order to assess the impact of the information superhighway. Outlines some steps managers can take in order to ensure that their organizations are prepared for future changes.

Almost daily we are bombarded in the press about the ‘information superhighway’ and the ‘Information Society’ — how they will change our lives and our work, and what new services we can expect in the future. Discussions range from the dangers to life as we know it to the glorious Information Society that is to come, where we can work from our homes, order everything we need and where we never need to leave the house again. Whatever the Information Society will bring, it is certain that there will be an effect — indeed a great effect — on the general public and the information professions of the future.

Argues that, although the information superhighway will encounter obstacles on the road to becoming fully implemented, there is enough support for this communication delivery system to make it a part of everyday life in the near future. The information superhighway would link homes, schools, businesses, libraries, governmental agencies and other participants in a vast information network. Such a system could allow users all over the world to access information on just about any topic.

Looks at the possible directions in which the information superhighway could take us, considering both the benefits of increased knowledge and subsequent increased participation and also the dangers such as the excess of raw information. Suggests that this information needs to be structured and packaged if it is to have a positive effect. Considers these points in a global sense in terms of humanity as a whole.

Stresses that the multimedia nature of the next generation of digital libraries requires the digital librarians (DL) to be essentially a type of specialist librarian who has to manage and organize the digital library, handle the specialized tasks of massive digitization, storage, access, digital knowledge mining, digital reference services, electronic information services, search co‐ordination, and manage the archive and its access. The digital librarian acts as guardian of the information superhighway/the universal digital library or the global digital library and acts as a symbiotic human‐machine guru. This article also highlights the roles and functions of a DL in information retrieval, content delivery, navigation, and browsing. It envisages the professional education and training for digital librarians in the management of digital information systems. It denotes the DL’s interface functions, roles, skills and competencies for the management of digital information systems in the important areas of imaging technologies, optical character recognition, markup languages, cataloguing, metadata, multimedia indexing and database technology, user interface design, programming, and Web technology. This paper finally advocates and targets the task of creating a new job title – digital librarian – to take care of digital libraries and to manage the digital information system.

“The Information Superhighway” is constantly in the news. What does it mean for libraries? Although there have been assurances that libraries will be seen as equal partners in the new age of electronic communication, there are other indicators that libraries may be bypassed. A high school in Poughkeepsie, N.Y, heralded its “Internet Monarch Butterfly Project,” while another school announced that the Internet was being used to develop a worldwide relationships program. Then USA Today (May 20, 1994) reported that AT&T landed another big one—a contract to construct high tech, digital‐communications systems to transmit phone calls, computer data, TV channels, and interactive video. This deal could give them a lock on data transmission worldwide. Given that many Washington gurus, including the Vice President, have repeatedly assured libraries, schools and other public agencies that they will have an important role to play in developing new means of data transmission, what do these actions portend?

US Vice President Albert Gore first used on March 21,1994, what later became the phrase: “Information Superhighway,” The phrase suggests that information traffic rolls right over the static, long‐suffering fixture of mud, concrete and asphalt. But with each new development of IT, it is as though the vehicles have to renegotiate with the roadway the right of passage, making it very much an interactive process. To underscore its dynamic nature, a transportation analogy seems appropriate. If we are today in the propeller airplane stage, Broadband Network Technology (BNT) is beyond Supersonic Concorde, to reach which we need to traverse through [1] turbo‐prop technology, [2] jet engine technology, [3] 747‐technology, [4]jumbo jet technology, and [5] supersonic technology to [6] supersonic+ technology. Information Superskyway should result in what Dertouzos, Director of MIT Computer Science Labatory, calls Information Marketplace: “the collection of people, computers, communications, software and services that will be engaged in the intraorganizational and interpersonal informational transactions of the future.” 3C firms jockey for position on the Information Superskyway. While they offer better access to the Internet, they also seek to restrict the access to products and services they control. Dertouzos says that all companies shoud cooperate with their competitors to build a shared information infrastructure, so that they can compete. It echoes our own definition of Concomitant Coalition: association of one party(ies) with and against the same party(ies) in the same game or activity. We discuss three CONCOLs: [1] Microsoft‐Netscape working together and in competition, as Bill Gates puts it, to define standards that will help overcome the Internet's limitations. They compete on supplying components of the software platform for interactive networks; but they cooperate in developing an industry standard, no matter whose components finally get accepted. [2] Sun‐NCR‐Intel working together against Microsoft which is pushing its Windows NT as a substitute for Sun's Unix operating system. [3] Intel‐SAP working together against Microsoft, IBM on business management software. Pandesic, the 50–50 joint venture between Intel (whose chips control the basic functions of 80 percent of the world's PCs), and Germany‐based SAP (the world's biggest publisher of business management software), will provide on‐line merchants the necessary hard‐and‐software, to tap into the projected US$234 billion economy on the Internet by the year 2002. We saw in Chapter 4 that the main players in 3C industries are racing each other on their own pathways to the Information Superskyway. In this chapter we find 3C firms entering into CONCOLs to tap into the rich bounty on the Internet. However, Dertouzos warns that none of the awesome powers of fiber optics, real‐time video, virtual reality, multimedia, and electronic commerce would be realized unless computers and software at diverse sites can “understand” one another. But he says: “Hardly anyone today is paying attention to shared conventions that will allow interconnected machines to understand and work with each other without the constant intervention of a human being.”

It is twenty‐five years ago that the primary network, from which Internet has evolved, was created by the US Department of Defence, when it laid down the Advanced Research Project Agency Network: ARPANet.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/09685229710168006. When citing the article, please cite: Rossouw von Solms, (1997), “Driving safely on the information superhighway”, Information Management & Computer Security, Vol. 5 Iss: 1, pp. 20 - 22.