Abstract :
The present and projected applications of computer-communication networks or information networks include electronic mail, teleconferencing "the office of the future," management information systems, modeling, "computerized commerce," monitoring of patients, military command and control, home security, education, and news. This paper briefly examines 30 such applications and the network capabilities they require. It presents a way of estimating the relative importance of various network characteristics and of predicting the suitability of a network or network architecture for a given set of applications. The paper then considers several issues that relate to the political, social, and economic impacts of networks. Among the issues are privacy, security, compatibility, impact on productivity, the roles of networks in international technology transfer and economic competition, and the confluence or collision of the fields of computers and telecommunications.
