Information technology is revolutionizing our society by changing the way we work, learn, purchase, and play. In addition, it has been at the center of an economic boom that has been called by John Doerr "the greatest legal creation of wealth in the history of the planet." Most of the advances in information technology have been as a direct or indirect result of Federal research and development investments. If we are to continue that growth, the Federal government must continue to make the kinds of investments that will fuel the information technology boom a decade or more from now.The President's Advisory Committee on High Performance Computing and Communications, Information Technology, and Next Generation Internet, has been established to evaluate federal investments in information technology research and to advise the President on whether those investments will achieve the goals established by the Administration and the Congress. Among these goals are improvement of education, medicine, science, economic well-being and public safety.
The Advisory Committee is now in the midst of a two-year effort to produce a report with recommendations for the future. This talk will review this effort and summarize some of the likely recommendations, including a return to long-term basic research, investment in scalable network and computing infrastructure, and attention to developing human resources.