The Gordian Knot: Political Gridlock on the Information Highway W. Russell Neuman , Lee W. McKnight , Richard Jay Solomon

Veterans of the high-definition TV wars of the 1980s, the authors, social scientists as well as technologists, came to see themselves as chroniclers and students of an intriguing and serious techno-economic conflict. Why, they asked, did so few understand the rules of the game? In a broad account accessible to generalist and specialist alike, they address the current national debate about the development of a national information infrastructure, locating the debate in a broad historical narrative that illuminates how we got here and where we may be going, and outlining a bold vision of an open communications infrastructure that will cut through the political gridlock that threatens this information highway.