The Superhighway Summit was held at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

's Royce Hall on 11 January 1994. It was the first public conference bringing together all of the major industry, government and academic leaders in the field. It began the national dialogue about the information superhighway and its implications. The conference was organized by Richard Frank of the

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States. It is a 501(c)(6) non-prof ...

, and Jeffrey Cole and Geoffrey Cowan, the former co-directors of UCLA's Center for Communication Policy. It was introduced by former UCLA Chancellor, Andrea L. Rich. The keynote speaker was Vice President

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

Background

Thirty leaders in the area of communications presided over the event, which had an attendance of over 1800 people. It was broadcast live on

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

, E! Entertainment, and on the

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

campus.

Partial list of participants

Barry Diller Barry Charles Diller (born February 2, 1942) is an American businessman. He is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller was inducted into the Television Hall of ...

- chairman and CEO of QVC *

Michael Eisner Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman and former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was president of rival film st ...

- then chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Co. *Ernestine, the telephone operator (a fictional character created by the actress

Lily Tomlin Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. She started her career as a stand-up comedian as well as performing off-Broadway during the 1960s. Her breakout role was on the vari ...

for ''

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' (often simply referred to as ''Laugh-In'') is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Da ...

'') *

- then Vice President of the United States *

Reed Hundt Reed Eric Hundt (born March 3, 1948) is an American attorney who served as chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission from November 29, 1993 to November 3, 1997. Appointed by President Bill Clinton, he served for most of C ...

- FCC Chairman *

Robert Iger Robert Allen Iger (; born February 10, 1951) is an American businessman who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company. He previously served as the President of ABC Television between 1994 and 1995 and the President and C ...

-president of the ABC Television Group *

Jeffrey Katzenberg Jeffrey Katzenberg (; born December 21, 1950) is an American filmmaker, animator, and media proprietor. He became well known for his tenure as chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994. After departing Disney, he was a co-founder and CE ...

- then chairman of Walt Disney Studios *

John C. Malone John Carl Malone (born March 7, 1941) is an American billionaire businessman, landowner and philanthropist. He was chief executive officer (CEO) of Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), a cable and media giant, for twenty-four years from 1973 to 1996. ...

- president of Telecommunications, Inc. *

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

- NewsCorp *

Raymond W. Smith Raymond is a male given name. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷᛁᚾᛗᚢᚾᛞ ( ...

- CEO, Bell Atlantic

Highlights

The conference was given extensive coverage by Cynthia Lee and Linda Steiner Lee over two issues of ''UCLA TODAY'' (January 13 and 27, 1994). In the article "Gore Details Telecommunications Ideas," Lee and Lee gave an overview of the opening speech given by Vice President Gore. They commented that "Vice President

outlined the

Clinton Administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...

's proposals to reform the communications marketplace and challenged his audience to provide links from the so-called information superhighway to every classroom, library, hospital, and clinic in the country by the year 2000 ..'We have a dream for...an information superhighway that can save lives, create jobs and give every American, young and old, the chance for the best education available to anyone, anywhere,' Gore said."Lee, Cynthia and Linda Steiner Lee. "Gore Details Telecommunications Ideas." UCLA TODAY: 1 During his talk, "Ernestine" (the fictional telephone operator created by

for ''

'') made a surprise appearance. She complained "about the confusing and rapid transformation of communications technology. The Vice president laughingly assured Ernestine that the new technology would be simple to understand and available to all Americans." In the follow-up article, "CEOs Ponder Direction of Information Superhighway", Cynthia Lee stated that leaders at the conference noted that the future of the information superhighway was still uncertain. " 'Here we are, all ready to go cruising off down this new information superhighway,' said

, Chairman of The

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

Studios, during one of the panel discussions, 'and we really don't know where we are going. It's the first time we will be moving in a certain direction when we don't even know our final destination.' "Lee, Cynthia. "CEOs Ponder Direction of Information Superhighway." UCLA TODAY: 4 Geoffrey Cowan, the former co-director of UCLA's Center for Communication Policy, indicated that the key concept of the Information Superhighway was

interactivity Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but m ...

, or "the ability for the consumer to control it, to decide what they want to receive, and the ability of the technology to respond to highly sophisticated consumer demands." The participants underscored the point that the major challenge of the information superhighway would lie in access, or the "gap between those who will have access to it because they can afford to equip themselves with the latest electronic devices and those who can't."

References

*Lee, Cynthia and Linda Steiner Lee. "Gore Details Telecommunications Ideas." ''UCLA TODAY'', Vol. 14, #9, January 13, 1994:1, 4. *Lee, Cynthia. "CEOs Ponder Direction of Information Superhighway." ''UCLA TODAY'', Vol. 14, #19, January 27, 1994: 4.

Footnotes

External links

History of the Television AcademyVice President Proposes National Telecommunications Reform
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University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...