Digital Opportunity Investment Trust

Begin forwarded message:

> The Digital Promise Project recommends creation of the Digital
> Opportunity =
> Investment Trust (DO IT), a nonprofit, nongovernmental agency designed
> to =
> meet the urgent need to transform learning in the 21st century. From
> the =
> Digital Promise home page:
>
> Our emerging knowledge-based economy makes the people's access to =
> knowledge and learning-across-a-lifetime in the sciences and
> humanities a =
> national imperative. DO IT will do for education what NIH does for
> health, =
> NSF does for science, and DARPA does for national defense. It is the
> 21st =
> century counterpart of the 19th century's Land-Grant Colleges Act and
> the =
> 20th century's GI Bill.
>
> DO IT's charge will be to unlock the potential of the Internet and
> other =
> new information technologies for education in the broadest sense; to =
> stimulate public and private sector research into the development and
> use =
> of new learning techniques, and to encourage public and private sector
> =
> partnerships and alliances in education, science, the humanities, the =
> arts, civic affairs and government. For example, DO IT will commission
> =
> research and fund the development of models and prototypes to:
>
> * Digitize America's collected memory stored in our nation's
> universities, =
> libraries, and museums to make these materials available for use at
> home, =
> school, and work.
> * Develop learning models and simulations that invite the learner to =
> explore a virtual solar system, an authentic three-dimensional model
> of =
> the human body, a realistic trip to Mars, or an historic recreation of
> =
> Mark Twain's America.
> * Create voice sensitive computer programs to teach language to new =
> immigrants as well as fourth graders.
> * Create inviting training materials for workforce development, adult =
> learning, skills improvement, and civic engagement.
> * Develop programs that measure the learning progress of individual =
> students so teachers can adjust their teaching to the specific needs
> and =
> abilities of each learner.
> * Utilize new technologies to disseminate the best of our arts and
> culture =
> locally, regionally, nationally, and even globally.
>
> The proposed Trust will be financed by revenues earned from investing
> $18 =
> billion received from the mandated FCC auctions of the radio spectrum.
> =
> This parallels the historic use of revenues from the sale of public
> lands, =
> which helped finance public education in every new state and created
> the =
> great system of land-grant colleges voted by Congress and signed by =
> President Lincoln during the darkest days of the Civil War.
>
> In this digital age, libraries, archives, museums, school systems, =
> community colleges, universities, arts and cultural centers, public =
> broadcasting stations, and other such institutions need to make
> innovative =
> use of advanced information technologies to continue to serve their =
> essential public purposes. DO IT will help make that happen.
>
> Before joining the coalition, AMIA was asked to provide examples of
> how =
> our field might benefit from DO IT, being as explicit as possible. We =
> cited the following:
>
> * Develop advanced digital rights management strategies that support =
> widespread, equitable access to digital moving images and active
> privacy =
> for users, allowing the immersion of moving images into the
> information =
> landscape, in support of education.
>
> * Develop an integrated and comprehensive search system combining =
> phoneme-based search tools for audio streams with metadata, closed =
> captions, transcripts and shot and segment log books to enable end
> users =
> to identify and compile digital video segments for use in scholarly =
> publications or as learning objects.
>
> * Negotiate and implement access portals that represent a common
> ground =
> between the needs of educators, the public and commercial entities.
> For =
> example, create a digital news portal for journalism studies
> incorporating =
> applications and resources to improve literacy skills for using
> digital =
> video resources in education. An understanding of convergences and
> forces =
> that are shaping television news requires the ability to compare
> practice =
> and performance across many news sources and over many time periods,
> and =
> these resources have heretofore been difficult and expensive to access.
>
> * Develop a standards-based cataloging utility that integrates
> administrati=
> ve, technical, rights, and descriptive metadata to allow archives of
> all =
> sizes to create the standard but customizable metadata required for =
> effective management of digital information throughout its lifecycle,
> to =
> meet goals of preservation, access, and educational use.