Special Web Feature:
The Promise of Information Technology
The pivotal role of information technology in the United States' continued leadership in an increasingly competitive world is well documented. Advances in information technology have led to significant improvements in product design, development and distribution for American industry, provided instant communications for people worldwide, and enabled advances in a whole range of health, security, and communications technologies. Recent analysis suggests that the remarkable economic growth the U.S. experienced between 1995 and 2000 was spurred by an increase in productivity enabled almost completely by factors related to IT – "IT drove the U.S. productivity revival," according to Harvard economist Dale Jorgenson. A report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation released in March 2007 noted: "In the new global economy information and communications technology (IT) is the major driver, not just of improved quality of life, but also of economic growth…In fact, in the United States IT was responsible for two-thirds of total factor growth in productivity between 1995 and 2002 and virtually all of the growth in labor productivity."
Advances in information technology also have changed the conduct of research, enabling our nation’s continued leadership in a broad range of fields – from mapping the human brain to understanding climate change. Faced with problems that are ever more complex and interdisciplinary in nature, researchers are using IT to collaborate across the globe, simulate experiments, visualize large and complex datasets, and collect and manage massive amounts of data.
The crucial role played by federal support for fundamental research in stimulating these advances also is well documented. A 1995 report by the National Research Council referred to the "extraordinarily productive interplay of federally funded university research, federally and privately funded industrial research, and entrepreneurial companies founded and staffed by people who moved back and forth between universities and industry." That report, and a subsequent 1999 report by the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), emphasized the "spectacular" return on the federal investment in long-term IT research and development.
While the payoffs of past computing research have been dramatic, the field remains in relative infancy. Tremendous opportunities remain, animating a broadening core of researchers and promising even greater payoff for future research investments. This special web feature focuses on areas that have been noted in a broad collection of national and international studies as particularly rich with promise, should researchers make progress on the underlying research challenges. This list is by no means exhaustive, but should provide a deeper insight into the robust vitality of the field.
Focus Areas
