Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Grainger Engineering Library Symposium [PAGE 11]

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In the months ahead, you'll see some very exciting wireless communications developments. Consumers see the promise of the information superhighway one way. They dream of movies on demand, video phone calls, and interactive home shopping services. Businesses want better ways to share information and software, and to collaborate across the miles. That's happening. AT&T has joined with Lotus and Novell to make their popular Lotus Notes and NetWare software available over our network. By combining the intelligence of our network with their software programs, computer users anywhere can access, track, organize, and share information. In another high-tech alliance, AT&T has joined with Xerox to combine their document management capabilities with our computer and communications know-how. As a result, customers can create book-length documents, transmit them over the AT&T network, and produce and deliver finished products anywhere in the world. AT&T also offers products and services that allow people at multiple locations to share data and imagefileswhile participating in a call that includes both voice and video. Visual collaboration like this can greatly enhance business effectiveness and efficiency. I've talked about the technology and the capabilities of the information superhighway. The challenge my industry faces is to make sure the technology doesn't overshoot people's ability to harness it. This challenge is reflected in our stated mission at AT&T, which is to "give people easy access to each other and to the information and services they want and need — anytime, anywhere." In many respects, the technology that is supposed to make our lives easier has actually added more complexity. Many of us still don't know how to program our VCRs. We use only a fraction of the capability of our personal computer. We have different phone numbers for home, office, and car.

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