The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of
the National Research Council is undertaking a project to
identify what everyone needs to know about information technology. 
A major part of CSTB's task is to develop a consensus for the
appropriate definitions of "everyone", "know", and "information
technology".

The committee responsible for this project is chaired by Larry
Snyder, professor of computer science and engineering at the
University of Washington.  The full membership of the committee is
attached to the end of this note.

In order to collect input from the wider community, the committee
has developed a number of questions on which it seeks broad input.
These questions are directed at information technologists (e.g.,
computer and telecommunications scientists and engineers) and are
described below; sets of other questions will be addressed to
employers, educators, and other stakeholder groups.

     1 -- For purposes of this discussion, the committee
     provisionally distinguishes in a loose and informal way
     between fundamental concepts, applications of fundamental
     concepts, and engineering and design principles used in applying
     concepts.  To illustrate, a concept might be
     "instruction interpretation."  An application of that concept
     might be "Java byte-code interpretation."  An engineering
     principle might be "design under constraint" (e.g., designing
     a Java interpreter under the constraint of limited memory or
     bandwidth.")

          1a -- What are the fundamental concepts of information
          technology that an educated adult should know? 
          (Interpret information technology broadly to include
          computing and communications.) For each concept:

          --   describe it;
          --  identify the age or educational level at which you
          believe it should first be introduced; and

          --  explain how it might be introduced.

          1b -- What are the essential applications of the
          fundamental concepts?

          1c -- What are the essential engineering and/or design
          principles relevant to information technology?

     For questions 1b and 1c, repeat the bullets under
     question 1a.

     2 -- How do you expect the essential concepts, applications, and
     engineering/design principles described in your answers to
     change over time (as information technology evolves)?  How
     should the pedagogical process deal with such changes?  How
     can/should individuals be taught to learn about how to use
     new and never-before-seen computational artifacts (e.g., new
     applications, services, hardware devices, software packages)?

     3 -- How should concepts and skills be balanced in information
     technology literacy?  How do/should concepts and skills
     complement each other in information technology literacy?
     How do they compete with each other?  (In other words, how
     and to what extent is there a trade-off in learning about
     concepts versus skills?)  [For purposes of this discussion, the
     committee regards a "skill" as facility with a specific
     computational tool or artifact such as a spreadsheet.]

     4 -- How can individuals best learn the limitations of
     information technology?  How can they learn to make informed
     personal/social/policy decisions about issues that involve
     information technology?

The committee invites you to submit your answers to these
questions in the form of a short position paper (5 pages or less); in
addition, please identify your field of expertise and your institutional
affiliation.  All responses will be considered by the committee.  In
addition, respondents may be invited to participate in a workshop to be
held in Irvine, California on January 15, 1998 whose purpose is to discuss
answers to these and other related questions.  Or, they may be invited to
revise their position paper for inclusion in the committee's final report.

DEADLINES:

  December 15, 1997, for those who wish to be considered for
participation in the workshop.

  February 1, 1998 for those who wish their input to be considered
by the committee.

EMAIL ADDRESS FOR INPUT: IT-Lit@nas.edu  (This address should be active by
Friday, October 24, 1997)

FAX FOR INPUT: 202-334-2318

U.S. MAIL ADDRESS FOR INPUT:

     Dr. Herb Lin, Study Director
     CSTB
     National Research Council
     Room HA-560
     2101 Constitution Ave, NW
     Washington, DC 20418
     202-334-3191 voice

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP

Larry Snyder, Chair, (University of Washington)
Andries van Dam (Brown University)
Al Aho (Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies)
Jeff Ullman (Stanford University)
Allen Tucker (Bowdoin College)
Marcia Linn (University of California at Berkeley)
Arnold Packer (Johns Hopkins University)