NSF Director Arden Bement encouraged colleges and universities to expand high speed networking tools as a path to innovation in a speech to The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Technology Forum yesterday. The Chronicle article on the speech is available for free here for the next five days and then to subscribers only here.
A couple highlights from the speech and article:

“Leadership in cyberinfrastructure may well become the major determinant in measuring pre-eminence in higher education among nations,” he said. “Indeed, to be even more provocative, I would suggest that leadership in cyberinfrastructure may determine America’s continued ability to innovate — and thus our ability to compete successfully in the global arena….”
Mr. Bement said cyberinfrastructure was a “comprehensive phenomenon that involves creation, dissemination, preservation, and application of knowledge.” He said it was not just about building new networking tools, but new “norms of practice and rules, incentives, and constraints that shape individual and collective action.”