Is the European Information Society Working?
A review of progress in the member states

Nick Moore, Acumen

The pressures of competition in a global economy are causing governments to try to transform their economies and social structures into information societies. The aim of this paper is to review the action that has been taken by governments within the European Union to develop Europe as an information society. The questions it tries to answer are: how have governments responded to the challenge? What have they done? And what impact have they made?

It is possible to identify a group of leading countries: Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden. These have well-developed policy frameworks and a programme of government-supported initiatives that stimulate progress towards information societies. They are followed by a second group: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and the United Kingdom. These countries have only recently given information society developments a high priority. A third group: Greece, Italy and Spain have no formal policy framework and only uncoordinated information society initiatives.

The paper continues by reviewing the actions and activities that have been undertaken to stimulate information society developments in the following areas: public administration; services for disabled and elderly people; education and training; the environment healthcare; language engineering; libraries; transport; services in urban and rural areas and support for small and medium-sized enterprises.

While a great deal is happening, the initiatives are spread thinly across the European Union and many are at an early stage. There are signs that a body of expertise is developing and this holds out hope for the future. The role of governments is critical. They can create the framework and structure for development by other agencies. They must also cope with market failure and provide a regulatory regime. They are also important in funding pilot projects and in raising awareness. We have, however, only begun what will be a long journey.

The convergence of computing and telecommunications, and the consequent digital revolution, make it possible for us to organise our society differently. We can use the technology to do better things that we have always done. But we can go further and contemplate doing things that were not previously possible.

We have been presented with an opportunity to create an information society in which information and communications technology is used to improve the quality of all our lives.

The aim

Given sufficient time, information societies will emerge as a product of the complex inter-play between technological development and market forces. Time, however, is something that we do not have. The pressures of competition in a global economy are such that, throughout the world, governments are accepting the need to play a major role in the transformation of their economies and social structures to take advantages of the opportunities that are opening up.

The aim of this paper is to review the action that has been taken by governments within the European Union to develop Europe as an information society.

The aspiration

In the late 1980s the goals of politicians and governments in this area were simple: Al Gore in the US and Jacques Delors in Europe wanted to achieve two things. They wanted to maximise the benefits to be gained from the opportunities presented by information and communication technology while minimising the impact of the undesirable consequences.

Since then, our understanding of the situation has developed and the political goals and aspirations have become more sophisticated. Within Europe the position is best represented by the recent report of the High Level Expert Group appointed by the European Commission to study the requirements for the development of a successful information society within Europe (European Commission, 1997).

This expert group set out a vision of a radically different European society. They argued that we have begun the process of transformation into an information economy: one which is increasingly dependant on value added through information-intensive processes and operations. But we should not rest there. Rather we should use this as the foundation for the creation of a knowledge society: one in which the greatest social and economic benefits are derived not from technologies and infrastructures, nor from databases and information content, but from the skills and tacit knowledge of the people.

This view reflects a shift in thinking in which the emphasis has moved steadily from the technology to information content and now to tacit knowledge.

It implies, the expert group argue, a change in perspective to one where investment in information and communication technologies is seen as complementary to investment in the development of human resources and skills.

What does this mean for the shape of the European information society?

First, we must re-create Europe as a learning society. The emphasis should be placed firmly on investment in human resources because future development will depend increasingly on the skills, knowledge, ingenuity and capability of all the people who make up European society. We must tilt the balance from information to knowledge: the amount of information at our command is growing exponentially, we now need to expand our knowledge capability. This implies a major investment in education and training and the acceptance of lifelong learning as we constantly refresh and extend our skills and tacit knowledge.

The second change is to develop a different perspective on technology. No longer should we think of technology as a something external to which we must adapt. Instead that we should recognise that technology is deeply embedded in society. It is true that societies are shaped by technological change, but technology is also shaped by society. This view was put forward by the OECD at the end of the 1980s:

Technical innovation - sometimes impelled by scientific discovery, at other times induced by demand - stems from within the economic and social system and is not merely an adjustment to transformations brought about by causes outside that system. (OECD, 1989)

What this means is that we should plan the development of an information society not simply as a response to technological change but in the light of the opportunity that we have been given to do things differently. Taking this view, technology becomes the means of achieving social goals instead of being the cause of social change.

This opens up matters considerably. Put simply, we can begin to think much more creatively about the kind of society that we want to occupy in the future.

The questions

The questions that this paper tries to answer are: how have governments responded to the challenge? What have they done? And what impact have they made?

To do this, we consider the formal statements that the European Union and the governments of the member states have made about information society developments. We review the policy documents and the discussions and deliberations that have led to them.

We take things a stage further and look at the actions, initiatives and projects that governments have put in place to bring about the kind of changes we have been discussing.

Finally, we try to come to some kind of assessment of the impact that has been made on the day-to-day lives of people living in Europe.

Policies and Plans

The formal policies developed by the European Union and the member states, and the action plans that have arisen from them, provide a reasonably good indication of the priority that is given to information society development. That being said, it is important to recognise that, within the European Union, there are differences in political culture.

When faced with major policy issues some countries establish sophisticated commissions and enquiries to consider the problem and then to evolve formal statements of policy that provide a guide to subsequent actions. Others prefer to base policy on far-sighted vision statements backed by grand plans and high-profile projects. Yet others avoid the commitments implied by formal policies and grand visions and prefer to let matters take their course, implementing plans and projects as opportunities arise.

It is necessary to take these differences into account when reviewing the approaches that have been adopted by the different governments.

The European Union

The European Union has developed a sophisticated framework of policies and plans to promote the development of an information society in Europe.

The origins lie in Jacques Delors' final White Paper, produced as he was preparing to stand down as President of the Commission (European Commission, 1993). This argued the case for building an information-based economy in Europe as a means of maintaining our position in global markets and, from this, securing future economic growth and rising levels of employment. It was also a direct response to the plans to create a national information infrastructure that were being set out by Al Gore and Bill Clinton across the Atlantic.

The European Union, therefore, originally perceived the issue in economic terms. Commissioner for Industry, Martin Bangemann was given the task of defining a strategy to achieve the goals set out by Jacques Delors. He established a committee of business leaders and, in a short time produced a report placing the emphasis on development led by the private sector (European Commission, 1994a).

Following discussion of the Bangemann report, the Commission drew up the first version of a rolling action plan (European Commission, 1994b).

This plan, to a great extent, drew together a diverse collection of activities already being undertaken by different branches of the Commission. One of the effects of this was to extend the scope of the Commission's concern. No longer was economic development the key theme, social development and the creation of an information society, as distinct from and information economy, became the clear goal.

To support the development of this wider view of an information society in Europe, the Commission formed an Information Society Projects Office, charged with coordinating developments across the different directorates general and providing a single point of entry for people concerned with information society issues. Commissioner Padraig Flynn also established two advisory mechanisms to explore the implications of information society development. A High Level Expert Group, under the chairmanship of Luc Soete from the University of Maastricht was given the task of defining what was implied by the notion of an information society and setting out what was needed to achieve it in Europe. Their final report (European Commission, 1997) is a key document.

This was supported by the Information Society Forum, composed of a large number of experts drawn from all over the Union. They continue to provide advice on different issues and aspects of information society development.

The most up-to-date picture of the Commission's policy and plans is contained in the rolling action plan produced by the Information Society Projects Office (European Commission, 1998). The policy has broadened since the Bangemann report. It is now firmly directed towards the creation of a European information society, based around an information-intensive economy but encompassing social, cultural and political development. The policy is supported by a wide range of actions and initiatives. A high priority is given to supporting research that will inform developments. In line with this, information society issues have been given greater and greater prominence in the Commission's Framework research programmes. This research is supported by a wide range of actions that directly support the implementation of projects to develop new services or products.

In both the development of a policy framework and the creation of support actions, the European Commission has provided a direct lead to the member states and has stimulated a considerable amount of policy formulation and the development of action plans. Among the member states it is possible to identify three different groups: the leaders, the followers and the laggards.

The leaders

There is a clearly identifiable group of countries that are leading the development of information societies. Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden are ahead of the other member states in almost all respects.

Each country has carefully worked-out policies that are based on thorough analysis of the issues. In each case this analysis was undertaken by a high level group consisting of people from within government and experts from industry and the academic world. These groups analysed the problem, defined a vision of what an information society should be and set out a programme of action to be pursued by the government, working in close collaboration with the private sector.

In each of the countries the development of these policies was given political backing at the highest level. In Sweden, for example, the prime minister chaired the commission of enquiry for the first year and gave the policy his personal backing. In other countries, the implementation of the policies was steered by senior ministers, again working with clear support from the prime minister.

These countries also benefited from an early start. In Finland, consideration of the issues began in earnest following an OECD report in 1992. In the other countries, serious policy development began in 1993-94 with key reports published in 1994 and programmes of action beginning soon after.

Another common characteristic is the broad view of developments that was adopted from the outset. Each country was concerned with much more than economic development. Social transformation was the clear imperative and, perhaps because of this, the state was seen to play a key role in the process of development. Key to the success of the policies was coordination and joint development. There was a recognition that the creation of an information society involved several government departments and, while one might be given the responsibility to lead the process, high-level coordination was essential.

This broad view also meant that a wide range of initiatives was set in train to bring about the changes. Steps were taken to secure the commitment of the private sector, particularly in the creation of the information infrastructure, but the programme of activities extended well beyond to involve the whole of the public sector, particularly local municipalities. There was a strong sense of the government committing resources in order to lever investment from the private sector and this strategy appears to have been successful.

Denmark, Finland and Sweden, along with Norway, which is similar in many respects, have gone a long way towards re-defining themselves as Nordic information societies. They have developed globally-successful industries that excel in high valued-added, information-intensive production, they have begun the process of social, cultural and political transformation and they have built on a tradition of high quality education. In the coming decade these Nordic countries will be the first to make the transformation to information societies.

The Netherlands shares many of the characteristics of these countries and fully justifies its place among the four leaders of the EU member states.

The followers

The followers comprise a large group of countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

These are the late starters which have only recently begun to give high priority to the development of a coordinated set of information society policies. Germany and Luxembourg published their information society policies in 1996. Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland and Portugal published documents in 1997 and the United Kingdom produced its first consolidated policy statement in 1998.

It is interesting to speculate on the reasons for the delay. In some cases, notably Austria, priority in the early part of the 1990s was being given to the infrastructure and the need to develop an effective telecommunications service. In Ireland and Portugal a process of rapid and seemingly sustainable economic growth has focused political attention on information-based economic development and from this has come a wider concern about the societal implications.

It is possible that in Belgium and Germany the split between the federal level of government and the states discouraged the creation of a national policy. Certainly in both countries there are well-developed policies at the level of the state administrations.

In France and the United Kingdom, a change of government has brought a change in thinking about the need to define policy on issues such as the development of an information society and this has been accompanied by a change in thinking about the respective roles of the state and the private sector.

Whatever the reasons, these countries are following three or four years behind their Nordic neighbours.

Close examination of some of the policies also reveals a degree of superficiality when compared to those of countries like Sweden or the Netherlands. A possible exception is Portugal where the policy was developed through an extensive process of public consultation and Ireland's where the policy document was produced by a specially-formed Commission. In contrast the policies of France and the United Kingdom could be criticised for being political statements that lack any real grounding in analysis and careful reflection by knowledgeable partners.

Despite this apparent superficiality, the policies have been given a high level of political backing. In many cases the policies have been produced and published by the prime minister's office and the prime minister has been closely involved in the promotion of the policy documents and in some of the higher-profile activities that are associated with them.

In the case of the United Kingdom, the policy statement is less a vision of the future, although this is its sub-title. Rather, it draws together a number of developments that have been in put in place during the previous four or five years. It is, therefore, a rationalisation of what has been taking place and, as such, provides a basis for further development.

Compared with the leading group of countries, the followers demonstrate a marked lack of coordination in the development of the policies. Whereas the leading group adopted a coordinated approach within government from the outset, a common feature of the follower group is the development of separate policies by each individual ministry. In France, for example, each department has been asked to develop its own policies following the publication of the national plan. This seems to run counter to the idea of a coordinated, coherent approach to a set of developments that cut across established departmental boundaries.

The laggards

Countries throughout the world have felt it necessary to develop frameworks of policy to help them manage what, by any measure, is a major social and economic transition. It is, therefore, surprising that in Europe there are three countries without such a policy framework. Greece, Italy and Spain have no formal policy on information society developments.

In Greece, it is possible that the need to manage a major upgrade and extension of the telecommunications infrastructure has pre-occupied the policy makers but the same cannot be said for Italy and Spain.

It is perhaps more likely that the lack of policy is a consequence of a political and administrative tradition that is very different from that found in Northern Europe. If that is so, it serves to make Portugal's Green Paper all the more significant.

The lack of a formal policy, however, has not held up the development of some impressive applications in these countries. In Spain, for example the government has developed a very successful system for the payment of unemployment benefits through automated teller machines. And in Italy the Ministry of Finance has introduced an electronic income tax form - something that other countries have wanted to do but have hesitated because of the complexity.

Despite the progress made with these individual applications, there is a noticeable lack of coherence and coordination in these Southern European countries and this will be a barrier to effective future development. Much of the value of technological applications in the information society lies in the opportunities they offer to cut across departmental boundaries and to take a holistic view of an individual's needs. Without coordination and a joint approach to solutions, much of this potential value will be lost.

Actions and Activities

Policies are one thing: what actually affects people are the services and applications that they can experience and use. It is therefore, worth considering some of the actions and activities that have been developed by European governments, and the European Commission, to give a concrete shape to the information society.

Here the primary concern is with projects that have been initiated, and largely funded, by governments. Many other developments are taking place, introduced by the private sector and these are already changing the ways in which European citizens live. But it is necessary to assess the extent to which governments were backing their policy statements with action.

We have identified ten areas of development that will have a direct impact on individuals and we have used these to explore what is going on.

Public administration

The first area we considered is public administration: the points where people come into contact with the machinery of the state. What are European governments doing to improve things through the application of technology?

The European Commission is providing a significant impetus to developments. The Interchange of Data between Administrations is a programme designed to support the creation of telematic links between the administrations of different countries and, more generally, to support the efforts of individual member states in their efforts to make better use of information and communication technology in public administration.

A number of countries are making novel use of technology to improve administrative efficiency. In Spain, as we have already noted, the Ministry of Social Security and Unisys have developed an automated teller machine-based system for the payment of unemployment benefit, while in Italy it is now possible to complete and submit an income tax form electronically.

In Denmark the Ministry of Research has a programme to establish electronic self-service systems to provide access to all government departments by 2000. By the end of this year all government forms used by the public and businesses will be available over the Internet.

In Finland the government has established an Internet-based guide to the public sector and the National Post of Finland has given everyone an electronic address to facilitate electronic communication.

In Portugal, the government established INFOCID to provide a public information service using kiosks with the aim of delivering information to small, remote communities. The take-up has been very good and the service is now being extended with the introduction of interactivity so that people can transact business with government over the system.

In Britain the government has plans to develop the electronic delivery of government services and has established a number of pilot projects including a multi-agency form that can be completed electronically by people when they become self-employed thus avoiding the need to contact four different offices. To support the development of further services, the government has commissioned a major piece of research to explore the factors that will affect the demand for and the take-up of electronic government services.

It seems, therefore, that when it comes to putting their own house in order, European governments are taking things seriously. A similar picture emerges at a more local level. A number of cities, like Antwerp, for example, have developed Internet sites to provide a guide to services as well as a means of contacting the city administration.

Disabled and elderly people

A recurring theme in information society policies is the need to reduce social exclusion - to avoid developing a society split into the information haves and the information have-nots. The programmes that governments have implemented for disabled and elderly people are, therefore, a good indicator of the social dimension of development.

The European Commission has a specific programme of research within the Telematics Applications Programme that addresses the needs of disabled and elderly people. It seeks to develop better interfaces to make equipment and services easier to use and explores the ways in which the technology can be used to restore functional capabilities.

The Netherlands and Sweden have programmes designed to encourage use of information technology among older people, while in Germany the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology has organised a competition for projects that will stimulate the use of multimedia among senior citizens. In Denmark the government has established a task force to explore the opportunities for older people in an information society.

In Greece the Ministry of Development has issued a call for proposals to develop information technology applications that will help disabled people to handle and communicate information, particularly in the workplace.

Education and training

This is a key area. All the thinking about information society developments stresses the need to invest heavily in education and training. Not surprisingly, there is an impressive range of projects designed to upgrade and re-equip the education and training systems of Europe to adjust to the requirements of the information age.

Just about all countries have programmes to equip schools with personal computers and local area networks and to link them to the Internet. These are supported by training programmes to re-skill teachers and trainers. In many cases there are also programmes to support the development of educational software and information content.

In Finland they have developed a computer driving licence or, rather, a licence to drive computers. This is a modular learning programme in data processing. It was launched in 1995 and in the first three years, over 25,000 people had passed the examination. (It has since been developed as a Union-wide European Computer Driving Licence).

Several other countries have developed information and education programmes aimed at the general public. In The Netherlands the Ministry of Economic Affairs has set up the Media Plaza to stimulate learning about the electronic highway among business leaders.

Other countries, such as Sweden, have also addressed the skill-shortage problem and have developed a major programme of IT training that is run jointly with the employers' organisation.

The countries of Europe seem, therefore, to have begun the process of educating the future generations and training the present workforce.

The environment

Given the importance attached to the environment, it would be reasonable to expect to find this forming part of the agenda for a future information society. In practice,there are few projects. Only in Sweden did we identify two projects concerned with environmental issues. The Baltic Sea Project provides electronic links between schools around the Baltic and is used for discussions on the impact of pollution and environmental degradation. A similar project - GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) - provides a worldwide network for students, teachers and scientists concerned with the environment that can be used to transmit locally-collected data which is then collated and published on the Internet.

This appears to be one area where European governments need to be much more active.

Healthcare

The European Commission provides a framework for the development of healthcare applications through its Telematics Research Programme. This covers both the exchange of information and data between administrations and professionals as well as the use of the clinical use of information and telemedecine.

A number of countries, including Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom have set up national networks linking healthcare services and in Germany similar networks have been established on a regional basis. The Irish government has established a medical directory on the Internet providing everyone with information about health-related services in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

The National Health Service in Britain is in the process of establishing a telephone service that will provide a single point of entry for people wanting to gain access to health services or to obtain health-related information.

Language engineering

The different languages spoken within the European Union contribute to Europe's rich cultural diversity. They also, however, present a significant barrier to communication between countries. Computing technology offers a potential opportunity to overcome many of the problems through what is becoming known as language engineering. We might expect, therefore, to find some interest in developing language engineering applications among the member states.

In fact, only within the European Commission did we identify any serious activity. The Telematics Application Programme has a major language engineering component. This focuses on projects that integrate language technologies into applications. It is complemented by the Multilingual Society Initiative which is part of the Info2000 programme. This programme aims to raise awareness of the need to adopt a multi-lingual approach, promoting linguistic diversity while trying to reduce the cost of information transfer across languages.

In Germany the Ministry of Education, Science, research and Technology plans to establish an electronic marketplace for users and providers of multimedia products for language learning and for translation and interpretation services.

Libraries

Libraries are a widely-used public resource across the Union. Academic libraries play an important role in supporting education and training initiatives and various countries, including Denmark and the United Kingdom are working to develop digital academic and research libraries, converting material into digital formats.

Several other countries are in the process of linking public libraries to educational networks. In Britain, a public library networking project is supported by ambitious plans to re-train librarians and to convert public library materials into digital formats.

At the European Union level, these library-related activities are supported by a strand of the Telematics Applications Programme.

Transport

Transport is another area where information and communication technologies have a significant contribution to make. Surprisingly few projects are, however, being supported by the member states. The European Commission's Telematics Applications Programme has a transport dimension based initially around improvements to road transport. This is now being extended to other modes of transport. But it appears to have few parallels in individual countries.

In Denmark there is a programme to explore a range of applications including the provision of information for road users, traffic management systems and online systems for planning and control within road haulage companies. A similar traffic management system is being developed in Bavaria.

Urban and rural areas

The information society offers opportunities to revive local economies in both urban and rural areas. The European Commission's Regional Information Society Initiative has been set up under the European Regional Development Fund to develop this idea in 23 different areas across the Union. Some are depressed urban areas, often the site of industrial decline. Others are isolated rural communities. The aim is to explore the extent to which the development of information society applications can revive the local economies, create jobs are improve the quality of life.

These principles underlie many similar developments in the member states. In cities, like Brussels and Berlin, and regions like Lombardy and Valencia, networks and services have been established to link local institutions and to provide an attractive environment for inward investment. In Ireland the government is working with Telecom Éireann to create Ennis in County Clare as an information-age town. All households are to be provided with a telephone connection and offered cheap computers, modems and access to the Internet in an attempt to explore the scope for new applications and forms of service. A similar approach has been adopted in Denmark where 10 municipal and 2 county councils have been designated as spearhead councils of the information society, and in Portugal where there are plans to develop seven digital cities.

On a rather grander scale the community complex of Arabantia in Helsinki has been planned as a Centre for Industrial Design and Arts to provide an experimental laboratory for the information society. It will eventually be home to 8000 people, offering 2000 jobs

These local initiatives offer some of the most vibrant approaches to the development of the information society in Europe.

Small and medium-sized enterprises

Small firms is likely to play an important role in the development of the information society, offering new jobs and developing innovative and novel services and applications. It is not surprising, therefore, that a wide range of initiatives have been created to encourage and support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. Many of them form part of general programmes to support the sector. In other cases, small firms feature prominently in programmes to support information society developments at the local level.

In Austria and Spain, programmes have been established to provide consultancy services and grants to encourage technology take-up by small firms. In Britain a network of support centres have been established under the Information Society Initiative to provide assistance to small companies wishing to explore the potential of information and communication technology.

Is the Information Society Working?

The previous section provides a range of examples of ways in which European governments are trying to stimulate the transformation to an information society. It is by no means an exhaustive list. The projects have been selected to demonstrate the diversity of approaches that have been adopted. And the list of government-supported projects is more than matched with initiatives coming forward from the private sector, from associations and cooperatives, from the voluntary sector and from local authorities.

There is a great deal going on, but does it all add up to a European information society?

The first point to make is that, while there is a wide range of applications, they are fairly thinly distributed across fifteen countries with a combined population of over 370 million. The potential range of information society applications that could be developed in a single city is considerable and many more projects, programmes and initiatives will be required before we make a substantial impact on European society.

It is also important to recognise that many of these projects are at an early stage. Even the four leading information society countries - Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands and Sweden - only published their policy statements four years ago and most of the projects have followed since then. Almost by definition, these projects are addressing sets of circumstances that are fairly deeply embedded in communities and change will not happen overnight. So, while a start has been made, it will be some time before the long-term impact is felt and the new services and applications become accepted as part of normal daily life.

That being said, a great body of expertise is being created. Collectively, throughout Europe, individuals, groups, firms and communities are learning how to do things differently. And experience of the take-up of computing suggests that once on the learning curve people develop very quickly. We do, however, need better mechanisms to enable us to capture and share that expertise. There is a real risk that effort will be wasted as high-technology wheels are re-invented all over Europe.

So, the conclusion is that the overall level of impact is low but a process of learning and development has begun and the rate of progress is likely to accelerate as time goes on.

What is the value of the contribution being made by governments to this process of development? The evidence shows that, potentially at least, the contribution will be significant. Governments, whether local or national, reach parts of our lives that other agencies miss: whether it is filling in an electronic income tax form in Italy or collecting unemployment benefit from an automated teller machine in Spain.

Governments can also create the framework and structure for development by other agents in society - the allocation of an email address for everyone in Finland, for example, opens the door to all sorts of different applications. Government action can, therefore, facilitate change and development. Equally, inaction can stifle innovation.

Governments are also needed to cope with market failure and regulation. The whole education service in Europe, for example, is heavily dominated by public sector provision because reliance on market solutions would be inappropriate, and it is here that some of the most radical changes will be experienced.

Government can also play an important role in funding pilot projects and underwriting the costs of development in un-tested and high risk areas. Governments are also best placed to raise awareness and to conduct mass education programmes.

Already there are signs that a wide range of applications is being developed across Europe and that governments are beginning to take seriously their responsibility to advance the development of an information society. But there is still a very long way to go. The provision in any single country is patchy and uneven and many of the services are still at the experimental stage.

Much more needs to be done before a seamless information society exists across the public sector of Europe. But then, even in the commercial sector social change takes place slowly. Banks began to introduce automated teller machines in the 1970s. During the first five years the take-up was slow, despite the obvious benefits they offered. We will probably have to wait for a number of years yet before we can identify easily the benefits of a European information society.

References