Executive Summary

The Information Society Forum (ISF) was founded in 1995 to advise the Commission of the European Communities on the development of the information society. This is its third report.

• Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are rapidly becoming central to economic, cultural and civic life in the industrialised countries. Access to ICT will increasingly be essential to full participation and citizenship. In brief and roughly: Internet access will become a fundamental right.

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• The information society is necessarily a global society. ICT abolishes distance and ignores borders. Many of the possibilities it opens for an improved life for all are connected with the positive features of globalisation. Most of the challenges it poses demand global solutions, and these require a new international framework that deals fully with the economic, social, cultural and environmental needs and concerns of the members of the global information society.

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• The ISF proposes that there is a distinctive European Way which has much to offer the world in meeting the challenges of the global information society. This is rooted in the search for dynamic equilibrium between different and sometimes competing concerns and goals. Its principles could be summarised as liberty, equality, fraternity, solidarity & sustainability.

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• Physical access is necessary but not sufficient for full participation. To avoid the risk of public mistrust in new services, a firm civil rights approach is necessary to guarantee both consumer confidence and fundamental matters such as privacy. This is central to the European conception of the rights of the individual.

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• Humanity has barely scratched the surface of the astounding potential of ICT to improve the quality of education. Universal access to education and training is vital for individuals to achieve the functional literacy which will enable them to explore this potential. Educational institutions will have to face up to the challenge of facilitating lifelong learning, transforming education from the inculcation of information to instilling the skill of learning.

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• ICT offers the potential for economic growth and increased prosperity with reduced impact on the environment and lower consumption of non-renewable resources. It may thus make a major contribution to sustainable development. This potential will, however, be realised only if the information society develops within an appropriate international framework that explicitly deals with the concerns of sustainable development.

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• Sustainability is not just about the physical environment. The ISF introduces to the debate the cultural dimension of sustainability. ICT has the potential, in principle, to enable distinct cultures to co-evolve, enriched by truly global communication between their members. There is, however, a risk that economic forces left to themselves may lead to undesirable dominant positions in popular culture and access to information. The ultimate danger in this field is of a global monoculture. Again, this is a matter for international framework-building, and must be urgently addressed in the context of the present World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks.

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• Europe enjoys a particular culture of public service. As citizens become accustomed to information society services which offer flexible, individualised interaction independent of place and time, they will place new demands on services offered by the public sector. ICT offers the means for the public sector to meet these challenges. But this will occur only if there is a change in the culture of government and of public service towards a "network mentality".

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• We need a healthy economy in order to be able to finance programmes and policies supporting sustainability in all senses. The ISF stresses that open markets are the best general instrument to ensure economic efficiency. A thriving European economy is a precondition for the EU be able to influence the future world order system of governance towards its basic values.

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• The development of the information society is at the root of sustainable growth. But market forces alone will not solve Europe's unemployment problems. European productivity, growth and employment will be profoundly influenced as the information society affects all citizens' work and daily life.

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• The definition of a framework of global governance appropriate for a sustainable global information society must be informed by the widest possible worldwide public debate. If such a framework is to be compatible with the democratic principles of the European Way, the European Way itself must be seen as a contribution to such debate. The ISF therefore calls for a global society dialogue. This should start the process of reaching consensus on the necessary core values for such a framework.

The Information Society Forum, as principal advisory body to the Commission of the European Communities on the development of the information society, recommends that the Commission and the EU consider action in the following areas:

Internet for all

• Take all necessary steps to ensure that all relevant policy initiatives recognise internet access - and access to future networks and bodies of information - as a fundamental right
• Gradually extend Universal Service provisions starting now, to include internet access - and eventual access to future networks - as a fundamental right.
• Ensure and guarantee the right to receive and impart information freely using ICT, and promote access to information in the converging media
• Promote and sustain the production and dissemination of high-quality, diverse content
• Reform educational structures as an essential means to reach a high level of functional digital literacy
• Take all necessary steps to guarantee affordable internet connections for all schools in the EU by the end of 2001, and step up support for appropriate educational content and training
• Urgently discuss with governments and non-governmental organisations in the developing countries what EU support may be appropriate for the extension of ICT to their people

The economic framework for the information society

• Define and establish the right economic framework for the information society by a combination of:
  • applying flexible and responsive regulation;
  • increasing the availability of risk capital for entrepreneurs; and
  • extending liberalisation and competition policy to local access networks
• Use existing budgetary resources for active employment measures to prepare people and organisations for the information society.

Global governance in the information society

• Promote the development of global economic, social and environmental frameworks which recognise the global impact of the information society, for example at the WTO
• Interact with the Global Business Dialog in a constructive effort to reach consensus on e-commerce issues
• Support the Global Society Dialogue which the ISF proposes as a forum to discuss issues of international governance in the context of the information society

Consumers' & citizens' rights in the information society

The ISF is drafting a Charter of Citizens' and Consumer Rights in the information society and recommends that the Commission:

• Introduce new legislation and promote self-regulation and technical solutions to overcome users' lack of trust and to safeguard consumer protection in new media services; and
• Ensure that the Declaration of fundamental constitutional rights of European citizens pays attention to citizens rights in the information society

Cultural sustainability in the information society

• Maintain and promote cultural sustainability in in the information society as an official principle of EU policy
• Acknowledge cultural goods, services and information as significantly different from other products
• Refrain from applying GATS to services related to the communication of audio-visual content, since these are directly linked to the cultural, political and social interaction and sustainable development of societies

The role of the public sector

• Speed up the recasting of public administrations and improvement of government services through more intensive use of ICT tools
• Guarantee access by all EU citizens to "vital information" held by governments
• Establish secure channels of communication between citizens and public administrations
• Promote public/private partnerships to supply public sector information and services

Environmental sustainability in the information society

• Make full use of the power of ICT to:
  • increase resource efficiency and "dematerialised" economic growth;
  • increase public and social awareness of the challenges of sustainability in the context of globalisation; and
  • implement global environmental monitoring making appropriate use of ICT
• The ISF recommends that the EU organise a world conference on the information society and development

CEE countries and the information society

• The ISF recommends that the EU take urgent action to:
  • build up ICT-skilled human resources, ICT infrastructures and ICT access in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries;
  • launch a Digital Europe initiative jointly between the EU and the CEE countries; and
  • accelerate the integration of the CEE countries into the EU, co-financing ITC initiatives toward this end
  • support the development and implementation of comprehensive national information society strategies as a political priority
  • stimulate investment by business through encouraging appropriate environments, including further progress in telecoms liberalisation

The ISF and its Working Groups continue to examine these matters, aware that these recommendations will require constant revision in the light of events.