Introduction
One of the curious things about living through a time of whirlwind change is that it is often difficult to understand exactly what is changing. In recent years, new technology has given us the ability to transform basic aspects of our lives: the way we converse and learn; the way we work, play, and shop; even the way we participate in political and social life.
Dissidents around the world use the Internet to evade censorship and get their message out. Cyber-gossips send dispatches to thousands via email. Musicians bypass record companies and put their songs on the world wide web for fans to download directly. "Day traders" roil the stock market, buying securities online with the click of a mouse and then selling minutes later when the price jumps.
Today, there are more than 50 million people around the world connected to the Internet, and by the year 2000, this number could reach as high as one billion. In Canada, 6.5 million people are already on line.
The emerging information society has the capacity to improve the lives of people all around the globe - whether they live in advanced industrial societies or in the very poorest developing nations. However, there is a real risk that societies will divide along fault lines, with the information haves on one side, and the have-nots on the other. Government and business both have an interest in seeing to it that the promise of the networked world is realized and that the danger is avoided (Baym, 1995).
Governments must abandon regulatory policies that may have been suitable in an era of monopoly-provided voice telephone service, but which are inappropriate to the new era. The new era will be characterized by a dizzying array of products and services offered in fierce competition by many, many vendors..................
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