01 Social Network Vision

	Social Network Vision - Netzwerke für Menschen und ihre Gemeinschaften

Aus: Forum Informationsgesellschaft: Netzwerke für Menschen und Gemeinschaften. Die Informationsgesellschaft zum Vorteil der Europäischen Union nutzen. Erster Jahresbericht des Forums für die Informationsgesellschaft an die Europäische Kommission, Juni 1996.
Englische Version im Netz

Executive Summary

1.	The Information Society involves everybody: the new information and communications technologies have been invented, they will fundamentally change the ways we live and work together and we cannot turn the clock back. Understandably, people are worried about their impact and want answers to questions about what they will mean for employment, social protection and existing styles of life and work.
2.	Neither our people nor our institutions nor most of our companies are really prepared for the new technologies. For as long as it lasts, this state of unreadiness will be a serious handicap on Europe's capacity to gain the potential benefits they offer - higher economic growth, more employment and a better quality of life.
3.	Ordinary people, and not just business, have a vested interest in the transition to the Information Society and they should be involved more in managing the process and in developing useful applications. More needs to be done to make people aware of the risks as well as the opportunities.
4.	The Forum has identified some important keys to a successful transition which include more public awareness of the information revolution, better education in the use of the new technologies, popular involvement in designing new services and applications, universal public access to basic on-line services such as public information, education and health and a greater readiness by governments and public authorities at all levels to assume their responsibilities.
5.	The Information Society must become the "Lifelong Learning Society" which means that the sources of education and training must be extended beyond the traditional institutions to include the home, the community, companies and other organisations. The teaching professions need help to adapt to the changing situation so that the new opportunities can be fully exploited.
6.	Without the right policies and a readiness to stimulate public awareness and participation, we shall run the risk of creating classes of information "have-nots" and "want-nots". Everyone needs an easy familiarity with the new information appliances (personal computers, interactive televisions, video telephones etc.) together with services and applications which are useful and relevant for personal and business needs and which are available at affordable prices.
7.	Access to on-line public services and information should be universal. The new technologies offer great opportunities to enable public administrations to respond to peoples' needs more efficiently and flexibly. But their cultures and organisations are major obstacles to progress.
8.	The new technologies could have extraordinarily positive implications for our democracies and individual rights by strengthening pluralism, access to public information and enabling citizens to participate more in public decision-making. But these benefits will have to be secured by making sure that the necessary legal guarantees are in place. Some will have to be invented ex novo, others will be adaptations of existing laws.
9.	Information is not a good or service like any other, it is frequently an expression of cultural identity. The Information Society could give birth to a "Second Renaissance" in Europe based on a fuller and more enriching exploitation of its cultural and linguistic diversity. More traditional forms of media will remain important, but the new technologies will give each person the possibility of more extensive access to their own and other cultures.
10.	In order to maximise the job-creating benefits of the new technologies as quickly as possible, it is essential and urgent for companies and organisations of all sizes to adapt their organisations and structures. Until this process is well underway, the Information Society looks likely to destroy more jobs than it creates.
11.	Teleworking offers many job-creating possibilities and attractive improvements in working lifestyles. Although it raises many important issues for labour laws and collective bargaining, public policy must facilitate, not obstruct, the development of telework. Promoting a mix of home and office telework is an effective way of handling fears that telework exclusively in the home may be too isolating.
12.	Sustainable development aims at achieving a balance between our consumption of resources, and the ability of our natural systems to sustain it at levels which do not rob future generations of their resource needs. The new information and communications technologies could make a vital contribution to sustainability providing we do not succumb to a "rebound" effect by which they create new demands for material consumption.
13.	The growth of consumer markets for interactive services will continue to be slow unless public authorities themselves become a stronger source of demand, and unless they encourage greater private sector investment. Generally, popular demand for on-line services will be subdued until there is a wider understanding of their actual and potential benefits. At the same time, applications and services must be useful and affordable.
14.	The "Learning Company" must emerge as a vital component of the "Learning Society", People who work in it will be using their electronic access to knowledge and information to update their skills. This requires new forms of partnership between businesses and other organisations and educators to ensure that the new and changing skills required are made available.
15.	A regulatory framework which enables and stimulates everyone to reap the full economic and social benefits of the Information Society is an important priority. The essence of the task is to strike a balance which encourages market forces to lead the way, but which also recognises that they cannot do the job alone. Among other things, regulations must strengthen competition, pluralism and democracy, preserve and promote European cultures, including minority cultures, avoid monopolistic positions, guarantee open access to networks for content providers and guarantee consumers' rights and protections.