Digital Europe 1998: Policies, Technological development and implementation of the emerging information Society

The article provides an overview over European policies designed systematically to push and implement the European information society. It looks at their rationales and points out critical areas and their potential impact on the individual as well as democratic society. In addition, comparisons are made within the triad Europe‐US‐Japan to show the global perspective of information society policies and actions. The wealth of usually enthusiastic documents that the European Commission and related actors issue with regard to the information society clearly indicates the priority that policy makers give to the information society. However, scepticism is still called for in terms of unsolved problems. The pace of solutions and the pace of technology are at times at odds. Even if the policy trail shows that attention is increasingly paid to users and citizens, it remains to be seen how the actual impact of the inevitable information society will match the needs of its users in the most productive way.