Writers for Reuters news agency usually have a relatively quiet time over the weekend – but not this week they didn’t: a large contingent was on duty for the Group of Seven meetings on the information society in Brussels – we spotted items by William Boston, Suzanne Perry, Neil Winton, Jeremy Gaunt and Lindsay Griffiths, whose sterling work provided the basis for this report – when the roof fell in at London’s oldest merchant bank, Barings Plc, and anyone that knew anything about derivatives was in desperate demand. International summits are usually characterised by vast clouds of hot air, and this problem was compounded in Brussels by the fact that few of the politicians at the heads of delegations had more than the haziest idea about what was being discussed – which put US Vice President Al Gore in an unusually strong position: agree or disagree with what he says, at least he knows what he is talking about. America was in the hot seat with the Europeans for much of the meeting as those that happen to use another language than English pushed their fears of cultural dominance by America. Gore responded by pressing even harder for deregulation and equal access, saying that the US would open its telecommunications markets to anyone who did likewise as a way of boosting the information society, making it clear that if Congress failed to produce the longed-for telecommunications deregulation bill, the Administration would act on foreign investment by fiat.

Cultural imperialism

Whether by new law or new regulation, we intend to open foreign investment in telecommunications services in the US for companies of all countries that have opened their own markets, he told a lunch of G7 ministers and European Union dignitaries. But Gore’s announcement came as a surprise to the Europeans, some of whom raised their doubts in working groups after the lunch. Commission officials said Telecommunications Commissioner Martin Bangemann expressed concern in G7 meetings about how the US would determine which markets were open. Would the Senate decide? The players must not be the arbiters, Bangemann was quoted as saying. While France and Canada worried about cultural imperialism, Germany was unhappy at Gore stealing the show with his unexpected announcement as no-one had been consulted in advance; the Japanese dissented from the view that liberalisation of technology markets was the best way forward. Companies from the industry were represented by a glittering array of big names, all of whom made the case for deregulation in Europe powerfully. The best way to drive this revolution forward is for governments to understand that the customer’s choice is the major driver, said Peter Bonfield, chairman of ICL Plc. Now it is time for governments to take action to set clear rules on a global scale and create a favourable environment for a new wave of investment by the private sector, echoed Carlo De Benedetti, chairman of Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA. The vast majority of jobs created in the US in recent years were in fields related to building information superhighways, while Europe was losing jobs, he added. In the industrial age we moved people to the workplace, but in the information age we are moving work to the people, said Michael Spindler, chief executive of Apple Computer Inc, while AT&T Corp’s Robert Allen insisted that rather than wait until 1998 to deregulate, European governments should start now and allow competitive services on existing alternative infrastructure, such as cable television networks.

Global copyright laws

Mark Wssner, chairman of Bertelsmann AG, called for new, global copyright laws. He also told Reuters that Bertelsmann will this week unveil plans to set up an on-line rival to Europe Online in Germany that could involve co-operation with Deutsche Telekom AG, possibly on the Datex-J upgrade already announced. It would include a scaled-down version of Media Service GmbH, which was blocked by the European Commission last year. Bill Gates, never one to miss the opportunity of maki

ng a splashy gesture, teamed up with his partner Craig McCaw on the what is still the shadowiest of the embryonic satellite telephone services, to have Russell Duggatt, president of the venture, Teledesic Corp, announce that it will gave away some of its communications capacity to help developing countries, so that some countries or regions would have free access to some of the fastest communications available for health or educational purposes. He said that technology for the scheme already existed but that the greatest roadblock was go vernmental regulation. Many companies had also set up displays in an exhibition of possible scenarios for the next century – but were unhappy that they were not allowed to plaster their names and logos all over them. Politicians should have had their eyes opened to exactly what they were discussing when they glimpsed the demonstrations. The computer will design and drive your car, educate your children, and diagnose your symptoms and treatment when you fall ill. The computer may record your vote in elections and your opinion in referenda. It will entertain you, communicate for you, order the shopping, book holidays, and take you on virtual guided tours through museums and art galleries. But it could all be hard work – you won’t simply be able to pick up a newspaper and relax as you read it – you will be expected to design the edition yourself, says Siemens AG. And instead of finding a movie or your favourite soap-opera and simply watching it, you will be expected to interact with it, reckons Microsoft Corp. Needless to say, things went wrong – with France Telecom’s Multi-media Tele-Education demonstration, which was delayed by 20 minutes, and at one point put up a video from an unrelated company’s presentation, and a Canadian demonstration of a computerised training video for distance learning had to be scrapped when it refused to acknowledge commands. While the US, the UK and the industrialists tended to stress the potential benefits, the continental Europeans, led by the Commission tended to worry about the threats and dangers, and to use the technology to make it easier to complain: Commissioner for Consumer Affairs has set up a Web site to tell people what to do if they have problems or have been sold faulty goods in the European Union – it’s at www.cec.lu. Not that the response is likely to be overwhelming – Eurobarometer polled (a paltry) 500 people in the 15 Community members and found 50% had never heard of the information superhighway, with the Dutch, Finns, Danes and Swedes the most familiar with the concept. People liked the idea of consulting a doctor from home through a computer, but seven out of 10 thought the new services would make citizens more remote from each other, make society less human and reduce solidarity.

The 11 projects

We listed the 11 projects conjured up at the meeting to further application of the technology yesterday (CI No 2,611) – and it turns out that the UK sat on its hands while fostering support was sought for each of them, participating in only two. Education and Training goes to France and Germany; Electronic Libraries to Japan, France; Electronic Museums and Galleries to Italy and France. Environment and Natural Resources goes to the US, Global Emergency Management to Canada. Global Health Care Applications goes to the European Commission, France, Germany and Italy. The UK joins Canada on Government Online while the Global Marketplace for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses goes to the European Commission, Japan and the US. Maritime Information Systems goes to the European Commission and Canada while Global Inventory goes to the European Commission and Japan. The UK is involved with Canada, Germany and Japan on Global Interoperability for Broadband Networks. The ministers agreed that their governments would report to the G7 summit in Canada in the summer on results of initial studies and implementation measures, and the European Commission will follow up the conference by holding talks with Eastern European countries in May.