Envisioning the Internet

The vision of the Internet has prompted politicians toinfluence the economic and social transition via an activetechnology policy. The technological development of society is aproduct of a complex interplay of technological, economic andsocio-political opportunities and constraints. It involves multipleparticipants with diverse backgrounds and interests. During afundamental paradigmatic change policy-makers face continuouschallenges regarding the definition and implementation of effectiveand sustainable policies. Although this book predates the rise ofeCommerce, it addresses themes of continuing present concern. Manyof these remain politically unsettled, on national, supranationaland especially international levels. For example, for securepayments, privacy, data protection and copyrights no internationalstandards do yet exist. A discussion of the future globalgovernance model has hardly been initiated. This book covers theearly history of the Internet, discusses political actionsin theUnited States, the European Union and Japan in the 1980s and 1990sand outlines future options for policy-makers.