THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY AND ITS SOCIAL IM PACT

Discussions about the information highway often lack the social aspect . Especially, the acceptance of the new technology depends not only on its economic and political conditions. The changing working environme nts, the growing tele-working opportunities, and the emerging virtual companies raise a lot of questions and problems: the risk of isolation , new needs and possibilities for job searching, new professional prof iles and so far unknown social changes. Other potential problem areas are the copyright development, the risk of splitting the society, and the lack of clear political visions for the information age. Broad inf ormation initiatives and campaigns of enlightenment are therefore need ed.