Hi, I have prepared a report from The Innovations for an E-Society Conference that took place in Berlin. The report contrasts a bit European vs American perspectives on the question of social shaping of the future. I hope to interest you in the report by quoting here two paragraphs from that report. The whole report can be seen at http://www.columbia.edu/~jrh29/berlinreport.txt "For a long time, in the US at least, the questions of social impact and regulating commercialization raised in the book Netizens were only minimally discussed. The situation now seems to be changing. An Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) is growing with a strong component of sociologists and others concerned with social impact. Universities and colleges are beginning to introduce Internet Studies degrees, with social impact being a key question. In Europe, it is beginning to be realized that the project of European unification will be profoundly affected by the social impact of the new technologies -- especially those of information and communication. An indication of the importance being given to considerations of the vision and precautions presented in Netizens was an international conference, "Innovations for an e-Society: Challenges for Technology Assessment" held in Germany in October 2001." .... "Armin Grunwald presented the conference wrap up. He suggested that a proper summary of the conference was that after decades of deregulation there was a need for reregulation. Only then he implied could the social shaping of the future that the conference was aiming for be achieved. It was not, he argued, to return to hierarchical decision making but to engage in social dialogues with broad participation from all sectors. That would require allowing enough time for broad deliberation and careful assessment. Then a normative framework based on rule of law and respect for human rights could emerge." I welcome any comments on my report which will appear shortly in the Amateur Computerist. Thanks. Take care. Jay