Technology driving change: scenarios for Europe in a global information society

This article outlines European ICT development scenarios to 2010, presents scenarios for the adoption of these technologies and network services and identifies scenarios for associated economic and social change pertaining to accelerated globalization through e‐commerce; the increased dominance of immaterial information services contributing to greater sustainability of development; and the enormous increase in diversity of the geocultural characteristics of services available anywhere in the world. The main assumption is that the ICT revolution is the key driver of globalization and dematerialization of economic activity: the shift to higher added value in immaterial services and in the information content of manufactured products.