7. Age of information

We've been dreaming about it for a long time. The steady increase in the power of microprocessors, advances in software development with graphic and object-oriented techniques, the digitization of sound and then images and signal compression techniques, the deployment of networks accelerated by optical fibers and satellites, were all sketching out the contours of a new landscape: the information society. This society is built around electronic channels or networks responsible for delivering a range of interactive services to homes, businesses, universities, administrations, schools and hospitals: messaging, videotelephony, distance learning, database consultation, teleshopping, communities, television on demand, remote-assisted medicine... radically transforming the lives of people and businesses alike.

New information technologies also represent a cultural upheaval...