Today, barely more than a decade after its first commercial incarnation, it is difficult to think of a policy domain that is not affected by the Internet.

The Internet and the constellation of information technologies it connects are viewed as essential ingredients in addressing some of the world's most pressing policy issues: sustainable and increasing economic growth, ageing societies, environmental management, energy efficiency, the eradication of poverty, and many more. The implications for economic and social development are far-reaching and profound, including for the next several billion users.

See Joong Choi
Chairman, Korea Communications Commission

In 1998, the Internet was emerging as a major new medium for communications. OECD ministers gathered in Ottawa, Canada, and established policies promoting online activities in areas such as privacy, security, taxation and consumer protection. Since the Ottawa ministerial, the global Internet economy has grown remarkably.

The first ever full OECD ministerial meeting held in Asia closed in June with a declaration to build confidence and secure the future of the Internet economy. The declaration sets out a roadmap to upgrade the communication policies that have helped the Internet become the economic driver that it is today and safeguard its future development.

Can you remember life before the Internet? Though quite a new technology, already a world without the web has become as unthinkable for many of us as a world without telephones. But what of the future? Can the benefits of this extraordinary technology be multiplied, and how can the thornier challenges be met?

The agenda for the ministerial conference on The Future of the Internet Economy is built around three themes.

The Internet has permeated people’s lives and has become a cornerstone of our physical, economic and social infrastructures. What does this mean for policy?

A few years ago, certain users of Microsoft Windows found that their personal files had been translated into gibberish. In the panic to locate the programme that would decode the file, this message appeared:

Would you shop in a store if you knew the credit card machine at the till was likely to send your bank details to an organised gang somewhere abroad? Such incidents happen every day in the physical world. In fact, credit card fraud from all kinds of real world transactions is a major global crime, and whole government websites are dedicated to fighting it.

Many broadband users may find the wind has gone out of their sails, especially if they live in rural areas. What are the solutions?

Only a fifth of the world’s population currently has access to the Internet. That figure should be increased.

Stephan-Noël looks anxiously about the hut at the computer terminals. Through the walls of thatch drifts the faint, pervasive scent of vanilla. A girl saunters in, her face painted with the saffron used by Malagasy women both as make-up and protection against the sun. Stephan-Noël exchanges a few words with her, but his mind is on the eventuality of a connection break.

The number of broadband subscribers in the OECD rose to 235 million by December 2007, up 18% from 200 million subscribers in December 2006.This growth increased broadband penetration rates to 20 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, up from 16.9 in December 2006.

A decade ago when telecoms were expanding, cities around the world were faced with shortages of phone numbers. New access codes were introduced and extra digits added to meet expanding demand.

One country with an exemplary record in broadband is Korea, host of the 2008 OECD ministerial meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy. On broadband reach it is the seventh in the OECD in December 2007, for fibre-optics it lies second only to Japan and is well ahead of the rest of the field, and for download speeds, it is in a comfortable third, after France and Japan. Korea is also a leader in mobile technology.

The Internet’s open standards have accelerated the convergence of voice, data, video and wireless services, generating new business models, products and services, as well as vibrant new markets. Prices have fallen and functionality has risen. Few sectors exemplify this convergence more than television.

The excitement over new media and their vaunted utility is easy to understand. What is more difficult to grasp is why conventional wisdom holds that the rise of digital media must mean the “decline” of newspapers, which have now been around for more than 400 years. Because the conventional wisdom is wrong.

Imagine an information highway that allows all citizens in the world to have unlimited access to unlimited content, from information to entertainment, from news to networking, in all technically possible formats.

Since May 2008 passengers travelling on the Thalys high-speed train between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne can now access broadband thanks to technology combining the Internet and satellite communications. Launched on 14 May as part of the European Space Agency’s “Broadband to Trains” initiative, this latest commercial application was developed by UK company.

Are you getting all you can from your computer? Harry Hill, a British stand-up comic, once joked that to get more use from his PC, he turned it on at night and used the screen as a reading lamp.

The advent of the Internet has revolutionised the compilation, assessment and distribution of information relating to healthcare. This has modified the traditional doctor-patient relationship in a number of significant ways.

The growth of the information superhighway and the widespread use of advanced transport technology have led some to postulate that we are now witnessing what could be called the “end of geography,” and the “death of distance”.

The Internet has come a long way since it entered the public domain some 15 years ago. One man who has made it his business to follow Internet’s development is Henry Copeland, founder and director of Blogads, one of the world’s largest blog-specific advertising companies, and Pressflex, a web-hosting company dedicated to the needs of small journals and magazines such as this one, and larger commercial titles, such as FT Business. As Mr Copeland points out, all his business grew organically, without the help of business angels, but with offices now in North America and Europe, and clients or users in every continent. We interviewed him in his home base in the US, by email of course.

Social network websites such as Myspace and Facebook that have come on the scene in the last few years may be hugely popular, but they are not without their dissenters. Here is a humourous view from French writer and businessman, Jacques Rosselin.*

In most European countries, the volume of Internet and other e-commerce sales transactions has risen since 2004, with Denmark, the UK, Ireland and France reporting the highest shares. The increase in the share of e-commerce sales between 2003 and 2006 has been sharpest in Denmark, with 10 percentage points, Norway (8), Portugal (7) and Spain (5). Ireland saw a slight drop in its volume, albeit from a high base.

OECD Observer No 263, October 2007