While on-line computers significantly aid in creating a more-inclusive society, only 41 percent of the households are expected on-line in the year 2000. This can hardly be construed as full participation. ...

...computer and network technologies are not vehicles of exclusion or inclusion, per se. These technologies can provide more information, more timely information, as well as a forum for debate of the issues beyond current communication channels. The problem of equity, however, cannot be dismissed. The global village should not be built in such a way that cyber ghettos result. ...

Leadership for successful transformation to more equitable, information rich governance through electronic networks is needed across executive, legislative and judicial branches of government at national, state, and local levels. Unfortunately, few legislators have enough basic understanding of the changing world to successfully lead in the Information Age. Conventional legislative responses, shaped by many years of reworking industrialization and a limited, internal view of the world, are counterproductive. Likewise, legislating for a new [medium], the Internet, without understanding its inherent characteristics, places any government at risk in the electronic frontier.