Visions of the Wired World -- The shrinking planet -- Imagining the future -- Market drivers and key agents of change -- Hype versus reality - guru talk and those great ideas -- The Global Information Infrastructure -- Emerging global systems -- The rise of the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) -- Technology -- The development of media and communications technologies - from Gutenberg to Gates -- Innovation and the rate of change -- Managing technological investments -- The market -- The search for a market and the challenge of sizing it -- The meaning of convergence -- The new evolving market structure -- Redefining the market -- Content -- What content, which customer? -- The trouble with information assets -- The intellectual property system -- Copyright -- Electronic commerce -- Defining electronic commerce -- Trends in, and the value of, e-markets -- Information transactions - tangible versus intangible assets -- The challenge of security -- Cryptography and the role of encryption technology -- Transactional systems for network commerce -- Possible future developments -- The networked economy -- Towards the Knowledge Age -- Human capital and knowledge management -- Barriers to be resolved -- Conditions for market efficiency and potential risk -- Projections of future developments -- Wired organizations -- Challenges and strategic responses of key players -- Publishers in a mixed media environment -- Digital television -- Transforming advertising -- Value creation and changing business models -- Public services -- Reinventing government -- Lifelong learning and the rapid transformation of the education sector -- Global overview of ICT initiatives in education -- The call for public- and private-sector partnerships -- People -- The individual citizen and the Wired World -- The opportunities and impact of teleworking -- Net addiction and other cyberspace side-effects -- The digital divide -- The Global Information Society versus information city states -- Chapter 1 of the Bangemann Report Europe and the global information society: Recommendations to the European Council, 26 May 1994 -- Speech of US Vice President AI Gore at the International Telecommunication Union's first World Telecommunications Development Conference, Buenos Aires, March 1994 -- Speech of US Vice President Al Gore, 15th International ITU Conference, 12 October 1998.

Welcome to the Wired World examines the strategic issues executives need to know to take their business forward in the digital age. It also provides a synthesis of and commentary on the key reports, surveys, compliance and regulatory issues that are shaping commerce in the wired world.