was developed, people had feared that it would do away cinemas, but it
had not. One should not be afraid of the future. Fear of the future
should not lead us to stifle creativity with regulations. Creativity
was needed to generate new employment. The spirit of enterprise had to
be reinforced with the new technology in order to create jobs for those
who had been displaced. Problems should not be anticipated, but tackled
when they arose." In short, humanity shouldn't fear technology.

In fact, employees were not so much afraid of the future as they were
afraid of losing their jobs. In 1997, our society already had a high
unemployment rate, which was not the case when film was invented and
television developed. During the next years, what would be the balance
between job creation and lay-off? Unions were struggling worldwide to
promote the creation of jobs through investment, innovation, vocational
training, computer literacy, retraining for new jobs, fair conditions
for contracts and collective agreements, defense of copyright,
protection of workers in the artistic field, and defense of teleworkers
as workers having full rights. The European Commission was expecting 10
million European teleworkers in the year 2000, which would represent
20% of teleworkers worldwide.

Despite unions' efforts, would the situation become as tragic as what
we read in the report of the symposium? "Some fear a future in which
individuals will be forced to struggle for survival in an electronic
jungle. And the survival mechanisms which have been developed in recent
decades, such as relatively stable employment relations, collective
agreements, employee representation, employer-provided job training,
and jointly funded social security schemes, may be sorely tested in a
world where work crosses borders at the speed of light."

1998: ONLINE BEOWULF

[Overview]

Libraries began putting (digital versions of) their treasures on the
web for the world to enjoy. The British Library was a pioneer in this
field. Several treasures were online in 1998, including Beowulf, known
as the first great English masterpiece. Beowulf is the earliest known
narrative poem in English, and one of the most famous works of
Anglo-Saxon poetry. The British Library holds the only known manuscript
of Beowulf, dated circa 1000. The poem itself is much older than the
manuscript - some historians believe it might have been written circa
750. Scholarly discussions on