.

= How would you define the information society?

An information society is a society:

- where most of the knowledge and information is no longer stored in people's
brains or books but on electronic media,

- where the information repositories are distributed, interconnected via an
information infrastructure, and accessible from anywhere, and

- where social processes have become so dependent on this information and the
information infrastructure that citizens who are not connected to this
information system cannot fully participate in the functioning of the society.

TIM McKENNA (Geneva)

#Thinks and writes about the complexity of truth in a world of flux

*Interview of October 17, 2000

= What exactly do you do professionally?

I am a mathematics teacher and currently I am taking time off to earn a master's
degree in telecommunications management.

= What exactly do you do on the Internet?

I use the Internet primarily for research.

= How do you see the future?

I hope to see the Internet become more of a tool for accessing news and media
that is not controlled by large corporate accounts.

= What do you think of the debate about copyright on the Web?

Copyright is a difficult issue. The owner of the intellectual property thinks
that she owns what she has created. I believe that the consumer purchases the
piece of plastic (in the case of a CD) or the bounded pages (in the case of
book). The business community has not found a new way to add value to
intellectual property. Consumers don't think very abstractly. When they download
songs for example they are simply listening to them, they are not possessing
them. The music and publishing industry need to find ways to give consumers
tactile vehicles for selling the intellectual property.

= How do you see the growth of a multilingual Web?

When software gets good enough for people to chat or talk on the Web in real
time in different languages, then we will see whole a new world appear before
us. Scientists, political activists, businesses and many more groups will be
able to communicate immediately without having to go through mediators or
translators.

= How much do you still work with paper? Will there still be a place for paper
in the future?

Paper still plays a vital role in my life. Reading is a matter of cultural pride
for me. My background is Irish (Tim is a US citizen). To paraphrase Thomas
Cahil, spirituality has always been closely