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THE world is entering a golden era of information, founded on the internet, telephone networks and satellite communication. But no one can decide who should benefit, who should pay for it, or how it should be run.

This is the message that emerged from the first ever world summit dedicated to the “Information Society”. The very existence of the summit was hailed as evidence of just how much the information age is starting to dominate global society, politics and economics. But critics were disappointed by the failure of the 10,000 delegates from 176 countries to agree to any concrete measures.…

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