An examination of a range of information and communication issues at stake in the European Union, from employment and the labour market, to the domestication of technologies in households, to larger implications for political processes and democracy. Extending comparisons to other industrialized countries, it demonstrates that the information society is far too diverse and rich to be typified in simplistic dichotomies such a information "haves" and "have nots" and that simple upbeat or pessimistic responses to the new technologies are surely false messengers for the future. The authors discern general social trends and patterns in the way that these very important technologies already affect our lives and work. But they find there is still considerable room to use the technologies as a positive force for social change or, equally, to fail to take up any positive opportunities.