Introduction

Between May 2000 and October 2003, senior and junior researchers in seven laboratories across Europe conducted a study to investigate what they called the realities and dynamics of the user friendly information society in Europe. The research was designed to explore the everyday lives and practices of Europeans as citizens and consumers as they made their way into the supposedly revolutionary new world of technologically driven social, political, and economic organization. Among their topics are inclusion and exclusion in the information society, consumption and quality of life in a digital world, and public policy implications for Europe's way to the information society.