What the *&!@ is an Infobahn?

The information superhighway (or, as we Europeans prefer, the infobahn) is an economic phenomenon, driven by widespread changes in the nature of the commerce, rather than a technological fad. Commerce depends on the interrelated concepts of property rights and money. The relationship between them and the needs of commerce is one of feedback and reinforcement: the development of paper money, for example, not only supported but drove the development of banking systems to facilitate widespread commerce. In a business planning context, then, it is the economic imperatives of the infobahn that determine direction. Individual technologies, such as ADSL or ATM, are enablers for some implementations but they are not the driving force. As the infobahn-using different technologies as they evolve-causes shifts in the paradigms for commerce, it will generate feedback to accelerate changes in the nature of commerce and society as a whole. The widespread implementation of electronic property rights and electronic cash-two aspects of the same technological developments: the former linked to personal and corporate identities, the latter anonymous-will therefore catalyse revolutionary changes in commerce and society. These changes will mean winners and losers: this paper draws on some of Hyperion´s recent experience in helping to develop the Mondex electronic cash scheme (and other projects, ranging from the re-engineering of financial institutions to procuring advanced communications networks for developing countries) and attempts to describe the nature and future of the infobahn in a wider context