User interfaces for the productive Information Society

A scenario where people are organizing life and work by means of technical networks and information explains the notion of “Productive Information Society”. People become at the same time white and blue collar workers and consumers of their collaboratively produced goods. The Web mediates in a new way the acquisition of emerging technologies and of products, and it will influence tools and user interfaces thoroughly. Vice versa good tools and good user interfaces facilitate that usage. Issues in computer science arise from collisions between plan and reality, from concurrency, from a growing information jungle, and from psycho-physiological limitations of users. Societal issues stem from different skills, from economic competition, and from existing industrial relations.