The creation of the information society in Poland

The fast development of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought about deep changes in the way of working and living, as widespread diffusion of ICT is accompanied by organi¬zational, commercial, social and legal innovation. Contemporary society is often defined as the "Infor¬mation Society", a society in which low-cost information and ICT are in general use, or as the "Knowledge-based Society", to stress the fact that the most valuable asset is investment in intangible, human and social capital and the key factors are knowledge and creativity. The European Union has been building the European information society for over 20 years. During this time a lot of general framework programmes and concepts have been elaborated. The recent European Commission initiative on e-Europe «aims at ensuring this change towards the Information Society is cohesive, not divisive* among the European societies. The main aim of this paper is to examine the level of de¬veloping of the Information Society in one of the new European Union's member states, in Poland