The information mall

The agricultural age was characterized by the exchange of basic commodities through bazaars, while the exchange of goods (and increasingly, services) through shopping malls has defined the ageing industrial age. Though we are now well into the information age, we still lack a comprehensive infrastructure for information exchange. The establishment of an infrastructure for information transportation will naturally lead to the creation of a secondary infrastructure for information exchange. We label this the 'information mall', which could exist in several places in the overall telecommunication system. This article is an examination of the needed characteristics of such malls, and of the public policy choices which have to be made to bring about and shape this vital infrastructural element.