Digital divide is only one problem we're facing in realising the promises of a unified, Internet-enabled virtual future ...

SARAJEVO - I had an interesting conversation with my boss the other day. As I am currently stationed in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a place where democratisation and transition experiments are mixing with the post-war recovery, he wanted to know if there are any interesting Internet-related projects happening here. He assumed that here, like everywhere else on the planet, social and economic activities are gravitating towards the virtual space.

Digital divide notwithstanding, it was an interesting idea to assume that in a country struggling to rebuild basic infrastructure, where the 20 cent difference in the price of bread has serious social consequences requiring state intervention, and the population is begging the international community (this is their mess!) to remove its democratically elected politicians for their lack of sense and a refusal to agree on anything of consequence, one would expect a vibrant debate about a (more) virtual future.