When the leaders of media, telecommunications, IT and internet companies congregate, the talk is upbeat about new accomplishments but subdued about recent ordeals: the dotcom bubble; the telecoms crash; the music industry bust; the advertising downturn; the e-publishing revenue stagnation; the PC slowdown; the wireless saturation; the semiconductor slump; the newspaper recession; the R&D retrenchment.

And the question is, why do these predicaments sweep over the information sector so regularly?

We need to recognise that the entire information sector has become subject to a gigantic market failure ... one of the fundamental trends of our time, with far-reaching long-term effects ... happening right in front of our eyes.