Bill Gates puts it another way. He asks what happens when information is free, because that's the ultimate impact of the Internet.

We have an entire business structure founded on proprietary information. Five years ago, I paid a significant amount of money to have real-time stock quotes at home.

Today, I get them for free with my online trading account. I also get free charts, financial data and analysis. I can also make trades for a fraction of the commission I would pay even a discount broker.

Think about this: according to Jupiter Communications, a media-research firm in New York, five years ago there were only 130 Websites on the internet. Today, there are over 650,000. Estimates put the number of Web users at over 100 million.

Intelliquest, an Internet research firm, estimates that 20 per cent of all Web users buy products on the Internet, with the average on-line purchase rising from $70 US to $100 over the past two years. Last week, 10,000 people watched a Florida woman give birth in real time, and twice that many tried to log on to the event.

Microsoft has announced the Canadian launch of Web TV, which will bring the Internet into even more homes. The good news is that Canadians are well-positioned to take advantage of the expansion of the Internet.

In 1994, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimated that 28.8 per cent of homes in Canada had personal computers; today, that number is estimated to have risen to as much as 54 per cent.

The OECD also reported that Canada has the lowest Internet access costs in the world, with charges 30 per cent below those in the U.S.

The federal and provincial governments are committed to connecting all schools and libraries by the end of the year.

Federal Industry Minister John Manley has just announced a pilot project called Community Storefronts, which will help small and medium-sized businesses, as well as non-profit groups, do business on the Internet.

The project will allow consumers to purchase thousands of products on-line in secure credit-card transactions with the help of software developed by DoP@y eCommerce Solutions and the Royal Bank.

The initiative also provides training and technical support for participants in four areas of the country, including the north Okanagan region.

We have an opportunity to leverage our advantages and be a world leader in electronic commerce.

With billions of dollars in sales at stake, let's hope we make the most of it.