The established magazine Telewerken is now in its fifth year of publication. The Netherlands has an open and caring society and is becoming established as a centre of competence in the use of ICTs for social inclusion, notably ICT training and telework as a means of access to work opportunities for people with mobility problems. The high overall level of ICT investment conceals a variable patter, with relatively lower ICT use in Government and in small firms. With a net shortage of IT skills, Year 2000 ICT preparedness and Euro implementation are inhibiting implementation of other applications such as remote access to company systems and services. Legislation and regulation is largely based in traditional home working and in some aspects inappropriate for modern teleworkers.
Women returning to the workforce want to be in the mainstream rather than remaining at home.
The positive pressure for telework generated by road traffic congestion is balanced by the Netherlands' excellent public transport infrastructure, which is being enhanced by innovative use of ICTs to optimise information and journey planning for citizens. The Ministry of Economic Affairs has published brochures about telework and other Information Society applications. The Transport Ministry has led pilots and programmes promoting telework for employees as a means of reducing car use and traffic congestion. The scale of difference indicates the important placed on public policy action or inaction. NTF is developing a comprehensive database of case studies, exemplars, surveys etc and has already accumulated some 250 items.