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In the near future, election of governements themselves and the development/implementation of government policy will be conducted in the Electronified world.

No technology, no vote.

Miss the vote, see the replay - but "no late votes allowed".

Of course, this is a bit like 'no card, no cash' that is fast becoming a reality for many Westerners, which in itself AND combined with the political 'no tech, no vote', makes electricity even more important!

Electronic voting will also require people to be more informed of issues in order to make a seemingly endless stream of almost instant decisions.

Trouble is, 'information overload syndrome' could well result (I believe it is here already), with many people unable to cope with the volume and speed of information being made available to them, or being uninterested in keeping up. A huge opportunity therefore will exist to exercise a new form of political control through Electronic Democracy (?"e-mocracy").

The central area of the word Electronification also contains a number of important terms. One small word in particular stands out - 'if'.

'If' was a very important component of Electronification's evolution, as the rise of the personal computer was driven by the computer's spreadsheet 'what-if' capabilities. Mind you, the over-reliance on the spreadsheet's what-if-calculations also nearly destroyed the PC industry, as operators were not cross-checking their results nor checking for 'bugs'.

'If' is a very important component of any future projection and without going into multiple scenarios, I acknowledge there are endless permutations of Electronification's effects.

Another important concept contained within the middle of Electronification is hi-fi.

Hi-Fi is short for 'High Fidelity', the (then) quantum leap forward in sound technology that provided dramatically decreased levels of distortion for sound recordings. Hi-Fi allowed the entertainment industry to flourish, with people able to purchase a fairly high quality recording, play it over and over, achieving an 'almost like being there' experience each time.

Hi-Fi is an excellent 'early' example of the type of impact Electronification can and will have. Mass marketing of music and visuals have burgeoned through Hi-Fi technology, but the real question is, what mass markets will open up with Electronification?

While undoubtedly large multi-national interests are aiming to capitalise, or are already capitalising on Electronification, I believe that mass marketing for niche/micro/small business will achieve the greatest boost. Sure, multi-national interests will aim to block this through restricting access to necessary technology, with techniques such as price and prominence, but large organisations will have more difficulties providing the one-on-one service/product modification/creation that niche/micro/small businesses/entities can and do deliver.

As we move further along 'Electronification', there are two other important words - fiction and non-fiction.

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