on-based products in ways which magnetic tape,
celluloid and paper did not permit. Digitalization thus allows
music, cinema and the written word to be recorded and
transformed through similar processes and without distinct
material supports. Previously dissimilar industries, such as
publishing and sound recording, now both produce CD-ROMs,
rather than simply books and records. (...)

Multimedia convergence deserves our attention for reasons which
go far beyond the entertainment, mass media and
telecommunications industries. The technological revolution
which has made multimedia convergence possible will continue
apace, creating new configurations among an ever-widening range
of industries. The digitalization of information processing and
delivery is transforming the way financial systems operate, the
way enterprises exchange information internally and externally,
and the way individuals work in an increasingly electronic
environment."

Held in January 1997 at the ILO headquarters in Geneva,
Switzerland, the three-day Symposium on Multimedia Convergence
intended to discuss the social and labor issues arising from
this process. The industry-centred debates focused on three
main concerns: (a) the information society: what it means for
governments, employers and workers; (b) the convergence
process: its impact on employment and work; and (c) labor
relations in the information age. The purpose of these debates
was "to stimulate reflection on the policies and approaches
most apt to prepare our societies and especially our workforces
for the turbulent transition towards an information economy."

One of the participants, Peter Leisink, an associate professor
of labor studies at the Utrecht University, Netherlands,
explained: "A survey of the United Kingdom book publishing
industry showed that proofreaders and editors have been
externalized and now work as home-based teleworkers. The vast
majority of them had entered self-employment, not as a first-
choice option, but as a result of industry mergers, relocations
and redundancies. These people should actually be regarded as
casualized workers, rather than as self-employed, since they
have little autonomy and tend to depend on only one publishing
house for their work."

Wilfred Kiboro, managing director of Nation Printers and
Publishers, Kenya, made the following comments: "In content
creation in the multimedia environment, it is very difficult to
know who the journalist