In every culture telling stories about how events occur and why they occur is an important activity that distributes information and ensures a collective understanding. Similarly, gathering together to discuss issues and demonstrate skills is an age-old form of self and community development. So it was with the Harare conference. During the week of the conference, capacity building occurred daily as delegates shared their experiences with IT and worked together to forge a community of

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... als dedicated to creating a hospitable and practical climate for IT in their own countries, and to continue sharing insights and expertise long after the conference ended. Development is often thought of as a straightforward linear process -one starts from Ground Zero and quickly accumulates experience and expertise. In fact, development, whether of human beings or organizations, is a fitful process. Forward motion is unpredictable, and often accompanied by obstacles, wrong turns and regressions. The conference highlighted the fact that all countries are 'developing' with respect to IT use. New technologies, appearing almost daily, cause shifts in policies and practices, and call for reallocations of a wide range of resources. All countries are 'undeveloped' in the resources needed for IT adoption, implementation and institutionalisation since insufficient resources -time, money, expertise -are currently being allocated. This is as true in Paris as in Papua New Guinea. The delegates recognized that while per capita income may be a dividing line separating 'developed' from 'developing' countries, the search for solutions to a host of common problems unites IT users around the globe. For example, IT adds a new level of complexity -acquiring equipment, training users and reconceptualising past practices -that places extraordinary demands on the IT community and, at the same time, creates dislocation in day-to-day life, whether in the village or the megalopolis. The conference, with its attention to education from the preschool level to the workplace, impressed on the delegates the need to consider IT as an integral part of the educational process. Young children, it was said, need IT -based experiences to acquire literacy in the language of their country; mature workers, it was said, need IT-based experiences to equip them for the ever-changing workplace in Sydney Australia or Harare, Zimbabwe. While each of us is a unique human being, we operate in a complex social context with established mores. Increasingly pressure, either from within or without, to incorporate skills and strategies necessary for survival and success is creating a demand for a wider use of IT in educational settings. As IT-using educators we know that teachers, school administrators and government officials must learn to use IT as part of educational practice. But the old ways -government