THE VISION OF A NATIONAL PROGRAM FreeNets should not stand alone. We envision that before the end of this decade, scores of communities across Canada will have a FreeNet facility. All will be linked together, providing a national network of community information services and improving on the FreeNet network now being developed in the United States. A national network of FreeNets can provide the infrastructure for a community-of-communities, and a mechanism by which institutions with a mandate to provide information uniformly across a province, a region or the country can to do so economically and efficiently. The network of FreeNets would provide a useful vehicle to permit national roundtable discussions on the key issues of the day. People from St. Johns to Victoria, for example, can find out first hand what others are saying about topics of national importance simply by selecting the appropriate computer-menu item on their local FreeNet facility. A networked community of electronic communities will focus and enrich the debate on the distinctions between the public and private information spheres and other telecommunication policy issues.