As commented by one of participants of the conference, expert of the Perm company "Business Computers Group" Vyacheslav Ryabov, "the institute acquired its own history". The whole big chapter of the book represents the real story of IIS coming-to-be as the first competence center in the sphere of information society development in Russia. This chapter reveals search for new independent ways for a non-commercial non-governmental organization; "growth diseases" associated with establishment of the sphere of analytical and consulting services for decision-makers, which used to be completely exotic in Russia; the first victories and following multiple convincing achievements of the well-consolidated team of soul mates, which provided in many ways for the fact that information society and knowledge econome development became one of priorities of the public policy in Russia. Readers' attention may also be attracted by the section based on the interview with IIS founders - people from different sectors – who carved brilliant, inimitable professional careers before the institute's foundation.

Chapters, in which the major concepts and theories as well as the actions of the main "prophets and visionaries" of the information society are introduced in a simple and popular manner, appear to be a valuable contribution of the book to the promotion of the idea of information society development. The author also provides a general picture of the global information society development and describes the milestones of the Russian policymaking process related to use of the ICTs for developing different spheres of human life.

The edition has a considerable volume (512 pages) and stylish typography. It is maybe the first in Russia, and in the world, publication which contains, even if sometimes in short, the main concepts and achievements of many well-known scholars, politicians and practitioners in the sphere of information society combined with full spellings of their names in Russian and Latin and photos of most of them. The name index of the book occupies almost 9 pages of close text in 2 columns.

The book is meant for the broad spectrum of motivated readers. IIS permanent partners may get the book for free in the IIS office at Makarenko str., 4, Moscow.