nically. Citizens wanting to play a part in Public Life can fill in application forms from the Public Bodies website. A new Internet service was launched in April 2000 allowing individuals to complete and submit self-assessment tax returns over the Internet at the Inland Revenue.
             The destruction of the World Trade Centre has prompted many businesses to rethink the wisdom of locating employees in a single, highly visible structure. Although the idea of virtual organisations resonated with Internet-based business models, the loss of the Trade Centre has crystallised the concept and transformed it into a business reality. Technology such as video, audio, real-time document sharing, high-bandwidth networks, remote presentation, and E-conferencing, is able to overcome traditional constraints of space and time, resulting in the ability to work anytime anywhere. The very concept of the 'office' is being questioned. President and CEO of Verifone, Tyabji declares that VeriFone has no corporate headquarters, recognises no national origin, and is at home everywhere in the world. Like their CEO, VeriFoners spend lots of time in aeroplanes and at their computers, a drive to stay physically close to customers. Using RevWatch, the company's top 250 people track sales down to the last hour. Another system posts the travel itineraries of everyone in the company, including flight details, hotel reservations, and phone numbers.
             Virtual offices allow firms to radically reduce the size of their office space, saving significant costs on real estate. This allows for a model of a minimal core staff with help brought in as needed. Companies are embracing the idea of project teams, where teams form, disband and form again, as the work requires.
             In the last decade, expert systems technology has reappeared in the form of knowledge-based systems. They are used in health care, insurance, banking, and other industries to capture expertise in the form of rule...