Communication in the information society: ICT and the (in)visibility of communication science in the Low Countries 1 HARRY BOUWMAN Abstract In this paper the question is posed what communication science, especially in the Netherlands has contributed or can contribute to research in the field of information and communication technologies, and meaning of these technologies for communication within the information society. Attention will be paid to the domain of communication science and ICT. Develop- ments in the field of technology, policy, industry but also in regard to com- munication and organization are discussed. An overview of the state of the art of ICT-research in the Netherlands and the Dutch speaking part of Belgium is given from the perspective of communication science, and subse- quently, a research agenda will be proposed. Keywords: communication, organization, ICT, research agenda. The invention of the computer and the development of data-communica- tion, in particular the Internet, have unmistakably had an effect on the way in which information is exchanged and on how people communicate since the second half of the twentieth century. Simultaneously, communi- cation science has managed to claim a position within the scientific com- munity of the Netherlands. The object of communication science, ac- cording to van Cuilenburg, Scholten and Noomen (1991), is the study of the commercial and/or professional supply of information, whereby information supply includes the processing, design, storing, multiplica- tion and spreading of information. This definition excludes interpersonal information and is especially aimed at information that is supplied through professional ‘senders’, whose main reason for communicating is to make a profit. Developments in the area of information and com- munication technology, which according to Christensen (1997) can be considered a disruptive technology, have rendered both restrictions obso- lete. Communications 28 (2003), 61-87 03412059/2003/028-0061  Walter de Gruyter