In March 2006, SAP Research convened a daylong meeting of several dozen thinkers and entrepreneurs in Darmstadt, Germany to discuss the future of information and communication technologies (ICT). The first annual International Research Forum was an earnest effort to grapple with the challenges and opportunities posed by these technologies. The forum's findings-and the accompanying conversation that was by turns provocative, erudite, and even dizzying-have been captured between these covers. International Research Forum 2006 explores how Web 2.0 and Real World Awareness technologies point to a fundamentally different model of ICT, the security challenges these technologies pose, and whether they can be a lever for growth on a national or even global scale.