GEMISIS (Government, Education, Medical, Industrial and Social Information Superhighway) is a major project based on partnerships wishing to achieve user-driven exploitation of the information superhighway on a local and regional basis for the benefit of the region's residents and employees. GEMISIS 2000 has demonstrated its intent to develop user-driven applications and services that can truly exploit the sociological, economic and technological benefits of the information superhighway in order to assist in the regeneration of the North West of England. This is to be achieved primarily through pilot projects to be developed and implemented in Greater Manchester. The success of GEMISIS is entirely dependent upon the partnerships into which it has entered in order to achieve its set objectives. So far the partnerships have served GEMISIS well. Each partner can see win-win opportunities arising, and the potentials of GEMISIS continue to expand as each new topic area is explored. Technologies to support billing and access control, together with authentication for service access, are immature and may not be suitable for the emerging services anticipated on GEMISIS. The users' only frustration is that GEMISIS cannot make it happen quickly enough for the practitioners. (7 pages)