The big blue bus that rolled into the sleepy village of Aakirkeby one mild October day last year was proof of the Danes' remarkable ability to produce concrete results while other countries remain mired in woolly aspirations and lofty promises about wiring their societies for the 21st century.

Aakirkeby, a picturesque village of just 2,300 souls on the island of Bornholm, is quite accustomed to busloads of visiting tourists from Copenhagen or Cologne. The blue bus did not fit the normal pattern. Instead of tourists it was crammed with computers and crewed by a volunteer workforce of senior citizens.

It was an extraordinary bus on an extraordinary mission - a project to ensure that the older generation is not marginalised by an IT revolution which is accelerating by the day and giving people opportunities that were unimaginable only a decade ago.

The rationale behind the project is so simple it is astounding that nobody thought of it before: create a cyber cafe on wheels and tour the countryside offering pensioners the chance to find out what information technology is all about.

Last year the blue bus visited some 75 small towns and villages across Denmark and was a roaring success. In Aakirkeby, it drew 150 inquisitive pensioners, all eager for a taste of the internet or the chance to chat about technology with people of their own age.

One of those who came along for some internet tips and e-mail advice was a lady whose grandchildren had given her a computer as a 90th birthday present. But the blue bus is only one small part of a wider programme to bring older people into touch with IT, says Gitte Olsen, a consultant with Aeldremobiliseringen, the Danish association of senior citizens.

"The idea is to prevent people from becoming technological illiterates," she says. "Information is disseminated via new technology and information is power. These are the lines we should think along."

This sort of thinking by Ms Olsen and her colleagues has produced tangible results and propelled Denmark into a position as world leader as regards IT and senior citizens. With the emergence of cyber cafes a few years ago it became apparent that the customer base was predominantly young.

The story was much the same with PC ownership and internet connections in the home. Although penetration rates were high relative to other countries, the proportions were skewed in favour of the younger generation.

To redress the balance, Aeldremobiliseringen participated in a project which, among other things, established two cyber cafes exclusively for senior citizens. These were hugely popular and it was clear that Denmark's senior citizens had no desire to miss out on the technology revolution. The ministry of information technology and research stepped in with a DKr1.8m grant and Aeldremobiliseringen knuckled down to practicalities.

Progress has been rapid. In the space of just three years, the association has set up more than 50 cyber cafes across the country which are operated by senior citizens for senior citizens.

Together, these cyber cafes, or cyber lounges, as Aeldremobiliseringen prefers to call them, have scotched the notion that new technology is only for the young. A progress report published at the end of April revealed that senior citizens have as varied expectations of and uses for information technology as any other group in society.

Some people, irritated or intrigued by constant references to websites on TV or in newspapers, just want to discover what it is all about. Others want help in filling out their tax returns or sending e-mails - often to grandchildren travelling in Asia on gap years between school and college.

Another group is more ambitious still and one cyber lounge has developed expertise in video editing and converting 8mm film reels to digital formats.

According to the latest figures from Danmarks Statistik, the state statistics agency, almost 60 per cent of Danes aged between 16 and 49 have internet connections in their homes. The ratio for those aged over 60 is lower - 25 per cent - but there is evidence that this is on the rise.

Interest in Aeldremobiliseringen's cyber cafes is enormous and the organisation believes it may double the amount of cyber cafes to 100 this year.

Whether the Danish example can or cannot be followed by other countries is a moot point, but there is no escaping the fact that Denmark's success owes much to a fortunate confluence of conditions.

Denmark is a prosperous country with a universal right to retirement pensions. Although computers and internet connection fees may be outside the budgets of many individual senior citizens, the cyber cafes appear to have little trouble in finding funds, through sponsorship or private funding, for new computers.

IBM, for example, donated all the hardware for the blue bus and refitted it a second time when the originals were stolen during a break-in.

Danish pensioners are also extremely well organised. Aeldremobiliseringen has almost half a million members - about one-tenth of the entire Danish population. Similar organisations, such as Aeldre Sagen, have big membership bases as well. Politicians can ill afford to ignore the needs of such a large lobbying force and senior citizens have a better chance of making their voices heard in Denmark than in most other EU countries.

Finally, and possibly most critically, the government has displayed great determination to fast-track Denmark's progress on the information highway and it is pursuing this goal in an unusually inclusive fashion. The bottom line is that nobody should be left out.

"It is our aspiration that IT should benefit everyone regardless of their profession, their age or the amount of money they earn," says Birte Weiss, minister for information technology and research. And in line with this philosophy, the minister has set aside DKr33m for research and projects exclusively devoted to senior citizens and the IT revolution.