Distance Education is not alzvays so much about the setting up of infrastructures and the use of multi-media delivery systems-it is often more about how particular groups of people in particular educational environments can use them (a) to improve practically their knozvledge of the system and (b) to create nezv educational matertals at distance tshich incorporate the strengths of each component of a set of multi-national elements. There can be little doubt that teacher training is a key element in all education systems; the tvay in which the system produces a technology-literate society begins here and often ends here too. It is also that part of the system which often receives the least attention and resources. PLUTO iS a project that tries to bring together all these threads into a development netzvork for 'collaborative distance learning' and collaborative development of materials at distance, using strategies which create a cascade egfect right through European education systems. Rhys Gzryn is a well-knozvn educator both at a UK and at a European level. He has been President of ATEE, the Association of European Teacher Educators, and acted as a consultant to Unesco, OECD, the European Commission and to several governmental organisations. Norman Longworth also has a reputation for innovative projects in the use of computers in education and in distance learning. He has been asked to speak at conferences all over the trorld on these subjects and is represented on several international committees such as ICSU, IFIP, EuroPACE, SATURN and has managed large projects in DELTA and for his employer, IBM Europe. This mixture of industry and education in the setting up of PLUTO is a foretaste of tshat must happen in the future in Distance Education projects.