When France Invented The Internet

The reviewer is an Associate Professor of Contemporary History at the Université Paris-Sorbonne.

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An Antique Land

Benjamin Thierry 

Minitel: Welcome to the Internet
past times Julien Mailland in addition to Kevin Driscoll
The MIT Press, 240 pp., USD$35.

With their book, Minitel: Welcome to the Internet, Julien Mailland in addition to Kevin Driscoll convey sought to create total a historical gap. Outside France, accounts of the ongoing digitalization of daily life convey largely ignored the importance of telematics every bit a measuring leading to the emergence of the web. There is, inward particular, the evolution of the Minitel network inward France. “As the starting fourth dimension calculator network to accomplish mass-scale participation,” Mailland in addition to Driscoll write, “Minitel presaged the near-universal adoption of Internet access inward many major metropolitan regions today.”¹

In Minitel, the authors render a detailed line organisation human relationship of France’s entry into the historic catamenia of telematics, which spanned the early 1980s until or in addition to then the plough of the century. The evolution in addition to implementation of Minitel is examined inward detail, every bit good every bit the services that were developed, in addition to the social touching on of the network. This is a story, it should live noted, for which main sources are scarce. The messaging archives are long gone in addition to at that spot is no software left to evaluate. These shortages notwithstanding, their volume is enlivened past times Mailland in addition to Driscoll’s mastery of the surviving archival material, in addition to past times their efforts to contain evidence drawn from interviews. The volume is an essential reference.

As meticulously researched, richly detailed, in addition to good informed every bit it is, Minitel is to a greater extent than than a historical recapitulation. The volume defends a twofold thesis: first, that Minitel, despite protestations to the contrary, was not a consummate failure; in addition to second, that a careful analysis of its operations in addition to governance tin give notice yield some useful lessons.

Launched inward the belatedly 1970s, the finish of the Minitel projection was to equip every French cry upwards subscriber amongst a gratis terminal that provided access to a broad multifariousness of online services. The initiatory was, inward part, intended to address the dire province of the country’s telecommunication infrastructure. “At the time,” the authors note, “the French cry upwards network was i of the worst inward the industrial world.”² Revenue generated from vocalisation services lone was insufficient to fund such an ambitious nationwide program. This led to an unprecedented industrial in addition to commercial challenge. The Minitel terminals, sourced past times the regime from private-sector manufacturers, would live issued amongst no upfront fees. Customers paid solely for the fourth dimension they spent connected to the system, the fee added to their monthly telephone bills. Play now, pay later, every bit the authors position it.³ The terminals were distributed past times the same agencies that had previously been responsible for the circulation of telephone books; a free, searchable online cry upwards directory, l’annuaire electronique, was i of the starting fourth dimension services available on the novel network.

Twenty years after its launch, the French government’s adventure appeared to convey paid off. In 1991, when the arrangement reached superlative adoption, a 5th of French cry upwards subscribers had a Minitel terminal. Citing a 1991 study past times French Republic Telecom, the authors annotation that adoption rates “ranged from 23.9 per centum inward Paris in addition to 22.4 per centum inward Lille to 16.2 per centum inward Clermont-Ferrand in addition to 15.3 per centum inward Ajaccio on the isle of Corsica.”⁴ In 1993, the annual connectedness fourth dimension for the arrangement amounted to ninety i thou k hours. It was non to last. The arrangement began an inexorable decline. By 2005, annual connectedness fourth dimension had shrunk to 20 i thou k hours. Two years later, that figure had halved again.
The network was close downwards inward June 2012.

Among the many services available on the Minitel platform, it was adult services and, inward particular, the messageries roses (pink messages, chat rooms) that proved to live i of the close pop aspects of the system. “Adult-oriented services,” the authors note, “were non cordoned off or marginalized; Minitel was infused amongst sexuality in addition to innuendo.”⁵ Users interacted amongst each other inward a digital masquerade. The extent of the novelty was matched solely past times its success. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 1986 study constitute that 70% of the 1.7 i thou k hours of connectedness fourth dimension during the months of May in addition to June that twelvemonth were spent on messageries (chat rooms).⁶ From these figures, the authors calculate that the annual revenue from the messageries manufacture every bit a whole would convey amounted to 879.6 i thou k francs.⁷ The early online adult services, dubbed Minitel rose, every bit good proved controversial. There were numerous efforts to ban or curtail the services on moral grounds. Amongst other things, concerns were expressed that the messageries roses were existence used past times prostitutes for solicitation.

The controversies associated amongst Minitel rose have, to some extent, overshadowed the wider success of the system. Mailland in addition to Driscoll emphasize that at that spot was much to a greater extent than to Minitel. From its world launch inward 1984, Minitel users were able to store online, read newspapers, volume educate tickets, in addition to banking concern check their banking concern balances. Students were able to discovery resources to assist amongst their homework, in addition to businesses could care remote locations in addition to access databases using the services.

In the mid-1980s, calculator geeks traveling to Paris were confronted amongst glimpses of a telematic future. By 1986, advertisements for Minitel services were ubiquitous on the highways in addition to high streets of France. All along the dark, gloomy taxi ride from the aerodrome to the city, colorful billboards implored drivers to tapez, or “type,” inscrutable alphanumeric sequences into their domicile terminals.⁸

These services, both inward damage of their multifariousness in addition to effectiveness, prefigured close of what nosotros produce online today.

• Shopping
  3615 TMK (Tele-Market) was an online same-day delivery grocery shopping service amongst an inventory of several thou items. In 1987, at that spot were “four unlike services focused on delivering to the Paris area, in addition to twenty-three total inward France, enabling i to gild from large stores, specialized vino retailers, or direct from local farms.”⁹
•  Science
  Rather than searching for extraterrestrial life, every bit was the thought behind SETI@home, thank y'all to the Cosmos Art Initiative, “in 1999, Minitelists were able to chat amongst aliens … Messages typed on the Minitel hide were beamed into infinite through the Nançay radio telescope.”¹⁰

...MUCH MORE

If interested hither is a Q&A amongst the authors at MIT Press 

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