Search results

The Minitel videotex system has been a success in France, connecting millions of people to information services of every description via their home telephone system. It has been examined by both information specialists and business people to determine the reasons for its unique success. But, how many librarians outside of France know about the information available on Minitel and use this tool in their work? Assuming that those librarians who use the Internet and participate in library‐oriented discussion lists are the most likely at least to be aware of Minitel and its services, the author queried the participants of two discussion lists, LIBREF‐L (reference librarians) and PACS‐L (computer service librarians), to find out if anyone outside of France is using Minitel in the library environment. This article will trace the history of Minitel and will conclude with the results of the informal Internet survey, along with some suggestions for exploration of Minitel services.

This paper aims to introduce how sociological traditions can provide a complementary, conceptual lens needed to better understand a country’s orientation in its digital transformation policies. While historically sociology has been used to study technological effects, introducing a sociological lens that considers broader macro digital policies can better complement a country’s national innovation system framework by highlighting where forms of acceleration and inertia in digital diffusion may or may not occur.

To formulate this lens, iterative literature reviews were conducted and four major sociological traditions (i.e. Durkheim, Functional-Utilitarian, Marxist and Micro-interactionist) were identified and integrated into one structure. The integrated structure was then applied to the French case of Minitel as a sample application. The French Minitel was selected because it is well-known and due to one of the author’s familiarity with the French culture. The description was based upon secondary data.

Through the use and application of this lens, the findings reveal that understanding a country’s specific orientation within a sociological tradition can help academics and practitioners determine what accelerates or provides inertia in the diffusion of new digital technologies within a country’s sociological frame. For the French Minitel, two dominant views seem to exist in France, the Durkheim and the Functional-Utilitarian view, which both affected the country’s path dependency in continued investments in Minitel.

While policymakers are tasked with the development and implementation of digital transformation policies, a key consideration for both scholars and practitioners on digital policy and governance is to understand the broader macro ramifications of sociological frameworks on the evolving effects of digital transformation. While the authors provide a sample illustration, future research is needed to operationalize this lens and to apply it across various regions and countries in the development of new digital transformation policies.

As countries face considerable pressure to digitize their economies, policymakers require a better framework to advance the sociological aspects of digitization and its effects upon local institutions and actors in society. The paper provides a complementary lens that can better help them in this regard.

To date, policymakers and governments lack an integrated framework to understand the sociological effects of digital technologies and their diffusions along with their implications on societies such as on the framework of national innovation. The authors provide a sample integrated structure and sample application.

The development of the French Minitel system is described against the background of attempts in other European countries to get a “viewdata” or “videotex” off the ground. The French approach was to mass‐produce a dedicated terminal and to focus on the residential market. The kiosk tariff is seen as the most important feature with respect to the creation of new services – its benefits are analysed. While Minitel has been far more successful than any other videotex development, the quickening pace of technological innovation and customer resistance to paying full price for information services are now causing problems. The future is uncertain.

The French are becoming world leaders in networked information. The key to this development is the immediate access to the general public provided by their national Minitel system. New networked libraries are being built, existing libraries are going online, and the crisis‐ridden French publishing industry is looking to networked information for its salvation. The French approach to networking offers interesting lessons for the Internet, not least because the French approach may ultimately be considered more attractive than the Internet′s for developing networked information in Asia and elsewhere

MINITELNET NOW AVAILABLE IN THE US. Over a decade ago, the French government introduced Minitel, an electronic gateway to phone numbers, banking services, news digests, travel information, and other online resources. Included in the installation cost of a telephone (250 Francs or $42), more than 5 million of the 9‐inch Minitel monitors have been distributed, with users logging in more than 60 million hours online. At first blush, Minitel is an overwhelming success, generating revenues in excess of 800 million Francs ($136 million) per year. Minitel has already crossed the Channel and invaded the United Kingdom and earlier this year became available in the U.S. with telecommunications software for the IBM PC and the Apple Macintosh. What drives Minitel's popularity? Bold headlines in both France and abroad state that the allure of sex may be the answer.

The French, and increasingly French libraries, are online on the networks. French print publishing is in trouble. Online full text is one of the promising developments in the forefront of network development. Despite some small but stubborn problems such as copyright and pricing, online full text may represent a way out of their problems for the publishers. One new Minitel service and the general direction of the largest French publisher may indicate an impending marriage of the two sets of problems, and of their possibilities.

In an increasingly connected age, information technology can be argued to have become more politicized. The attempts to establish network technologies to promote the development of an information society are tokens of an increasingly vested interest that politics has in information technologies. Recognition of the entanglement of politics and technology is crucial in understanding contemporary organizational change. Instead of taking organizational stability for granted, we assume organizational change to be the norm. In this paper, we point to the many organizing efforts needed to prevent technologies from drifting away into non‐existence. We present two cases of IT ventures – one seemingly failed and one seemingly successful. Together, they illustrate the point that technological networks, as stable as they may seem, can only survive as long as they permanently fascinate actors from other techno‐economic networks and thereby attract their unconditional love, affection and commitment.

Teleshopping is attracting increased interest because retailers see it as a way of improving customer services. In France, Minitel has done much to prove the demand and potential for teleshopping La Redoute, France's largest mail order company, started using the Minitel system for teleshopping in the mid‐1980s, and the percentage of orders has built up steadily. These were some of the topics dealt with at a two‐day conference, held in London in January, on the theme of “Electronic Marketing in Retailing.” the conference was organised by Spectra Services.

Why did videotex technology boom in France but fail in the United States? Although an important factor was the difference in government policies between the two countries, a good deal of success of French videotex can be attributed to strategic planning.

1983 saw the birth of the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie at La Villette in Paris and with it a multimedia library. The library currently holds some 300,000 documents as well as thousands of films, slides and computer programs. Entirely automated, the library uses two systems: MEDICIS for its acquisitions and cataloguing and GEAC for the circulation and online public access catalogue (OPAC). This is the first OPAC in France and is also accessible through the French Minitel videotex network. The library is divided into adult, children and research sections and also has an educational software area as well as a specially equipped room for the visually handicapped. This article describes the library and its catalogue, stock and services and notes the reactions and habits of users.