As a consequence of the quest for a datagram and the "single thought X25" in France, Americans now hold nearly 100% of the world market in network routers and switches. French industry missed out on an opportunity for making a breakthrough! From 1975 till 1992, when it changed its mind, the General Direction of Telecommunications did everything to keep Internet out of France. Meanwhile, Transpac and Minitel had taken hold in the French market. In fact, Minitel soon became the principal user of Transpac, whose success overshot forecasts.
The past and future of networks
Louis Pouzin interviewed by Robert Mahl
Louis Pouzin is not just the historical leader of the Cyclades Network. Having started his career at CIT (now Alcatel) and then moved on to Bull, he spent two years in the United States, where he worked on the CTSS system of shared time. He headed SIMCA's computer services; and invented the rather successful concept of pilot projects in the computer sciences. At CNET and Thesus, he stood out as a sort of guru who was consulted for knowledge about the past and future of networks.
High-speed services and networks
Michel Feneyrol
For several years now, the demand by firms for telecommunications — and thus for speed — has been strong. Internet, digital TV and, soon, interactive multimedia services of the sort foreshadowed by I-way programs are being introduced. All this calls for applying new high-speed data transfers — both for bringing this new technology into homes and sending data in real time over the networks.
I-ways and switches
Marc Guillaume
Fascinated by the abolition of distance as formulated with the prefix tele- (telework, telemarketing and soon televirtuality…), we are still thinking in terms of superhighways while it is the switching stations that merit attention. Indeed, hypertexts and switching arrangements are transforming production, consumption and information while reinforcing the importance of physical accessibility and space.
Did you say "information society"?
Michel Matheu
No one knows very well what an information society is. What we do know is that the world is going to be saturated with information technology in the coming decades. The business of firms is to create the necessary networks and services. The role of the state is to facilitate an equitable, rapid appropriation of new uses and to oversee matters of safety, security and freedom. Experts and decision-makers are discussing these matters in order to measure the magnitude of change.
I-ways: Perspectives for the general public
Norbert Paquel
A long time ago, Vice-President Gore called for developing information superhighways. Soon afterwards, European programs took off, both at the EU and national levels. But that was years ago. In that far-off past, even big firms did not have Web sites; most people did not know anything about electronic messages; video games were 8-bits; and the maximum modem speed was 9600 bps. That was only four years ago…
Fog on European I-ways
André-Yves Portnoff
The coming of digital communications will become a textbook case for prospective, historical and managerial studies of innovation. Such a major revolution with so wide an impact has seldom been announced so far ahead of time… and still major actors have been caught more or less off guard. Unfortunately, the unaware are still often Europeans, in particular, the French.
Like a slight lag
Claude Salzmann
As a new opportunity being offered to firms, technological innovations in information systems have met with disillusioned skepticism in France. However the programs working on Internet lie at the crossroads between the fields of marketing and company strategy. Why do we still pretend we do not know that the process of creating added valued centers around the development of information systems? This situation reminds us of what happened in the mid-1970s when the first PCs came out.
From the prototype to the driving force in growth
David Lytel
Correctly formulating a question is half the answer. For instance, the changes we can detect in the pronouncements of federal authorities in the United States reflect modifications in the American conception of the information society. By studying these changes, we can understand the federal government's policy in this field.
What kind of public regulation for Internet?
Jean-Noël Tronc
For Internet, 1996 was the year both when it attained full recognition as a new media and when the first serious accusations were brought against it. The so obvious inadequacy of regulatory measures, confined as they are within national borders, has led several countries to call for international regulations. In October 1996 France proposed a charter to serve as a "code of good conduct" on Internet. The OECD officially adopted this proposal in February 1997 as the basis for working toward international cooperation.
I-ways: Three public reports in five years
Jean-Noël Tronc
Before the General Planning Commission's recent report (The information society's networks), the reports made three years ago by Gérard Théry and Thierry Breton had led, in France, to the indispensable awareness of the stakes in the information revolution. New thought was then given to the twofold question of changes in markets and in the state's role given this completely new technical and economic context, whence the work group presided by Thierry Miléo.
Internet and the public administration
Christian Scherer
In the new information economy, the market — not the state — will decide what works. The government should now mainly restrict itself to defining the ground rules and acting like a model user. According to this official report by an advisory committee, the federal government can thus serve as a source of inspiration for Canadians. The private sector should develop and work the I-ways; and investors should take the risks and have their fair share in the profits.
Security on the I-ways
Michel Ferrier
Given the prospects of unlimited knowledge and freedom as well as the commercial stakes related to information highways, it is hard to brandish measures taken for the sake of security. However we must suppose that public authorities will not remain idle, because Internet's existence does raise serious questions of security. A code of good conduct takes a first step in this direction. But it does not solve the most serious problems, since it has no effect on persons who have deliberately decided to break the law.
The occupations of traditional actors in the telecommunications of the year 2010
Michel Bon
A sharp decline in prices as the costs of transporting information drop; an upsurge in interpersonal communications; the disappearance of obstacles between modes of communication; problems of hooking up different systems of telecommunication and related sectors; differing forms of organization… deep changes are affecting all actors in the communications sector. These changes condition France Télécom's strategy. This firm must meet up to a major challenge: changing from an effective public service to a competitive enterprise.
Stakes in the future networks of communication via satellite
Yves Michot
What share have satellite systems taken in the audiovisual market? What share are they trying to acquire in mobile telephone services? What share can they take tomorrow in a fast-changing world where the telecommunication, audiovisual and computer sectors are converging on what are commonly called information superhighways?
The Network Computer, a universal terminal for the information society?
Larry Ellison
The information society is still often thought to be a myth, given that the complexity and costs of computers and of access to information considerably hinder acceptance by the general public. But a new generation of computers could, finally, turn this myth into reality. Larry Ellison zealously supports this viewpoint.
French services: Télériviera's experimentation
Jean-Pascal Tranié
With Télériviera Multimédia, the CGV and its partners are taking up a new challenge — multimedia access via cable — at a speed higher than 128 kbps and, on the average, 50 times higher than the fastest telephone connection. The experimental station offers 200 consumers in Nice, France, access to Internet at the top speed in the market.
The projects labelled "Information superhighway" and the Act of 10 April 1996 on experimentation in information technology and services
Jean-Luc Archambault
Networks will become high-speed. But the investment needed makes it necessary, before laying an infrastructure out over the whole country, to assess the reality and solvability of the demand for new services. For this reason, the government has adopted a pragmatic approach for launching concrete experiments.
I-ways and the computer industry
Gérard Dréan
Will the development of I-ways overwhelm the computer industry? Owing to the network computer that several leaders in big firms are actively supporting, is Internet tolling the knell for the PC and Microsoft? Does the upsurge in Internet concretely realize, at last, the myth of merging computers and communications? By methodically examining the economic forces governing the computer industry's evolution, we can help answer a few of these questions.
Electronic commerce: Will new marketers replace the old?
Bernard Savonet
Behind Internet and all that has been said about it, it is often hard to see into the reality of this phenomenon and perceive its eventual consequences, especially in commerce and marketing. Beyond the Internet fad, a fundamental change is at work: for some products, electronic commerce can completely modify all current trade circuits.
Are middlemen out of business?
Jean-Michel Billaut
Telecommunication networks can do away with whole chains of middlemen between supply and demand, and thus lower prices. But what will serve as the basis for the value added by these new middlemen? How are markets going to be organized in the future? Will they identically reproduce their current organization on Internet? Nothing is less certain.
Economic intelligence on Internet François Bourdoncle and Thierry Weil
Internet (the network of networks) and the Worldwide Web, given the availability of powerful search means in these media, transform the methods and strategies for access to information and knowledge — as well as the costs of the search for information and expert advice. The competitiveness of our firms and laboratories increasingly depends on efficiently utilizing these new means.
The diffusion of Intranet and its impact on firms
Cédric Thomas
As a new dimension in a firm's inhouse information system, Intranet helps improve relations with clients by opening to them programs with an impact on competitiveness. At the individual level, Intranet is basically an environment for interactive communication. This new dimension creates new bonds; and it changes relations between economic actors, between individuals with each other and with their firm, and even between the firm and its environment.
One-way I-ways in the global village?
Axel Pavillet
Internet is now seen as a very egalitarian factor in access to information. Not only does it abolish distance, but it is "cheap for everyone". But this development in the West risks increasing the inequality between developed lands and the others. Underdeveloped countries that do not speak English may be worse off. Can we really talk about an information society if it is not easily and, more importantly, equally accessible?