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| Authored by: SilverWave on Friday, September 28 2012 @ 02:44 PM EDT |
Quote: Fear of return to Minitel model?
“Today, the Minitel is still used mainly by elderly people who don’t have access
to the Internet,” wrote Jérémie Zimmerman, head of the French digital rights
group La Quadrature du Net, in a French-language instant message to Ars on
Thursday. “The Minitel was innovative for about 20 minutes, and died due to
where it failed: by its centralization that never allowed it to evolve
technologically: because it was under the control of France Telecom, for whom
that control translated into huge profits.”
“It is true that the Minitel taught French people how to use a keyboard and how
to connect to online services,” he added. “But it taught them the opposite of
what is the most important lesson about the Internet: its universality, and the
decentralized character of its architecture.”
Zimmerman now worries that legislative efforts to restrict the Internet will be
similar to a “return to the Minitel”—in other words, a walled garden where many
Internet users don’t stray beyond sites like Google or Facebook.
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RMS: The 4 Freedoms
0 run the program for any purpose
1 study the source code and change it
2 make copies and distribute them
3 publish modified versions
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| Authored by: JamesK on Sunday, September 30 2012 @ 08:00 AM EDT |
| There were 3 competing systems. France had Minitel. Britain had Prestel, IIRC.
There was also Telidon in
Canada. As I recall, Telidon was the more technically advanced and used vector
graphics, rather than the character graphics of Prestel and Minitel. I recall
seeing terminals around Toronto. The phone company also offered access via an
app that ran on personal computers. However, Telidon only lasted for a few
years ---
The following program contains immature subject matter. Viewer
discretion is advised. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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