Kling.UCI-20B%rand-relay@sri-unix.UUCP (11/27/83)
From: Rob-Kling <Kling.UCI-20B@rand-relay>
There has been some recent inquiry and discussion on the Telecom
bboard about the efforts of the French Ministry of
Post & Telecommunications to spread terminals to households which could use them
for telephone information if they forgo paper directories.
Some people are excited by this move which they view as bringing
"home computing" to the general public.
I wrote the following note to help clarify the nature of the French
effort. It might be of interest to some readers of
Info-micro who are interested in seeing home computing spread.
--------------------------------------------
I know a little bit about the French effort through experiences
in a recent visit to France and through some French academic
colleagues who are studying different aspects of the telephone
/terminal program.
First and foremost, the program was based on an effort of the
French PTT to find new work for a large software staff and also in
the hopes of stimulating a French based terminal industry.
The strategy reflects centralized French styles of activity and
also an attempt for the PTT to maintain substantial control over
resulting developments.
For example, the current system is "closed" in that it is difficult
to connect a terminal of a random brand to the system. I don't know
the terminal standard, but it does not seem to be widely in use
outside the phone setup. This is different than the "open" strategy
adopted by IBM in marketing its PC and thereby stimulating a vast
market of 3rd party suppliers for associated hardware, software, and
even copycat ("clone") machines.
It does not appear that the PTT's terminals can be easily
employed for use with other systems for database inquiries. The
terminals can not be expanded into a PC, for example, by having a
household purchase add-on boxes and software (e.g., operating system
applications). _
Consequently, the chances that the home terminals will
stimulate home computer use, as have say, Apple's in the US, is much
reduced.
I do not know about the quality of actual phone service through
the terminals.
The French PTT ran an electronic mail system at IFIP'83
(Teletel) in Paris this last September. Many people tried the mail
system (all registrants were given mail id s.) Few could log in;
fewer still actually sent mail. The mail system stimulated alot of
conversation and "communication." -- in front of the terminals where
small clusters of conference participants were trying to figure it
out. All the system commands and documentation were in French - at
an International Conference. (After all, French is THE
international language. In Paris.)
The PTT specified keyboards for Teletel come in two varieties:
Dvorak and a linear alphabet (A.B.C.D.E......) for hunt and peck
typists. There is no QWERTY model. This, in itself, is an
interesting move. The costs of trying to de-institutionalize QWERTY
may well be to make the system unattractive for people who have
learned to type or who must type at high speed on any other system.
(This is the keyboard for promoting their new electronic mail
system. I'm not sure whether the same keyboard layouts are used for
the home telephone directory systems.)
Teletel is NOT the directory system. However, since the PTT
was showcasing Teletel at IFIP'83, I suspect that some high level
official thought it was worthy of prominent display.
French phone service has improved dramatically in the last 5
years. Perhaps 60% - 70% of French households have telephones. In
1970, the fraction was closer to 25-30%. (These numbers are very
rough and not accurate.) Pay phones are rare compared with, say,
Newport Boulevard in Newport Beach or University Avenue in Palo
Alto. If you walk along a comparable commercial street in, say,
Dijon, you will have trouble finding a pay phone. Usually there are
a few pay phones in the downtown areas of medium sized French towns.
Phone service in France is somewhat less accessable than in the US,
and the French efforts are very different than what ATT would do.
It is worth tracking the French efforts. While "households are
getting terminals," this is not quite "the computerization of
society." These French efforts provide a rich case in which central
policies which spread some elements of computerization to households
are deeply intertwined with cultural approaches, the attempts of a
central government to stimulate segments of an internationally
competitive computer industry, and the political economy of the
French PTT. An interesting saga is unfolding.
Most of the useful materials about these efforts are written in
French.
Rob Kling (Kling.uci-20b@rand-relay)