re: FYIFrance: new French Info.Superhighway/Autoroute (pt.2of2)
 
"Les Autoroutes de l'Information...": "Information Superhighways are
social mechanisms", and the dangers of a "two - speed society"

(The continuation of Kessler's translation of Le Crosnier's summary of
the Rapport The'ry, the just - released plan for France's national
information infrastructure, written by the "father of the French
Minitel", Ge'rard The'ry. Also: debate, already, and a conference.)

(continued from Part 1:)

In the commercial market, the experience acquired through the success
of Minitel must be realized and validated. France Te'le'com, the fourth
largest telecom operator in the world, has both the technical and the
financial infrastructure at its disposal capable of carrying through
the Minitel project to its conclusion. The know - how in both software
and networks will find outlets in the construction of "Autoroutes de
l'Information". The television network will have an advantage, against
cable and wavelength networks which don't permit the interactivity
required by multimedia.

Complete cabling in fiber optics must be an objective of the
"Autoroutes de l'Information". A significant step in this direction
must be made quickly. Ge'rard The'ry asserts: "the necessary
investments in both infrastructure and services are the responsibility
of the national government."


3) The Necessity for an Ambitious Strategy, Using All Available Means

The transformation now under way is taking place "in a climate of
acceleration of competition on a global scale: "In this war, France is
behind not only by comparison with the US... but also compared to
France's principal partner, Germany."

France has numerous advantages, in services as in the infrastructure of
telecommunication. Ge'rard The'ry concentrates then on two
perspectives:

a) putting at the disposition of all citizens, between now and the year
2015, "Autoroutes de l'Information", at their homes and in every place
where they are active;

b) the equality of all in access to the "Autoroutes de l'Information",
that is to say an expansion, to the new services offered by the
"Autoroutes de l'Information", of the Universal Service already
applicable to the telephone.

The report specifies four basic steps permitting the creation of
conditions of a market of sufficient scale for the new services of
multimedia:

a) A redeployment of networks into fiber optics, which must be
undertaken rapidly (4 to 5 million lines), so as to acquire competence
and know - how and to provide potential services with a test site
quickly. France Te'le'com must play the most important role, as part of
its new plan for 1995 - 9.

b) The launching of experimentation platforms for services and systems,
permitting market testing. The test experiences of Velizy and Rennes,
during the introduction of the Minitel, are offered as examples. The
experiences must be directly applied using the fiber optic cable
network, working at "Autoroutes de l'Information" speeds.

c) A development of software for both systems and content.

d) An intensification of the use of ATM, which permits Europe to push
its advantage in telecommunications all the way to the level of the
user's terminal.


This strategy should be followed in collaboration with Germany,
inserting the use of high speed transmissions into the European
strategy, and pushing for the extension of Universal Service to new
multimedia services.

The means of action must point toward a mobilization of systems of
public information, using existing networks and taking advantage of an
opening into Europe.

But this role is not possible except through an awakening of French
society to the importance of the question, which in turn will not
happen without the determined action of the public authorities.

"The appearance of the 'Autoroutes de l'Information' presents a grand
opportunity. It must, however, avoid becoming an affair of specialists,
and it must avoid opposing, through incomprehension, the phenomena of
rejection. We must avoid the generation of a two - speed society, which
would compromise the benefits to be gleaned from this revolution."

(end of Le Crosnier's summary of the Rapport The'ry)

***

US networkers and librarians might note The'ry's heavy emphasis on the
vital role to be played by the central government, in this French
version of a "National Information Infrastructure": so unlike anything
so far realistically planned for our own Internet's future, much less
on the US drawing boards now after the recent election mood - swing. My
own guess is that the basic French approach outlined above now will be
far more near to the approach of other countries than will anything to
be developed by the US Congress during the next few years.

Note also, pace Childers, The'ry's preoccupation with the "information
poor" -- he warns agains the development of a "two - speed society",
ie. a fast Internet lane and a slow 500 - channel one -- a
preoccupation which even makes good business as well as political
sense, but which is seldom heard in the devil - take - all race now
under way to develop the US Information Superhighway.

For those interested in reading more, articles have appeared in Le
Monde, October 31, on the Rapport The'ry, and October 8, announcing the
impending connection of the Bibliothe`que Nationale to the Internet
(via RENATER), and in Le Monde Diplomatique for November, this last
violently criticizing "Autoroutes de l'Information" on, of all things,
nationalistic grounds ("Who is going to profit by these "Autoroutes de
l'Information"?", demands the author -- answer, "American
corporations"!). The French always make interesting reading, if only to
get, always, a non - US point of view.

Also, for those of you already in France, or who just might be passing
through at the end of November:

a conference will be held November 30 and December 1 in Rennes on this
"Autoroutes de l'Information" subject, featuring Michel Melot, Herve'
Le Crosnier, Jean - Louis Ducasse, and several other French library and
library networking luminaries. The conference, entitled "A la
de'couverte d'Internet", is sponsored by the ADBS / Association
franc,aise des Documentalistes et Bibliothe'caires Specialise's.
Additional conference information may be obtained from Marie-Anne
Ollivier, Documentaliste Geosciences-Rennes, Campus de Beaulieu, 35O42
RENNES Cedex, email marie-anne.ollivier@univ-rennes1.fr, tel (33) 99 28
60 75, fax (33) 99 28 67 80.

***
 
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