Minitel was brought to life through the ingenuity of countless engineers, entrepreneurs, administrators, and enthusiasts. While Internet folklore tends to celebrate small groups of computer wizards hacking away in basements and garages, Minitel thrived at the forefront of French popular culture. During the 1980s and 1990s, Minitel was on the street, in the cinema, on the radio, and in the news. People from all over France experimented with the new medium—men and women, young and old, urbanites and country dwellers, rich and poor, gay and straight. That Minitel continues to provoke our thinking about technology, policy, and culture is a tribute to the creativity and curiosity of its diverse users.
Just as Minitel was produced by a multitude, many different people assisted in the preparation of this book. We would like to thank the staff at Orange/Direction de la Gestion et de la Conservation de l’Information, the Conseil d’État, and the Archives Nationales whose help in locating and scanning materials was crucial—in particular, Emmanuelle Flament-Guelfucci, Pierre Philippi, and Irmine Vieira as well as the community of researchers and Orange employees and former employees in Brittany, Paris, and San Francisco who provided us with access, support, feedback, and unbridled enthusiasm about the ongoing relevance of Minitel: Isabelle Astic, Patrice Battiston, Yochai Benkler, Jean-Luc Beraudo De Pralormo, John Coate, Daniel Hannaby, Bernard Louvel, Jean-Paul Maury, Georges Nahon, Camille Paloque-Berges, Bernard Peuto, Monroe Price, Valérie Schafer, Gérard Théry, Benjamin Thierry, and Marc Weber. In addition to archival research, this book depends on several firsthand accounts, and we are grateful to those individuals who agreed to sit for interviews: Michel Baujard, Jean-Luc Beraudo De Pralormo, Laurent Chemla, John Coate, Daniel Hannaby, Jean-Baptiste Ingold, Michel Landaret, Bernard Louvel, Allan Lundell, Jean-Marc Manach, Bernard Marti, Jean-Paul Maury, Georges Nahon, Dusty Parks, Jean-Eudes Queffélec, Christian Quest, Gérard Théry, and LaRoy Tymes.
A big shout-out goes to today’s Minitel enthusiasts whose hacks, pranks, and tributes provided us with inspiration and insight during the preparation of this book. We are especially grateful to those minitelistes who document their explorations for other to follow. Special thanks are due to Frédéric Cambus, whose archives of Minitel and French bulletin board systems materials were invaluable during the research process.
We would like to thank Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort, editors of the Platform Studies series, for their early enthusiasm and ongoing support for the project, and Doug Sery, acquisitions editor at the MIT Press, Virginia Crossman, assistant editor at the MIT Press, and Susan Clark, catalog manager at the MIT Press, for their stewardship. Finally, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful feedback.
Julien would like to thank his colleagues at Indiana University, especially Barb Cherry, Annie Lang, Matt Pierce, Harmeet Sawhney, and David Waterman for always lending a keen Minitel ear, Vicki Nash and the participants in the 2011 Oxford Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Program, and his committee members at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism: Jonathan Aronson, François Bar, Steve Lamy, Daniel Lynch, and Philip Seib.
Kevin wishes to thank his colleagues at Microsoft Research New England for their guidance and support, particularly Andrea Alarcon, Nancy Baym, Christian Borgs, Sarah Brayne, Jennifer Chayes, Tarleton Gillespie, Sharon Gillett, Mary Gray, Rebecca Hoffman, Jessa Lingel, Lana Swartz, and all of the wonderful interns and visitors who passed through the Social Media Collective. He is also indebted to Henry Jenkins for many years of mentorship and inspiration. Finally, Kevin is grateful to his family, Ed, Katie, Mark, and Mary, and especially his spouse, Lana Swartz, for her wisdom, humor, and grace.
Lastly, Julien and Kevin would like to acknowledge the invaluable contributions of Cooper, the Minitel dog.
Le Minitel est mort, vive le Net!