Table of Contents

  1. Series page
  2. Title page
  3. Copyright page
  4. Series Foreword
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. 1 A Tale of Two Parties
  7. 2 Disaggregating the Minitel Platform
  8. 3 Embedding Culture in Architecture
  9. 4 Not End to End, but Open
  10. 5 The Booming Minitel Private Enterprise
  11. 6 On the Fringe
  12. 7 Conclusion
  13. Appendix: Currency Conversion Table
  14. Glossary
  15. Bibliography
  16. Index

List of Tables

  1. Table 1.1 Statistics published by France Telecom, 1983–1995
  2. Table 5.1 Proportion of Users Accessing Various Types of Services during the Previous Year

List of Illustrations

  1. Figure 1.1 Minitel implementation map published in 1984. The numbers refer to the number of terminals (in thousands) requested by local authorities—a projection into the future. In the following years, terminals were distributed in even greater numbers to many of these regions. Source: Orange/DGCI référence photo F008571.
  2. Figure 1.2 Connection hours (in thousands), 1985–2007. Source: Data published by France Telecom and available at Orange/DGCI.
  3. Figure 1.3 Minitel growth indexes, 1983–1997 (base year: 1985). Source: Data published by France Telecom and available at Orange/DGCI.
  4. Figure 2.1 The Minitel 1B video terminal produced by Telic-Alcatel. Source: Authors’ collection.
  5. Figure 2.2 How to install your Minitel: a terminal, a telephone, three wires, et voilà! France Telecom, Minitel 1: Mode d’emploi, modèle TELIC, n.d. Source: Authors’ collection.
  6. Figure 2.3 Diagram of the Télétel platform showing the interconnection between the analog, circuit-switched telephone network and digital, packet-switched Transpac network. Direction générale des télécommunications, comment mettre en oeuvre un service Télétel, n.d. Source: Orange/DGCI.
  7. Figure 2.4 Typical use of semigraphic characters to display images on Minitel. A videotex page about the French Open tennis tournament from 1984. Source: Orange/DGCI référence photo F013262.
  8. Figure 2.5 Mapping of the semigraphic characters displayed by Minitel terminals to the corresponding numerical codes transmitted along the network. Direction générale des télécommunications, Télétel, Minitel 1B: Spécifications techniques d’utilisation (Paris: Ministère des Postes et des Télécommunications, 1986), 101. Source: Authors’ collection.
  9. Figure 2.6 Minitel Magis video terminal with built-in smart card reader. With this particular model, inserting a smart card also woke the Minitel from its sleep state. Source: Authors’ collection. Photograph courtesy of Jeff Jamison.
  10. Figure 2.7 The path from a home terminal to a remote server. Note the crucial role played by PAVI as a gateway between the analog and digital networks (réseaux). Direction générale des télécommunications, Spécifications techniques d’utilisation du point d’accès Vidéotex (Paris: Ministère des Postes et des Télécommunications, 1987). Source: Orange/DGCI.
  11. Figure 2.8 Photograph of an Alcatel-CIT E-10 gateway. Direction générale des télécommunications, Spécifications techniques d’utilisation du point d’accès Vidéotex (Paris: Ministère des Postes et des Télécommunications, 1987). Source: Orange/DGCI.
  12. Figure 3.1 In 1981, the election of François Mitterrand was announced on television by way of a videotex portrait of the president’s face. Antenne 2, “Election présidentielle 1981: Mitterrand élu,” Paris, May 10, 1981, accessed September 18, 2016, http://www.ina.fr/video/I00002041. Source: Institut national de l’audiovisuel (INA).
  13. Figure 3.2 Diagram of a Colbertist road network in which Paris is the central traffic hub, and direct travel is impossible between points A and B. Adapted from James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), 75.
  14. Figure 3.3 Télétel network architecture.
  15. Figure 4.1 Comparison of 101 Online and Télétel network architectures. Julien Mailland, “101 Online: American Minitel Network and Lessons from Its Failure,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 38, no. 1 (January–March 2016): 6–22.
  16. Figure 4.2 Expanded diagram of the Télétel platform including gateways from Transpac to Telenet and Tymnet, two commercial public data networks based in the United States. Intelmatique, Télétel Videotex, February 1982. Source: Orange/DGCI.
  17. Figure 4.3 Technical documentation for designers of videotex services. Direction générale des télécommunications, Spécifications vidéotex de visualisation et de codage (Paris, France: Ministère des Postes et des Télécommunications, circa 1980). Source: Orange/DGCI.
  18. Figure 4.4 France Telecom documentation included detailed examples demonstrating how to design videotex services that would be easy for users to navigate. In this picture: the tree structure and use of function keys suggested for Télétel sites. Ministère des PTT, Recommandations aux partenaires Télétel, (Paris: Ministère des PTT, 1986), 11. Source: Authors’ collection, donated by Jean-Luc Beraudo De Pralormo.
  19. Figure 5.1 A woman walks by a billboard in Mulhouse advertising 3615 ULLA, one of the most famous messageries, August 1987. Source: Authors’ collection.
  20. Figure 5.2 This ad for the Magix messagerie is rife with puns and innuendo. The subscript (tapez sur nous, on aime ça!) translates literally as “hit us, we like it!”—a play on the double meaning of the verb taper for “hitting” and “typing on a keyboard.” Minitel Magazine, no. 19, January–February 1987, 83.
  21. Figure 5.3 This ad for the SeXtel messagerie situates the Minitel rose in a longer tradition of patriarchal heterosexuality. The illustration invites a historical comparison between Minitel and earlier uses of new media for sexual exploration such as boudoir photography. Revue du Minitel, no. 8, November–December 1986, 47.
  22. Figure 5.4 FUNITEL portrays the Minitel rose as a more egalitarian space for sexual play, inviting women with an implicit promise of pleasure and empowerment: “She gets hit on a ton, and she finds it hilarious.” Revue du Minitel, no. 8, November–December 1986, 39.
  23. Figure 5.5 The rose phenomenon was not limited to explicitly sexual services. At first blush, this advertisement from Le Monde, a major mainstream newspaper, offers to engage your brain (“We’re mostly IQ”), but the illustration depicts another part of the body altogether. Further, the letter Q, when spoken aloud, sounds like the word cul, meaning “butt.” Source: Authors’ collection.
  24. Figure 5.6 The playful, pseudonymous discourse of the messageries was often compared to the traditional masquerade ball. Minitel Magazine, no. 19, January–February 1987, cover.
  25. Figure 5.7 A trade magazine’s reenactment of an animatrice at work depicts “Koka,” a male college student presiding over a messagerie from his bedroom. Notice the empty fridge and bottle of whiskey in the foreground. “Koka, the Telematics ‘Disc-Jockey,’” Revue du Minitel, no. 8, November–December 1986, 47.
  26. Figure 5.8 Minitel was a fixture of many workplaces, from the office to the shop floor. This photo appeared in a feature on the use of telematics by the auto industry: “[Along] with the 12″ wrench and the hub puller, Minitel has become a vital tool for the car mechanic.” Revue du Minitel, no. 7, September–October 1986, 26.
  27. Figure 5.9 This ad for 3615 RS—Rencontres Sympas! (friendly meetings)—features a satirical cartoon by Georges Wolinski. A nude woman lying on a bed cries out, “Damned be this Minitel of doom!” to which a man seated nearby answers, “But it is to it that we owe our happiness!” Ironically, the ad appeared in the same issue of Minitel Magazine as an editorial proclaiming the magazine would no longer publish advertising that “directly and crudely called upon sexuality.” Minitel Magazine, no. 16, August–September 1986, 26.
  28. Figure 5.10 A glowing pink Minitel on the cover of a technical documentation suggests a winking recognition of the popularity of the messageries. Direction générale des télécommunications, Réseau Minitel: Spécifications techniques d’utilisation (Paris: Ministère des Postes et des Télécommunications, n.d.). Source: Orange/DGCI.
  29. Figure 5.11 Françoise Marceau, Tele-Market’s head of client service, poses with her Minitel in front of her “Minitel-Van.” Tele-Market Minitel-Van,” Revue du Minitel, no. 2, September–October 1985, 18.
  30. Figure 5.12 Minitel provided a convenient platform for the production of numerous peripherals. The Ligne Directe system from IDT promised home automation (domotique) with remote control via Minitel. Advertisement, n.d. Source: Orange/DGCI.
  31. Figure 5.13 A restaurant customer pays her bill using a secure chip card reader connected to a Minitel 1B, circa 1988. With the addition of a smart card reader, Minitel became an affordable point-of-sale system enabling businesses to accept payment cards. Direction générale des télécommunications, La Lettre de Télétel, no. 16, Q1, 1989. Source: Orange/DGCI.
  32. Figure 5.14 The illustrated sleeve for the twelve-inch maxi-single Minitel … Miniquoi? by pop group Liaison depicts a telematic love affair in full-color comic book style. Jointly released by the Kangourou and Musical Force labels in 1987 with catalog number 24.101. Source: Authors’ collection.
  33. Figure 6.1 Minitel terminal repurposed to display messages from Twitter. Source: Authors’ collection.

Guide

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