Alternative DNS systems and net neutrality - Was: Re: [governance] DNSsec and allternative DNS system

[Meryem Marzouki]

Lee,

Thanks for this clarification.
Regarding the "confiscatory nature" of the diffusion process,  
although I confess I live in France only since 1986, i.e. after the  
Minitel distribution started, I really don't remember people having  
no choice but using the Minitel. I think you had rather to choose,  
either the Minitel or the phone books, or one of the phone books  
(yellow or white pages, don't remember). Also, since we're going into  
the details, there have been different generations of the Minitel  
equipment, and most probably only version 1 was entirely free, while  
further versions were leased for a very, very small amount of money  
(like were leased more trendy fixed telephones, only the real museum  
ones being given for free). In any case, I'm not sure this is more of  
a "confiscatory" nature than, say, some web2.0 (or even older)  
applications economic models:)
As for the figures, after some googling I've found a Wired article  
from April 2001, speaking of $4.1 million spent by France Telecom in  
2000 trying to promote the Minitel in the US (http://www.wired.com/ 
science/discoveries/news/2001/04/42943)?

Meryem

Le 18 nov. 07 à 22:38, Lee McKnight a écrit :

> Meryem,
>
> Sorry to continue my cleaning up of the historical record on this  
> thread: but France Telecom did spend lots of time and money in the  
> 1990s trying to promote the Minitel into Japan, the US, and other  
> nations, even though folks like me were advising that it was a lost  
> cause/not exportable.
>
> In fact as late as mid-90s they dropped $50m - which in those days  
> was real money - trying to bring the Minitel into the US...on the  
> dates I am a little fuzzy I admit, but I remember that round number.
>
> Also, the confiscatory nature of the diffusion process - ie they  
> took away your phone books so you had to use the Minitel to find  
> information - sounds like something the US DOD might dream of -  
> well actually sounds like a move a state-owned telco monopoly would  
> dream up ; )
>
> Lee
>
> Prof. Lee W. McKnight
> School of Information Studies
> Syracuse University
> +1-315-443-6891office
> +1-315-278-4392 mobile
>>>> marzouki at ras.eu.org 11/17/07 10:28 AM >>>
> Veni, why do you think that being from a given country makes it
> compulsory for someone to approve and be proud of everything coming
> from this country?
>
> This liminary note being made, the Minitel (which by the way was not
> created by the military) didn't make it on the world arena not
> because all services were in French (translations would have been
> easy), but for many other reasons, like that at that time France
> Telecom was a public monopoly, with no real interest in
> commercializing it worldwide. When circumstances changed, the Minitel
> and its models (technical, contractual, economic.. models) were
> entirely obsolete w.r.t. Internet developments, and specially web
> developments.
>
> What's great about the minitel is that the device was distributed for
> free to all French telephone users (individuals, administration,
> businesses..), in the early 80s, and that made it widely used by the
> population, with many public and private services available, some for
> free, others with payment. The bad side of the story is that this
> situation has delayed a lot Internet developments in France, and
> specially its use by a large public: in the mid 90s, the minitel
> penetration rate was at its peak.
>
> Meryem
>
> Le 17 nov. 07 à 14:56, Veni Markovski a écrit :
>
>> Hmmm... What was the system in France, which was created before the
>> WWW? Did it make it on the world arena, or it remained only in  
>> France?
>>
>> Let's be more precise. If it wasn't for the DoD to give it up to
>> the DoC, and then to ICANN, we would not be able to exchange these
>> emails today.
>>
>> veni
>>
>> At 14:40 11/17/2007  +0100, you wrote:
>>
>>> Le 17 nov. 07 * 13:13, Veni Markovski a *crit :
>>>>
>>>>  It is good to think about the way the Internet came to the current
>>>> day, if it was created by the... let's say the Bulgarian Ministry
>>>> of Defence. It would have still been used only by the Ministry of
>>>> Defence within their main building in Sofia.
>>>
>>> I'm confident that, thanks to ISOC Bulgaria and public-private
>>> partnership, this wouldn't have developed this way:)
>>
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