[10713] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Internet vs Minitel : a futuristic view of the network evolution ?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Doug Humphrey)
Sun Mar 6 19:11:09 1994
Date: Sun, 6 Mar 1994 15:30:45 -0500 (EST)
From: Doug Humphrey <digex@ss1.digex.net>
To: Miles R Fidelman <fidelman@civicnet.org>
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.89.9403060722.A12659-0100000@world.std.com>
Minitel and Internet are not two horses running a race, neck
and neck. It is more like two horses running in opposite
directions around the track.
Minitel is the "information kiosk" that you hear about, with the
added value that it is extended into nearly all of the homes.
Basic use for it is information retrieval; schedules and
price lists and other things are perfectly at home on it. It
is not really a communications system. As such, it has its
information retrieval game pretty nicely practiced, but is
lacking in comm.
Internet is the "information highway" where the emphasis is on the
information that is moving around, and not really on an organized
system of searching and presenting. Note that as an information
kiosk, the internet pretty much stinks right now. It is not really
an information retrieval system. As such, it has its communications
game down cold, but is lacking in organization and presentation.
So, to compare them, note that one has comm, is working to get
retrieval/organization, the other has retireval, is working to
get comm.
Who is leading in this race?
Doug
