Minitel: the rise and fall of the France-wide web

By Kroc Camen, submitted by Kroc on 2012-06-28 13:48:27

"The failure of Minitel was not one of technology, [...] It was the whole model that was doomed. Basically to set up a service on Minitel, you had to ask permission from France Telecom. You had to go to the old guys who ran the system, and who knew absolutely nothing about innovation. It meant that nothing new could ever happen. Basically, Minitel innovated from 1978 to 1982, and then it stopped." This is what the World Wide Web could one-day look like. Dearth of innovation for the want of permission.

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