Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Check out <http://3611.re/> for a brilliant re-creation of the
electronic phonebook (aka, l'annuaire électronique). The interface
is vintage but the search results are current! 

For comparison, here's a France Telecom ad from 1992 demonstrating
what "Le 11" looked like on actual Minitel hardware:
<https://www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/publicite/pub3774399020/france-telecom-le-
11-serveur-telematique-service-minitel-annuaire> 

This month is actually the ten year anniversary of the end of
Minitel. (It ran continuously for around thirty years.) France TV 3
recently published a short, accessible documentary series aimed at
young people. The archival footage is amazing:
<https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxB7hhJZLUR52-s8WTtDTBvm1TQAOLd1h>
  

    
> Didn't <tex> work for Minitel?

Ding, ding, ding! <tnf> wins today's game of wacky net-history
trivia. That rave video came courtesy of <tex>. 

When Julien and I were grad students, we drove up to Mendocino from
Los Angeles to visit <tex> at KZYX-FM and talk about Minitel. We
came back with a "U.S. Videotel" terminal that was essentially a
French Minitel 1B with a QWERTY keyboard, RJ-11 jacks, and a
three-prong power cord. The terminal now resides in Bloomington with
the rest of our Minitel collection:
<https://minitel.us/terminals/us-minitel-1b>
  

    
Catching up on the discussion of gender and sysops in <176-180>,
another excellent book is _Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women
Who Made the Internet_ by Claire L. Evans which features Stacy Horn
and Echo:
<https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545427/broad-band-by-claire-l-evans/>
  

    
Thank you to everyone who posted, lurked, and shared in this
discussion over the past few weeks and an extra special thanks to
<jonl> for making it happen. It was a truly unique opportunity for
me. I'm happy to keep the conversation going here, over at <vc.>,
and elsewhere. My mind will be buzzing with your comments for a long
time to come. :,-)
  

    

It's been great following along here. THANKS
  

    
Let me add my thanks as well.  Great discussion.
  

    
Yes! Thank you!
  

    
Topic remains open if people have followup comments... onward,
through the fog!
  

    
Enjoyed lurking!
  

    
Great discussion and book! Thanks!
  

    
I've enjoyed it.
  

    
hOW DID WE GO AN ENTIRE DISCUSSION WITHOUT 7-BIT ascii?
  

    
<driscoll>, could you send me the syllabus for your Comparative
Histories of the Internet class?
  

    
Sure! Here is the syllabus I am using this semester:
https://kevindriscoll.info/teaching/mdst3504-syllabus-22f-2022-08-10.pdf

I'm planing a big overhaul before next year so if you have
suggestions, I'm all ears. :)
  

    
Thanks, Kevin!

Are you working on another book?
  

    
Thank you, Kevin.
  

    
<jonl> Yes! But I can't jinx myself by talking about it yet ;)
  

    
We're waiting on pins and needles!
  

    
If you're curious to hear other folks responding to these themes,
ISSUES in Science and Technology recently published a forum about
the book and the idea of "imagining a better internet". The
contributors are all brilliant thinkers and critics: Tamara Kneese,
Finn Brunton, Avery Dame-Griff, Kat Brewster, and Frances Corry.

https://issues.org/imagining-better-internet-driscoll-forum/
  

    
Cool, thanks!
  

    
BBS operators from the early '90s had a reunion this month:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck46PiGgrbQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link


The BBS was the "World Percussion Network". Its intent lives on in
the website pas.org.