FYI France: Nat'l.Library School online, & all France in '96? FYI France: 1.0 the French national library school, the ENSSIB at Lyon, now is online with a very sophisticated gopher and a very promising - looking W3 homepage; and, 2.0 France Te'le'com just has undertaken the provision of Internet access to _everyone_ in France, at the cost of a local telephone call, in a project to begin this year. 1.0 The national library school, the ENSSIB at Lyon, now on gopher & W3 Librarians, francophiles, francophones, and Internauts all may be interested to learn that the French national library school -- the ENSSIB / Ecole Nationale Supe'rieure des Sciences de l'Information et des Bibliothe`ques, at Lyon -- now has both a highly - developed gopher service and a new W3 / WorldWideWeb page: gopher.enssib.fr , and http://www.enssib.fr . One indispensable research tool under development at these sites is a fulltext archive of back issues of _BBF_ / the _Bulletin des bibliothe`ques de France_, which may be searched using keywords: there will be few better ways to research a topic in French library, information, or general "bibliothe'conomie" work. The gopher even provides for an easy downloading function for BBF articles [although I can't get it to work myself yet -- tried everything, Danielle, the "pipe" may be over - crowded? -- anyone's advice here would be much appreciated]. All this is further indication of France's continuing and national commitment to establishing and maintaining a leading role in networked information. The ENSSIB's entry, moreover, promises a role for the much - valued French capacity to theorize: theory has been so lacking, so far, in the explosive growth of the Internet juggernaut -- perhaps the ENSSIB Website will prompt a few French minds to offer some over - arching insights into what all this technical and commercial information development means. Fe'licitations, Danielle Roger and all of the team at the ENSSIB and the universite' de Lyon I, on the development of a very promising resource. 2.0 _All_ of France on the Internet in 1996 (?) A recent posting to BIBLIO-FR, the French librarians' e - conference, describes a meeting, chaired by the country's Prime Minister, which decided to put the Internet within reach of all French citizens, in a program to begin before the end of the year and for the cost of a local telephone call: any other countries proceeding so boldly? -- (the following is my own translation of a - posting - to - BIBLIO-FR - of - a - posting - to - ADBS-INFO - of - a - posting - to - EDUFRANCAIS - of a press release of the French Ministry of Information Technologies and of the Post Office: the Internet can be a confusing place, and obtaining corroboration which is timely is increasingly difficult in a byte - possessed world -- the consulate does say that the Minister said that it happened, but they are reorganizing the government over there too, so caveat lector -- what follows makes fascinating reading for those interested in different approaches to implementing Cyberspace) "Inter - Ministerial Committee on the Autoroutes and Services of Information The Inter - Ministerial Committee for Autoroutes and Services of Information met on October 16, 1995, the Prime Minister presiding, and made the following decisions, as proposed by F. Fillon, the Minister of Information Technologies and of the Post Office: 1) The in - depth examination of the 635 proposals submitted since the call for proposals made at the beginning of 1995 now permits the identification of 170 projects as 'projects in the public interest', on which work has begun or will begin soon. Among these are 7 projects in administration, 6 in audio - visual applications, 11 in culture, 15 in finance, 6 in media, 5 in research, 6 in health, 27 in education, 2 in tourism and 6 in transportation. National experimentation platforms will be launched, and 30 regional experiments, which will be able to accommodate numerous experimental services projects. These experimentation platforms cover the entire country: there will be at least one platform in each region. France Telecom is involved in 11 of them: the national ATM network, 4 sites for experimental installation of fiber optics for 20,000 homes each from now until 1997 (Bourges, Narbonne, Paris, Rennes), 6 sites for ISDN (Numeris) experimentation involving 3,000 connections for each (Bordeaux, Clermont - Ferrand, Grenoble, Le Mans, Reims, Toulouse). The two other large national projects are RENATER II -- the new generation of the national network for technology, education and research, intended for research centers, establishments of higher education, universities and private firms, from now through the end of 1996 -- and the RENATER project to connect high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools from 13 national centers by the end of 1995. Regional governments are supporting 12 large regional experiment platforms, and private firms are supporting 8 regional platforms. The establishment of 194 [regional] projects will continue through the end of 1995. 2) Among the projects which appear to be the most innovative, a certain number (notably over half of the regional projects outside of those of France Telecom) cannot be put into operation within existing regulations, and require changes to telecommunications or audiovisual laws and regulations. The Government therefore has decided to submit, before the end of this year, legislation which will enable these projects. This legislation will be presented to the Council of Ministers on November 15. It will propose the establishment of a structure of experimental licenses, which will permit the suspension of existing laws and regulations, for a strictly - limited period and in limited geographic areas. This will be reserved to a small number of projects of general interest, giving regard to their innovative character, their administrative structure, and their financial viability. This will permit experimental use of the cable networks for multimedia services, including telephony, new services and advanced functionality of teleport telecommunication, technologies of ["diffusion numerique terrestre"? -- help with technical translation here will be much appreciated], ["celle de la diffusion multiplexee sur canal micro - ondes (MMDS)"?] which can be complementary to cable in rural zones, and services available to individual users (video - on - demand...). 3) The financing of the most innovative projects is favored by research and development funds from the Ministry of Information Technologies and the Post Office. 48 projects will receive the 50 million francs [US$10 million] still available in 1995. An allocation of 300 million francs [US$60 million], of which 100 million francs [US$20 million] are reserved for PME [Petites et Moyennes Entreprises: French legal / economic policy term - of - art -- but, very generally, "small businesses"] through ANVAR [Agence Nationale de Valorisation de la Recherche], is promised to the project in 1996 in the budget of the Ministry of Information Technologies and of the Post Office, to further support innovative projects. [A US note: that 1996 figure alone is well over double the size of the US$24 million devoted to the NSF Digital Library projects -- this is for a country with a population the size of several large US states. And I wonder myself how the US will be handling the "PME" question?: SBA / Small Business Admin. didn't receive much NSF funding in the past. I am not sure that SBA even exists anymore -- certainly not today (Nov.15), but then the Library of Congress is out of business today too -- and there won't even be a Department of Commerce for NSF to give money to in the future, I understand, even if they wanted to. grump.] 4) The Ministry of Information Technologies and the Post Office and the Ministry of Culture have decided to pool their resources to support the publication of multimedia products destined for online distribution, by creating a fund for the support of the publication of multimedia products online which will contain 30 million francs (US$6 million) and also will support optical disk publication (CDROM). 5) Minister Fillon has proposed the objective of making access to the Internet for everyone in France possible, rapidly, at an attractive and uniform price throughout the country. France Telecom will offer to Internet service providers, before the end of 1995 and at the cost of a local call, a service for general public access across the entire country. Each French person will be able to reach his or her Internet service provider at the price of a local call. 6) Regarding the regulation of encryption, Minister Fillon said during the meeting that the use of encryption to protect a password, an access code, a subscription number, or a credit card number, in providing for authentication, would require only a simple declaration by the service provider at the place of service, and not a formal legal notice. 7) Recognizing the lack of multimedia terminals in France, the Prime Minister asked Minister Fillon to present to him, within three months, measures designed to equip households and firms with multimedia terminals." Internet access for everyone in France, soon, at the cost of a local telephone call? Well... Oracle's Larry Ellison did say at Comdex last weekend that his $500 Internet box will be out next Spring -- so, no more $3000 computers? -- and France is already entirely wired with fiber optics, and does already have a population already networked - information - trained on the Minitel... Lest anyone feel sceptical about France's role in innovation, this is the country which implemented its Minitel, now long ago -- as then - advertised and on - schedule, and not cost - effective for many years thereafter -- and this is the country which actually opens its new national library building next year: also not cost - effectively, perhaps, but then, le panache c'est tout. As their former president said in ordering his library, "I want this thing and I shall have it" [loose American translation]: the French will have their Internet. One wonders when and how _average_ citizens in other countries -- citizens not blessed with advanced college degrees and / or 6 - figure incomes -- will come to enjoy such universal information access? XXX FYIFrance e - newsletter ISSN 1071 - 5916 * | FYIFrance is a monthly electronic newsletter, | published since 1992 as a small - scale, personal, | experiment, in the creation of large - scale | "information overload", by Jack Kessler. Any material / \ written by me which appears in FYIFrance may be ----- copied and used by anyone for any good purpose, so // \\ long as, a) they give me credit and show my e - mail --------- address and, b) it isn't going to make them money: if // \\ if it is going to make them money, they must get my permission in advance, and share some of the money which they get with me. Use of material written by others requires their permission. FYIFrance archives may be reached online at http://infolib.berkeley.edu , or via gopher to infolib.berkeley.edu 72 or gopher.well.sf.ca.us or gopher.univ-rennes1.fr (BIBLIO-FR econference archive), or via telnet to a.cni.org , login brsuser (PACS / PACS-L e - conference archive). Suggestions, reactions, criticisms, praise, and poison - pen letters all will be gratefully received at kessler@well.sf.ca.us . XXX end