Our Friend the Computer

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Pink Minitel (Bonus!) Mar 15, 2022

Show notes

Camila and Ana delve deeper into the online world of Minitel this week with an exploration of the many sides of the “pink minitel” services provided on the network. Beginning with a discussion of Olivier Cheval’s 2019 short film “Rose Minitel” (and some Agnes Varda film chat), they then talk sexy chat rooms, digital labor, online dating, LGBTQ+ digital communities, and if love is actually real. Ooh la la!
“I’ve found a new job. I work from home. I hit on men on Minitel... One franc per minute. After half an hour, I get a bonus. I get one bonus after the other. And I think of you.” - Rose Minitel, Olivier Cheval.
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Main research for the episode was done by Camila. Ana with the audio editing.
Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages)

References:
- Chaplin, Tamara. “Lesbians Online: Queer Identity and Community Formation on the French Minitel.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 23, no. 3 (September 2014): 451-472.
- Chrisafis, Angelique. “France says farewell to the Minitel - the little box that connected a country.” The Guardian, June 28, 2012
- Goldman, Alex [host]. “The French Connection.” Reply All, no. 10. January 17, 2015.
- Nagy, Jeff. “Pink Chat: Networked Sex Work before the Internet.” Technology and Culture 62, no. 1 (January 2021): 57-81.
- Tempest, Rone. “Minitel: Miracle or Monster?” Los Angeles Times, October 24, 1989.

- “Rose Minitel.” Olivier Cheval. 2019. 26min.
- “Minitel Computer, Online Dating.” Youtube, uploaded June 1, 2014.
- "La carte de presse pour les employés du Minitel rose?", Archive INA, Youtube, uploaded May 23, 2014.

Minitel (Pre-Internet Networks) Mar 01, 2022

Show notes

After some hobby chat, Camila tells Ana about the French videotex network ‘Minitel’. Launched in the early 80s, it was the most successful version of an online service before the World Wide Web. While other similar networks struggled, this episode looks at how the specifics of Minitel allowed it to become integrated into everyday life and what happened when France began adopting the Internet.
We're on Instagram!
And Twitter!
Main research for the episode was done by Camila. Ana with the audio editing.
Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages)
References:
- Amougou, Jules, and James S. Larson. “Comparing Implementation of Internet Diffusion in the United States and France: Policies, Beliefs, and Institutions.” Policy Research 25, no. 6 (2008): 563-578.
- Arceneaux, Noah. Review of Minitel: Welcome to the Internet, by Julien Mailland and Kevin Driscoll. Journalism History 44, no. 1 (Spring 2018).
- Benghozi, Pierre-Jean, and Christian Licoppe. “Technological National Learning: From Minitel to Internet.” In The Global Internet Economy, edited by Bruce Kogut, 153-189. MIT Press, 2003.
- Cats-Baril, William L., and Tawfik Jelassi. “The French Videotex System Minitel: A Successful Implementation of a National Information Technology Infrastructure.” MIS Quarterly 18, no.1 (March 1994): 1-20.
- Chrisafis, Angelique. “France says farewell to the Minitel – the little box that connected a country.” The Guardian, June 29, 2012.
- Kessler, Jack. “Electronic Networks: A View from Europe.” Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science (April/May 1994): 26-27.
- Mailland, Julien. “Minitel, the Open Network Before the Internet.” The Atlantic, June 16, 2017.
- Mailland, Julien, and Kevin Driscoll. “Minitel: The Online World France Built Before the Web.” IEEE Spectrum, June 20, 2017. https://spectrum.ieee.org/minitel-the-online-world-france-built-before-the-web
- Schofield, Hugh. “Minitel: The rise and fall of the France-wide web.” BBC News, June 28, 2012.

OGAS (Pre-Internet Networks) Feb 15, 2022

Show notes

Ana and Camila chat about the development of a Soviet nationwide information network in the 60s that was meant to run a planned economy for the USSR. Built after Sputnik’s launch, it brought about Soviet cybernetics and promised a new era for Soviet sciences, mathematics economics and technology. Discussing the project’s termination due to inner-bureaucratic competition, this episode also looks at ARPANET’s simultaneous development; its surprisingly socialist structures of funding and collaborative mindsets that led to its success.
We're on Instagram!
And Twitter!
Main research for the episode was done by Ana who also edited.
Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages)
References:
- “How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet”, Benjamin Peters, 2016
- “Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration”, Ed Catmull, 2014
- “The Californian Ideology”, Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, 1995

Project Cybersyn (Pre-Internet Networks) Feb 01, 2022

Show notes

Camila and Ana explore Project Cybersyn – an early 70s socialist cybernetics project connecting factories in Allende's Chile. This is the first episode of our first season which will be focusing on pre-internet networks!
We're on Instagram!
And Twitter!
Main research for the episode was done by Camila. Ana with the audio editing.
Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages)
Camila's project 'REDES: bread and justice, peaches and bananas' can be found at https://externalpages.org/#camila-galaz
References:
- Beckett, Andy. 'Santiago Dreaming'. The Guardian 8 September 2003
- Eaton, George. 'Project Cybersyn: the afterlife of Chile’s socialist internet'. New Statesman August 2018
- Evgeny, Morozov. 'The Planning Machine'. The New Yorker Vol. 90, Iss. 31 (October 2014)
- Fablab Santiago ed. ‘The Counterculture Room’. Pavilion of Chile at the London Design Biennale 2016
- Loeber, Katherina. 'Big Data, Algorithmic Regulation, and the History of the Cybersyn Project in Chile, 1971-1973'. Social Sciences 7, no.4:65 (April 2018)
- Medina, Eden. 'Computer Memory, Collective Memory: Recovering History through Chilean Computing'. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing October-December 2005
- Medina, Eden. 'Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile'. MIT Press, 2011
- Medina, Eden. 'Designing Freedom, Regulating a Nation: Socialist Cybernetics in Allende’s Chile '. Journal of Latin American Studies Vol. 38 Iss. 3 (August 2006)

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