Author:
Roy Ascott
It was Simon Nora who coined the term telematics to describe the new electronic technology derived from the convergence of computers and telecommunications systems. His report to the President of France, L'Informatisation de la Soci�t�, published in 1978, is perhaps one of the most influential documents in this field to have been published in Europe: influential in that it led to the swift establishment by the French government of the Programme T�l�matique, which has resulted in the transformation of many aspects of French culture. This process of telematisation is most dramatically seen in the ubiquitous and rapid spread of Minitel, the public videotex system that enables widespread interaction between users and databases across an enormous range of services.