The Minitel: France's Social Network (GT Mini Fails)
Ghost Town: Strange History, True Crime, & the Paranormal
Ghost Town
3.7 • 938 Ratings
🗓️ 24 July 2020
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
France was ahead of its time when it came to social networking and online services. However, the love affair with the Minitel eventually ran its course.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey guys, this is Julia from always time for true crime. |
| 0:12.0 | Every week I get into a new case about murder, missing persons, and serial |
| 0:16.0 | killers. My podcast is all about the lesser known cases. So if you're looking for something beyond Ted Bundy or John |
| 0:25.0 | Bane Ramsey, head on over to always time for true crime for some new |
| 0:29.8 | true crime stories. You can listen to always time for true crime on |
| 0:35.0 | on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Cast Box, and more. |
| 0:40.0 | The French Socialist Network. I'm Jason Horton. I'm Rebecca Leib. And this is Ghost Town. In 1983, it was. |
| 0:54.0 | It was. It was. In 1983, it was six years before the World Wide Web, but the French government decided it was time to make a large investment in a very very sexy very |
| 1:16.2 | socialist online network called Minnetel. Now you did an episode on Strange |
| 1:21.2 | Year on 1983. |
| 1:22.8 | Yes. You knew the climate of the time. |
| 1:25.7 | France was desperate to get their technology |
| 1:30.2 | on par with the rest of the world. |
| 1:31.4 | And this was their biggest answer to Vic 20 we're coming for you. |
| 1:34.4 | Oh that's right. |
| 1:37.0 | Let's go back to 1978 though. |
| 1:39.8 | The Telegraphs at Telephones, the National French Postal and telephone service began designing the Minnetel network. |
| 1:47.0 | Officially, it's called Teletell. The name Minnetel is abbreviated from the French title of |
| 1:52.0 | Medium Interactive |
| 1:53.4 | par numerisis, |
| 1:55.0 | par numerisacion de information telephonic. |
| 1:59.0 | Thank you, high school French. |
... |
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