Fritz: All Fritz/All Fritz.zip/All Fritz/FILES/INFOTEXT/REVIEWS.LZH/BASELINE.TXT

Text File | 1988-06-25 | 9KB | 165 lines

                    Baseline Imports French Minitel System
                     Copyright 1988 by David W. Batterson


     The phrase nager entre deux eaux might apply to entertainment industry
expert James Monaco's ambitious plans to succeed in the U.S. with France's
Minitel system.  He is trying to swim between two currents.
     Born in 1981 in a small French town, the Minitel information videotex
experiment has become a noteworthy success.  Starting with 1,500 free Minitel
terminals, the system has rapidly grown to more than 2 million units in use
today.
     Media giants like Times Mirror and Knight-Ridder lost millions of dollars
on their failed videotex projects, but France's Direction Generale de
Telecommunication (DGT, the government phone company) looks toward even
greater attainments for the Minitel in coming years.
     Why has Mintel been so successful?  Something generally not discussed is
that DGT has spent around $1 billion so far in running the system and giving
away free terminals to phone customers.  DGT gets a cut of the action (billed
at about one franc per minute), with the rest going to more than 3,000
independent service providers.
     And while sexually-oriented "976" lines are highly popular and profitable
in the U.S., the French prefer chatting on their Minitel messageries roses.
Users can also do such things as read tabloid news, pay bills, order airline
tickets or groceries, and sell antiques.  And they don't have to bother with
communications software or external modems.
     On the other hand, the most popular online information provider in the
U.S.--CompuServe--serves those with personal computers of all varieties, and
few users use dumb terminals.  This seems to send a message that online users
here prefer being able to use "online receivers" for other purposes too.
     Monaco founded Baseline Inc. in 1983 to provide information services for
the exploding entertainment industry.  The company has become the largest user
of Minitels in the U.S., and sells/rents them to Baseline users who prefer
them to computers.
     You don't have to use a Minitel to access Baseline.  About half of the
users use personal computers, and software provided by Baseline which emulates
a Minitel terminal.  Macintosh users use Mactell 3.2 while users of IBM PCs
and compatibles use Mirror II, a Crosstalk XVI clone with included Minitel
emulation.
     Persons with computer-phobia usually prefer a Minitel, while computer
users naturally stay with their familiar machine.  I did not particularly care
for the Minitel when I tried one out, but that's a personal choice.  The
screen is small, low-resolution and has a nonstandard keyboard.
     Baseline is basically selling information, not terminals or software.
And at this time the information is highly specialized.  You cannot use a
Minitel to gain access to the types of services available in France (unless
you want to pay the long distance bill to call Teletel 2, the main Minitel
service).
     Baseline is the largest online source of entertainment industry
data--over 750,000 pages.  It includes the latest movie and TV credits, box
office grosses, celebrity contacts, projects in development, news, hot
literary properties, film commissions, film demographics, e-mail/chat, guilds
and unions, industry executives, Academy Awards and Cinemascore.
    The following are some actual examples of the types of information
Baseline provides.  Did Orson Welles ever win an Oscar?  Baseline has the
answer:
B A S E L I N E
ACADEMY AWARDS SEARCH
1 Directing   1941
Welles, Orson (Nominee)
Citizen Kane
2  Actor   1941
Welles, Orson (Nominee)
Citizen Kane
3  Honorary And Other Awards   1970
Welles, Orson (Winner)
4  Writing (Original Screenplay)
1941
Welles, Orson (Co-Winner)
     Or if you are wondering what Charlie Sheen's latest film will be, here it
is:
B A S E L I N E
NEWSLINE
STONE TO DO "COMPANY MAN"
   Oliver Stone, whose timely "Wall
Street" is set for a December release,
will postpone his "Platoon" sequel to
direct "Company Man," from his own
script.
   Charlie Sheen, who worked for
Stone in "Platoon" and "Wall Street,"
is scheduled to star in the story of a
marine in a Central American country
who objects to a CIA operation taking
place there. Hemdale Films will once
again be involved on the production
end, and Orion will distribute. (NYP)
     Here's a "hot property" search:
B A S E L I N E
RECENT HOT PROP SEARCH
Home Bodies
Author:
    Miller, Alicia
Genre:
    fiction
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Synopsis: A look at three residents
  of a small Ohio town. The first
  is a housewife who is keeping her
  career as a romance writer a
  secret from her husband, the
  second is a happily married woman
  who has developed an obsession
  for a painter 20 years her junior
  and the final character is a
  young man who recently escaped
  from an asylum to return to
  horrific scenes that haunt him.
  This novel provides a view into
  the dark side of life in small
  town America.
     Obviously the average person is not going to spend hard-earned money to
access this sort of information.  Besides the motion picture and televison
industry, publications like The Los Angeles Times, Forbes and Rolling Stone
have signed on as subscribers.
     I tested Baseline using the Mirror II software, which is excellent by the
way.  You enter the local access telephone number, user ID and password in the
Baseline setup program, and then it automatically dials up and logs upon using
the command: MIRROR BL.  It worked perfectly, once I reprogrammed my modem's
EPROM (a DIP switch on other modems) so that auto answer was on permanently.
Otherwise, it won't work
     With an IBM/compatible, you have a choice of two screen configurations,
selected with Alt-G and Alt-T.  You either have a split 80-column screen with
standard size text on the left, and the menu of Function/Alt keys on the
right, or a full 40-column screen (which looks like a color Minitel screen).
     Those used to a full screen in 80-column text will find it a bit strange
getting used to.  The amount of text that can be displayed is very limited,
and you must press F10 or Tab repeatedly to go on reading.  However, saving
screens to disk is done easily with Alt-F9 for single pages, or Shift-F9 for
continuous pages.  You can also print screens while online with Alt-P.
     The use of the term "Messagerie" for the Mail and Chat sections is fine
in France, but it is inappropriate for use here, and should be changed.  The
e-mail mode also is rather crude in design, especially since you must use the
spacebar to move to the next line.  If you press Enter (which you would expect
to do), it ends the message and sends it to the recipient's mailbox.
     Sending e-mail could be improved by either adding word wrap, or allowing
one to use Enter to end a line, not the whole message!  You cannot upload an
ASCII text file either to the Mail section.  In all fairness, Baseline is not
an e-mail system per se, thus this shortcoming doesn't matter to most users.
     Baseline subscriptions cost $300 a year, or $30 a month. plus a signup
charge of $97.  This includes software for your Mac or PC.  The online charge
is 75 cents per minute.  Users without computers can purchase a Minitel for
$650, or rent one for $35 a month.  (The latter prices seem a bit steep to me,
as Monaco says the terminal costs about $100 to manufacture.)
     A Copitel graphics printer for the Minitel costs $700, or $45 per month
for rental.  If you want to use your printer with a Minitel, you'll choke on
the cable prices:  $50 for a serial cable, or $150 for a parallel cable.  This
is price gouging in my view.
     As for the information provided, Baseline is first-rate.  The
system is still losing money though, and needs more subscribers just to break
even.  Monaco believes strongly that Baseline will succeed and that eventually
so will the Minitel system in the U.S.  His backers, who have poured over $5
million into the project thus far, hope so too.
     For more information, contact Baseline Inc., 838 Broadway, Fourth Floor,
New York, NY 10003 (Phone [phone] or 800-CHAPLIN); or 8929 Wilshire
Blvd., Suite 100, Beverly Hills, CA  90211 (Phone [phone]).
-----
David W. Batterson writes computer articles and software manuals.  He can be
reached via MCI Mail: DBATTERSON.

yright 1988 D.W.B.


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