#Information systems consultant and writer. The Internet is one of the
"characters" of his novel Sanguine sur toile (Sanguine on the Web).
After studying engineering in France and the US and a job as head of major
projects at Bull, Alain Bron is now an information systems consultant at EdF/GdF
(Electricité de France / Gaz de France).
His second novel, Sanguine sur toile (Sanguine on the Web), is available in
print from Editions du Choucas (published in 1999) and in PDF format from
Editions 00h00.com (published in 2000). It won the Lions Club International
Prize in 2000.
Alain Bron wrote another novel, Concert pour Asmodée (Concert for Asmodée)
(published in 1998 by Editions La Mirandole), and a collection of
psycho-sociological essays, notably La démocracie de la solitude (The Democracy
of Solitude) (with Laurent Maruani, 1997) and La gourmandise du tapir (The Greed
of the Tapir) (with Vincent de Gaulejac, 1996), both published by DDB (Desclée
de Brauwer).
*Interview of November 29, 1999 (original interview in French)
= Can you tell us a bit about your novel Sanguine sur toile?
In French, "toile" means the Web as well as the canvas of a painting, and
"sanguine" is the red chalk of a drawing as well as one of the adjectives
derived from blood (sang). But would a love of colours justify a murder?
Sanguine sur toile is the strange story of an Internet surfer caught up in an
upheaval inside his own computer, which is being remotely operated by a very
mysterious person whose only aim is revenge.
I wanted to take the reader into the worlds of painting and enterprise, which
intermingle, escaping and meeting up again in the dazzle of software. The reader
is invited to try to untangle for himself the threads twisted by passion alone.
To penetrate the mystery, he will have to answer many questions. Even with the
world at his fingertips, isn't the Internet surfer the loneliest person in the
world?
In view of the competition, what's the greatest degree of violence possible in
an enterprise these days? Does painting tend to reflect the world or does it
create another one? I also wanted to show that images are not that peaceful. You
can use them to take action, even to kill.
What part does the Internet play in your novel?
Internet is a character in itself. Instead of being described in its technical
complexity, it's depicted as a character that can be either threatening, kind or
amusing. Remember the computer screen has a dual role -- displaying as well as
concealing. This ambivalence is the theme throughout. In such a game, the big
winner is of course the one who knows how to free himself from the machine's
grip and put humanism and intelligence before all else.
= Can you also tell us about your issue: Internet: anges et démons! (The
Internet: Angels and Devils!)?
Cultures en mouvement (Cultures in Movement), a magazine I sometimes write for,
asked me in April 1999 to guest-edit a special issue on cyberculture. I brought
together specialists from very different fields -- an economist, a sociologist,
a psychiatrist, an artist, the head of an association -- to talk about the
Internet. We quickly agreed that the Internet brings out the best as well as the
worst. So we called the special issue Internet: anges et démons! (The Internet:
Angels and Devils!). The articles were published in the magazine at the same
time as we opened a site with the same name hosted by place-internet.com. The
media praised the site, which presents the Internet calmly and with a healthy
reserve.
= What exactly is your professional activity?
I spent about 20 years at Bull. There I was involved in all the adventures of
computer and telecommunications development. I represented the computer industry
at ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and chaired the network
group of the X/Open consortium. I also took part in the very beginning of the
Internet with my colleagues of Honeywell in the US in late 1978. I'm now an
information systems consultant at EdF/ GdF (Electricité de France / Gaz de
France), where I keep the main computer projects of these firms and their
foreign subsdiaries running smoothly. And I write. I've writing since I was a
teenager. Short stories (about 100), psycho-sociological essays, articles and
novels. It's an inner need as well as a very great pleasure.
= How did using the Internet change your professional life?
As I fell into computers when I was very young, I don't think I was affected by
the Internet. I can look at it with enough distance to recognize the mistakes I
made with it and to warn about its misuse, while avoiding veteran's fatigue and
burn-out.
= How do you see the future?
The important thing about the Internet is the human value that's added to it.
The Internet can never be shrewd about a situation, take a risk or replace the
intelligence of the heart. The Internet simply speeds up the decision-making
process and reduces uncertainty by providing information. We still have to leave
time to time, let ideas mature and bring an essential touch of humanity to a
relationship. For me, the aim of the Internet is meeting people, not increasing
the number of electronic exchanges.
= What do you think of the debate about copyright on the Web?
I regard the Web today as a public domain. That means in practice the notion of
copyright on it disappears: everyone can copy everyone else. Anything original
risks being copied at once if copyrights are not formally registered or if works
are available without payment facilities. A solution is to make people pay for
information, but this is no watertight guarantee against it being copied.
Anyway, with novels, I prefer them in paper form.
= How do you see the growth of a multilingual Web?
Different languages will still be used for a long time to come and this is
healthy for the right to be different. The risk is of course an invasion of one
language to the detriment of others, and with it the risk of cultural
standardization. I think online services will gradually emerge to get around
this problem. First, translators will be able to translate and comment on texts
by request, but mainly sites with a large audience will provide different
language versions, just as the audiovisual industry does now.
= What is your best experience with the Internet?
After my second novel, Sanguine sur toile, was published, I got a message from a
friend I'd lost touch with more than 20 years ago. He recognized himself as one
of the book's characters. We saw each other again recently over a good bottle of
wine and swapped memories and discussed our plans.
= And your worst experience?
Viruses, "happiness" chain letters, business soliciting, extreme right-wing
sites and unverified information are spreading very quickly these days. I'm
seriously asking myself: "What kind of baby did I help to bring into the world?"