#Specialist in the information technology industry, "facilitator" between the
United States and Europe, and journalist
Created in 1993, Jacques Gauchey's consultancy G.a Communications assists
start-up Internet and IT (information technology) companies in building their
European strategies, partnerships, and visibility. To fulfill its clients'
international business development needs, G.a Communications maintains a
close-knit network of competences worldwide.
Jacques Gauchey was a director of the Multimedia Development Group (MDG) in
1996-97. He led MDG's International Group from 1994 to 1996, with projects
ranging from MDG's M3 conference (1994) to publishing the 1995 and 1996 editions
of the guide Going Global: Multimedia Marketing & Distribution.
He was a moderator at such events as the European ETRE & Asian ATRE
only-for-CEOs IT conferences (1990, '91 & '92), MDG's "World Multimedia: A
Mosaic of Markets" (San Francisco, 1994), Multimedia Live! (San Francisco,
1995), the A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) Soft International Partners seminar
(Tokyo, 1996), etc. He moderates focus groups for the IT industry.
From 1985 to 1992, he was the West Coast correspondent for La Tribune, a Paris
business daily. He worked previously for Le Figaro and Le Point.
*Interview of July 31, 1999 (original interview in French)
= How did using the Internet change your professional life?
Totally. The whole world is on my computer screen. Everyone now has access to a
global database. They have to learn to navigate their way through it or get
drowned.
= How do you see the future?
All my clients now are Internet companies. All my working tools (my mobile
phone, my PDA and my PC) are or will soon be linked to the Internet.
= What do you think of the debate about copyright on the Web?
Copyright in its traditional context doesn't exist any more. Authors have to get
used to a new situation: the total freedom of the flow of information. The
original content is like a fingerprint: it can't be copied. So it will survive
and flourish.
= How do you see the growth of a multilingual Web?
Technology may solve the problem. May the best one win. The Internet really took
off in the US because of a revolutionary concept: only one language -- English.
The "politically correct" movement for mandatory multilingual teaching in US
schools and respect for the various subcultures is a disaster for the future of
this country (as it already is in Europe). Individuals have to decide at home if
they want to learn another language.
= What is your best experience with the Internet?
Four years ago I published a few issues of a free English newsletter on the
Internet. It had about 10 readers per issue until the day (in January 1996) when
the electronic version of Wired Magazine created a link to it. In one week I got
about 100 e-mails, some from French readers of my book La vallée du risque -
Silicon Valley (published by Plon, Paris, at the end of 1990), who were happy to
find me again.
= And your worst experience?
The Internet is a medium and, like any medium, can be lead to evil. The shooting
spree by a day trader in Atlanta in July 1999. Pornography. The unrestricted
online sale of guns. Junk mail.