#Founder, chairman and managing director of FTPress (French Touch Press), a
cybermedia company
*Interview of May 20, 2000 (original interview in French)
= What is FTPress?
FTPress (French Touch Press) is a French cyberpress company. It has created the
following websites:
-- www.ftpress.com, which describes the concept, products and structure of the
media company, and gives very informal portraits of the team members.
-- www.internetactu.com, Internet Actu's website, which carries news about the
Internet and new technology. It was launched on 9 September 1999 in its present
form. It replaced LMB Actu (Le Micro Bulletin Actu - The Micro News Bulletin),
published by the Information Systems Department (Délégation aux systèmes
d'information (DSI)) at France's National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre
national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)).
-- www.pixelactu.com, Pixel Actu's website, giving news about digital pictures,
set up on 31 January 2000.
-- www.esanteactu.com, eSanté Actu's website, with news about eHealth -- the
interface between health (as seen by professionals) and the Internet -- launched
on 16 May 2000.
- www.lafontaine.net, the website of Jean de la Fontaine (a 17th century French
poet and writer, renowned for his Fables), containing all his works, as well as
many drawings, pastiches and recordings. It also features a "Daily Fable".
- www.commissairetristan.com, the website of Superintendant Tristan's adventures
(Les aventures du Commissaire Tristan), the first (free) online crime novel,
co-produced by FTPress and AlloCiné and launched in mid-June 2000.
Many projects are planned in the next months.
= What exactly do you do professionally?
Very briefly, developing a company, FTPress, that specializes in the online
press -- for the moment, that is, because things are moving so fast that it
might not be doing that any more in a few months time. The idea of FTPress is to
create professional media, each specialized in an economic area, such as health,
cars, digital pictures, human resources and logistics. Each medium deals with
the economic, technological, political and social aspects of a sector being
changed by the arrival of new technology and the Internet. The first one was
Internet Actu, set up at France's National Centre for Scientific Research in
February 1996, followed by Pixel Actu (February 2000) and eSanté Actu (May
2000). We began with written products, but we're now focusing on multimedia,
including TV programmes in the near future. FTPress also sets up media for
outside customers.
= How do you see your professional future?
I see my professional future as a professional "here and now." If you'd asked me
that two years ago, I would have said that through working with the Internet (as
head of information systems at the CNRS) and writing things about the Internet
(as editor of LMB Actu), I was dreaming of creating an Internet start-up. But I
was wondering how to do that. If you'd asked me the question a year ago, I would
have answered that I'd made the jump, was all set and had told my bosses I was
leaving, to go off and create FTPress. I just didn't want to stay where I was
any more. I was becoming bitter. I wanted to start my own company or else take a
year's sabbatical to do nothing. Today, I'm fully involved in the firm. I feel
I'm living some of the stories we read in the press about start-ups. It's hard
to do physically because it's all growing so fast. So I see my future on the
beach, without the Internet, relaxing with my wife ;-)
= What do you think of the debate about copyright on the Web? What practical
suggestions do you have?
It's a valid debate. Some people, often those hiding behind the authority of an
institution that ought to respect copyright, don't respect it and have no qualms
about putting their names to articles written by somebody else. At FTPress, we
more or less follow the guidelines of the GPL (a public licence used as a basis
by Linux for free software). Our material can be freely reproduced for
non-commercial purposes, with the source mentioned of course. The authors of
these articles are paid at a standard rate, have journalist status and are also
given stock options in the company. This stake in the firm's activity and its
value brings the journalist's pay up to the level for an article written for a
given publication. But FTPress no longer pays authors extra if the article is
sold to a third party for their own use. I think this is a solution to the
problem as far as the press is concerned. But it's a complex issue with many
aspects and no single answer.
= How do you see the growth of a multilingual Web?
I don't know how to answer that, except with a truism like "Everyone will keep
their own language, with English as a language of exchange." But do we really
believe all the world's people are going to communicate in every senses? Maybe.
Through written or oral machine translation systems? It's hard to imagine having
in the near future the means to translate nuances of thought unique to a given
country. We'd have to translate more than the language, and set up bridges to
convey feelings. Unless everthing is standardized by globalisation. So I think
the real issue is a multicultural Internet.
= What is your best experience with the Internet?
When we passed the 10.000 subscribers' mark for LMB Actu, at the beginning of
1998.
= And your worst experience?
The time when we made a mistake in Internet Actu and angry messages from
subscribers began pouring in just 10 minutes later. We all started panicking
because LMB Actu had just gone private and FTPress, the new company, relied
solely on its successor, Internet Actu. If we'd lost a lot of subscribers,
we'd've been finished. But in the end, all the reaction allowed us to start a
column for readers which was very popular. Mistakes often turn out to be
beneficial, as soon as you admit them openly. These exchanges establish links
between readers and authors.