The web did not catch on in France as it did in the US.. No wonder...

Take the use of personal communications technology for starters.

Although the French are brilliant at buildi'ng major technology infrastructure, at the personal level, they are technophobes. Just the idea of voice mail and answering machines has not yet made its way into the majority of people's minds, even in a professional setting...It still happens that the phone is left ringing endlessly as you try to contact colleagues or business relationships. ( I didn't even get into government services did I?)

Blame it on a latin attitude that's fearcely entrenched behind all the French's proud claims of Rationality... I.e, if you really want to reach me, then you'll have to catch me. Who am I, your servant? Do I know you? Are we distant cousins, or did our parents spend their summer vacations together? If you really want to talk to me, just drop by and say hello, like a real person, someone who really cares about me.

I also have little time to work, with all this vacation and limited pay, so I don't need work piling up on my voice mail system while I'm out having lunch and a tight espresso in the neighbourhood brasserie!

The younger crowd (less than 40) has largely been won over to new technology like voice mail and does not consider the two hour lunch as sacrosanct, but the older, populous babyboomers in France, entrenched in their dominant positions for a few more years, still consider in-person communication as the only one worth the qualification.

How do you expect them to use email? Let alone the web!! They decide, however, what their corporations' web sites should say and do, and which web-based services are useful to them...

The web as a purely Californian and to a lesser degree, American creation

The web is about sharing information, about giving away content, about anarchy too... All those are in total opposition to the French culture as we know it today.

a/Information sharing:

In French culture, information is like a gem, it is only to be shared in exchange for honors or retribution or maybe friendship. but to exchange it with not only 'le premier venu' (the new kid on the block), but one you can't even see or talk to?Mon dieu! Vous n'y pensez pas!

So it's no wonder that major companies' web sites still lack invaluable information and that asking a question via email is akin to sending your missive into a dark, deep hole where it will land on top other such hopeful missives, only to rot slowly in a digital grave... Sharing information in and of itself is not a French preocupation, unlike in California, where you can't wait at a bus stop without finding out about your neighbour's sex change!

b/Giving away stuff:

Giving away stuff...This is what made Yahoo, CraigsList, and other marvels of the web. ( What also undid Webvan and others..) Who ever heard of that in a small, densely populated, and old country where the state provides for those who need it? Giving is nearly irresponsible in such a culture; it isn't encouraged in any case. The rationally trained French also do not see the benefits of a business model where the product or service is given away free of charge...Huh? And you call that a business? My two-year old could start such a business, but me?

c/Anarchy:

Finally anarchy... California is cool dude. Self discipline and letting nature take its course are two of the precepts the locals live by. The French admire a beautiful construction, well thought out to withstand various contingencies, no matter how long it takes to build. The opposite of anarchy. The opposite of how the web and numerous web sites were built...The web's a mess, but at least, it's a worldwide medium, isn't it?

The web therefore still has a very adolescent and largely male user base in France. Hopefully within twenty years, that'll change! ( Sorry for the un-Gartner Group like prediction, but I know a little bit about France. It's not Yurop, i.e., the UK!);-)

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