FYI France: Amazon.fr? -- of nations and uncommon languages
Lyon, le 26 juin
The marriage of the Internet with the French economy is not one
of those self - evident things. No less than Amazon.com
apparently is announcing its entry into the French book market
this Fall: or at least "the world's biggest bookstore" is _being_
announced as a French market entrant -- by the new "Wired /
Business 2.0 / Time Digital" French glossy, "Newbiz" magazine
(recommended reading -- details at http://www.newbiz.fr).
But I can just hear the denials, delays, qualifiers which will be
forthcoming. For just as "how can one speak of governing in a
land which has 265 varieties of cheese?", so also, how can one
speak of ebusiness in a land which boasts, among other
complications, one of the lowest household computer penetration
rates in Western Europe, plus one single, monolithic,
hierarchical and centralized and bureaucratic and still
government - owned telephone company?
"The business of America is business", Calvin Coolidge famously
observed -- Dorothy Parker summed up the French attitude on this
sort of social vision when she asked, on learning of Coolidge's
death, "How could they tell?"
The French live for so much more than just business -- "e" or
other. These people have had revolutions, and they have waged
both love and war, and they have slaughtered each other regularly
-- I am in Lyon -- and they have done these and so many other
passionately irrational things, throughout their long and
terrible history, nearly all for nearly any notion other than
economic gain.
Even the parts of the 19th century and bits of the 20th century
which have tried to see everything in money and materialistic
terms have been forced, ultimately, to recognize this French
exception. French motivations have included religion, and social
status, and nationalism, and simple anger and frustration and
arrogance -- still the land of the "crime passionel" -- at least
as much as they have the colder calculations of "business".
Indeed, among Europeans, the French never have been all that good
at "business" per se. The classic analysis of the economic
revolutions of the 18th century by Paul Mantoux notes, "So great
was the superiority of English production that neighbouring
countries could hardly have kept out English goods save by a
policy of strict prohibition..." *1.
And much in 19th century economic and political policy focussed
upon France's "retard" in the industrial sphere: she became
nearly the last great land of Europe left with not only little
industry, but with an agricultural base centered around an
archaic system of petits rentiers and little independent family
farms -- less evocative of any nascent modern agribusiness than
of the manorial system of the Middle Ages. The Unbound Prometheus
of the Industrial Revolution had a very slow start in France.
Again, now, France is lagging, and she rapidly is falling even
further behind her British and Irish and Scandinavian and German
and in some respects even her Italian and Spanish neighbors, in
the latest "digital" economic revolution:
Internet Domains, as of January 2000
name hosts population('99) pop/hosts
.fi/Finland 631,248 5,158,372 8
.is/Iceland 29,598 272,512 9
.no/Norway 401,889 4,438,547 11
.se/Sweden 594,627 8,911,296 15
.dk/Denmark 336,928 5,356,845 16
.nl/Netherlands 824,990 15,807,641 19
.ch/Switzerland 306,073 7,275,467 24
.uk/United Kingdom 1,901,812 59,113,439 31
.be/Belgium 320,840 10,182,034 32
.de/Germany 1,702,486 82,087,361 48
.ie/Ireland 59,681 3,632,944 61
.fr/France 779,879 58,978,172 76
.it/Italy 658,307 56,735,130 86
.cz/Czech Republic 112,748 10,280,513 91
.es/Spain 415,641 39,167,744 94
(Network Wizards, http://www.nw.com &
http://www.isc.org/ds/WWW-200001/dist-byname.html; and
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/)
(Methodological ps: ...an "Internet metric", _only_ an "Internet
metric, and as such subject to all of the caveats associated with
same, i.e. "hosts" has to be defined carefully, and "population",
and "population per host" increasingly mean little, as Internet
access changes and as per capita income becomes a more important
factor -- but the metric still is interesting, at least for
comparing France to other countries very much like it...)
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie has observed, "We French have been called
dinosaurs... but the dinosaur is a very sympathetic animal, and
at least now we will become electronic dinosaurs." *2 There is
some merit in the French economic "retard" this time around,
perhaps -- at least insofar as France can continue to enjoy the
strong family life, solid educational structure, and general
sense of security in society which always have been so valued.
All of these at times seem to be disappearing in the US and
elsewhere, as people surrender too quickly and too completely to
the Digital Revolution. So just perhaps, runs the hope of some,
France will be able to contribute a more "mature" attitude toward
the implementation of these exciting new technologies, once they
finally reach l'Hexagone in full force.
But certain French friends of mine are tremendously concerned
with the job insecurity, family disruption, and social
bifurcation which the Digital Revolution has brought to the US
and Britain, and which they say now, already, it is bringing to
France: all that rapid job turnover, long and irregular commutes
and working hours, splits between "haves" and "have - nots" in
both information and other things...
There is debate everywhere about the origins of all of these
changes. Some have said that the Digital Revolution is not to
blame, or at least that it promises still more that is positive
-- that a digital "global village" will so benefit from the
freedoms of telecommuting and telework and worker productivity
brought by the new techniques that _more_ time and energy, not
less, will become available for "personal time", and for relaxed
"quality time" spent with family, and so on.
Others have demonized the digital world, characterizing the
escapism and forced rationality of "The Matrix" as components of
the futuristic Hell to which we all are headed, given the
varieties of weirdness in our current society. See the many --
too many -- inconclusive social and psychological studies devoted
to the impact of the digital phenomenon, plus the insightful
nightmares of science fiction writers like William Gibson.
But there is no debate about the existence of the current
pressures. White collar and mid - life unemployment, increasing
family and youth problems, and commuting nightmares all --
already -- are integral parts of the Digital Revolution
experience, whether that experience is headed, ultimately,
towards the "global village" heaven of which some dream, or to
the violent and drug - crazed Armageddon which others imagine. In
France, Jean - Luc Godard was worrying about all of this 'way
back in the 1960s -- well before the Digital Revolution -- but
the spectre is raising its ugly head again now.
To many of the French, still, the ideal is a picnic -- in the
country, with the kids -- or, perhaps even better, a long outdoor
lunch around a giant table surrounded by extended family at
grandme`re's maison in the country... or that 1-2 month vacation
off camping somewhere... These still are the sources of so much
in French "congeniality" -- or at least of the remnant
idealization of it, in the minds of Paris pe'riphe'rique drivers
stuck in their 2 - hour - door - to - door daily commutes -- so
much so that removal of the ideal would destroy whatever remains
of that "congeniality".
But all of this appears to be gravely threatened, now, by the
speed and pressures promised by, or at least associated with, the
Digital Revolution: the traffic gridlock and personal pressure
promised / threatened by the experience of the San Francisco Bay
Area, or of Fairfax County Virginia, do not translate well to the
French experience.
No American has so much cultural value vested in the ideal of the
time for contemplation, and non - business concerns, of that
relaxed and lazy extended afternoon "de'jeuner sur l'herbe", as
do the French. Take away that advantage of the "French exception"
and all that may be left will be the "retard" -- that lag...
--oOo--
One friend in France reminds me, "We are Latins..."
And so France is: more the South than the North, but also more
the entire country than the Northern European and particularly
British traditions which most here associate with the USA, and
especially with USA attitudes toward "business".
The famous book title was "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism"... France is a Catholic country. The "Protestant
Ethic", toward work or anything else, is hard to find here. In
fact much French blood has been sacrificed, throughout their long
history, to get it out and keep it out. "The Spirit of
Capitalism", in France, is more a rare and odd commodity than it
is the driving social force which perhaps underlies what Northern
European nations and the USA have been accomplishing in their
recent Digital Revolution.
The "Latin" phenomenon is even personal. The role of the male
breadwinner in a Latin culture perhaps makes the high job
turnover so characteristic of "hi - tech" and "the digital
economy" that much harder to take for the French.
A middle - aged American male who loses his job has "Horatio
Alger self - improvement" and British "stiff upper lip"
traditions to fall back upon, at least. But in France it is very
hard for a middle - aged cho^meur to look his mates in the eye --
and particularly if he is wealthy and well - educated, as so many
of the hitech - induced white collar unemployed are everywhere
now -- and in the French "Latin" male example the shame hurts him
with his wife, and his children, and around that extended family
lunch table where all things must come out into the open.
Never mind that if he works at it he will find another boulot
within 6 months -- of course he will lose that too within the
next two years, by the hitech job insecurity rules -- but it is
the present reality of unemployment which hurts the "Latin"
mentality so much...
--oOo--
The lead article in the afore - mentioned July - August _Newbiz_
magazine -- http://www.newbiz.fr -- is, "Les cadres secoue's par
internet": photo of a wonderfully French altho very un - ENArque
- looking "eager beaver" middle level manager, poised to take the
plunge into the new digital economy with all the gusto and
panache of a latter - day Cyrano -- Depardieu - style (the
candidate is a little overweight) -- against the background of a
lengthy series of sondages / opinion polls in which the magazine
has poked at current French managers about their Internet usage
-- they don't use it, much, certainly not when compared to
burgeoning B2C and B2B activities elsewhere...
The French "cadre" in the photo -- in his Armani shoes, and fancy
suit, and short - cropped but elegantly - styled hairdo, and
necktie and white - shirt - most - likely - sporting - elegant -
cufflinks, and leather attache case -- looks very much like the
archetypal middle level manager whom elsewhere the Internet and
general "downsizing / pyramid flattening" already has blown away,
in the US and UK and most other places which "get it"... I guess
the French don't, yet... clueless... altho I still think / hope
that may be a good thing... "sympathetic electronic dinosaurs"...
The _Newbiz_ editor, Eric Meyer, writes a wonderfully - funny
endpaper in the current issue: "To 'e' or not to be?" --
"Prenez, par exemple, un PDG comme Francis Mer, d'Usinor...
comment mettre sa boi^te a` l'heure d'internet?... annoncer
qu'Usinor allait, comme les start - up, faire quelques anne'es de
pertes, mais ses pre'de'cesseurs ont, malheureusement, de'ja`
fait le coup plusieurs fois..."
"Qu'inventer pour fabriquer de l'Usinor.com? Vendre des rouleaux
de me'tal aux enche`res sur iBazar? Placer une webcam a` la
cantine?..."
"Coller un <<e>> devant sa marque, son nom, son concept, son
business... E-le'gant, plein d'e-sprit, et e-conomique... Genre
l'ENA, qui, en mal de candidats, deviendrait l'e-NA, voyez le
style..."
And the French, once again (this has happened to them before, in
times of stress), are not getting married, _and_ are having fewer
and fewer babies -- youth unemployment has been in the double
digits for a long time now, and a major national problem even
worse than the general "cho^mage" -- these are the kids who
should have been launching the French Digital Revolution!
But it is hard to form a household if you have no job, and if you
are older it is still harder to look the spouse in the eye when
you are on the dole... that Latin pride... neither "Horatio
Alger" nor "the Protestant Ethic" nor a lot of other culturally -
bound things play well in France...
--oOo--
So I wonder how and whether the ebusiness digital economy, with
all of the fundamental social changes which it already is
bringing -- to the US and other places where it is more active --
is going to fare in France?
People here tell me, still, that they "cannot make the email
work" because "all of the manuals are written in English". How
long is it going to take before the Internet "speaks" -- _really_
-- the "language of the customer"?! This involves so much more
than just the matters of incompatible keyboard layouts, and
character sets, and ISO norms, all of which no doubt underly the
immediate problem in many cases.
US system designers and programmers have to begin on an
understanding of the overall psychology of the "foreign" customer
-- "whole marketing", to some -- if the Internet ever is to scale
up to international applications well. Easily said / not so
easily done...
It involves so much more than the fumbling translation into the
local argot of a few pull - down "help" screens. There are
perceptual differences, and cultural and political and religious
and several other, to be considered -- all very much in addition
to more obvious bottom - line linguistic necessities, such as
providing adequate language translations.
In the French case, for example, the inclusion of advertising by
the McDonald's chain for the moment would cause a problem, as
could anything particularly insensitive done by either Microsoft
Corp. or Walt Disney:
Microsoft, and particularly Bill Gates personally, have been
demonized by the recent Paris press. And although advertising
might capitalize on the undeniably intense public fascination
with both, this must be done very carefully, with excruciatingly
- close attention to local sensitivities.
The same goes for Disney, which through the ups and downs of its
Paris EuroDisney theme park -- now called officially "Disneyland
Paris", so I guess there are other European Disneylands in the
works now -- has established itself firmly as the leading local
"globalization" demon, for the moment. Any Hollywood media maven
who thinks that the current popularity of "Disneyland
Paris" indicates that the Paris mob never will change, does not
know French history...
And then of course they are blowing up McDonald's restaurants
over here: with dynamite -- not just figuratively. The guy
leading the charge, if he doesn't become the next President of
France, at least has become the folk - hero of many of the French
for his efforts.
So keep the "Big Mac" and particularly the "Ronald McDonald" ads
off of the Websites for a while, folks -- better Marianne and the
tricolor and perhaps some camembert -- unless you want to evoke
feelings and customer reactions far more complex than any which
your advertising department back in Muskokee has in mind.
--oOo--
There is more -- more than just the obvious "read the local
papers" consideration, that is -- again using the French example
of a more general "Internet scaling" problem. French attitudes on
"pornography" and "informal chat" -- both of these so terribly
important, the one negatively and the other more positively, to
the US American Internet -- require some re - thinking.
In France, naked human bodies -- of men, women, even of children
-- are not considered pornographic. The artist Balthus is popular
over here -- as is Nabokov's novel "Lolita" -- and Woody Allen's
marital antics are tolerated as the "wanderings of genius", and
streetcar ads feature plenty of female and male breasts, nipple
details and all.
But in France Nazis _are_ pornographic. The swastika evokes the
same feelings of irrational revulsion, in many of the French,
which a poster of a naked child, or a photo of couples coupling,
or lewd movie - star - and - politican stories evoke in the US
Bible Belt: not different reactions, but the same -- an American
seeking to understand this should think of her / his own
revulsion at seeing a typical Calvin Klein ad -- _that_ is at
least the same revulsion felt by the French at seeing Nazi
memorabilia on a Website.
So, when a French judge hit international headlines recently by
condemning -- and restricting -- Yahoo! from providing Nazi
memorabilia sales on its online auction site, the French simply
were reacting as the Americans do to porn: nothing "holier than
thou art" in either reaction -- these are just differing cultural
values in conflict, neither being more right or more wrong than
the other.
(see http://www.afa-france.com/html/action/23052000.html)
This French preoccupation with Nazis is an example -- a good one,
to US system designers trying to teach their new Internet to deal
with the foreign and particularly its non - English - speaking
world -- but only one example:
In Thailand, for instance, they value democracy and freedom of
expression as much as Americans do -- and as the French do -- but
the Thais just value the sanctity of their Royal Family more. So,
recently, when the Thais suggested that online criticism of their
Royal Family be restricted, and the Internet Society objected on
"free expression" grounds, the situation was the same as that
faced now by the French with their objections to Nazi
memorabilia: the "language" spoken can be similar -- or nearly,
with more adequate translations of the user manuals -- but the
parties still can be far apart, on culture, politics, perceptions.
--oOo--
The question for the Internet is how far will it go to meet the
mentality of its customer? In "Globalization", nowadays, so much
is being presented in the guise of "universal human values" which
is seen by foreighners -- by the French, by the Thais -- as being
an imposition of "Americanization"...
"Democracy Conference Disavowal: French Foreign Policy Steers Its
Own Course: Warsaw Declaration on Democracy Rejected: 100 Nations
Bullied By US" (Int. Herald - Tribune, June 28, p. 1) H. Vedrine
interviewed: "...misguided to believe that democracy could be
imposed on countries... Democracy was most often a slow - growing
process that grew from within a country"...
Even some US "special relationship" English friends view current
US "Globalization" attitudes as representing, at their very best,
simple - minded "Americanization". *3
Americans should consider how we ourselves would feel had the
Internet been invented in Thailand and exported to the US: with
user manuals written only in Thai, and with restrictions built in
against criticizing the personal lives of the Thai Royal Family
-- and by automatic and blind extension, perhaps, _any_ First
Family, including our own?
Or what if the Internet at its origins had been French, and had
arrived in the US with AZERTY keyboard layouts, and a confusion
of diacriticals, and plenty of hidden restrictions on access to
political extremism and Nazi memorabilia?
Turn the tables... see it from the customer's point of view...
old marketing advice...
Conflicting values can be ranked, tradeoffs made -- multicultural
efforts can be and have to be flexible. Amartya Sen makes yet
another of his periodic wry and eloquent pleas for this in the
latest NY Review of Books (July 20, p.35):
"It has been claimed that many non - Western societies have
values that place little emphasis on liberty or tolerance...
Values such as tolerance, liberty, and reciprocal respect have
been described as 'culture - specific'..." Sen then gives
examples from 3rd c. BC and 16th c. AD Indian culture, and
suggests, "Once we recognize that many ideas that are taken to be
quintessentially Western have also flourished in other
civilizations, we also see that these ideas are not as culture -
specific as is sometimes claimed..."
So we in the US may recognize, some day, that the Thais value
"democracy" as much as we do, even if things are a little
different there. Closer to home, we in the US may recognize that
French "democracy" and other beliefs, and our own, still have
much in common -- enough at least for a good working basis on
things like Internet development -- even if they do deal with
Nazis a little differently than we do, over there in France.
In the meantime, let's back off a bit: the French -- and the
Thais and the Chinese and the Indians and plenty of others -- all
love "democracy" and "freedom of expression" just as much as we
in the US do. But if they happen to cherish, or fear, a few of
their own local values like Royal Family veneration or political
memories more, can't room be made for that?
"Globalization" does not have to be "Americanization" -- not yet
-- not until "Empire" (*4), and / or not until the decision that
the whole world in fact has become the same has been made,
hopefully by all of us.
Have a nice summer. Stay offline -- read a novel. And try to
avoid France in football (the round kind) season... noisy...
Footnotes:
*1 Paul Mantoux, _The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth
Century_ (New York : Harcourt, Brace & Co., [1927]), p. 263.
*2 Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, April 1992 UC Berkeley address,
reported in May 7, 1992 _FYI France_ ejournal issue, "The Bib.de
France at Berkeley, part 4 of 4" --
http://www.fyifrance.com/restricted/Fyarch/fy920414.htm)
*3 John Gray, _False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism_
(New York: New Press, 2000) ISBN: 1565845927.
*4 Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri _Empire_ (Cambridge, Mass. :
Harvard University Press, 2000)
--oOo--
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