podcaster:

veitia:

French Minitel terminal in Paris. For those who don’t know this WAS the Internet before the Internet even existed. It allowed you to go on forums, phone directories, databases, information services, purchase train and airline tickets, and even purchase goods online.  This terminal was on top of a trash container, for reasons unknown to me.

If you want to read more about the birth of the internet and how the French pioneered the world wide web with this service, you can read about it in a Forbes article here: http://www.forbes.com/2003/07/14/cx_al_0714tentech.html?partner=newscom