ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the several different videotex systems and the - similarly different - utilization patterns which develop in response to the opportunity structures thus created. The major regulatory aspects of videotex concern equity of access, consumer protection, and data protection. Comparatively speaking, the German Bildschirmtext is the most heavily regulated videotex system. Interactive videotex belongs to that class of technical systems which are spatially extended and serve to transmit or transport given objects through a network of appropriate channels. The industrial producers in France come mainly from the telecommunications domain, whereas in Germany and Britain they initially came from the consumer electronics sector. The various features of the socio-technical system “videotex” constitute an opportunity structure with incentive and disincentive effects for different groups of potential users, whose reactions in turn constitute an opportunity structure for service providers and hard- and software producers.