An early actor: the Swiss Telecom PTT and the CMC experiment[9] The only effort at national scale that could resemble a national policy component was the PTT experiment called CMC carried out between 1989 and 1992. 18 test-sites were chosen in the whole country, according to criteria such as local motivation, originality of pre-projects and diversity of situations (central and peripheral, linguistically scattered). The objective was to explore needs, opportunities and technical feasibility, in these various contexts, of telematics applications. Many projects failed, or did not get to the implementation stage. It is quite possible that there were simply too many and too diverse initiatives to be monitored. In addition, it seems that the follow-up phase was not taken care of or not even forethought in the experiment's blueprint. Four years after the final report, it would be interesting to see what remains of the 18 projects and what has been the leverage effect on local realisations and technological culture. Some projects were obviously stimulating and enduring successes, such as a tele-medecine experiment (tele-diagnostic and tele-microscopy) between a University hospital (Basle) and a cantonal hospital (Semadan, Ticino). Small experimenting sites in the field of tele-teaching, interactive TV and tele-cottages(in the cantons of Valais and Vaud),) may well belong to the same category (a close assessment will tell it). The interesting thing of the CMC PTT experiment is that it is so far the only one of its kind: a national-scale "push" attempt to stimulate collective learning of ICTs, and should for this reason carefully be analysed "ex post". Newcomers or updated versions of these large-scale CMC experiments can be identified at local levels in 3 fields mainly : Firstly, the Top Vision experiments (Grenchen and Nyon) launched in 1995 and monitored by Swiss Telecom PTT, but supplied by a varied range of contend providers and cable operators (e.g. Phillips, Alcatel, Nestlé). Due to this diversity of actors, this ongoing experiment is difficult to assess (similar tele-services experiments like tele-shopping, tele-marketing, are also taking place under other labels at regional or city level). Secondly, service provision in remote areas such as Sion/Wallis. Thirdly, medical engineering experiments in academic institutions and companies in the fertile << niche >> around Geneva Lake. |