Chirac unveils his grand plan to restore French pride

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk>
Date: April 26, 2006 5:23:37 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Chirac unveils his grand plan to restore French pride

Dave:

From today's (UK) Guardian - for IP idf you wish.

cheers

Brian

===

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,1761440,00.html


>  Chirac unveils his grand plan to restore French pride
>
> · President hopes to secure legacy with rival to Google
> · Six major projects to get £1.4bn state funding
>
> Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
> Wednesday April 26, 2006
> The Guardian
>
> The French president, Jacques Chirac, yesterday unveiled what he  
> hopes will be his great legacy to France's struggle against the  
> global dominance of the US: a series of technological projects  
> including a European search engine to rival Google.
>
> Mr Chirac, who walked out of an EU summit last month when a fellow  
> Frenchman committed the grave offence of speaking English, styles  
> himself as the defender of France in the globalised world.
>
> After the biggest street protests in decades forced him to stage a  
> U-turn on employment reform last month, Mr Chirac is keener than  
> ever to be remembered for doing something positive for French  
> pride. Yesterday, he announced that he would provide ¤2bn (£1.4bn)  
> in funding for a series of innovative grands projets, including a  
> Franco-German search engine to compete with Google and Yahoo!.
>
> Named Quaero - Latin for "I search" - the search engine aims to be  
> the first to efficiently sort through audio, images and video. It  
> would search the growing array of podcasts and videoclips on the  
> web and deliver the information to computers and mobile phones.  
> Quaero has been a pet project of Mr Chirac's for some time. In his  
> new year speech at the Elysée Palace, he spoke of the need to "take  
> up the global challenge posed by Google and Yahoo!".
>
> But his plan is not without its sceptics. The French satirical  
> newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné has mocked the project's funding as  
> paltry in comparison with Microsoft or Google. Mike Lynch, chief  
> executive of Autonomy, a Cambridge-based search software firm,  
> wrote to the Financial Times calling the plan "a blatant case of  
> misguided and unnecessary nationalism" and warning that by the time  
> Quaero is developed the market will have moved on.
>
> The project was one of six unveiled yesterday by Mr Chirac. A plan  
> for delivering high-quality television to mobile phones, a project  
> for refineries to turn cereals into chemicals, a new light train  
> system, and diesel and electric cars are to be part-funded by the  
> Agency for Industrial Innovation, set up by Mr Chirac. German  
> companies and scientists will work with French industry on the  
> projects.
>
> Mr Chirac said he wanted to raise the global profile of French  
> industry and avoid a future in which France was known only as a  
> "museum country". "These big programmes will focus us on  
> technological challenges that are essential for our future," he  
> said in a speech. He added that China spent five times more on  
> research than France and that only one French company appeared in a  
> recent list of the top 30 companies that invest in research.
>
> France has a history of investing public money into big  
> technological projects. Some, such as Airbus and TGV, have proved a  
> success. Others have been a flop. The Minitel information system  
> depended on the distribution of free terminals. It was never  
> successful outside France and was superseded by the internet.
>
> It is not the first time Mr Chirac has sought to establish France  
> as a competitor in the digital information age. After the election  
> in 2002, he promised to challenge CNN and the BBC with a 24-hour  
> news station, a "CNN à la française", which would counter the Anglo- 
> Saxon world view and spread French values. The station, CII, with  
> some ¤70m a year in public funding, is due to be launched in December.
>
> Big ideas
>
> Quaero
> A Franco-German project to create a search engine. Its budget will  
> be ¤450m (£310m) over five years, including ¤90m in subsidies
>
> BioHub
> A ¤98m investment in a "bio-refinery" that can use starch to create  
> plastics and food additives
>
> NeoVal
> The successor to Val, the automatic metro. It will use an energy- 
> storage technology allowing the train to recharge itself at every  
> station
>
> Unlimited Mobile TV
> Satellite and mobile phone technology to allow TV viewing from a  
> mobile phone
>
> Home
> A Schneider Electric initiative for extremely energy-efficient  
> buildings. Sensors in walls will regulate heat, light and ventilation
>
> Hybrid diesel vehicle
> Cars powered by diesel and electricity

--
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon  
Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/


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