mfort of knowing that I can reach for it in a physical sense, and
not rely solely on electronic backup, the reliability of the operating system,
or my ISP (Internet service provider) for Internet access. So, for what I
consider worth preserving, there is a fair amount of redundancy, and paper still
has its place.

= What do you think about e-books?

Sorry, I haven't tried them yet. Perhaps because of this, it still appears to me
like a very odd concept, something that the technology made possible, but for
which there will not be any wide usage, except perhaps for classic reference
texts. High school and college textbooks could be a useful application of the
technology, in that there would be much lighter backpacks to carry. But for the
sheer pleasure of reading, I can hardly imagine getting cozy with a good e-book.

= What is your definition of cyberspace?

It's literally the newest frontier for mankind, a place where everyone can claim
his place, and do so with relative ease and a minimum of financial resources,
before heavy inter-governmental regulations and taxation finally set in. But
then, there will be another.

ARLETTE ATTALI (Paris)

#Head of Research and Internet Projects at the INaLF (Institut national de la
langue francaise - National Institute of the French Language)

The purpose of the INaLF -- part of the France's National Centre for Scientific
Research (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) -- is to design
research programmes on the French language, particularly its vocabulary. The
INaLF's constantly expanding and revised data, processed by special computer
systems, deal with all aspects of the French language: literary discourse
(14th-20th centuries), everyday language (written and spoken), scientific and
technical language (terminologies), and regional languages. This data, which is
an very important study resource, is made available to people interested in the
French language (teachers and researchers, business people, the service sector
and the general public) through publications and databases.

Frantext is one of the best French textual databases on the Internet. It is a
collection of about 3,000 digitized French texts from the 16th to the 20th
centuries, with a search facility (Stella) for literary, linguistic,
lexicographical, and stylistic research. The database, which was revamped in
1998, now has a more user-friendly interface, more efficient online help and
better compu