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The promoters of the telephone decided once and for all that since the apparatus was the direct descendent of the telegraph, its use would naturally be identical. The telephone was not designed to be an instrument of gossip. This study of the history of telephone advertising in the United States will demonstrate that this erroneous initial conception of the utilization of new technology was to be countered by the natural reactions of the users and that in the end, in spite of resistance from the telephone industry and its commercial agents, the consumers alone were responsible for transforming the telephone into an instrument of sociability. And they did it in a world in which greater mobility has ironically rendered pleasure trips more and more difficult The promoters of nex techniques cannot always foresee how they will eventually be used, and salesmen out in the field are often prisoners of preconceived, well-established notions, which are so many cultural constraints obstructing innovation.

The "Rise of the Networks" is not only an industrial and organizational phenomenon: it is epistemological as well. The "Rise of the Concept of Networking": the permanence of the idea of network as an operational pluri-disciplinary modelization concept is here under discussion. The author proposes a study of networks in the light of a paradigmatic shift, from positivist to experimental and constructivist epistemologies. The consideration of the general functions of any network leads to a systemic theory of networking which can be applied to the modeling of communication networks in social organization. An illustration is given of a local business network design, capable of "memorizing," which in turn suggests new organizational designs.

The term "intelligent networks" generally refers to telecommunications networks. Here the authors extend the idea to the the totality of technical networks "operated" by telecommunications networks, and they thus examine the process of computerization. Using two case studies (amortization of a water network, and driver-oriented automobile computer systems), the authors clarify some of the problems encountered with dynamic management and data in technical networks. Their investigation shows that the notion of an intelligent network has to do here with the sciences of organization, design, or even the ergonomics of data, and that different disciplines can themselves be enriched by contact with the concept of networks.

Questions are currently being raised concerning the organization and regulatory modes of electrical systems: is it possible, or even desirable to introduce more competition in this area? Rather than approch this difficult question from an abstract point of view, we here propose a study of how the technical and economic characteristics of electricity are linked, and the role of the actors involved in the economic, political and institutional landscape of several European countries, as well as in the United States. A rapid survey of the current physionomy of European electrical systems will allow us to compare their common and divergent points, that is, characteristics originating in the history of electricity. We then offer as a counterpoint an interpretation of the reforms currently taking place in Spain, in the Netherlands and in Great Britain, and recent debates on déréglementation in the US. It is thus possible, by emphasizing the detailed example of the conduct of the French network, to bring out the technical and economical determinants of the regulatory mode of the electrical sector. This analysis would tend to favor an evolutionist concept for the future, rather than a policy of complete rupture.

The idea of networks and graphic representational modes would appear to be in conceptual "symbiosis". The graphic representation of a network allows us to "see" it. However, traditional graphic tools are inadequate for fully realizing the funtionalities of networks. The computerization of graphics design has brought with it a renewal in the use of maps. But it is not entirely certain that technical up-dating can transform graphic representation into a tool for scientific analysis. On the other hand, its utilisation by network operators will very probably modify the processes of design and decision-making.

The intention of this study was to evaluate the urban and territorial effects of an important project of underground railway connections which will cross the city of Milan, the "Railway Underpass". Having verified that a transport system can produce effects of concentration (i.e., an increase in the external economies in the most accessible zones), of distribution (i.e., the reproduction of these effects also on other junctions and along the connecting arches of the entire reference network), and of diffusion (in terms of territorial transformation along the arches or at the main junctions of a transport system), an examination was made of the contribution which various, already consolidated, analysis methods can offer in this field: comparative analyses, analyses of networks, and analyses on a systemic basis. The aim of the study was to provide indications as to the possible effects of the Milan Railway Underpass project, (trans, by Elizabeth Genton).

The Parisian Regional Express Network was founded on the principal of interconnection. This notion has in fact two meanings: setting up technical relations of infrastructures controlled by different users; and the creation of lines which cross Paris in liaison with suburban railway "bundles". These interconnection modalities have proven to be complementary in the constitution of the RER in the Paris metropolitan area. But they also hide the combination of completely distinct operator strategies. On the one hand, the "RATP" (Paris Urban Transports), trying to retain its monopoly over Parisian urban transportation, has given priority to the technical connotation of interconnection. On the other hand, the "SNCF" (French National Railroads), trying to flex its muscles as THE transportation specialist of Paris and its suburbs, has adopted a much larger definition of the term. Borrowing from both meanings of the word "interconnection", the RER has built its success on the very ambiguity of the hybridization RATP-SNCF, thereby developing its own network logic. and the creation of lines which cross Paris in liaison with suburban railway "bundles". These interconnection modalities have proven to be complementary in the constitution of the RER in the Paris metropolitan area. But they also hide the combination of completely distinct operator strategies. On the one hand, the "RATP" (Paris Urban Transports), trying to retain its monopoly over Parisian urban transportation, has given priority to the technical connotation of interconnection. On the other hand, the "SNCF" (French National Railroads), trying to flex its muscles as THE transportation specialist of Paris and its suburbs, has adopted a much larger definition of the term. Borrowing from both meanings of the word "interconnection", the RER has built its success on the very ambiguity of the hybridization RATP-SNCF, thereby developing its own network logic.