Jean-Michel Billaut

Born on 29 April 1945, Billaut was working as an analyst for Compagnie Bancaire when he borrowed a Minitel from the Direction générale des Télécommunications [fr].^[2] In 1978, he created the Atelier Compagnie Bancaire, a system for monitoring technology intelligence and analysis of emerging technologies.^[3] In 1983, Cetelem began using the Minitel and six years later Billaut's system accounted for 35% of the market for payments using the device.^[4] The system later became known as L'Atelier BNP Paribas,^[5] and it established itself in the United States in 2007 and launched a website dedicated to technology news.^[6]

Billaut helped launch numerous websites in the 1990s and was nicknamed an internet "guru".^[7] Wired magazine wrote an extensive article on him in 2000, calling him an "e-grandpa".^[8] In the early 2000s, he became an advocate of the rapid development of high-speed internet access, predicting that countries would gain notoriety for their bandwidth speeds.^[9] In 2000, he was named a Knight of the Legion of Honour.^[10] He also gained fame from his blog billautshows, where he published interviews with French internet personalities.^[11] In October 2011, he received a Hub Award at the annual Hub Forum.^[12] For several years, he participated in conferences on the digital economy, notably taking part in the Canal+ forumThe end of work: how digital will change everything by 2050".^[13] In 2016, he took part in the LaPrimaire.org [fr] primary, which sought to nominate a candidate for the 2017 French presidential election, placing 10th.^[14]

Billaut died on 11 January 2025, at the age of 79.^[15]