Minitel Closes Doors

Richard James informs us that the France/UK videotex service Minitel officially closed its doors on January 1. The Minitel was a predecessor to the Web, launched in France in 1982. It did very well at first, and attempted to link to to the Web after its emergence. I saw a demo in the late 80s and it was impressive for the time. Is there a place where we can learn about some of the learnings from the Minitel experience? It is surprising to me that it lasted as long as it did after the Web achieved more universal critical mass, but was likely buoyed by governmental support. From Minitel, where they are establishing a new service which is business oriented, but apparently web based.