The 'conventions' needed for durably adopting new information technology.

The general public does not adopt technology in a faceless situation with n othing standing between users and machines. Intermediaries of several sorts - physical, social, technical and affective transform this situation. The ways 'conventions' have been worked out in drivers' education can be used t o assess what must still be done for the new information technology to be w idely and lastingly adopted. Despite this technology's instability, the eme rgence of such conventions can be observed (through owner services, search- engines or intelligent agents), even though a cleavage is placing the uses of this new technology outside the purely technical universe of computers. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.