there was Xerox PARC in the 70s, Google Labs, nowadays but there was also IBM's La Gaude Lab, somewhere over the french riviera, back in 1961 (and still exists)

... once one is inside, there is an openess in people's attitudes that matches the soaring design of the lab building itself ...

The French government at the time was encouraging companies to move at least 100 miles out of Paris, and rather than coexist with the cows, IBM went all the way to the Mediterranean, where Nice offered an international airport and a nice life style. President de Gaulle appreciated the major investment, at a time when U.S. - French relations were not at their best, and the commitment to the lab may have enhanced IBM's image as a nearly French company.

They were already producing modems there for forthcoming the 360-series ... La Gaude always liked the idea of the telephone as the cheapest, simplest possible terminal, accepting that reduced capability would be quite all right for the user who is only working with the computer a few times a day, as opposed to the airline agent who may have hundreds of transactions.

take this, convergence dreamer.

'The phone does not print or draw pictures, but it talks, so it has the two essential characteristics of a terminal: you can send a message, and you can get a message back.' Thus, La Gaude people began exploring how to expand phone use for limited data collection and distribution systems, as well as sensing contact. | datamation, december 1974

Wired hatte mal eine sehr gute Story über die Atari Labs. Man möchte nicht meinen, was da alles passiert ist.