In the 991005 MMDigest Joyce Brite congratulated me in French (quite
unusual on the MMD !) about the Q. David Bowers award I received on Oct
1st from the MBSI.  Of course, I was very pleased, and I want to
explain how I consider this award.  I shall reproduce part of the
answer I gave to the 500 people who were there that night.  (My answer
was probably too long, but I really wanted to thank the many people who
helped me building this web site or gave me information, and many
members of the MMD did it).  I do hope this answer will please the MMD
editors and members, because I am fully aware that my web site, Musica
Mecanica, is certainly not the only one in existence in our field !

  "This award ... appears to me as highly symbolical.  I find highly
symbolical that the MBSI, which is mainly an American society, gives
the last award of the 20th century and of the 2nd millennium to a
Frenchman who maintains an international web site, in 3 languages:
English, French and German.

  "Of course, the most important and the most symbolical point is not
that I am French, or would be German, or Dutch, or Japanese, or even
American; it is that I belong to this larger and larger community of
people who use the Internet to enlarge our knowledge, and the circle
of our relations and of our friends.

  "Then, and this point is very important, I consider that this award
is dedicated, through me, to all the people who extend our knowledge
of mechanical music, and our relationships by maintaining web sites
dedicated to mechanical music : commercial sites, of course, but also
web pages made by associations, museums, and individuals.

  "Impossible to give all the names here, they are now well over one
hundred dealing with mechanical music, but I want to give a special
treatment and thanks to the founders and editors of the MMD, the
Mechanical Music Digest.  Thanks to my good friend Robbie Rhodes,
a great stride pianist, a great ingenieur, a great editor, and Jody
Kravitz, a genial fan of computers and mechanical music, and many
others, almost 1000 people throughout the world receive each day the
latest news about mechanical music, and can exchange a lot of informa-
tion.  The MMD is typical of this new kind of informal organism which
is secreted by the Internet: it is neither entirely commercial,
neither entirely associative, but creates a lot of links between
mechanical music addicts.  Through the MMD, I actually met many
interesting people, some have become good friends.

  "I hope that the next century and millennium, far from being a century
of global wars and sectarianism, will be a century of communication,
friendship between humans and nations, and promotion of every aspect
of culture and art, in the full respect of the diversity of the
original cultures and languages of the various peoples of our world.

  "And our hobby, mechanical music, is certainly a very good way to
contribute to achieve these goals".

Should I add that for me, an association like the MBSI and a web site
like the MMD are not competitors, but complementary ?

With my best regards,

Philippe Rouille  (Paris, France)
rouille@cnam.fr
http://www.cnam.fr/museum/musica_mecanica/

 [ Editors' note:
 [
 [ Well said, Monsieur!  The people whom you compliment share their
 [ knowledge and skills out of kindness and the love of the hobby, and,
 [ as you discovered, good friendships are counted among the benefits.
 [ I'm sure this will be noted soon at the GSM/MBSI gathering in
 [ Bruchsal.  Thank you, Philippe, for your truly international efforts
 [ with Musica Mecanica.
 [
 [ -- Robbie & Jody