Editing Telidon (section)

===Commercial efforts===
One of the longest-lived Telidon deployments was "Project Grassroots", a follow-on to the services developed as part of the earlier Project Ida and run on its machines in Winnipeg. Unlike Ida, Grassroots ran on geographically distributed [[modem]]s instead of cable links and was aimed specifically at farmers, providing weather reports, agrochemicals notices and other information, as well as optional links to live commodities pricing on various exchanges. Prices were high: in addition to purchasing a terminal there was an additional one-time $100 set-up fee, the annual fee was $150, and there was a $19.00/hr charge to connect to the service, and another $6.00/hr for "communications".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070705053914/http://www.telidonhistoryproject.ca/grassroots/grassroots_subscriptionfee.html "Manitoba Price List for Equipment & Services"]</ref> Nevertheless, Grassroots grew into a system that distributed 20,000 pages of information to farmers created by Infomart. Based in [[Winnipeg]], Grassroots expanded to serve [[Alberta]], [[Saskatchewan]], northern [[Ontario]], and in 1985, the northern [[United States]].<ref name=c>Carlson</ref>

A significant showcase for the Telidon system was set up for the Third General Assembly of the [[Inuit Circumpolar Council]], hosted in [[Iqaluit|Frobisher Bay]] on [[Baffin Island]] in July 1983. A database of information about the conference and its services was hosted by Teleglobe Canada in [[Toronto]] on their Novatex system, with the information translated into English, French, Danish, Inuktitut, Greenlandic, Labradorian, Inupiag, Yupik and Western Arctic. Sixteen Telidon terminals, supplied by Microtel, were located at various sites in Frobisher Bay, with additional terminals in [[Vancouver]], [[Washington, D.C.]], [[Copenhagen]], [[Anchorage]], [[Bethel, Alaska|Bethel]], [[Utqiagvik, Alaska|Utqiagvik]], [[Nuuk]], as well as other northern communities. Communications were provided by [[Bell Canada]], [[VSNL International Canada|Teleglobe]], [[TELE Greenland|Greenland Telecommunications]] and the [[Post Danmark|Danish Post and Telegraph]].<ref name=b/>

The Canadian government also invested in Telidon as a way of distributing graphical information. [[Transport Canada]] ran a system called "TABS" that installed terminals in many airports, where pilots could quickly look up weather information and [[NOTAM]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.pcmuseum.ca/details.asp?id=69 |title=A typical TABS terminal is on display here |access-date=2009-11-12 |archive-date=2010-06-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620003145/http://www.pcmuseum.ca/details.asp?id=69 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Statistics Canada]] also used Telidon as a way to distribute graphs and other information in their CANSIM system using their TELICHART software that converted tables of data into NAPLPS commands.<ref>Brian Huggins, [http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/cmarchive/vol11no3/statisticscanadainformatio.html "Statistics Canada: Meeting the needs of an information age"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090510130105/http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/cmarchive/vol11no3/statisticscanadainformatio.html |date=2009-05-10 }}, Volume 11 Number 3 (1983)</ref> [[Environment Canada]] used Telidon terminals to produce video feeds that could then be broadcast on local cable feeds.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nJGQmHCh_E "Environment Canada Weather Telidon"]</ref>

In the Toronto area, "Teleguide" terminals were common fixtures at larger shopping malls, government buildings (e.g. [[Scarborough Civic Centre]]) and notably the [[Toronto Eaton Centre]].<ref>[http://denver.bizjournals.com/gen/executive.html?excode=6B1749A2A65C4757AAC9D9EA63259851 "Darrell Hadden"]</ref> Run by [[London, Ontario]]'s Cableshare, the system relied on an 8085-based microcomputer which drove several NAPLPS terminals fitted with touch screens, all communicating via [[Datapac]] to a back-end database. The system offered news, weather and sports information along with shopping mall guides and coupons. Rollouts were announced in several other cities as well.<ref>Dan Berger, "Teleguide's coming to town; Machines offer some good, free advice" ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'', 10 March 1985, p. 11</ref><ref>"Chronicle-Videotex Acquires U.S. Teleguide rights", ''Business Wire'', 9 June 1986</ref><ref>"SFCVB and Bay Area Teleguide join forces to guide tourists", ''Business Wire'', 9 May 1984</ref>

The largest efforts were made in the United States. After the Venture One experiments in 1982/3, AT&T decided not to pursue a videotex service of its own, but instead provide service and support to other companies who wanted to. [[CBS]] invested considerable capital in the development of their [[ExtraVision]] service, which also included [[closed captioning]] and channel information along with more traditional Telidon information. Affiliate stations could also insert their own content into the streams, although the high cost of the systems needed to do this made it relatively rare.<ref name="Banks p. 74">{{harvnb|Banks|2008|p=74}}</ref>

AT&T also partnered with [[Knight Ridder|Knight-Ridder Newspapers]] to form Viewdata, a holding company that operated the "[[Viewtron]]" service. Test marketed in Florida in 1980, the service expanded to the entire southern Florida area by 1983, and then expanded to much of the eastern seaboard. Viewdata started primarily as a news service, but over time included more and more features. As it operated over modems in a pure videotex format, it was able to offer a variety of two-way services including e-mail and bulletin boards.<ref name="Banks p. 74"/> A similar system was "Gateway", run by AT&T and the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''.<ref name="Banks p. 74"/>

In 1984 [[Tribune Media Services]] (TMS) and the [[Associated Press]] operated a cable television channel called "AP News Plus" that provided NAPLPS-based news screens to cable television subscribers in many U.S. cities.<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-3399732.html "Associated Press and Tribune Media Services form venture to produce graphics-enhanced news service, AP NEWS PLUS"], ''PR Newswire'' press release, 23 August 1984</ref> The news pages were created and edited by TMS staffers working on an Atex editing system in Orlando, Florida, and sent by satellite to NAPLPS decoder devices located at the local cable television companies. The images were rendered locally, and then sent out as normal television signals to the customers. This avoided the need to send entire channels of video over satellite to the affiliate stations, instead, a small amount of data was sent and allowed the video to be recreated, for significantly less cost.