Better than mental pills !

What's the best solution to become a shark communicator ? What's the only method which improve your faculty to communicate ? What's the best way to learn english ? The CELSA would have bought us a Nintendo DS ...

Thanks to new educational programs introduced for the Nintendo DS, everyone not just playing videogames but engaged in self-improvement. These programs reach new targets among gamers and nongamers, from teenagers to salarymen and housewives or students. The top-selling programs concentrate on cultural literacy, vocabulary building and math drills or ........... english learning !

In Japan, the phenomenon has transformed the Nintendo DS from a videogame player to a daily companion. One in seven Japanese owns a Nintendo DS ! The DS has dual screen, recognizes hand-writing ands respond to voice commands, making it easy for nongamers to control. In english training, a program has sold 2.4 million copies (half a million in Europe). The student performs language drills orally turning an otherwise monotonous chore into an entertaining effort to be understood by the machine.

So, Bob , if you want to take holidays, you know what you had to do ! :)

E-Culture is in constant evolution

My personnal answer to the question "E-culture is in constant evolution. But what are the most important recent developments for you personally and professionally? What will these recent innovations imply for future activities?"

Virtual thieves

Recent violences acts (in Finland last week, in Virginia Tech last year) relaunch the debate of the Internet control...

Talent 2.0

Becoming famous on the Internet is an emerging trend. What is the new model for emerging talent shaped by the Internet? What is the new definition of Fame?

Need some money ?

Prosper.com is a social network where money is your main argument. The website acts as a buffer between people who search a loan of less 25.000$ and the websurfers who want to lend.

The money-lender can offers a small amount as 50$. The loaner fixes an amount and a rate. He accepts the offers of the money-lender when the bids seems to be corrects. The service only exists in US for the moment.

Facebook as a gift

In october, Microsoft have bought a minimal part of Facebook. The invest  represents 240 millions of dollars for only 1,6% of the social network estimated to 15 billions of dollars.

Microsoft reinforces its partnership with Facebook, because the company sold the online advertisements which appeared on the Facebook pages in US. This partnership allows Microsoft a worldly visibility ; 60% of the Facebook users don't lived in US.

Google was an outsider during the negotiations. This partnership between Microsoft and Facebook relaunches the online advertising battle.

Mail me good

Internet and new technologies of communication change our way to write and communicate. To have a correct and simple use of this technologies, we invent new languages as SMS, or smileys. E-mail is a useful device to do business. You can join your partner every time from every where and he can do the same. One of the advantages of e-mail is that you can write exhaustive purposes. However, we had to respect few conventions.

• Present yourself with your real name in the title of the e-mail
• Write an explicit object, in your natal language
  
• You had to be rapid, synthetic & clear in you text.
  
• Please avoid long sentences, summarize and write pertinent things.
• Avoid acronyms or use just the most known. Use a correct punctuation.
  
• Compact your paragraphs. They had to be not too long and not too short. An average of 5 rows is good.
• Use a correct signature.

Google is a joke

A joke said " Soon, we had to search Google by using Google". The Californian company  improves everyday its services even if a large majority of websurfers only know the search engine. Google provides free webmaster tools or high tech advances. Currently, the firm enhances their mobile phones services.

Google grows every day or maybe we had to say "every week" because Google is specialized in detection of new companies and it buys out them. We could quote Youtube, Feedburner ou DoubleClick but the best example is the buyback of Pyra Labs, the company which conceived Blogger. The platform used for my own blog. Google have reach its monopolistic statue thanks to hundreds of these promising companies.

Even if Google have a monopolistic statue, I think that it's a rightful one. Their catch phrase sums up their vision "Don't be evil". However, I'm a quiet afraid by their respect of the privacy and personal data.

Learning English

Several websites purpose learning english for the children.

The British Council website offers different kinds of lessons with games, BD, quizzes, podcasts and exercices to different targets. For instance, there are 3 sections : professionals, kids, students.

I don't think that learning english on the web is very efficient because the interactivity is not well-developped. You don't have a complete relationshipo with your teacher even if he uses a camera. You can't appreciate all the significant elements in his voice, his face or his body movements.

None of the current free e-learning websites purposes an efficient method. No one uses all the internet possibilities in terms of interactivity and propinquity with the student. There is something to do !

Is your song a potential hit ?

Polyphonic HMI is a spanish company which developed the Hit Song Science project. This software is able to determine if your song will be a hit. The estimation of your song is based on an algorythm which analyse a large sample of music.More than 1,5 million of Billboard 200's songs are registered in the data base to compare your music to the best universal hits. Your judges are 20 parameters like the melody, the rhythm, tempo, pitch, octave, beat, fullness of sound, noise, brilliance, etc.).


The Hit Song Science software compares the sonic characteristics of a new piece of music with a database of the analyzed data of music and determines the similarities. However, there are differents ethics problem with this software which judge your music without be able to analyse the quality of the lyrics or the vogue. Your commercial success is estimated by comparing with pre-existents hits. So, if this software (used by many majors which said have discovered Norah Jones or Maroon5 thanks to Hit Song Science) become a success, it will limit the creativity of the future artists.

Everybody can test its music for a low cost (40€/ song - 4000€ a complete album). After 24h, you receive a note. If you exceed 7,3, you have composed a legendary success ! But, if you have a note less than 4 ... please stop playing music. A high rating in our system can give you a competitive edge and better visibility within the Music Industry professionals, music lovers, and new fans.

(english exercise)

Currently, I work in a company of 65 employees. It is located in Paris in the 15^th urban district on the "Rue Maubert" street. Its mission is to commercialize children’s softwares.

It receives a state subsidy to hire young trainies. It's how I received my place which is titled salesman. My previous job title was marketing director, but I've changed.

We sell a range of products with the Youngsoft brand. We have many tasks associated with marketing. Billboard advertising in the subway is one of the most expensive. Our PR department also has a very large budget. We realize our own ads with our editorial staff, and we purpose our own publishing of user manuals.

Our quarterly results for this year have been totally positive. Our market is very interesting right now, and that is why we earn profits.

We want to commercialize our products in Tahiti because we think overseas customers would be interested in buying them.

To conclude, because of our positive professional ethic and interesting market segment, we will have a successful future.

In Rainbows of Radiohead

Radiohead, the Tom Yorke's band, like to use the buzz marketing. After having publish weirds messages on its blog, the band released surprisingly its new album in legal downloading. In total autoproduction, the band which just leaved EMI major, decided to provide its music to its convenience.

This strategy is a gift to the Radiohead's fans because, during the first days of this operation, they could decide of the album price on the website. The album is sold in different packaging : digital, CD box, double vinyl and open disc. This strategy is a great success : one day after the release, the servor was in saturation !

Many bands use buzz marketing but a band never so innovative. Oasis and Jamiroquai declared today that they will follow the way trace out by Radiohead.

Buy your ideas

Blogs & new medias influence never be so important. Companies now develop tactics and strategies more tactful. For example, the "bottom approch" which account for buying around ten websites with a medium and "on the nose" audience instead of buying only one website with a large audience.

Recently, Presse-Citron, have been buy for an amount with 5 zeros ! Others famous blogs are targeted in different line of business : High Tech, programing, video games, etc. The total audience is estimated to 2 millions of visitors for an invest of 2,5 millions $. Each website don't be profitable but when you regroup them, you could make a profit estimated to 5 millions $.

However, this strategy isn't a new one. Actually, the revolution is that the company purpose an amount of money to the owner that he can't refuse to build his media. On the other hand, the blog buyback musn't change its atmosphere to maintain its quality.

Pirates are swedishs

The Pirate Bay, "the most important torrent server in the world" according to its management, has been in the news today about taking legal action against some of the media companies attacking it. Majors companies of the cultural industry tried to sabotage the Pirate Bay trackers :

• Twentieth Century Fox Sweden
• Emi Music Sweden
• Universal Music Group Sweden
• Universal Pictures Nordic
• Paramount Home Entertainment Sweden
• Atari Nordic
• Activision Nordic Filial to Activision UK
• Ubisoft Sweden
• Sony Bmg Music Entertainment Sweden
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Nordic
  

The Pirate Bay are a pro-countercultural and suedish organism supported by a lot of internauts. Pirate Bay management wants to make the culture free and it fights against entertainment majors companies.


Pirate likes to make events. In 2007, they tried to buy an petrol platform to host their servers and to constitute a micronation. Unfortunately, they didn't find enough money and the owner didn't want to sell the platform to the Pirate Bay organization. So, their headoffice stay in Sweden.

Personnaly, I use bitlord management tool. I download my torrent files on Pirate Bay or Mininova lists.

Radioblog awarded !

What is the most important e-culture development this year ? That's a difficult question. Myspace, Youtube or Dailymotion and all the most viewed social networks now are old. Every day, new projects are developped.

My favorite is Radioblog. A crazy project but a controversy one. With Radioblog, you don't need to bring your record library with you when you go to a party. You are totally mobile. Just be connected to Radioblog Club to listen (with your friends) all the music you want. This service is totally free.


It's a very interesting service for webmasters who want to create a community. You can easily include a music player on your website. Just copy the code in your html, php or asp files and add your favorites songs on the playlist. It will enhance your traffic too.

In France, it's a controversy service. SACEM organism closes the service during few weeks because the Radioblog company didn't pay royalties to the artists. More incredible, normally internauts cannot download the songs on the Radioblog Club. But few crackers found a solution and divulged their methods. They used blog posts and videos like this one.

E-culture is my culture

Internet never be so dynamic. Constantly in progress, new models of communication emerge every single day. Current tendancy is the buzz. You had to make noise. Speak loud, write a lot, shock everybody, be exhibisionist, denounce others, nothing is more important than be present. Create blog, myspace pages, share your personnal nightlife on youtube, call up your friends for unsignificant actions.

However, behind all this futility new business models emerge. Advertising remuneration, buzz marketing or crowdsourcing are confirmed methods. They change our professional career but personnaly, I've choose my way. I want mix 3 passions (music, communication & computer sciences) to be "multimedia". My dream is developping a new music media with a large community. Not a myspace, not a webzine ... but something smart and clever.

After my scientific studies I'm a very polyvalent person. I hope I will be able to develop my business sense !

Don't pollute !

Privacy pollution is similar to air pollution. Smalls elements of contamination build a combination of unpleasant effects. The best example is SPAM. It's unsignificant to receive one SPAM but certain people receive a lot of unsolicited e-mail, phone calls or letters each week. The advertisement and all these bad aspects become omnipresent in our lives. Some people are so submerged by SPAM that they spend an incredible time to clear their mailbox.

Another aspect linked to the SPAM process is the identity theft. Several evil-minded spammers use your personally identifying information, like your name, Social Security number, or credit card number, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. The last estimations rapports that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year ! There are differents methods to steal your identity : Dumpster Diving, Skimming, Phishing, Changing your address,Old-Fashioned stealing or Pretexting.

Be social, be connected

A social network is a social structure made of nodes (individuals or organizations) linked by their affinities (values, visions, ideas, friends, conflicts, etc.). Like in every network, social network analysis views social relationships in terms of nodes and ties. Nodes are the actors and ties are the relationships between them.

Internet abounds of softwares applications of social networks. The best examples are Myspace, Youtube or Dailymotion. You make your group of friends and you had to increase the capacity of your community. It's an amazing way to do your own promotion and communicate efficiently about any aspect of your life (personnal of professional).

Personnaly, I use Myspace everyday to promote my own website and its activity. Myspace is the sixth most popular website and store more than 200 million accounts. Myspace exists since 2003 and now employs 300 people. Several bands and musical organizations use this social network to build and animate their own community.

Sweet isn't Tweet

Twitter is a social network which answer to the simple question "What am I doing right now ?". This free service supplies 140 characters for providing a message to the community. You can create a public account or create your own friends network. This service was launch in 2006 by Obvious company.

To publish your messages, you can use the Twitter website, your cellular phone (via SMS), a live messenger (ex : Google Talk) or a software / website which use the free Twitter API. So, Twitter is the viral medium of micro information.

Twitter reveal an evolution in contents creation. Anyone have a different usage of this webservice. The users majority tells their lives with an exhibitionist aspect. Some others prefer to communicate in public about simple subjects. But with Twitter you can also send free SMS and create a new kind of blogging : micro-blogging. So, you can provide a scoop or poll quickly a large community.

Wiki, Wiki, Wiki !

A wiki is Content Management System which permits the open pages creation and modification by users. The wiki makes easier the collaborative writing of documents. Ward Cunnigham (photo) developped the first wiki for a website about programmation titled "WikiWikiWeb". The term Wiki signified "fast" in Hawaian language.

Wikis now are associated to Web 2.0 because they purpose a high involvment of the user. Anyone can rewrite or modify the articles of everyone and the wikis provide a easy method for linking from one page to another. The user efforts to develop the community knowledge make the wiki good. However, it depends on the lack of vandalism.

Made your blog a success !

How to be read in this huge blogosphere ? Your blog is a standardizated object. Be different is a difficulty sine qua non to fight down for making a success. First key might be the choice of your blog plateform. Please check all the possibilities offered, assure you that the service purposes an efficient ranking and confirm that it's the best solution.

According to a study published by The International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, plateforms have technical characteristics for the contents presentation and organisation and social interactions process which affect the popularity of your blog. These differences reduce the publishing time and socialisation process to focus on content and social interaction.

So, you can determine 3 kinds of blog : first is orientated on content presentation (CityDesk), second is focused on content organisation (Movable Type, Wordpress) and the last is enhanced by social applications (Modblog, Yahoo!360). But you had to know that Movable Type is the most used plateform by successfull blogs.

However, there is a lot of reasons that made your blog a success. The personnality, in a ultra-conformist universe is the first key. Your blog must bring an opinion and share your critical spirit. The reactivity, your blog bring people closer to the actuality. The impertinence give your blog an original atmosphere. Finally, your contents must be honest and had to reflect a part of you.

I've lost my brain

Crowdsourcing is a neologism used by Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson, journalists for Wired Magazine, to qualify the tasks externalisation to internauts. Crowdsourcing involve the intelligence, the knowledges and the creativity of millions of internauts to improve the range of services provides by a firm.

LaFraise.com is a contest which elect the best tshirts graphisms. Everyday, hundreds of graphists release their last products and submit them to the community vote. The winners can be rewarded with 1.000 euros and a limited serial production of 500 exemplaries.

The 21th of July 2007, LaFraise.com have been sold to Spreadshirt, its first rival. The company worth was estimated to 210.000 euros. So, it's a good example of crowdsourced managment which can also create a community around a service.

More crazy ! The 4th september 2007, Steve Fossett, the out-of-control billionaire, crashed his plane in the Nevada's desert. The authorities can't find him. Few days after the lost, Google and Amazon decided to release images of the area via Google Earth and a Mechanical Turk. Thanks to hundreds of voluntaries, this operation is an incredible crowdsourced one. Some internauts spend hundreds hours to search the plane. Unfortunately, they haven't found it. By the way a lot of 50's planes were discovered.

What is a good example of generosity as a business model on the Internet ?

Generosity is the habit of giving. Even if world companies use Internet to extend their powerfull activities, Internet is based on exchange and donation. Generosity is not solely based on one's economic status, but instead, includes the individual's pure intentions of looking out for society's common good and giving from the heart. Generosity should reflect the individual's passion to help others. Internet is a general model of generosity because all users share their knowledges in a transparent process.

First, personnal webpages were supplied by FAI to expert users who wanted to provide easily a passionated message. Today, new advanced technologies have democratized the Internet with Blogs, Wikis, Social networks or Community builder. Everyone can tell to the world how a chicken had to be cooked, how to resolve a hardware problem or to communicate what are the best concerts this week.

Blog history is a little bit complex. No one knows exactly who was the first blogger. However precursors are BBS (Bulletin Board System) users such as Jim Howard who told his life and linked other BBS on Howard's Notebook. The 17th dec. 1997, Jorn Barger titled his site "weblog". In 1999, Peter Merholz used for the first time the "blog" term.

In 2007, more than 70 millions have been registered by Technorati and the institute estimated that 100.000 blogs born every day. In France, the blogosphere is very active with more than 13 millions of visitors a day and an impressive participation of teenagers in Skyblog community.