FiberGeneration

The Next Wave Of Change

It's new, it's still in alpha stage, and it's made by Google. It's going to change the World. Granted *.

It's called "Wave", and you're going to surf on it a lot soon.

* Think Net Neutrality, Open Neutral Access, and Open Mind.

Feedly: How To Develop A New Product The Collaborative Way

You probably have heard of Feedly, this fantastic Content aggregator which makes RSS feeds reading as appealing as on a real paper magazine - that is, on top, your own self-made magazine.

An early-adopter, I'm using Feedly since Day One. I'd better say "was using", since Feedly is a Firefox-only extension: as many of us Mac users, I switched back to Safari with the 4.0 beta version of the Apple' navigator. So, bye-bye Feedly and its amazing user-experience. Welcome back, Google Reader. 

Reader is powerful indeed, however it doesn't provide this special touch that makes Feedly so sexy to use all day long. It's like comparing a PC running Windows Seven with a Mac running Leopard, see what I mean ?

That's why lots of us were yelling at Edwin Khodabakchian, the smart guy behind Feedly: "Give us a Safari version, quick !". Ed listened to us. Feedly for iPhone is coming - most probably as a beta version together with the upcoming iPhone 3.0 software release. How does Edwin and his team work on this new product ? Simple: they leverage on existing tools to talk to the User.

Which tools ? Well, since Feedly is a typical Web 2.0 application, those are Web 2.0 tools. The blog obviously, Twitter, Google Docs - see the product roadmap here, just amazing - the outstanding Customer Support service GetSatisfaction, and FriendFeed, where everything is discussed.

You may want to have a look at the numerous posts and comments on FriendFeed: it's a marvelous example of the power of Web 2.0 to get and keep in touch with the end-users. Customers feedback, Power-Users suggestions, ideas sharing: everything a Product Marketing fellow dreams of is there, at your fingertips. The benefits for the company ? Countless. For instance, the speed of the development is dramatically increased, as people can instantly react to a new idea. The features set at the first release is the one people are expecting, because they've participated to the new product generation process. And, on top, the adoption rate can be quite fast, provided a) all the people who participate are de-facto beta-testers, and b) the product is theirs.

Web 2.0 hype is dead, because we already live in the Web 2.0 Age.

To contribute to Feedly For iPhone aka "Project Nitro", go here: http://friendfeed.com/feedly-iphone

Your Business Card Says It All

I recently changed my personal "business" card for a mini-card made by the folks at Moo.com. After a few weeks giving it away here and there at conferences or meetings, I can tell: it makes the difference.

People really look at it, asking me questions such as "Where is this ?", "Who made it ?", "Aren't you afraid people going to lose it?". The thing is, no matter the question, this mini-card helps engaging the conversation. It does the in-grouping per itself.

For instance, the photo is a snapshot from the landscape as one can enjoy from the Boulevard des Pyrénées in Pau; however, lots of people start by claiming "hum, looks like [this place]", the place being one they obviously went before - I've heard Tunisia, Florida, California. I then let them enumerate other possible locations, to finally tell them the answer: "it's Pau, France". Most of the guys are surprised, offering me the opportunity to explain the beauty of the Pau Broadband Country.

The lesson of this is well known on the other side of the Ocean since years, however it's quite nice to experiment it on a daily basis: to stand out of the crowd, be different.

By the way: the Moo mini-card don't fulfill Guy Kawasaki's rule: the font is a bit too small for guys like us reaching the 50-yo frontier  ;-) 

Just for fun: since 2003, I used three different formats and styles for my personal business cards. See the picture - the U.I. card is obsolete - I no longer have a foot in San Fran or Dubai, yet I still like its design (self-made, thanks ;-)

PayPal For Dummies - sort of :-(

No need to read french to understand it's a trap. I wouldn't appreciate being a novice here...

Digital France 2012: The Stimulus Plan

Ms. Nathalie Kosciusco-Morizet, aka NKM, has presented today a 750M€ package aimed at deploying Fiber Broadband, developing Serious Gaming, and implementing Web 2.0 Administration over the next three years.

Official announcement here (link in french).

More on this over the next few days: I have way too many things to tell and share on those matters - especially with the Pau Broadband Country - to keep it for me only ;-)