FiberGeneration

The Web 2.0 Typical Disease, or How To Make Your Product Stand Out

I've just cleaned up my .Me (formerly know as .Mac) email inbox, reducing the infernal number of messages from 500+ down to a more affordable 100+.***

Among those hundreds of messages that I sorted, archived, or trashed, more than 20 were confirmations of registration at this or that Web 2.0 new service or new application. I tell you what : I couldn't remember 4 out of 5 of them. What the heck is this or that stuff about, I can't tell.

My first conclusions on this fact : either I start suffering Alzheimer's Disease (maybe I should call on Dr. House) or the service itself wasn't worth the try - which explains why I didn't remember even the names. About names : I'm not the first one nor the last one to say that many of the Web 2.0 start ups have obscure names or products names - that's a Web 2.0 game, actually : choose the most non-sensed name, and you'll get noticed. At least for a short while (see above).

Now, the lesson : if you want your Web 2.0 app to stand out the crowd, make it shine. Make it visible. Make it recognizable. Pick a handful of early adopters, wait a month or two after they've signed up, and then ask them what your product is about. If they're able to answer right on the spot, you won. If not, better think again your model.

*** I do use my inbox as a To-Do list - that doesn't mean I've got 100 to-do items (ever heard of threads ? ;-)

Tip of the day : for those of you don't have a Gmail account yet, create one. Then, use it as a backup for your regular email account(s). I personnaly set-up a special Gmail account just for this backup task a couple of months ago, and I can tell : it's very very convenient. You never sweat again when you delete an important message by mistake : it's still there, somewhere in the Cloud ;-)

Feedly And The Customer Satisfaction Fairy Tale

Since last week and the latest Firefox 3 update (3.0.1), I can't get Feedly running any longer. That's a real pitty for me, as I consider Feedly as the best RSS feed reader so far - for once, you can design your own online newspaper at a fingersnap.

Unfortunately, the automatic FX update stopped the service. No chance to re-install the add-on : "The feedly 1.0b3 could not be installed because it is not compatible with Firefox 3.0.1."

So after several attempts, I decided to call on Feedly' support. I discovered the Get Satisfaction service : technical support the Web 2.0 way. Absolutely stunning, for it is the one place you as an end-user can go and call for help on most of your favorite tools and apps. The list of companies currently being supported by Get Satisfaction is definitely impressive, from the smallest newest startup (say... Feedly for instance) to the biggest largest company (say Apple). Twitter seems to be the number one in terms of questions and support team.

Among a few other Web 2.0 apps, Get Satisfaction is typically the sort of tool which every single Enterprise 1.0 should adopt and integrate immediately. It's a fantastic way to keep in touch with your end-users, by proving them how much you care about their satisfaction.

Actually, this type of service is based on an old concept made modern. In this case, it's Usenet and its numerous FAQs and discussion boards at the Web 2.0 sauce. Nothing new ("the people-powered customer service for absolutely everything") but all new (the ease of use and the flexibility).

As soon as I get my own startup up and running, Get Satisfaction will be part of the toolkit.

ps : my own dashboard is here.

When P.R. Brings You Joy & Faith (sort of)

For those of you who still have doubts on the bright future of Fiber To The Home, this press release will wipe them out right away.

ed. note : to read with a grain of salt, of course ;-)

Marketing 101 : The Street Rules

You know your product is reaching Mainstream when you see it on 4x3 ads in the streets.

A Job Offer That Kick The Ass

See here. Corporate World, welcome to the Web 2.0 Age.

Freak This

Seen in Pau yesterday, this banner at a perfume shop. Just curious to learn what a "Nail bar" consists of.

Three posts by Seth Godin I should have written myself

It's about marketing, business development, selling, customers, and us.
First, read "Self promotion", then continue with "The first rule of b2b selling", and finish with "What do you know?".
Now you've got the top-3 rules for a successful business.

Belgium Goes Web 3.0

This is true User-Interaction. Just amazing. And so funny ;-) Enjoy !

My "About Me" Page Sucks

Luckily enough, more and more people go to the "About Me" section of this blog. Unfortunately, the more I read it myself, the more I think it's not appealing enough. Too much of a light resume.
The fact is, the people who go to the "About Me" page of a blog want to know who's the author, his background for sure, but mainly his current activities, hobbies, passion, or whatever make him write this blog.
Nothing people get when reading my own stuff. At least not in a proper "elevator-pitch" manner...
That's why I'm to rewrite this section sometime over the week-end. Easter is supposed to be a new start, isn't it ?

Dear FTTx Contractors, Say Hello To Customer-Facing Coaching

When you think about it, Fiber-To-The-Home is the ultimate experience for outside plant technicians. For the first time ever, those folks are working right in front of the end-user.
That implies a lot of new behavior for the OSP people, as they are kind of the front-desk of the service provider. To make it short : the guy who's installing the fiber at the subscriber' s place is also the ISP' s sales rep.
Hence the need for coaching the OSP technicians to customer-facing situations. Be the best sales rep. That's quite an interesting challenge, for both the trainers and the installers themselves. Have a look at this video, and you'll understand why.

I'm Happy Not Being This New Product Launch Manager

I wish good luck to my friends at the company who are to introduce this new box on their respective markets.
Compared to such a challenge, the Agilent Modular Network Tester launch was a no-brainer !

I've been Trailfired !

See here. Amazing. I really love those Web 2.0 things. Really.

More on Trailfire here and here.

Post-scriptum to the Trailfire folks : congrats for the GUI design, absolutely superb !

Doing Product Marketing The Web 2.0 Way

Remember Zattoo ? The beta is available since a couple of days only, and people start googling for "zattoo for iphone". See here.
Would I be part of the Product Marketing team at the startup, I would immediately digg a little bit further : someone searching something so specific is a potential user. Or a potential rival. Actually, it doesn't matter, because IMHO the equation is simple : search = opportunity.
That's what most of the french businesses don't understand with the Web 2.0 : it helps you developping new products faster and better, for specific needs and/or applications and/or end-users.

That's Web 2.0 At Its Best

Here's a modern, innovative way to do the exec summary of an event.
See Mahalo Daily' s Veronica Belmont funny video : Steve Jobs' MacWorld Keynote in 60 seconds. Boom. Gorgious. Incredible.

Your Best Marketing Friend : Google

To those of you who still think you need to pay hundreds of bucks to a PR agency for ensuring your visibility on the Web, you may think again. See this : somebody somewhere was searching Google for "optical networks contracting"; outcome : Fibergeneration came number one in the list, with this post.

Lesson : Seth Godin is right. First thing to do this year : Google yourself.

2007 : The Year Of Learning People

Before kicking-off the new year with a traditional round of Top-Ten stuff, I'd like to wrap up 2007 with the mandatory yet often forgotten WWW session. Every business developer, marketeer, and sales man must do the WWW after each and every meeting with her customers, prospects, or teammates. Hence a blogger, who should do the same with his readership.

What does 'WWW' mean ? If you think " World Wide Web ", think again. It stands for : " what went Wrong, what went Well, what we Will do better next time." I've learned about the WWW session for the first time back in early 2000, with my Forever-Coach Hal Stitt at Agilent Technologies. Seven years (not in Tibet) after, I can testify how the WWW session is the most powerful tool to get you improve your product, your behavior, your business.

The WWW rules are simple : the meeting facilitator captures every input from each participant, including herself, in each of the three categories, on a round-robin basis (important : names are not recorded). I tell you : the first time you do a WWW session with a channel partner or a customer, the guy looks at you as if you were an Alien coming straight from Planet Mars, but he quickly realizes how important he's for you. That's how you'll prove you listen to your customers. Same with your teammates and colleagues. Conclusion : the WWW session helps you demonstrate that you care of the people.

That's why I'll do the first WWW stuff here on Fibergeneration. As I'm also the 'facilitator', I'll kindly ask you Dear Readers to fill in your own feedback about the blog. Feel free to drop me a line or two or even more in Comments.

The "Fibergeneration 2007 WWW (online) session"
----------------
What Went Wrong :
- couldn't stick with the Fibergeneration' s marcom plan, as previously defined at the end of 2006 (e.g. the 10 "Top-Ten").
- too many unpublished posts (ed. note : I will do a "Top-Ten" on it ;-).
- not so many in-depth articles (ed. note : sometimes, I wonder if I shouldn't start a fake blog so I can publish all the confidential stuff I learn thru my jobs ;-).
- didn't get paid of my job at Kazados.tv, although this post is a hit in the search engines.
- couldn't deliver articles for a new Dubai-based online news magazine so far.
- achieved less than 1,000-km cycling in 2007.

----------------
What Went Well :
- got unexpected messages from unexpected people (see here for instance).
- learned the WebTV business. At the age of 47 (soon, unfortunately ;-), I might be one of the few guys in France able to set-up and launch a television channel on the Web those days.
- Fibergeneration well positionned in the Search engines. With surprising results sometimes. See here as an example.
- Fibergeneration spotted by an amazing Amazon probe.
- Fibergeneration in the Blogosphere at large. See the comments (and the related posts) here and here for instance.
- made a lot of contacts through blogging. Amazing encounters, thanks to the powers of the Web 2.0.

- in a more broader/general point of view, 2007 has been the year of learnings to me. The most important one : People. Learning new people, read and hear people's learnings, learn how to share with other people, etc. Learnings and People, those two words are my own keywords to summarize 2007. (ed. note : as a WWW' record shouldn't include personal in-depth comments, you may jump to the note at the end of this post to... learn more about my learnings).

- Friendship, not the Facebook style. The true meaning of Friendship. See the note below as well.

----------------
What We (I) Will Do Better Next Time (This Year) :
- Stick to the plan.
- Deliver on time.
- Share. Share, share, share. Experiences, customers feedback, business stories, as much as official contracts and NDAs allow me to go.
- Emphasize on the people' side of things.

Note : Personal Acknowledgements :
All along the year 2007, I have had the chance to meet, either online or face-to-face, a tremendous bunch of extraordinary people. From good old friends who suddenly came back into my life to my new boss who hired me thru a discussion on Skype, it has been quite an amazing journey...

Here's the list of people I'd like to thank before the whole Blogosphere, because they're worth being recognized :

To Armelle, thank you for the fast-track training on the WebTV business.

To Olivier Hamon, thank you for your entrepreneur's spirit.

To Laurent F. and Philippe C., thank you for helping me rediscovering the true meaning of The Force.

To André Relandeau, aka "Dédé" with the whole Optical Communications industry in France, thank you for your kind-always accurate advices. You deserve a better career' s ending, Buddy.

To Andrew Luzgin of Belarus, thank you for trusting me.

To Richard Stephen, thank you for believing me since all those years.

To Jean-Michel Planche, thank you for helping me feel younger than ever despite my 25-years long career in the Telecoms business.

To Benoit Felten, thank you for being one of your favorite blogs' s authors.

To Jean-Michel Billaut, thank you for making me meet both my new boss and my new teammate.

To Jean-Pierre Jambes, thank you for being my new boss.

To Jean Hughes Lauret, thank you for being my new teammate.

To Georges Pantanelli, thank you for thinking at the speed of light. Also, thank you for showing me the way to the Bay Area. And thank you for proving that there is no age limit for the true entrepreneurs.

To Bruce Bonini and Jim Gelose, thank you for supporting the idea that we old T&M Fellows can reinvent the Test & Measurement industry.

To Robert Jahn, thank you for taking care.

To Hal Stitt, thank you for always being there when I call you.

To Peter Schweiger, thank you for being everywhere.

To Gülper, thank you for being there still, somewhere.

To Handy Phelper, thank you for cycling and skiing. 2008 will be The Goofy Year.

To François Piccin, thank you for all.

To Bernard Millorit, Charles Raduszinski, Christian "Cricri" Bernard, and Didier Boucher, merci d'être là, aussi, et surtout, toujours.

To all of you, I'd like to say 'thank you'. I hope to see you (again) soon, somewhere sometime in 2008.

Photo credit : Cafe-Ole.

How To Grab Market's Attention During The Holidays Season, Lesson Number One, By Fake Steve Jobs

Forbes' s senior editor Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs, is currently offering one of the best yet impressive lesson of viral marketing to the Blogosphere.

A masterpiece of buzz, FSJ' s latest posts about Apple willing to sue him - read : the author, aka Dan Lyons - because of some confidential infos' leakage are just generating a tremendous traffic on the Fake Steve Jobs blog.

For those of you who didn't realize, it's Christmas' time. Holidays season means low traffic on the Internet superhighways. Except for people who know how to grab attention of the press and the masses.

Post-scriptum : reading the comments and the comments on the comments is just plain fun, with lots of people who really seem to believe the whole story to those who think FSJ is going to retire.

Now, it may be appropriate to highlight a couple of basic rules :

- rule #1 : never ever take what you read on a blog for granted.

- rule #2 : consequence : always verify the information you've just found before using it.

- rule #3 : never ever take what you read on a fake blog for granted.

- rule #4 : consequence : always cross-check the information you've just read before believing it.

- rule #5 : never ever take what you read on Fake Steve Jobs' blog for true.

- rule #6 : consequence : always make fun out of it.

bonus rule, #7 : when Dan Lyons meets Guy Kawasaki, expect the outcomes to be outstanding unusual marketing.

Always Look Ahead, Buddy !

PR & Marcom @ The Web 2.0 Age

Creating a new business from (almost) scratch is fun. Defining the marcom plan is even more fun those days, thanks to the Web 2.0. See why and how in this cool video from the Common Craft folks for the PRWeb online news service.

mymt2k.com : " My mTurk " ?...

This mymt2k.com thing was too much of interest from a business intelligence perspective for me not to spend an hour or so today to find out what it could be. Turns out it's a... Wait a second, you'll get the answer at the end of this post.

Before that, let's start with the begining : Google. A quick search on "mymt2k" gives a 6-pages results, with FiberGeneration on the first one and lots of... porn-related stuff on the 5th and 6th pages.
On the first page too, a handful of other blogs also displayed on mymt2k. See for instance Euan Semple' s The Obvious, or Blucat and A Reality Of My Own. According to the respective posts, the thing started back in March this year...

Then, let's go on WhoIs to find out who could be behind the mysterious website. Mr Jason Lucas is the happy owner. Congrats, Man ! Such a hype for a domain registered in January, that's quite a success. However, I'm not the only one to think Mr Lucas is a cover...

So, let's dig into the mymt2k website itself. Start with the simple URL 'mymt2k.com' : a nice, white, blank page. Cool, zen, but useless. A quick look at the different URLs mentionned by above bloggers and commenters show that the main content is a dynamic one. See for instance here, and here : same tmp9 directory, yet displaying different content.

Then, how about looking at the 'mymt2k.com/tmp*/' directories themselves ? From 1 to 10 and above, quite interesting outcomes. For instance, in tmp4 there is a link to the old contest at Snap.com.
See the structure of the tmp9 one in the screenshot at the left. Hum... what's that 'mturk' stuff ? Does ring a bell ? Fine, let's go deeper onto the investigation.

Go to the tmp6 directory, and read the bold flashy statement :
" Note: Be patient and check pages carefully! We will invite good mturkers for our next tasks with a much higher payment! "
Okay, finally we got them ! So simple : 'mymt2k' stands for " My mTurk ", easy, right ?

Now, what's an mTurk ? For those of you who are not familiar with the Web 2.0 world, mTurk, or Mechanical Turk, is a new service offered by Amazon since a few months.

You may read the FAQ page on mturk.com here. Pretty exciting yet a bit complex for non-geeks people. In summary, the mTurk service puts Human Intelligence behind the computer (that's a nice one ;-).

Says Amazon :

What is Amazon Mechanical Turk? 

In 1769, Hungarian nobleman Wolfgang von Kempelen astonished Europe by building a mechanical chess-playing automaton that defeated nearly every opponent it faced. A life-sized wooden mannequin, adorned with a fur-trimmed robe and a turban, Kempelen's "Turk" was seated behind a cabinet and toured Europe confounding such brilliant challengers as Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte. To persuade skeptical audiences, Kempelen would slide open the cabinet's doors to reveal the intricate set of gears, cogs and springs that powered his invention. He convinced them that he had built a machine that made decisions using artificial intelligence. What they did not know was the secret behind the Mechanical Turk: a human chess master cleverly concealed inside.

Today, we build complex software applications based on the things computers do well, such as storing and retrieving large amounts of information or rapidly performing calculations. However, humans still significantly outperform the most powerful computers at completing such simple tasks as identifying objects in photographs—something children can do even before they learn to speak.

When we think of interfaces between human beings and computers, we usually assume that the human being is the one requesting that a task be completed, and the computer is completing the task and providing the results. What if this process were reversed and a computer program could ask a human being to perform a task and return the results? What if it could coordinate many human beings to perform a task?

Amazon Mechanical Turk provides a web services API for computers to integrate "artificial artificial intelligence" directly into their processing by making requests of humans. Developers use the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service to submit tasks to the Amazon Mechanical Turk web site, approve completed tasks, and incorporate the answers into their software applications. To the application, the transaction looks very much like any remote procedure call: the application sends the request, and the service returns the results. Behind the scenes, a network of humans fuels this artificial artificial intelligence by coming to the web site, searching for and completing tasks, and receiving payment for their work.

What problem does Amazon Mechanical Turk solve? 

For software developers, the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service solves the problem of building applications that until now have not worked well because they lack human intelligence. Humans are much more effective than computers at solving some types of problems, like finding specific objects in pictures, evaluating beauty, or translating text. The Amazon Mechanical Turk web service gives developers a programmable interface to a network of humans to solve these kinds of problems and incorporate this human intelligence into their applications.

For businesses and entrepreneurs who want tasks completed, the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service solves the problem of getting work done in a cost-effective manner by people who have the skill to do the work. The service provides access to a vast network of human intelligence with the efficiencies and cost-effectiveness of computers. Oftentimes, the cost of establishing a network of skilled people to do the work outweighs the value of completing it. By turning the fixed costs into variable costs that scale with business needs, the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service eliminates this barrier and allows work to be completed that before was not economical.

For people who want to earn money in their spare time, the Amazon Mechanical Turk web site solves the problem of finding work that they can do wherever and whenever they want.

Interesting concept, huh ?

Now, let's go back to the HITs Human Intelligence Tasks main page. There is a "Web Page Classification" HIT here. Looks familiar, right ?
    

The remaining question is : does mymt2k.com belong to Amazon, or is it a kind of mashup by some research firm - or guy (this Jason Lucas is unknown on mTurk, and Steven Research is unknown on Google) ?...

Crossing The Chasm, By Steve Jobs

Just one day after the announcement of the iPhone price drop, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has posted an open letter to all iPhone customers on Apple's website. Read it here. That is pure Art Of Marketing. And another fantastic example of Apple' s focus on its customers. I wonder how many CEOs in the World would do the same in such situation : act, apologize, and explain.

Thinking Out Of The Box

The image I've used in the former post is grabbed from the famous yet extraordinary Web Trend Map of iA.
See the clickable version (warning : it don't work under Opera 9) here - SnapShots at its best.
To understand why thinking out of the box often leads to outstanding outcomes, read this excerpt from the original announcement by Oliver Reichenstein of Information Architects :

Less Japanese Jokes

There are less insider jokes about the different stations and more consistency within the connections and the neighborhood of the different sites. People who know Tokyo will still find lots of little hints and sarcastic comments hidden in there.

1. Google has moved from Shibuya, a humming place for young people, to Shinjuku, a suspicious, messy, Yakuza-controlled, but still a pretty cool place to hang out (Golden Gaya).
2. Youtube has conquered Shibuya.
3. Microsoft has moved to Ikebukuro, if you know what I mean.
4. Yahoo is in Ueno, a nice place but nothing going on there.
5. Wikipedia now is in Shimbashi, the place for the square and hard-headed Salaryman, like the Wikipedia watchdogs.
6. The Chinese line runs parallel to the “share line” which starts with the main pirates…
7. Paper info designer Tufte is right below the Federated Media, right before joining with the interactive information design circle in a 90 degree angle.
8. “You” are in the Emperor’s palace, in the center of the network.

More Revealing Coincidences

1. The main Japanese sites are all on the money line. I never notice before, but most big Japanese sites are financially successful.
2. The northern part of the Yamanote line (”main sites”) is a boring unknown territory (just as in real Tokyo).
3. Ze Frank ended up close to the German carousel.
4. iA ended up close to the pirates.
5. Adobe moved from Ginza (high class) to Tokyo station (anonymous, lots of money there), which is pointing at the fact that they continue to move towards the center of gravity without being too loud about it.
6. Skype has conquered a place that doesn’t exist.

Insider Circle and Your Palace

There is a new insider circle with the tech trend scouts, the tech bloggers and You, occupying the Emperor’s palace.

Data Visualization For Open-Minds

   

Thanks to Master Guy Kawazaki (and the Magic of the Blogosphere), I discovered the recently published article in Smashing Magazine : Data Visualization: Modern Approaches. For all of you manipulating data to be presented to end-users, customers, or managers, this article (and the related comments, full of links too) is a must-read. It's a given that the web sites and tools mentionned are must-bookmark ;-)

That Is Product Marketing For Dummies

Imagine your favorite car maker goes wild, trumpeting all around the planet with its brand new world-class top-range model, which is supposed to make your life even better, bringing you so many new features that it's going to be the ultimate driver experience.
Now, imagine that a few months after release, this guy offers you to downgrade to the previous generation, because the new one shows some unrecoverable weaknesses in real world conditions.
That's exactly what Lenovo is offering to its customers : downgrading from Windows Vista to Windows XP. See here.
Redmond, you have a problem.

This Is Not Sign-In Confirmation Web 2.0 Style ;-)

Got this message in my inbox this morning.

Definitely not a Web 2.0 thing, not mentionning the IP address !

Here's an example of a perfect approach, by the new people search engine Spock.
   
Everything is in there, including the gentle way to please the customer : " You are one of the first people ...", so she feels proud to be considered as a VIP.

Also, you may notice the full URL link in post-scriptum : most of the Web 2.0 startups add such a link for you to copy & paste in case the direct hyperlink don't work. Here's my advice : always check if the sign-up confirmation email includes the full URL link. If not, it means the company / startup doesn't care that much about you...

Netflix: How to build a killer community

It's Crossing The Chasm at the Web 2.0 Age. Read Webware' Harrison Hoffman report here.

The Jump Into The CyberSpace Made Real

Star Wars fans, you (and me) have dreamed of it since 30 years now. Today, thanks to Australia-based startup Scouta, your dreams come true. Watch here.

Customers Relationships Management 101

FSJ has it right. When your customer faces a problem with a new product of yours, better apologize and get this product replaced free of charge rather then explaining he made a mistake. You'll make this guy happy, and in the meantime you'll learn a lot about potential misuse of this product. Hence its next revision will be even better, and you'll be able to thank your customer for his great contribution to the improvements.

" For the record, there have been zero problems with iPhone. Zero. Those "dead spots" aren't actually dead spots. Yes, people have brought some back and we've given them replacements. That's not because there was anything wrong with the phones. But it's easier to just give them a new phone and make them happy than to explain to them that they're screwing up when they use the phone, and that they probably need to have their big fat stupid fingers whittled down. FYI, all Apple employees who want or need finger-reduction surgery will get subsidies from the company. See your benefits representative. "

Full article here. Fun, as usual. Plus, read this amazing story about the guy who went to surgery in order to better use his new iPhone. 

Fake Steve Jobs, meet Julia O'Brien

Most of you may already know the fantastic (hey, I'm speaking plain old English now ;-) weblog of the brilliant (see ?) Fake Steve Jobs, aka Daniel Lyons, supposedly technology writer for Forbes. Today, I discovered another *must-read* online journal, by Julia O'Brien. Julia is a CIA agent, based in Washington DC.
Hint : she writes her articles in a wonderful french language which most of the french bloggers should learn ;-)

Top-Ten Designs By Raymond Loewy

The post "Top-Ten Quotes by Raymond Loewy" becoming more and more popular (thanks to Google and PresentationZen :-), here is a new tribute to Loewy's extraordinary vision. Just a brief overview of the Father of Industrial Design' taste for Beauty.

For more information, visit the Official Web Site of Raymond Loewy here, Loewy Design here, Loewy Group here, and the Raymond Loewy Foundation here.

The Big Biz 3.0 Picture

Because everything * Web 2.0 For The Customer * is in there, here is Patricia Seybold' s Biz 3.0 again.
There is no priority list, as every single 'principle' is as critical as the others. Keep in mind : customer relationships is a constant, open loop.

   

Working On The Next Big Thing ? Watch Your Kids

Some years ago at a Customers Seminar organized by Agilent Technologies, right in the middle of the Bubble tornado, the keynote speech was held by one of the key executives at UK telco BT (sorry, don't remember his name nor his actual job). We were in the early 2000, and the guy was telling us that the next big thing in mobile communications was going to be SMS, MMS, and IM messaging. Heck, the iPhone was still a dream, my Ericsson was featuring a 2-colors 2-lines liquid crystal display (well, you know what I mean), and MySpace was just the name of one of my directories on my PC...
BT found out that teenagers were to be the largest group of cell phones users, spending their time to chat with their friends all day (and night) long.
Almost all of us in the audience were kind of dubitative : no way the kids were to become so IM-addict that they would spend hours typing on their cell phones. Well, six years after, BT was right, and we were wrong.
That's why this article is a must-read for all of us working on changing the World. Its title : "Kids say e-mail is, like, soooo dead.". Got it, folks ?

Why FTTH helps vendors to innovate

Worldwide leader Corning announced a breakthrough optical fiber technology, performing over 100 times better than standard fibers. The N.Y.-based fiber maker worked closely with Verizon to resolve FTTH installation challenges.

"This is a game-changing technology for telecommunications applications," said Peter F. Volanakis, president and chief operating officer at Corning. "We have developed an optical fiber cable that is as rugged as copper cable but with all of the bandwidth benefits of fiber. By making fundamental changes in the way light travels in the fiber, we were able to create a new optical fiber that is over 100 times more bendable than standard fibers." Corning's newest fiber technology achieves this while maintaining compatibility with industry performance standards, existing manufacturing processes and installation procedures. "So, customers don't have to sacrifice one benefit to get another," he said.

Now, the need for trained outside plant technicians is a bit less critical. The only issue still to be resolved : testing...

It's about customer relationships management, er. : it's about your business

Andy Hanselman has posted a must-have presentation on Slideshare. With this "practical guide to creating competitive advantage and improving business performance", Andy goes right to the point : the only way for any business to be successful on the long run is to get what he call " devoted customers " (ed. note : i prefer using the terminology " loyal customers ", as I am myself devoted to their own success ;-)

post-scriptum : Slideshare seems to become more business-oriented those days. A very good news.

iPhone Sales Pitch

New York Times' technologist David Pogue does great selling the iPhone.

Happy Days for the iPhone

Henry * Fonzie * Winker was on Craig Ferguson' s Late Late Show to talk about the iPhone.

Guess you'll never pull off again ;-)

Bringing Social Networking To The Next Level

Earlier this week, Web browser pioneer Netscape has released a public beta of Navigator version 9. Among several nice features (which still can't beat the powerful yet unknown Opera 9) Netscape Navigator 9 jumps on the Social Networking bandwagon with the possibility for the users to share interesting stories [they] find with millions of people and vote on stories submitted by others as [they] browse.
An interesting feature indeed, which is similar to other social sites such as Digg and Delicious, it relies on Netscape's  start page Netscape.com. That means you need to go to Netscape.com to read other people' s opinion on the story or topic you want to submit (as with Digg and al.).

Now, wouldn't it be cool to be able to share your opinion on that story directly on the web page you read it ?
Fleck does that, somehow. Launched last year, Fleck is a  Web annotation tool for marking up blogs, Web sites, and social networking profiles with little sticky notes. See the snapshot for a quick view (Credit: CNET Networks). With Fleck, no need to jump from one site to another : you get the message right onto the relevant page.
However, you still need to go to Fleck.com before sticking your note in order to give the URL of the page you want to add this note to.

Those necessary steps are quite annoying. The ultimate user-experience would be for anyone browsing the Web to be able to leave a note or a vote or a feedback onto any web page without being forced to go back and forth between different sites.

As stated on Fleck/About : " Fleck.com wants to add a new layer of interactivity to the web. Fleck is inspired on a story written in 1945 by Van