FiberGeneration

Alleluia : Twittervision on the iPhone is there !

Just installed Twittervision on my iPhone. Absolutely stunning app. The potential uses in business are countless. I better hurry up creating my Web 2.0 start-up in Pau ;-)

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.

Say Goodbye Farewell To Second Life

Second Life is dead. Google just launched its own "virtual world" platform : Lively. The difference with SL ? Lively is entirely Web-based. You don't need to install and run a standalone piece of software, as opposed to Second Life (how many of us have been rapidly fed up launching SL ?...). To play with Lively, you just stay with your favorite browser, aka Firefox 3 (it runs with IE too).

Lively is truly the signal most of us were waiting for to go investigate the potential of Virtual Worlds for business. And it's made by Google.

For a complete review on Lively here by Techcrunch.

Download Lively here. That's the only thing that sucks, by the way : there's no Mac version for the time being, although Mac users are among the most efficient beta testers because we easily become early adopters...

IM-Translate Goes To Microsoft' Windows Live

My friends of IM-T have reached their first major milestone : their Messenger plug-in is now referenced on Windows Live' s Gallery.

That is an amazing success story for the young start-up, formed by my old yet always up-to-date friend Georges Pantanelli and some of his developers.

Since the IM-T' journey is quite an unusual adventure, I've asked Georges a couple of months ago to post its diary here on the FiberGeneration blog. Now that they're WindowsLived, he has a bit more spare time to share it with you. Stay tuned for Mister Georges' s first post - due sometime by next week, as they say in the Web 2.0 area -)

post-scriptum : shall you know somebody able to help IM-T to get in touch with the US press, you can contact Georges at : gpp@im-translate.com

"Fete du Tres Haut Debit" Running Notes

Yesterday in Mortain, a beautiful small town a few miles away from the Mont St Michel,was the 3d Ultra-Broadband Conference, held by the french optical cable manufacturer ACOME.

Here are my running notes, as is - means no re-writing * ( my personal comments under brackets ) :

Regis Paumier, CEO, ACOME. keynote speech :

- CETHD Center of Expertise for Ultra Broadband : 1,000+ visitors to date (note : opened mid 2007)

- there are many issues with Quality and Maintenance (on optical networks, FTTx)

- key issue in France (on FTTH) : rural environment.

Ms. Agnes Huet, President, Comptoir des Signaux. market survey by the FTTH Council Europe :

- FTTx networks Business Model :

a) OpenAccess is mandatory

b) Operator vs. End-User : capacity becomes commodity; extends potential services; puts the End-User at the center of the market.

- User-oriented solutions : puts the End-User at the epicenter of the system : dynamic bandwidth allocation, dynamic services allocation.

- Open Access / Open Networks not widely adopted in France : very few existing networks allow such services.

- xPON infrastructures limit Open Access systems.

- Collectivities want to : investigate all potential solutions; model contribution and ROI.

- Collectivities claim they don't have visibility on those solutions (hence the need for permanent live show-rooms).

Yves Le Mouel, President, French Federation of Telecoms (i.e. : Operators) :

- FTTH in France : need 100k new subscribers per month to be considered "mainstream";

- Investments : estimation = 10 Billions euros over 10 years (see recent announcement by SFR - link in french);

- New Business models must be invented, because based on abundance of bandwidth and services;

- the key question is : how to deploy a complex infrastructure to deliver services the simplest way (note : hence the need for a complete paradigm shift. Think Different);

- how FTTH will win by 2012 : the Killer App.

- the Killer App : images, video, online gaming, music, unlimited storage (read : Cloud Computing);

- services : teleworking, telemedicine, teleassistance, telemonitoring, online shopping;

- QoS : PnP, Easy2Go, AlwaysOn.

- avoid the Digital Divide : think Geography, Social, residential customers vs. enterprises...

- issues to be fixed : evangelisation, training & education of networks' deployment professionals (comment : good to hear that from the operators themselves);

- this represents more than 100,000 jobs (comment : good to hear that one too. I personally claim FTTH is a unique opportunity for new jobs and businesses creation, since months);

- target FTTH France 2012 : 3-Mo new subscribers per year. Same as ADSL. (comment : on this one, I slightly disagree : ADSL is easy to deploy, because it uses an existing infrastructure. FTTH : you need to install at least the last mile).

Thierry Houdart, Deployment Director, Axione (ETDE groupe Bouygues). an innovative solution for optical cable deployment :

- install the optical cable along the low-voltage power distribution network;

- speed : up to 1-km per day, by 2 technicians;

- no traffic disruption (road, power, telecom, etc.);

- capillarity : the fiber cable can go right to the end-user;

- infrastructure' cost : divided by a factor of 2 to 3 compared to existing traditional solutions, e.g. buried cables;

- green deployment : lower the CO2 emissions by 50%.

My personal take (this time w/o brackets, because it's a pretty crucial point ;-) : I assume the cost of deployment with this new solution is less than 30€ per meter, all together - site survey, components, installation, etc. Let say we can achieve 15€/m : a fantastic quantum leap for FTTH. 

This solution is a true paradigm shifting one anyway : the split of the cost of deployment is no longer 80% civil work and 20% components + instal; it is now 20% civil work and 80% components + installation. On top, it's an eco-friendly solution. Fiber finally goes Green. Brilliant.

* I wish I could capture notes this way ;-)

Web 2.0 At Its Best : Feedly

For those of you who a) use Firefox 3, and b) a RSS feed aggregator & reader, Feedly is the add-on you need.

Read the comprehensive presentation here on Mashable, so you'll get the whole picture.

I use Feedly since Day One (as well as Firefox 3, of course) : it's both simple and powerful, flexible and easy to set up and use. The page looks like an online magazine (which it is, at the end of the day), unlike Netvibes or GoogleReader. With its typical Web 2.0 attributes, such as The Wall where others can share with you recommendations and annotations.

Since Feedly is an add-on to your browser, you don't need to go to Netvibes or GoogleReader any longer : set Feedly as your homepage, that's all you need to do. Sure, you can do the same with your traditional RSS reader, but it's not "integrated" into your browser.

I'm convinced Feedly is another step forward to the true Enterprise 2.0, since it enables the user to aggregate multiple information and content onto a single page without the need to connect to an external website. A brief look at the Feedly's mash-up diagram tells me we've now everything in hands to create, implement, and truly use simple yet efficient & productive vertical *Web 2.0-based* applications...

A Job Offer That Kick The Ass

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

[The Changing The World Edition] Muslima.com

Looking for some info to get the most out of FriendFeed, I found this post by Digital Inspiration.
Although a pretty interesting article with lots of useful tips, an ad banner catch my eyes : " Muslima.com, the International Muslim Matrimonial Site." That was kind of a surprise to me, since I always thought Islam religion would forbid such of dating services.
Says the About page :

" Muslima.com is a specialist Muslim dating and matchmaking website that assists Muslim ladies to find their perfect match anywhere in the world. We offer friendly service combined with sophisticated search and messaging facilities that will make your search for true love fun and enjoyable. "

The website is available in 4 languages : English, Dutch, French, and German. No Arabic, at least on the .com domain. Does that mean that the target audience is not the one claimed above ?...
Anyway, dear Muslim readers, shall you be looking for a friend or a husband/wife, you can go here.

Teaching Fiber Optics Basics Without YouTube

So-derle, the Green Fiber Evangelist' video collection got a huge success last week at the training I was delivering to a french telco. For the second time since a quarter of century, I haven't used a single slide as my fiber optics training materials but a web page.

The first time I used a navigator instead of M$ PowerPoint was back in 1996, when my friend Didier Boucher and myself were touring France to evangelize installers and end-users. By then, Netscape Navigator was our best companion, displaying the html pages I created with GoLive and the likes.

Last week, Firefox 3.0 beta and the amazing add-on PicLens were on the party. Thanks to the Internet. Means, thanks to the connection to the Internet. Because, unlike 12 years ago when all the html and jpeg files forming my presentations were on my Mac's hard-disk, today the whole stuff is... on the Cloud. YouTube, Picasaweb, Facebook, etc. : they're all online.

That's the bad thing when you're a connected guy like myself : you do rely a lot on the Internet. It strucked me the hard way this morning, when I was to go on the Green Fiber Evangelist blog to start the training session I'm delivering this week at a large install company : got no LAN connection to start with, hence no Internet connection, hence no online videos, hence no *live* training materials.

Then, the IT guy came to the rescue after lunch, to give me the IP address, DNS servers, proxy settings things to help my Mac go online. It worked, except for one little tiny detail : this company forbids some websites, among which... YouTube. Bye-bye the Green Fiber Evangelist blog (at least for the rest of the week here ;-)

This is kind of weird : a 6,000 employees firm who wants to penetrate the optical networks installation & maintenance business don't authorize ubiquitous access to the Net. By the way, only 600 (six hundred) people out of those 6,000 have an email address. 10%. Who don't even get access to the most popular websites in the world. As my dear former boss Robert is used to say : "there is room for improvement" !

Anyway, Accor hotels do provide free WiFi to their guests. So, thanks to Accor (and Orange), I'm posting this text from my hotel room. After an hour or so spent on downloading all the Green Fiber Evangelist videos on my Mac, with TubeTV.

That's the lesson of the day : never rely too much on the Net. Download vids and pics and copy them on a USB key before going to the customer. And start evangelize people : you need an internet connection to get on the Cloud ;-)

FiberOnDemand Refresh

I've revamped the Fiber On Demand blog. Was a matter of a few clicks only, thanks to Yahoo!Pipes (see the features in the previous post). Aggregating content from different sources onto a single web page has never been so easy.

Just missing a 3D/whirling/magnifying carousel, which will be available in a next release I guess.

See Fiber On Demand here. Subscribe to the RSS feed here.

[Web Too] IM-Translate

French startup IM-Translate is born, offering the first online instant translation of instant messages:

Immediate translation of instant messages. You do nothing differently — IM-Translate™ integrates seamlessly into your existing IM application — just type as usual. Forget copy, pasting or jumping back and forth to a web-based translator. Your buddy receives your message plus a translation — instantly. You see the translation of the text you typed. You also receive your buddy’s messages in both languages. Free! — Downloads in seconds with broadband.

First IM app targeted : Windows Live Messenger, aka MSN.
As I told my friend Georges, CTO of IM-T, they should release a Mac version as quickly as possible, since Mac users are more suited for beta testing campaigns : we love giving feedback, for the developers to enhance their products.
Also in the pipe : the app for Google.

Interesting : IM-T is formed by... US citizens and registered in... France, for some legal and market issues.
IM-T is a typical Web 2.0 start-up : of the six co-founders and team members, nobody knows more than two others face-to-face. They never met altogether so far ! Their collaborative tools : Google, Skype, and email.
One of the founders is my old buddy Georges Pantanelli. A french High-Tech industry veteran, who relocated to the US in the 90's. Georges got his american passport two years ago, in San Francisco. The lesson : in California, everything is possible for those who have the entrepreneurial spirit.

IM-Translate site and download here.

Wake Up Call By Google

Google did it again. A true breakthrough online app, which is set to be the next revolution in the Internet mattress - ooops, sorry, matters. See here for more details.

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 ?

plusmo : Plus For Your Mobile Life

Just discovered a new cool stuff this morning, thanks to an unknown reader of FiberGeneration : plusmo.
Here' s the brief review by Jessica Dolcourt for Webware back in September 2007 :

"Plusmo's mobile widgets application is a cool way to read RSS feeds on your cell phone or PDA, but that's not the only reason it was named a finalist on the Webware 100 list.
In true Webware fashion, Plusmo's site offers hands-on excitement--the chance to publish and share widget mash-ups and create an iPhone widget from templates. Users can also make personal blogs available as a Plusmo widget, and can install a browser bookmarklet or Yahoo plug-in to snag feeds while they surf."

Full article here.
plusmo website here.

Europe Is On Its Way

Look at the blue flag at the bottom of this FiberGeneration' stats snapshot. The missing detailed location says it all.

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.

The No-Time For Blogging Edition [01-29-08]

Buddy Blogger Benoit Felten has published two must-read briefs on two must-read reports : "CES'08", by Olivier Ezratti, and "Free's FTTH services testing", by the french newsletter Journal du Freenaute. Great readings for learnings.

It's About Finding A Job In Downturn Times

Robert Scoble has posted a very long article on how to find a job during recession. Worth reading, provided the current situation in the Global Economy.

Here are a couple of my favorites, based on my own experience back in 2003 when I had to leave Agilent Technologies - should TypePad and YouTube have exist at this time (I think TypePad was in its early stage online by then), I would have jumped on them to do exactly what Scoble suggests. Hey, I've got the job with the city of Pau thanks to the Blogosphere, and I've discovered the wonderful world of WebTV last year thanks to Usenet. Lesson : listen to what Scoble says.

Here we go, with my own comments/feedback.

6. Do a video everyday on YouTube that demonstrates something you know. Loic does a video everyday. If you’re laid off you have absolutely no excuses. Get a cheap Web cam and get over to YouTube or Seesmic.

Do it. It'll pay back quickly. That's the true aim of the so-called Web 2.0 : help people make connections faster.

10. Go to any job networking session you learn about. All of them were valuable to me, even though they didn’t necessarily bring me a job. Part of it is just feeling like you’re doing everything you can to get back on your feet. It’s an attitude thing. If you have an attitude that you’re going to work at this that will come across and will bring opportunities to you.

I'll never forget the workshop sessions at the outplacement consulting firm I've been to thanks to my severance package at Agilent. Outstanding outcomes. For instance : at the very first workshop I've attended, I was with C-level people, from many different areas; industry, computing, bank, consulting, even politics (the chief of staff of a very popular yet powerful mayor of a city nearby Paris). It helped me realize two things : a) I was definitely not the only forced to look for a new job, b) I am a C-level guy (well, of the free-electron type ;-)

16. Go to every business event you can attend. Can’t afford to get in? Me neither and I have a job! Hang out in the hallways. You never know who you might meet. At minimum you’ll get interesting interviews for your blog. Have your resumes ready.

My worst regret, when I look back at the 2003-2005 period. I didn't take enough time to attend those business events. I learned the hard way how proactive networking is mandatory (just because, before being laid off by Agilent, I never ever had to look for a new job : I always had the chance to meet the right persons at the right time).

Full post here.

Scoble And I.

So, World' s famous blogger Robert Scoble is born on January 18 too. Until today, my references were Montesquieu, Cary Grant, or Kevin Costner. Now I have to add Mr. Scoblezeir. That's the Web 2.0 Age, Folks ;-)

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.

This Is What WebTV Is All About

The CES big circus has just started. If you can't make it to Las Vegas, you can still attend the show and get the whole flavor of it... on the Web.
See here, here, and here. Lesson : WebTV is the future. And the present, too, should you have a broadband access.

Ed. note : for a full coverage of CES'08, Robert Scoble has the list.

Post-Scriptum : I wonder if the folks at the Optical Society Of America are going to offer the live coverage of the forthcoming OFC-NFOEC exhibition in San Diego next month.

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.

Google Is My New Friend

Some folk in Turkey recently searched Google for the famous book "iCon Steve Jobs : The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business''

I have no clue how (well, not true : I love playing with hidden keywords for SEO ;-), FiberGeneration appeared on the first page, fourth result. See here by yourself. Amazing, huh ? Çok tesekkur ederim, Buddy.

Blogging Bloggers Blah Blah

" Everyone's constantly on Twitter and Facebook and sending IMs and making videos of themselves talking while driving and having meetings and figuring out who's hot and who's not and who's raising money and who's flaming out and what's Google going to do next and has anyone know if MySpace is going to get on OpenSocial and some guy from Yelp just went to Digg or is it MetaCafe and I just heard Owen wrote something about Brian Lam and supposedly they're totally not talking now and Megan threw water at Ryan Block because Veronica didn't like something Valleywag wrote about her and did you see what Kara wrote about Arrington and then Arrington wrote something back and then Om weighed in and he said blah blah mwah mwah twitter twitter twitter ..."

An hilarious post from the marvelous yet fake Fake Steve Jobs about the so-stylish Robert Scoble (who, among other things, kept the whole Blogosphere up-to-date with his son' s birth a couple of months ago)

Always Look Ahead, Buddy !

Scoble & The Twitterquake

Robert Scoble does it again : an interesting perspective on the real means of the famous yet lovely Twitter.

Ed. note : a picture attached to a RSS feed may be a good thing. The same picture attached to every single feed is kind of, hum, useless.

Twittervision and Twittermap : two of the greatest Web 2.0 apps for Testing 2.0

I've been playing a bit with Twitter' mashup apps during lunch break : Twittervision and Twittermap. Just amazingly simple tools for displaying any geotagged data on a map.
For those of you who ignore what Twitter is, read this recent post by Guy Kawasaki and follow its links.

post-scriptum : as I'm going to be busier (if running at 120% is possible ;-) over the next couple of months, I'll post more twitters here, thanks to Twitter's SMS feature. Watch the left side bar for updates...

Warning : mymt2k.com leads to strange website

My recent post on the supposed-to-be-real mymt2k.com engine has been spotted by a pretty strange website today : more than 30 hits from Xanga.com (no URL here, I don't want to link with them ;-).
To see what it is, you're forced to log in. I did it. I'm to delete my account right now.
Shall your own blog get listed on this Xanga stuff, stay away.

Note : I'm gonna call Fox Mulder as soon as I click on "Save".

My mTurk, The Return

Got more than 50 hits over the last 24 hours thru this mymturk engine. I swear I've nothing in common with those (this ?) guys, but my real interest in Web 2.0 matters ;-)

Facebook and Microsoft Team Up...

... For the new Bubble, unfortunately. As Master FSJ writes in his Friday's post : "Bubble 2.0".
Come on, a Social Networking website, featuring a closed ecosystem, with an installed base mainly formed of students, would be valuated ten to fifty billion US dollars ?
This, plus Mr. GreenSpan' s statement : we're heading to the Bubble, guys. And fast. Unfortunately.

The Week Ends Edition 09-28-07

On Lunch Over IP : Picnic07: Stefana Broadbent and why everything is moving into the background.
I read Bruno Giussiani's running notes just before watching Jerry Maguire again. Kind of interesting answer to the question at the end of Bruno' s post : " how important something is to you to makes you make that specific choice of focusing on it? "...

On TechITeasy : Sustainable, Information Technology?
A detailed fact sheet by Jeremy Fain of Microsoft on Green IT. Among lots of other pretty serious stuff, this one : " Every second that passes sees 24 Kg of PCs produced, 1.8 tons of raw materials aimed at the Information Technology market, half a ton of CO2 generated by hardware heat, 108 Kg. of PC-related garbage."

On How To Change The World : Ten Questions with Chris Brogan.
The Social Media expert answers Guy Kawasaki' s famous ten questions (which are eleven, by the way) on Twitter. You've got to like the twittering app after that (don't miss the comments).

Wikis For Dummies (Ooops : For The Rest Of Us ;-)

During a recent business meeting, I had to explain what's a wiki to novices. I did it in 30 seconds. Here is a more detailled explanation, yet even more entertaining and efficient.

 

Common Craft website here, blog there. The LeFever family does an outstanding job creating and producing fantastic educational videos of all sorts. Less Is More, once again.

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 fi