FiberGeneration

Just This [14-08]

Ed. note : BlockRocker seems to be closed down.
GoogleMap here.

This Is My First e-Passport

Thanks to Orange Labs's ePassport tool, everybody with a presence on the Web can get her e-passport. Here's mine. Well, not exactly, as there seem to be quite a handful of "Marc Duchesne" out there in the CyberSpace.
Anyway, once such minor glitch will be fixed (maybe I should find a unique cyber identity ?), I hope someday such an electronic ID will be enough to travel to the US - hey, imagine your e-Passport on the iPhone : seamless/painless security checks, thanks to RFID, voice/eye/fingerprint recognition, etc. Maybe Administration Obama will go for it...

Here's Where You Can Invent The Life That Goes With Fiber Broadband

 

You're a young entrepreneur. You have a fantastic idea for a new Cloud Computing business. You need ultra-broadband. Bootstrap your ski shoes, grab your single-speed bike, put your surf board in the pick-up, and come to the Pau Broadband Country.

Your Moment Of Zen

Afraid by the current economic situation ? We all are, don't worry. Here's a moment of quietness, for you. Somewhere on the road in between Pau and Auch, France. Enjoy. Peace Out.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Multi-Touch The Micro$oft Way

Absolutely hilarious, yet possibly true (unfortunately ;-)

Pau Broadband Country : Ahead Of The Rest Of France

See this ? A fiber contractor working on some FTTH install, today around noon.
If you're looking for 100Mbps upstream/downstream connection, feel free to come.
Not sure you can enjoy the same environment in Amsterdam ;-)

Towards The All-Digital France

The famous, long expected, mission-critical strategic plan for the development of the digital economy in France has been presented this morning by Mr. Eric Besson.

The whole document is available here (.pdf, in french). Lots of interesting action items and initiatives to notice, for instance : aerial fiber cabling, Web 2.0, innovative services to the person, etc.

As of now, Monday October 20 at 5:30PM CET, the www.francenumerique2012.fr website is unavailable, for the english version to be downloaded. Unfortunately, the official website in english of the Prime Minister don't mention the document.

I'll post the link to the english version as soon as possible.

The Most Stunning Email I Ever Got

Read this. Now I have to be worth Guy's choice ;-)

From:     [email protected]
Subject:     Guy Kawasaki is now following you on Twitter!
Date:     October 18, 2008 9:59:10 PM CEDT
To:     [email protected]


Hi, Marc Duchesne.

Guy Kawasaki (guykawasaki) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Check out Guy Kawasaki's profile here:

 http://twitter.com/guykawasaki


Best,
Twitter

Finger In The Win-nose

That's the snapshot of the message panel I've got today on my %)/&# Dell laptop.

For those of you who don't read french, Microsoft Windows was protecting my PC against Microsoft Windows. That's how you build trust & confidence with your end-users ;-)

Web 2.0 to the Rescue

In her recent post on how to improve your customers' s experience during those harsh times such as the ones we're entering, Patty Seybold explains the different ways to use Web 2.0 tools to keep in touch and even reinforce the relationships with them. 

Here's what Patty writes :

If you are forced to throttle back and/or delay customer-critical IT projects right now, consider some much lower-cost actions you could take. Each of these can be done by a relatively non-technical person and set up in a matter of minutes!

1. Adopt Web 2.0 “pay as you go” cloud-hosted applets rather than large monolithic internal ERP applications.

2. Develop interactive gadgets and widgets to deliver up-to-date interactive functionality and information via your Web site(s) and portals. 

3. Use SMS, twitter, and instant messaging to communicate with customers. 

4. Use Wikis and shared collaborative spaces to coordinate across organizational boundaries. 

5. Encourage customers to take polls, contribute content, photos, videos, tags, and reviews to make your company's Web site more compelling and to help customers make buying decisions easily. (Hint: you can use third-party widgets to do many of these things.)

Keep in mind what Peter Drucker said : this is the customer who defines your business. He wrote that in the early 70's. Now that we have Web 2.0 apps & tools at our service, it would be a great mistake not to leverage on it.

Read the full article here.

The Chinese Bubble Is Already Collapsing

After Telecoms/IT, after Finances, it's China's turn. Time to think again the whole World, folks. And get ready for the boomerang' effect.

Why I Finally Start My Startup Now (or so)

If everything goes well, FiberGeneration (hence Testing 2.0, by the way) will start its new life as a startup on December 1st - this year.
Here's why (by Paul Graham of seed investment firm Y Combinators).
With traders still living in their own crazy world, no doubt the overall situation is set to be even tougher for entrepreneurs. That's what makes entrepreneurship fun.

Just This [13-08]

The Smartest Greenest Exhibition Booth I Ever Saw (and more)

Yesterday, I've spent 3 hours only at the Paris Auto Show. My focus : the "green" cars. No deception : Hybrids, electric, and hydrogen prototypes, pre-production units, and production cars were all over the place. See my Flickr set for a brief overview.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Among several really interesting machines and concept cars, the Solo 2008 imagined by the Hungarian Antro Group is the one which kept my attention. Not only because of its exterior and interior designs, which both are eye-catching: the overall concept of the project seems to be drafted from scratch, as true breakthrough innovations always are.

Read the short story here.

" Goal of Antro Kht.: as a non-profit organization, developing and working out alternative vehicle and resource concepts as well as innovations, taking part in creating prototypes.

Objective of the ANTRO Group:

• shaping a future that concentrates on humans
• satisfying the needs of conscious shoppers
• developing new car and vehicle alternatives
• inspiring community cooperation
• applying innovative materials and technologies
• creating a variable vehicle family "

That's from Hungary, folks. Not Silicon Valley or France (I have quite some doubts such an initiative would be possible here, for French generally dislike open non-profit ideas).

Antro is going to open its capital to private investors soon, is looking for distribution partners, and is accepting registration for pre-orders.

Of course, I discussed a while with the booth attendants. A young and shy Hungarian guy, who doesn't speak french at all (I imagine his nightmare on the week-ends at the show, when Mr. & Ms. Dupond of Aubervilliers - or any other place in France, no offense folks - stop by his booth), and a pretty nice Hungarian woman, speaking english and french like me. Both smiling and engaging, which is rare in such crazy environment such a crowdy day.

For sure, I didn't get her business card, but Antro' s managing director' s : Zsolt Magyar. Google this name, and you'll find this Zsolt Magyar. Can a "Hungarian born, Los Angeles based Production Sound Mixer with more than 7 years of experience" (imdb.com dixit) be also the lead economist at a green tech startup based in his mother country ? Why not. I'll find out this soon, as I'll get in touch with Antro for some sort of new venture I have in mind for the Pau Broadband Country.

Anyway, the actual team is impressive, although I'm definitely not familiar with Hungary and its ecosystem. At first sight, it proves the project to be really serious.

Now, why this free ad for an unknown startup in an unknown country ? Because of the Antro' s booth at the Paris Auto Show is made of... carton. Carton, wood, rope, linen fabric. Amazing. They've pushed the concept of sustainable development to the overall product marketing process. That's the clever thing. I never saw a exhibit in carton before. That's why I think those guys got it right. They understand the true meaning of being green. For them, "Green" is not just a marketing gimmik to gain customers 's attention. It's their philosophy.

See it by yourselves :

the door of the cabinet

behind the desk

the information panels, right on the floor

even the flat display is made of carton - no, that's a joke

Now you get it too, right ? So, next time you do think about being green, think Solo 2008.

Just This [12-08]

The Down before the Dawn ?...

FiberGeneration The Company : D-52

 There's no better time to launch a startup than a big crisis such as the one we're heading to. Actually, I recently remembered that I've launched XWinG right after the downturn in 1993. Within the next 2 years, we were number one on the market. The key is : Bootstrapping. Less is more. Customer-centric.

Okay, fast forward to tomorrow : I'm happy to announce that FiberGeneration will be become a company on December 1 (this year ;-). Headquarter : Helioparc technoparc, Pau, France. Business : help people to better understand and use Web 2.0 apps & tools.

Of course, Fiber-To-The-Home and Sustainable Development will be part of the game...

Stay tuned for more soon !

Financial Crisis 101

Want to relax a bit ? Watch Stephen Colbert explaining how Corporate America f*cked up everything.

It's about Life

I've just learned that french fiber optics expert Alain Oudet passed away last sunday. Alain was well-known and highly respected in the french optical communications industry. Together with Regis Trouart and Patrick Desprez, Alain started TDO (Trouart Desprez Oudet), the very first fiber optics training company in the country, back in 1986. In the early 90's, TDO, AMP (now Tyco) and Alcatel (now AlcatelLucent) launched Le Club Optique, a counter-initiative to the famous CREDO created by the cable manufacturer Acome and hardware maker Pouyet (now 3M Telecoms).

Alain and myself never been real "buddies". First of all, I wasn't part of his "inner-circle". Then, we've been pure rivals when I run my own firm, XWinG. Provided that in 1995, after 2 years of operation only, XWinG was taking over the installed base of TDO, thanks to a nice WOM marketing. Last, Regis Trouart joined me as associate in 1994 : it didn't help improving our relationships at all...

In 1997, we were #1 on the market. That pushed TDO to move to another business : fiber networks expertise. Alain quickly became a master of OTDR and dispersions measurements, gaining a pretty strong reputation on the fiber characterization services business in France and other parts of Europe.

As I joined HP/Agilent as a regular employee mid '98, I lost contact with Alain and TDO. When I came back to the french marketplace two years ago, Alain was still the same : smiling, engaging, and... smoking.

I don't know what TDO is going to become now that its leader is gone. Not my business, after all (actually, not exactly true : I'm in the fiber optics training business too. But I don't consider TDO as a rival any longer : we're not on the same page, simple as that). I just know why I haven't met Alain in the alleys of Odebit or the Telecoms Forum in Paris last week.

Carpe Diem.

Bubble, or bubbles ?

For the rest of us who were not born with an embedded calculator and did not graduate to an MBA, here's THE video that explains the reason why the World is going right into deep sh*t. Watch and listen to "Marketplace Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch [who] gives a bubbly explanation of the intricacies of collateralized debt obligations those financial instruments that got us into this financial mess".

Since a few days, I've got the furious impression that the actual crisis is repeating the very same patterns than the Dotcom' crash *. When I saw the description of the CDO collateralized debt obligations loop, I saw the very same problem than the one we in the Telecoms/IT industry suffered back in 1998-2000, during the first Bubble : the guys who make the big money are totally disconnected from the guys who are supposed to pay. At this time, the whole Telecoms industry was B2B. Remember Telecom'99 in Geneva ? 90% of the exhibitors were there to exhibit their stuff (prototypes, commercial products, booth hostesses) to the other exhibitors. You and me as the real end-user/consumer ? Nowhere to see.

Heck, I've no MBA, but I think I understand the fundamentals of business. Peter Drucker describes the process dead simple (diagram from DeltaNet) :

The fact is, once you insert an intermediate party between you and the customer, you screw up the whole stuff. That's exactly what happened with the Dotcom Bubble, wherein every startup was trying to reach you and me with no clue on how do it, whilst every established firm was selling its products roadmap to other established firms with even-greater products roadmap. Anecdote (may I disappear right away from my captain chair if I lie here) : back in november 2000, I heard of a potential deal of 1 billion USD between Nortel and Agilent Technologies. 1 billion USD. For a company (Agilent Technologies) who did $11B for its first year of existence.

The actual turmoil has been caused by the very same defective link with the customer - read : the house' s owner. Watch the video :

Thanks to Garr Reynolds of PresentationZen for the heads up. By the way, why such a video on a blog which aims at everything "presentation" ? Simply because this explanation of a very complex process is made very simple. Mr Hirsch proves that once you master your topic, you don't need Powerpoint. Give me a paperboard, and I'll explain you Fiber Optics ;-)

*post-scriptum : I'm still looking for any information, link, contact name, whatever, on this french researcher who published a study back in september 2003, on the fractals applied to Economy. Back then, the guy simply announced the crisis we're enjoying (joke) today, saying that the downturn is going to be harder and longer than the one we've seen in 2000.

Good neighbors! [by Andrew]

What need for good stay on the new location? Neighbors!
There is a good neighbour here. Nice woman. Danuta.
Polish woman, living in Vilnius.
Sometimes, she invites me for dinner, like today. :o)

Ultra-Broadband Fans, Forget Amsterdam : Come To Pau, It's Warmer ;-)

[updated 10/7/08 4:36PM CET] See this 1Gbit/s trial in Amsterdam ? Imagine the same type of apps (3D-HDTV for instance), right at the size of your district. A true field trial. That's what the Pau Greater Area and its Pau Broadband Country FTTH platform can offer to you Next Gen Apps vendors and to you Heavy Bandwidth Consumers.
Plus, Pau is a bit south of Amsterdam, which makes it a slightly better place for work and fun - as long as you prefer sports & nature lifestyle rather than nightlife in a city that never sleeps ;-)
If I were a NGA vendor, I would do the testing in Pau and the implementation in Amsterdam...

iPhone, Therefore I Apps

[updated Oct.6, 2008 9:04PM CET]

Here are some screenshots of my iPhone 3G : the 6 pages of the Home Screen - as of today, since the actual number grows as fast as the Stock Market plummets -, plus several of my favorite apps.

You'll see : Obama'08 (which I use both for personal interests and professional ones), James Bond' "Quantum Of Solace" (I swear : for business purposes only, although I really love the James Bond' franchise since Pierce Brosnan took over the role), Air Sharing (great app for presenters, should there be a WiFi hotspot available), Twinkle (much better than Twitterrific, actually), GoogleReader (as long as Feedly won't run on the iPhone ;-), LiveRadio (by Orange), and WhereTo (I like the GUI, pretty close to what I'd like to implement on iPhone-based FTTH Testing instruments...).

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Still The Most Common Thing On The Internet

Of course, I'm talking about sex here. Weird : this blog got a hit from a search result made from a website that is definitely not about Fiber Optics, iPhone, Broadband, or whatever Vilnius thing.

The query ? "Wild Wide". It appears that the tags my friend Andrew uses for his posts are "Wild Wide West" and "Wild Wild West".

Now I see which kind of application would become the famous long-expected "Killer App" on FTTH networks ;-)

Swarm : The Blogosphere Made Universe

Absolutely marvelous. See here by yourself. Thanks to the folks at Digg for this fantastic app.

Once you're in the Digg' s Labs site, you may want to play as well with Stack, BigSpy, Arc, and Pics. Better    go there during lunch break or at night, otherwise your day will be screwed ;-)

How the markets really work

[Readings] VentureBeat : How start-ups can navigate through the economic crisis

How start-ups can navigate through the falling dominoes of the economic crisis. Solid summary by VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi

read more | digg story