During the strike...in class at home

We keep working with our teacher even if we can't go to the school (strikes again and again)

Two or three things I know about Mathilde

A video presentation of me.

prosper youplaboum!

Prosper.com seems to be at the first sight a very strange site. On Prosper.com, you can be a lender or a borrower. A very efficient system control your identity and you can then put your profile on the site and tell everyone about your story and why you need a loan. People who trust in you can borrow you some money (oft about 50$). You have three years to pay them back und so use the money efficiently. The site is only available in the United States. You had to have a social security account and to prove your identity.

This typically 2.0 website is a great exemple of what can be very useful but also very frightened for your own security on the web. That people can trust so much some other people to borrow them money is one of the best example of how can Internet be a media who change mentalities. I think it can be a part of the Internet spirit of mind : sharing generosity, helping other people, connecting with different people all around the world.


Prosper.com might be a good example of what could happened in the future. The trust in medias and in other people will not come from the face-to-face, to direct contact but will be also possible with virtual identities. Somebody who speak about themself on the Net, with the confidence of an ID verification with the computer system, is capable to establish useful and intimate connexions with somebody else.

How wiki can prevent you from losing friends

Last year, me and four of my classmates had to make a thesis together. We didn't have much time to see each other and only a few month to write 30 pages, prepare an oral presentation and a Powerpoint presentation. Everybody had to write something and put it together with the work of others. The question was : which web tools could we use to be more efficient ?

We began to send us emails which is of course the classical way of working together. But mails aren't the simplest way to work on the content. I think they're useful to organize material problems such as fixing a meeting time, saying what your problems are or explaining your point of view on the subject. But it isn't easy to work with attached files because you can't see exactly how your work is progressing.

Then, as we haven't find a day for a meeting since two weeks, we decided to meet us on MSN. The meeting was good and efficient. In our situation, I think it was a good way to write instead of speak. The group had some difficulties to speak calmly and our meetings seemed more as a big chaos than something else. With MSN, we only wrote what was important for our subject and
make real progress in our report.


The problem at this time was that nobody knew exactly who had written what and what still needed to be done. We decided to create a collaborative document on Google docs and put on it each part of our work. The puzzle was reconstituted. Each member could write something, make changes they wanted, give their opinion. Google docs is a kind of simple wiki. But, instead of Metawiki for example, the structur of the pages looks more like the "My Documents" folder in Windows, with a lot of files inside that you can link. In Metawiki, the wiki seems to me more like a real website, that you can customize (with a little css knowledge) and a tags structur which can be very useful if you've a lot of pages. They're more than 80 wiki browsers on the Net, so don't hesitate to try some of them!

Twitter

I use Twitter but my friends aren't. So I haven't seen all the possibilities of this new web application even if I'm very exciting about it. It's a very special kind of social network. I don't think it's a real social network but it's a good complement to keep in touch with his friends.

When you're a member of the Twitter website, you have a page profile on which you can (and HAVE TO) say what you're doing right now. But a lot of people don't use it only to say this kind of thing. Channels and online newspapers have discovered new functions of Twitter, who seemed to be not so interesting on first view. They inform us in real time, in a very few words. With Twitter, we have the quintessence of information about your friends and the world.

I don't use Twitter on the Twitter website but on my Facebook profile. When Facebook has allowed everyone to create new applications for them, Twitter has proposed a little application that you can put on your profile page to show to your friends what you're doing. It's a very simple way for me to say something about me to my friends and to show that I think to them.

Professionally, it can be a very useful idea. Propose in real time new ideas to coworkers, show on which projects you're working, explain what you're thinking about news or other informations and of course see what are doing your coworkers can be a good way to make work more efficient.

All you need is crow

Crowdsourcing is one of the most interesting possibility on the web to make great things together. If Wikipedia is the first site who comes in mind when we think about crowdsourcing, it's a mistake because Wikipedia isn't a profit company. There are many more websites who are founded on the sharing of people's knowledge and work. Crowdsourcing, as outsourcing (when production is delocalized in countries as China or India) is a business.



Threadless is a very famous tee-shirts webstore where tee-shirts are made by users. First, you have to create a great design for your tee-shirt. Then, propose it to others members of the site. If your tee-shirt is selected by other users, you can be a part of the Threadless store. Most rated people win the contest, his tee-shirt is saled and he wins 2,000$ cash. The french site LaFraise has been founded on the same model.


Crowdsourcing is a business model who can be very dangerous for more traditional companies. Unpaid or low-paid amateurs create content for a company and sometimes are paid back. An other interest of crowdsourcing for companies is to pre-evaluate the success of a product and to be more innovative as the others. The japan store Muji, for example, uses people's creativity on his website. When more than 300 customers command a product online, it goes into production.


An other example of crowdsourced webcompany is Istockphoto. On this site you can buy packs of pictures taken by users with very few money (1$ for 56 pictures). For many buyers, amateur quality pictures (which can be very professional) is enough. Small prices are a good claim.

10 rules to make a good blog

1. Don't speak too much about you. Be personal but not selfish.
Just as Unlitredechips.

2. Don't speak about everything. Choose a subject field.
Just as Etienne Mineur about print.

3. Post regularly.
Just as Pierre Assouline.

4. Use web ressources...
Just as Techcrunch.

5. ...But create your own content.
Just as Parti Mou.

6. Be creative.
Just as Penelope JoliCoeur.

7. Adapt design to content.
Just as the drawer Boulet.

8. Don't write too much.
Just as Le dernier kilomètre.

9. Avoid languages mistakes.
Just not as Yo le bogoss on skyblog.

10. Have blogger friends. Let coms.
Without adds or injuries.

Be generous

True generosity
When you do something for someone without waiting for anything back.
OpenSource Communities of developpers, for example, are giving a lot of their time and knowledge to improve capacities of packages and computers. They try to help poor countries giving us computers with GNU/Linux. Wikipedia is an other good example of true generosity.

Exchange generosity
When you do something for someone and receive something back.
For example, when you put a link for someone on your webpage, you aren't sure there will be a link about you on his too but it's possible.

Generosity as a business model
When it's not someone but a company who give something without waiting for anything back.
I think it's the business model of a lot of web companies. They give us services (Twitter, Facebook and so more), ideas, knowledge (podcasts...) but their business model only depend on publicity. Deezer, for example, stands on this idea of generosity as a business model : everyone can heard music but can't theft it. They have conclude agreements with majors of industry music.

How I use Facebook

My first feeling about Facebook when I discovered it 6 months ago was "cool, I could find old friends and exchange my pictures with new" but also "oh, and what about my privacy?"

I've hesitated giving my real name on the website, but I would be very stupid giving a pseudonym if I wanted to be find by friends... I've just decided no to giving a lot of personal informations (as for example my phone number, adress and mail) and refused to let my entire profile be seen by everybody.

What I really appreciate with Facebook are funny groups (as a way of showing his personal interests and sense of humour) and multiple degrees of keeping in touch with his friends : from the most public (wall, social feeds and gifts) to the classical but how useful inbox.

Most of Facebook applications are gagdets and not very adapted to the design of the profile page. To chaotic and heavy. But interesting for developers students and starts-up, I guess.

The Facebook song :)