Pipl.com

Thank you to my friend Erik for pointing out pipl.com. Yet another people search engine, but with a better UI than what I have seen until now, and an impressive coverage. I was able to find my French friends in there. Scary thing to see how exposed we are - we know that there is no privacy on the internet, but it is always a lesson to see how true it is...

Quickeo is getting visibility

An article in a French magazine on Quickeo: http://www.lexpansion.com/art/32.0.161330.0.html
The service is getting momentum :-)
The hard part for this service is that it is not for geeks, but for the mass of non-geek users who still need an easy solution to share their pictures and videos, and still rely on email rather than hyped websites to do so. And these people are not as easy to find as your average geek, because they do not hang around the web as much. Slowly but surely Quickeo is getting to them, so stay tuned...

Forget Skype, GizmoProject rules

Just came back from a few days off to find that Skype had taken over my machine and would not give it back to me. After the poor performance Skype had a few weeks ago, for which they sent an apology and a credit of a few days for the "Skype Pro" user, I now discover that Skype is using my bandwidth and my CPU when I am not around, and keeps it when I come back. My machine was slow, and my CPU running at 90% for Skype. I understand that they would do that when I am not using the PC, but if it keeps creeping down the system when I am using it, then I have a problem.
Meanwhile GizmoProject quality of calls is just as good if not better, and it is built on an open system, using SIP numbers that can be used across network. If I needed something to convince me to switch this is it, I am now a GizmoProject user. You can find me there at the same ID.

Vator.tv - a new way to do PR for your business

It is now possible for companies to upload a video version of their PR pitch on Vator.tv. A great concept with many opportunities: for investors to save time when looking for deals, for entrepreneurs to showcase themselves in yet another setting.
I have tried the process for Quickeo and it is pretty cool...

Quickeo viewer has been updated to support blogs better

In the album url provided from the Quickeo client (in the Manage screen, click on the URL tab on the right side of the screen), all you need to do is replace www.quickeo.net/qViewer/qViewer.php?key=blabla by www.quickeo.net/qViewer/qViewer4b.php?key=blabla, and add the option scrolling='no'

We will work on something more user friendly in the future, but at least it can be done now :-)

From the web2.0 conference 1st keynote

The news from the first keynote at the web2.0 conference is that there is nothing new:
- Jeff Bezos is working on OnDemand infrastructure, he is a believer of the web as a platform. Software as a Service has been around long enough that I would agree with the idea that the trend is here to stay.
- Beyond this and despite the fact that there is a lot of people attending, not much was said that was a real revelation. Web2.0 is about collaboration, and building blocks are being worked on, but we are still looking for where all this is going to go, and the energy level was not exactly what I expected.
Maybe more will come out of the next few days...

MoveOn's Virtual Town Hall Meeting on Iraq: Apr. 10, 2007

For me Web 2.0 is more about social change than technology, as brilliantly explained by Yochai Benkler in the Wealth of Networks. And MoveOn.org has been a major player in trying to capitalize on this trend. It will be interesting to see what happens with this next one:
>>
MoveOn.org Political Action will hold three "virtual town hall meetings" in 2007 to introduce presidential candidates to MoveOn members and publicize candidates' positions on top issues facing the American people.

The first virtual town hall, on April 10, will focus on the war in Iraq. Subsequent meetings will discuss health care and energy/global warming. Each will bring together thousands of people at house parties around the country to participate through an interactive online presentation.

Quickeo for my blog

The real thing for sharing spreadsheets

Google has tried, but their Google spreadsheet is not really great, nothing I can use in real life.
But there is a start-up who has an interesting solution you may want to check:
http://www.xcellery.com

What is nice about this service is that you do not have to be online to access the info. You access the spreadsheets through your regular Excel software, but the data is synchronized in the back so that the other users you are working with can also see the updates as they happen.

The best I have seen so far on the matter....

Another attempt at managing online reputation - Venyo

I just ran into this very interesting start-up working on reputation. What is nice about their approach is that they tie ratings to tags, so it allows for very flexible rating of people.

www.venyo.org

blog.venyo.org

http://www.venyo.org/download/venyo_reputation_service_presentation.pdf

A service to watch...

The Quickeo website is finally open

For those of you who want to share videos, photos, music etc... with friends (and only with friends, not the whole word), Quickeo is finally available for download. The software is slick (I am on the team, so check it for yourself), and it is addictive. I have to admit that after playing with it for sometime, I really like sending quickeomails to my friends and family, much nicer than plain text :-) Check it out, let me know what you think...

Something really cool from the Gizmo project team

Check this out, it is now possible to call from your browser at gizmocall.com
I love the idea, one less client I have to load at startup...

Protest in 2nd life

A good story here about somebody virtually protesting on 2nd life.
I really believe that 2nd life would be a perfect place to do conflict resolution. No yelling, no fighting, no killing, just sit and listen to the other (if you are willing to get some progress), then take your turn to speak...

A great report on the Future of Small Business

The corporate social contract is broken (no more job for life, much less benefits, etc...) and personal business is on the rise, as a way to provide better life-balance or options for baby-boomers reaching retirement age. If you want to get a glimpse at what the future of work is, the Institute of the Future has produced a very interesting report.
With the new trends, comes a need for coworking spaces such as workclub, and comes collaborative entrepreneurship. Something to look forward to...

2007 - the year for reality check

After a year with a lot of bubble feelings (YouTube acquisition, hype around social networking, etc...), we are now entering into a year of reality checks. Many start-ups have been launched but I have the feeling that the excitement around social networking is cooling down. While the technology is much more accessible, and the price to get a website going much lower, it remains really hard to build a strong community of users, and there is always this unavoidable need to bring value but also revenue at some point.
Interesting enough, it could also be the beginning of the end of the free. While it is really cool to get all these services for free, developers, designers, managers all need to pay rent at one point or another. So I believe we will see more and more of paying services, and I'll be the first to enjoy paying for something that brings me value and does not have the same level of noise that you get with all these ads.
Signs of this trend:
- Google results are being questioned - can you trust page rank? and how are search results being impacted by paying ads?
- Skype is starting to raise their rate, and free calls are being changed into monthly flat rate offers
- Bitwine and Wengo are trying to help people monetize their knowledge, which otherwise could not be delivered online outside of free forums

The end of the free does not mean the end of freedom on the internet though. Actually I see it as an opportunity for entrepreneurs to re-organize around a more sustainable model, so that individuals can better compete against large corporation and collaborative entrepreneurship can take a stronger hold.
So I am ready for another exciting year, and hopefully you are too :-)

Open Source for Hardware

Another interesting idea in the area of crowdsourcing: open source approach to hardware design.
http://newassignment.net/blog/nichole_altmix/dec2006/11/open_source_move

Tech lessons learned from the wisdom of crowds | CNET News.com

Crowdsourcing is making its way into the corporation. A very interesting article on how this is happening:

Read more at news.com.com/2100-1014_...

histoire2femme.com

A very interesting discussion with David Sifry, from Technorati, on what is happening on the web and where this is all going.Thank you Estelle for organizing the meeting and capturing this moment.

Read more at http://histoire2femme.typepad.fr/histoire2femme/2006/12/interview_de_da.html

NewsTrust - Our Guide to Good Journalism - Beta Home

A great service launched today, which brings some balance in the distribution of news through a rating system that helps evaluate the neutrality of news articles. Definitely something that everybody should subscribe to...

Read more at beta.newstrust.net/webx...

Techcrunch » Blog Archive » BitWine Gives Access To Those In The Know

Finally something that will help unleash the voice services market, one of the huge potential offered by Skype that had not really been exploited so far.

Read more at www.techcrunch.com/2006...