ForceviveForcevivePersonal blog with thoughts about Buddhism and Neuroscience. About my life in Madrid, where I live currently, and Paris, where I will be next year. 
Articles
The Mobile Web - Just the Beginning
2008-05-21 06:23:00 Searching Google for Le Web Mobile or "Le Web Mobile" you'll find some interesting though contradictory results: people claiming the mobile web is dead, explaining why it sucks, pleading to keep it open, selling software to make an application mobile web-friendly and finally also me: blogging on the web, on mobile technologies, being mobile and mobile entrepreneurship.What is it then, this controversial mobile web? Tony and Ajit over at Open Gardens define it as follows: "Your experience of preferred services on a restricted device."Check their site for an in-depth explanation of what they mean. Interestingly, the appreciation of this experience, since they wrote this piece in 2006, seems to have changed drastically: on April 23rd Russell Beattie of Mowser, a service that renders websites for use on mobiles, in a highly discussed interview, said that "the traffic never showed up, and what did show up was of questionable quality at best... It's not there now, and it won't be". (s... More About: Mobile Web
New Ventures Mexico
2008-05-20 23:12:00 I started working for New Ventures Mexico a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was time to quickly present what they're doing, the projects I'm involved in and to spread a little link-love for their website and blog (here are two of my posts).New VenturesNew Ventures promotes sustainable growth in emerging markets by accelerating the transfer of capital to businesses that deliver social and environmental benefits at the base of the economic pyramid (source).It's a 5 country (Brazil, Mexico, China, India, Indonesia) initiative by the Markets and Enterprise program of the World Resources Institute. We select SMEs ("the missing middle") in fast growing sectors (e.g. ecotourism, renewable energy, clean tech) in emerging markets and support them to scale their businesses by providing access to capital, consulting services, a network of entrepreneurs and a media platform.New Ventures Mexicois operating in several different areas. They provide Incubator (helping entrepreneurs in the i...
The Mobile Chat: Join us
2008-05-19 20:01:00 Cornelius, blogger and fellow founder, just started a public chat on all things mobile on Skype.The topic: "Mobility, Mobile Trends & Technologies, Mobile Entrepreneurship & Beyond". He writes that "it is meant as a place for short qualitative announcement messages and a place for interesting discussions with the focus on mobile, the market of the future."It will be interesting to see how this develops. If you're interested, come and join us! You can access the chat here or by clicking on the link in the sidebar. More About: Chat , Join
Second But Elsewhere & CoWorking Mexico
2008-05-14 20:33:00 I recently wrote about an idea for a SMS Taxi service in Mexico . After I discussed the post with a friend of mine he said that "actually, people at ESCP-EAP should come up with those kind of ideas all the time". And he's right. (Background: ESCP-EAP is a BSchool in Europe, they offer, inter aliae, a great three year-three country-three languages MSc program)Given that you study business and get to know (at least three) vibrant cities in Europe, there should be plenty of opportunities to observe proven business models in one country and a lack of these products or services in another. Some random ideas I had: self-service video rentals in the UK, which I didn't see in Spain or a lunch salad bar, which I used to go to when I worked at Cognosis (recently they're popping up in Paris and Germany).Another idea in this SBE (Second But Elsewhere, as mentioned here) category: A CoWorking space in Mexico City.CoWorking is a "cafe-like community/collaboration space for developers, writers a...
Mobile Internet in Mexico
2008-04-22 23:24:00 Since I'm now in Mexico City for the next couple of months I thought it would be interesting to look at how people use their mobiles and access the internet with them.Quick facts:Mobile internet usage:16% of mobile users in Mexico have accessed the internet with their mobile. This compares to an overall (worldwide) figure of 28% ('06) up from 25% in late 2004 and interestingly the access in Germany or France is not much higher at 18%. Main growth came from the sector of 35-54 year old males. Only 10% accessed the mobile web for information services, the rest splits up between music, adult, pictures and games.The percentage of internet users who possess a mobile is at 96%. Nokia, Sony Ericcson and Motorola are the most commonly used handsets, covering 70% of all handsets.Sources:IpsosMobile HeraldInternet World StatsAsociación Mexicana de InternetResearch and MarketsIntl. Telecommunications UnionPicture by stevec. More About: Mobile Internet
Business Idea: SMS Taxi Mexico
2008-04-22 20:51:00 Picture by bdebaca, amendments by me.Having lived in London, UK for a year in 2005 I came to enjoy a great cab (taxi) service. Calling up a number you are asked for the addresses (your current location and where you are travelling to), how many passengers are travelling and (in case your number is hidden or you're calling from a landline) for a mobile number.A minute later you get all the details for the journey: number plate of your cab, driver's name, when the cab will arrive and how much it is approximately going to cost (the prediction was always right at +/- 1GBP ).Here in México, you can call a cab as well but you don't get any of these extra services (that would supposedly cost the company around 0,05 USD for the SMS) although here it would add even more value than in (relatively) safe London. Speaking to people here you could tell that especially girls don't feel comfortable at all taking a taxi on their own because of legitimate apprehension of abductions.This is the s... More About: Business , Mexico , Idea , Taxi
My mobile Blogroll / RSS Subscriptions
2008-04-07 16:10:00 Here's a list of interesting blogs and organisations writing on all things related to technologies and services on the mobile web:Android Developers Blog (news from the team at Google)Carnival of the mobilists (weekly collection of the Web's best blogging on mobile and wireless)Ed Parsons (Geospatial Technologist of Google, evangelising Earth, Maps and Maps for Mobile products)LBS Zone (on location based services and technologies. "It's cool to know where you've been")MobHappy (collaborative blog of a mobile marketing specialist and telecoms industry analyst)MoCoNews (covering the business of mobile content)mTrends (mobile media lifestyle)Nokia Beta LabsGoogle Mobile Blog (news and views)Open Gardens (wireless mobility, innovation, digital convergence, mobile web 2.0)OpenGeoData (open maps, geo data, open streetmaps)EveryBlock Blog (company, helping to find local info and public news)Mobile Weblog (convergence of gadgets, trends, communities and mobile services)W3C Mobile Web... More About: Blogroll , Subscriptions
TED Talks: Ben Dunlap - The story of a passionate life
2008-02-17 21:51:00 Wanted to share this with you (transcript of the last seconds of Ben Dunlap's talk), it is an amazing talk:"And I realized in that moment of revelation that what these two men were revealing was the secret of their extraordinary success, each in his own right. And it lay precisely in that insatiable curiosity, that irrepressible desire to know, no matter what the subject, no matter what the cost, even at a time when the keepers of the doomsday clock are willing to bet even money that the human race won't be around to imagine anything in the year 2100 - a scant 93 years from now. "Live each day as if it is your last", said Mahatma Gandhi, "learn as if you live forever".This is what I am passionate about. It is precisely this. It is this inextinguishable, undaunted appetite for learning and experience no matter how risible, no matter how esoteric, no matter how seditious it might seem. This defines the imagined futures of our fellow hungarians, Robeczeck, Teszler and Bartok. As it d... More About: Life , Story , The Story
SemanticCampParis Atelier Découverte
2008-02-16 12:38:00 Disclaimer: I'm live blogging, excuse lapses of grammar, spelling errors, and typos.Session by Alexandre and Gautier. Excellent introduction to the subject! Thanks guys! I especially liked the part where you showed how search queries on Wikipedia could be done!1. RDF ModelWhat is RDF?"Resource Description Framework"Idea: html relate documents between each other, via hyperlinks. RDS shall relate objects between each other.Two concepts behind it: Triplet and URITriplet: (subject, predicate, object)Example: "Gautier" "a pour nom" "Gautier"; "Gautier" "est de type" "personne"; "Gautier" "connait" "Alex"Could be described as a type of underlying grammar.URI: (Universal Resource Identifier)To identify and localize objects in a network (an URL for example locates an object with an http address, an URN could locate a book in the isbn "framework")Namespace (In XML, a namespace is a collection of names, identified by a URI reference, that are used in XML documents as element types and attrib...
Semanticcampparis: presentation of participants and planning the program
2008-02-16 09:37:00 Semanticcampparis @ La Cantine.In the end around 20 people showed up (participant list here). Charles Nepote did a quick introduction and after, participants introduced themselves and explained their interest in the semantic web. (I explained that I'm especially interested in the possibilities for web apps, the use rather than the technological base and what the implications are for the future of the internet).This camp shall help to start coordinating the efforts for the french speaking community of people interested in the semantic web.The areas of interest that emerged:1. Animation (coordination of efforts within France and french speaking regions of the world)2. Translation & Ontology (how to organise and coordinate the translation efforts)3. Classification and structure by themes/topics/subject4. Atelier decouverte (getting to know the models behind the semantic web)5. Websem Zen Garden, Showroom (similar to the idea of an css zen garden: helping to make the topic more und... More About: Planning , Program , Presentation
LIFT08: The Hedonistic Company
2008-02-08 09:50:00 Holm Friebe and Phillip Albers from the socialistic-capitalist joint-venture Zentrale Intelligenz Agentur in Berlin will show new forms of cooperation and collaborative work in todays' society. "A good name, website and business cards" is all a company needs.Seven (or so) rules of working togetherRule 1: The 7 NOsNo ... office, employees, fixed costs, pitches, exclusivity, working hours, bullshit.Rule 2: Work-Work BalanceEngage in client work and self induced projects. "Don't let your own projects be corrupted by commercial work"Rule 3: Instant GratificationUse money as an incentive. Distribute immediately after job.Rule 4: Pluralism of MethodsFind technical solutions for social problems and use online tools of collaboration instead of meetings. Skype, Google Calendar & Docs, Lesemaschine (collaborative editing tool)Rule 5: Fixed ideasLive up your intellectual ... and dark desires at work.Powerpoint KaraoeRule 6: Responsibilities without hierarchiesEach project has to have one... More About: Company
LIFT08: Kevin Warwick
2008-02-08 09:09:00 From the program:"Kevin Warwick, the British "cyborg" researcher who implanted a microchip in his body will tell us about his pioneering experiments. He had a neuro-surgical device implanted into the median nerves of his left arm in order to link his nervous system directly to a computer. The aim of these experiment series is to assess the use of latest technologies for disabled people."Kevin Warwick on Neural Implants"Why not link our brains together and transmit ideas, colors, ... "
LIFT08: Rafi Haladjian
2008-02-07 14:09:00 From the LIFT program: "Rafi Haladjian, founder of Minitel start-ups and internet/wi-fi providers in France will tell us about his latest venture: Violet, a french tech company, has designed the Wi-Fi and RFID enabled rabbit called Nabaztag.""Violet's Strategy"affordable products with one at a time buying decisionsfun & interpersonal communciation are as powerful propositions as usefulnessdesign mattersmake it simplea new image of technoloyopen standardsempower the userbuild a community to provide services and help generate killer apps2003: the DAL Lamp2005: NabaztagWhy a rabbit?With a rabbit on the desk the day they decided to do the new product (and have ears, no voice, they multiply, etc). In the end they wanted to make a statement: if they could connect a rabbit, they could connect anything.What does he do?Reads short reports (weather), RSS feed headlines, etcemotional messenger, physical avatar of friendsear movement chatNabaztag and Gallimard Jeunesse (a french editor) jo...
LIFT08: User experience session
2008-02-07 10:22:00 11:30 at LIFT Conference.From the program: "We will have two anthropologists, one working for Nokia in Tokyo (Younghee Jung) and another for Intel in Seattle (Genevieve Bell). Both will show us why observing users of technologies is important and how this brings insights for designing future products. Paul Dourish, a researcher from University of California Irvine will then criticize how such results from anthropological studies are often translated into "implications for design", missing relevant insights from anthropologist's works."Younghee on Nokia Open Studio: Vision by Relevance, Design for Use. Younghee asked the questions "What does it take to host a design competition"?The design competition was about imagined uses and designs of mobile phones in poor and emerging countries.The design competition forms part of and supports ethnography research and street surveys.> Local teams> 3 locations: India, Brazil and Ghana> Challenges: weather, security, electricitySome of the parti... More About: Experience , User
LIFT: Tool to Manage PFFAP (and GTD)
2008-02-06 09:05:00 The am workshop I attended today (actually already yesterday now). A more detailed description can be found here.What's PFFAP...Presence, Flow, Feeds, Activity and Peripheral Awareness (and Getting Things Done).And what about the tool?Trying to use the tools that are "out there on the net" (see further below for review of prior art) for use in a work environmentKick-offLee Bryant, from Headshift, kicks off with his introduction presening his teams knowledge pyramid (the social "stack", see a detailed description of the social stack here) and the six goals that the tool (or an integrated solution combining several tools) might help to achieve:Picture taken from the Headshift website.1. "How do we break the inbox addiction"2 ."More flow, less sequential processing"3. "More human scale, informal sharing"4. "A better personal radar"5. "Negotiating shared meaning and language"6. "Use attention feedback to drive relevance"Review of prior art: Tom Taylor & Colin Schlüter give an ove... More About: Tool , Lift , Manage
LIFT: First Day Workshops
2008-02-06 07:54:00 Good morning,today, two workshops on the program here at LIFT:Help us design a new type of web tool to manage presence, feeds, flow, activity and peripheral awareness (am)Ubiquitous computing: visions, failures and new interaction rituals (pm) As another option for the afternoon there's Dave Brown's "Generation Y and technology" workshop, he asked the LIFT students to join his session.More on the workshops later on here.Looking forward to it! More About: Lift , Workshops
LIFT 2008: Way around Geneva
2008-02-03 16:18:00 Next week will start off quite intense:travelling to London on Monday morning, back to Paris Tuesday midday with 45 minutes to change from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon, catch the train to Geneva (arriving there at 21:30). Once there, I'll try to find my way to City Hostel Geneva, drop my stuff and meet the other students... for a glass of wine (something to eat - as I'll probably be starving after all that travelling) and to get into LIFT mood.And then ... well, just looking forward to all that's coming up at LIFT.I found great hosts in Geneva (via Couchsurfing), they will be my home from Wednesday through Saturday.As there's not one map on the LIFT homepage where all the venues are in one place, I just created one to get a better overview where the event will be going down.Blue's for Wednesday, Red for Thursday and Green for Friday.View Larger Map More About: Lift , 2008
Christian Prommer's Drumlessons Vol. 1
2008-01-29 23:44:00 Finally I found some time to listen to the episode from January 23rd of my favorite Radioshow: Offtrack Radio, hosted by Dirk Rumpff (wanted to link is bio here, but strangely it's a .zip file with 3 Word docs in there).Anyway... I was cruising along with Mark Pritchard, Burial and Lexx when I heard it: around the world (yeah - the ONE you know) ... but in a jazz version, a good one!Good thing is, with the Radioshow you get a track list and a quick look told me it was Mr. Christian Prommer who was responsible for that.And three clicks later I also knew that he's got a new album out on SonarKollektiv (founded by infamous crew Jazzanova, also check the other artists).Anyway, I'm getting carried away. Just bought the album in their shop, heard it and now I'm trying to pass the news on to you: it's goood. You can listen to it here.Maybe wait a day or two before buying it from their website, the ID3 Tags are kind of messed up. Wrote them an e-mail, let's hope they'll fix it.
Doodle - a brilliant idea!
2008-01-24 20:16:00 I don't remember how I found it (it's been a couple days since I read about it somewhere), but I'm glad I did.What a great little tool on the web: Doodle .The two things you can do here are 1) polls and 2) schedule meetings.You might wonder why this should be something really special...Here goes my reasoning:- it's dead easy to set up- clutter-free design- no sign-up required- "back" and "forward" buttons work like they should - meaning the app remembers your choices- ....o.k. these are all more or less standard features (or at least they should be!).But the real power of this little program is the scheduling function.Have you ever tried to get a couple of people (who don't work in the same company and use Lotus or Outlook) to agree on one date / time?It's a hassle, I can tell you.Well, this tool solves this problems in a really nice and easy way!Check out the example below:http://www.doodle.ch/pi5wayfyznrvti 49Good stuff! More About: Idea , Brilliant
Camping in Paris
2008-01-08 22:51:00 Some updates on upcoming (Bar)Camps here in Paris :Wireless Camp (Tag: Wirelessbarcampparis)" Cette journée aura pour mot d’ordre le partage de connaissances entre passionnés, professionnels ou débutants, au travers de tables rondes. Des sujets tels que la sécurité, le roaming, les technologies et matériel seront abordés."Date: January 19thOrganisers: 4 computer science students, links to their blogs on the "inscrits" page.Participants: 27 so far (Tuesday, Jan 8th)Location: See "Upcoming" badge in the sidebarRating*: Not many attendees, the topic is not really defined, but might be interesting to see engineering students' views. I give it a 3/5.SciCamp (Tag: Scicamp)Recherche, Innovation et Echange (Research, Innovation and Exchange)"L’évolution des modes d’organisation, de fonctionnement et de gestion de la recherche et de l’innovation est particulièrement manifeste dans cinq domaines" ... read more here.I just found out about this yester... More About: Camping
Back from the days off
2007-12-27 09:54:00 I hope you all had a couple of chilled days during Xmas!I spend some relaxing days in Fribourg, Switzerland (at Café Populaire, where a DJ played some good Broken Beats, visited the beautiful old city center, snowboarded at Gstaad skiing area) and of course some days at home with the family.Right now I am back in Frankfurt to give some more training on the Collaborative Workspace to my colleagues. After that I will prepare my move to Paris, where I will spend my next couple of months from January on. More About: Back , Days
Back from the days off
2007-12-27 09:54:00 I hope you all had a couple of chilled days during Xmas!I spend some relaxing days in Fribourg, Switzerland (at Café Populaire, where a DJ played some good Broken Beats, visited the beautiful old city center, snowboarded at Gstaad skiing area) and of course some days at home with the family.Right now I am back in Frankfurt to give some more training on the Collaborative Workspace to my colleagues. After that I will prepare my move to Paris, where I will spend my next couple of months from January on. More About: Back , Days
LIFT! Workshop Ideas
2007-12-18 02:03:00 Just some quick thoughts on possible workshop topics:Ariane sent around an interesting e-mail, proposing a discussion on a workshop topic which could be organised by the Gebert Rüf fellows at Lift ! Conference.She explains one of the pillars of Henry Jenkins' theories: “participatory culture” or the participation of consumers in the “active” seeking of information and media experiences across various technologies and media resources.This deeply resounds with what I am reading on and thinking about at the moment.For me, the deciding question is: "Is the development of the web and IT deepening the gap (to be defined, e.g. "influence on decision making processes in society") between (knowledge) have-nots and information literates?"How, you might think now, is this question related to the active seeking of information, mentioned by Henry J.?For me, the underlying question of Henry's thinking is: what are the (web-)technologies (social bookmarking, RSS, feedreader, aggregator... More About: Ideas , Workshop
LIFT! Workshop Ideas
2007-12-18 02:03:00 Just some quick thoughts on possible workshop topics:Ariane sent around an interesting e-mail, proposing a discussion on a workshop topic which could be organised by the Gebert Rüf fellows at Lift ! Conference.She explains one of the pillars of Henry Jenkins' theories: “participatory culture” or the participation of consumers in the “active” seeking of information and media experiences across various technologies and media resources.This deeply resounds with what I am reading on and thinking about at the moment.For me, the deciding question is: "Is the development of the web and IT deepening the gap (to be defined, e.g. "influence on decision making processes in society") between (knowledge) have-nots and information literates?"How, you might think now, is this question related to the active seeking of information, mentioned by Henry J.?For me, the underlying question of Henry's thinking is: what are the (web-)technologies (social bookmarking, RSS, feedreader, aggregator... More About: Ideas , Workshop
Hotel Very Welcome
2007-12-15 11:34:00 Yesterday I went to see a good movie in MalSehn Kino ("We'll See Cinema"), Hotel Very Welcome by Sonja Heiss.It's been a while since I've been to the movies and even longer since I went to an alternative venue. The guy behind the bar, probably 55+ years old, wearing glasses with yellow glasses and looking like he spend most of his life as a sailor, who is also selling the tickets, told us off (in a really direct way) for not ordering tickets and drinks at the same time. No "standardized service level" to be found like in the big cinema franchises - but it's this fact that makes it memorable and different.The movie is worth seeing, it's about Europeans (English and Germans) who are trying to escape their normal lives and responsibilities by travelling to India and South-East Asia. It doesn't work . The scenes I liked best picture a girl in Bangkok, trying to book a flight over the phone.... but see for yourself!
Hotel Very Welcome
2007-12-15 11:34:00 Yesterday I went to see a good movie in MalSehn Kino ("We'll See Cinema"), Hotel Very Welcome by Sonja Heiss.It's been a while since I've been to the movies and even longer since I went to an alternative venue. The guy behind the bar, probably 55+ years old, wearing glasses with yellow glasses and looking like he spend most of his life as a sailor, who is also selling the tickets, told us off (in a really direct way) for not ordering tickets and drinks at the same time. No "standardized service level" to be found like in the big cinema franchises - but it's this fact that makes it memorable and different.The movie is worth seeing, it's about Europeans (English and Germans) who are trying to escape their normal lives and responsibilities by travelling to India and South-East Asia. It doesn't work . The scenes I liked best picture a girl in Bangkok, trying to book a flight over the phone.... but see for yourself!
Hotel Very Welcome
2007-12-15 11:34:00 Yesterday I went to see a good movie in MalSehn Kino ("We'll See Cinema"), Hotel Very Welcome by Sonja Heiss.It's been a while since I've been to the movies and even longer since I went to an alternative venue. The guy behind the bar, probably 55+ years old, wearing glasses with yellow glasses and looking like he spend most of his life as a sailor, who is also selling the tickets, told us off (in a really direct way) for not ordering tickets and drinks at the same time. No "standardized service level" to be found like in the big cinema franchises - but it's this fact that makes it memorable and different.The movie is worth seeing, it's about Europeans (English and Germans) who are trying to escape their normal lives and responsibilities by travelling to India and South-East Asia. It doesn't work . The scenes I liked best picture a girl in Bangkok, trying to book a flight over the phone.... but see for yourself!
LBS Competitions
2007-12-13 19:08:00 Navteq (NYSE: NVT) the digital maps giant has a competition for LBS Developers going on. Registration for this Global LBS Challenge is already closed for European countries but challengers from the Americas and Asia Pacific can still sign up.The aim is to "build innovative location-based services (LBS) that work with mobile phones and/or wireless handheld devices". The set-up is restricted: developers must use a Nokia N95 as the mobile device (SDKs can be found here) and of course Navteq maps as the mapping tool.There are a couple of sponsors offering developer tools (Autodesk, Nokia, decarta, ptv, Telefonica and GPS World) or you can directly download the maps data for Paris and Barcelona (in case of the EMEA challenge). I didn't link to three of them, as they didn't set up a dedicated page for the challenge while the others did.Then of course there is also Google's Android Developer Challenge. All infos regarding this competition can be found here.Any more competitions that you... More About: Competitions
LBS Competitions
2007-12-13 19:08:00 Navteq (NYSE: NVT) the digital maps giant has a competition for LBS Developers going on. Registration for this Global LBS Challenge is already closed for European countries but challengers from the Americas and Asia Pacific can still sign up.The aim is to "build innovative location-based services (LBS) that work with mobile phones and/or wireless handheld devices". The set-up is restricted: developers must use a Nokia N95 as the mobile device (SDKs can be found here) and of course Navteq maps as the mapping tool.There are a couple of sponsors offering developer tools (Autodesk, Nokia, decarta, ptv, Telefonica and GPS World) or you can directly download the maps data for Paris and Barcelona (in case of the EMEA challenge). I didn't link to three of them, as they didn't set up a dedicated page for the challenge while the others did.Then of course there is also Google's Android Developer Challenge. All infos regarding this competition can be found here.Any more competitions that you... More About: Competitions
LBS Competitions
More articles from this author:2007-12-13 19:08:00 Navteq (NYSE: NVT) the digital maps giant has a competition for LBS Developers going on. Registration for this Global LBS Challenge is already closed for European countries but challengers from the Americas and Asia Pacific can still sign up.The aim is to "build innovative location-based services (LBS) that work with mobile phones and/or wireless handheld devices". The set-up is restricted: developers must use a Nokia N95 as the mobile device (SDKs can be found here) and of course Navteq maps as the mapping tool.There are a couple of sponsors offering developer tools (Autodesk, Nokia, decarta, ptv, Telefonica and GPS World) or you can directly download the maps data for Paris and Barcelona (in case of the EMEA challenge). I didn't link to three of them, as they didn't set up a dedicated page for the challenge while the others did.Then of course there is also Google's Android Developer Challenge. All infos regarding this competition can be found here.Any more competitions that you... More About: Competitions 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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