Minter Dialogue Blog

Craig Tracy Body Painting : How the leopard got its body?

2009-11-08T19:43:00.003+01:00

If you like the Rudyard Kipling story about how the leopard got its spots, you might like to take a closer look at this painting, and try to spot the human body.

I came across this picture and story in London's METRO newspaper (Nov 2, 2009). The artist in question, Craig Tracy, from New Orleans, specialises in painting and merging the human body into a background. Tracy opened a studio in 2005 in his hometown and accepts volunteers who travel from all over world to be incorporated per se into one of his painting.

Have you spotted the body yet?

Restaurant and Tarte Tropezienne of choice in St Tropez

2009-10-31T12:26:00.002+01:00

Among the slew of restaurants that line the port of St Tropez, it is a roll of the dice to find the right address -- to avoid the overly expensive tourist trap, with slow or snobbish service, etc. Having entered and exited the smokey and hyper-touristic (if extremely well located) Sénéquier, we finally settled on L'Adresse. Run by Jerome and Faty (expatriated from the Parisian suburbs), this was a gem of a spot. Set to an ever present background lounge music, we enjoyed it so much we went twice.

The food was refined. From the reasonably priced (14-16E) suggestions du jour, we enjoyed the Lamb and Veal Chops, as well as some tasty Gambas and Plaice fish.

L'Adresse, which you will, of course, find among the first references in any yellow pages thanks to its AD, is a top spot -- not to be mixed up with the local L'Adresse real estate agent. Its address? Officially, it is 4 Quai de l'Epi (83990). But, you need to find l'Esplanade du Nouveau Port (on the far port [left hand] side of the port).

Nice touch: check the Adresse logo where the A and D combine for the jib and mainsail of a sailboat.

Telephone: +33.4.94.56.10.73. Read here for the QYPE writeup or on their own MYSPACE site.

For deserts, however, given the fine 20-23C weather, we could not resist hitting the gelateria. Specifically, at the famed Sénéquier where the ice cream stand was run by a charmer. And, if the Tarte Tropézienne was invented in 1945 by the Pole, Alexandre Micka, (read in French the history of la Tarte Tropézienne), the Tarte Tropezienne offered by the Patisserie of Sénéquier is a far finer affair. If you want to order the tart from them, you had better call the evening before (04.94.97.00.90).

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - 2 examples, one good, one bad.

2009-10-24T23:09:00.001+02:00

We received, this week, two digital messages that grabbed my attention in the way of customer relationship management (CRM).

The first example came from our children's dentist, based in Neuilly (outskirts of Paris). Partly because their telephone answering service is so poor, we suspect, this dentist has invested in a service to send SMS reminders to us about our upcoming rendez-vous. The text message states the patient (my son in this case), the time of the rendez-vous along with a reminder of the address. Easy to copy and paste into your agenda. Great idea. A value-added service as far as the customer is concerned and a way to limit the number of late or no-shows. It's truly a wonder that all restaurants do not do the same. If a dentist office is able to do this, I suspect that all businesses with a reservation system (hairdressers included) should also be doing so... slowly moving into the 21st century. It simply takes capturing your client's mobile numbers systematically and paying for a service which automatically sends out the messages. The investment is absolutely worth it as far as I am concerned.

A second message I received (jpg below) was a "personal invitation" from Lancôme. The email was quite surprising in that the personal invitation didn't even include my name. The invitation was as impersonal as could be.

I don't mean to pick on Lancôme as I have received other similar "blanket" messages from other companies; but, I have to believe that mass companies are going to need to get better at interfacing with -- and attracting -- their customers. If a dentist is able to send me a personalised message, the larger 'impersonal' companies should take stock and hone in on a proper CRM strategy, especially since the message can so easily be personalised with a little bit of client database management.

In the interim, I vote by unsubscribing.

Note2be : la notation des professeurs de retour en ligne

2009-10-24T11:21:00.003+02:00

Voici une bonne nouvelle pour les amateurs de la liberté d'expression ... surtout dans le milieu de l'Education. J'ai reçu aujourd'hui un message email qui me faisait comprendre que le site note2be revit encore. J'avais écrit sur ce site en février 2008 (lire ici).

Le site affiche que, dans le mois de juin, la Justice allemande a validé la notation des professeurs en ligne par Spickmich, un site équivalent de note2be en Allemagne. Voici la nouvelle relayée par Netlex France et de CIDAL. Comme le dit l'article de CIDAL, "[l]a décision de la BGH [la Cour Allemande] ne s'applique pas à l'ensemble des portails d'évaluation en ligne," donc ce n'est pas encore gagné pour tous. En tous cas, les sites semblables aux États-Unis continuent à marcher, tel que RateMyTeachers qui affiche maintenant 11 millions de notations (sur des écoles en GB, Irelande, Canada, Australie et NZ aussi) où RateMyProfessors qui a 8 millions de notations (+2 millions depuis fév 2008).

Je suis curieux de savoir si la communauté d'étudiants en France se sont (re-)mis à noter leurs professeurs avec ferveur... Note2Be affiche qu'il y a 165,000 inscrits. En tous cas, je l'espère! Et si jamais, je me retrouve devant des étudiants, j'en parlerai. Et puis, comme le fera l'Angleterre pour les médecins, je pense que ça serait une idée formidable pour la France de faire pareil ici. Un véritable "check up" voire révolution. Si jamais ça se faisait, ça n'arrangera pas tout de suite la pénurie de médecins actuellement en France (selon Challenges Oct 22, 2009), plus de 600 postes de médecins généralistes sur 3300 offerts cette année sont restés vacants.

Qu'en dites vous sur la notation des professeurs et des médecins?

Measuring Quality of Life - A review between France and USA

2009-10-22T12:18:00.004+02:00

As part of my Franco-American profile, I am naturally drawn to reading about comparisons and competition between France and the US. I came across this May 2009 article, France Beats America, which describes France's epicurean passion for "living it up" in terms of eating, sleeping and holidaying. On the eating front, as much as obesity and over-eating might be America's bête noire, the French make more time for eating. According to this article, "[t]he French spend more than 2 hours a day eating, twice the rate in the United States, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)..." The French spend 135 minutes per day eating versus 74 minutes for the Americans and 66 mins for Mexicans (69 mins for the Canadians). The Turks (#1) actually out-eat the French (#2) by an half hour each day! According to the OECD report, the French top the list for average number of hours slept at 8h50/day... marginally ahead of the equally surprising 8h38/day for Americans. Koreans and Japanese sleep the least among OECD countries, and an hour less per day (7h50) than the French (the OECD average is indicated as 503 minutes or 8h20/day). And, if you are thinking that not sleeping enough is bad for your health, the Japanese lifespan expectancy (86F.79M) outlasts France (85F.77M) and far outstrips the US (80F.75M) which is below the OECD average (82F.76M).

Finally, when you add that the French take on average 7.0 weeks of holidays per year versus 3.8 weeks for the Americans, it does add up to a lot more "living it up." I would tend to argue that the pendulum should swing back for the French, to work just a bit harder ... not just any how, but by adding more pleasure, humour and emotion in the work space. And in the US, I would argue that the focus should be on eating better (not necessarily longer).

Meanwhile, among the countries included in the survey, it was reported that men have more leisure time than women. "This gender gap is largest in Italy, where men top women by 80 minutes per day. The gap is just under 40 minutes in the United States, and smallest (less than 5 minutes) in Norway." France's gender gap on the criteria of leisure time is 34 minutes (in line with the OECD average of 35 minutes). Is there any real correlation between a reduced gender gap on leisure time with equality of the sexes? That is far from certain. However, to the extent that women are generally at work and have the lion's share of the responsibility for taking care of the family, clearly women will continue to suffer in terms of having their own leisure time if the burden at home is not appropriately shared. Below is the OECD report (data from 2006, published in April 2009) regarding the leisure time gender gap.

While life is about good food, good company (including on holidays) and a good night's sleep (& good health), the issue is about creating a sustainable model, i.e. (a) making the 45-49 weeks at work more agreeable and liberating; and (b) finding ways to allow women to have as much leisure as men. Quality of life should, considering how many hours are put into work, include the quality of life at work and we all need each other to be in "top" shape!

Your thoughts please!

How to Keep Hard Cow Cheese Fresh ?

2009-10-12T07:21:00.005+02:00

Have you ever struggled to keep your hard cheese fresh? Then, here is the answer, and it comes with proof.

We did an experiment whereby we cut a wheel of Cornish Yarg (a delightful cow cheese that is wrapped in nettles) into two slices. We wrapped one slice in a cloth and put it in the fridge which was our usual way, up until now. A week later, the cheese looked as such (photo 1 below). You can see that is cracked from being too dry, although it remained as yet edible.

Photo 1. Cornish Yarg after a week in the fridge wrapped in blue cloth

The second slice, we put the cheese in a tupperware with a couple of cubes of sugar. This advice was given to us by the cheesemonger, Maitre de Comte, Gabriel at La Fromagerie on Moxon Street, London. And it absolutely works. You can see in Photo 2 the second slice, cut and stored at the same time as the slice in photo 1. Fresh as a daisy after a week! Not only that, but as of the writing of this post, the cheese is still as fresh three weeks on (although you have to add more cubes and occasionally rinse out the tupperware).

Photo 2. Cornish Yarg a week later after being in a tupperware with sugar

The question is how does it work? Unfortunately, I am not exactly sure, but I thought I would provide a photo of the sugar cubes to find the clue. The cubes (white sugar in this case) dissolved and turned brown. One can assume that the sugar absorbs something (humidity?) which might otherwise render the cheese dry (how does humidity dry a cheese is a trick question, no?). Yendi's hypothesis: the tupperware retains too much humidity (from the cheese) which is carefully extracted by the sugar!

Photo 3: Dissolved sugar cubes that saved the Cornish Yarg

Whatever the process, the trick works. So, go ahead and put your sugar cubes to good use (rather than in your coffee or tea!) and, henceforth, place a couple in with your hard cheeses in a tupperware.

Drop in your comments if you try this and/or have any other food tips!

The MSM Media Challenge -- Some more ideas of improvement

2009-10-11T20:31:00.010+02:00

Here are some more ideas for the mainstream media (MSM) to kick into high gear with their online community.

With media titles dying or falling fallow on a daily basis, the MSM crisis seems just now to be hitting full stride. The number of recent closures has been drastic. In August, Condé Nast closed Portfolio, followed in October by the announced closure of Gourmet, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride, as well as a parenting magazine called Cookie. As reported by WSJ, "Ad pages at 14 of Conde Nast's 23 print publications fell by more than the industry average of 29.5% in the second quarter, according to the Publishers Information Bureau." Of course, the more startling statistic is the -29.5% for the industry...

But Condé Nast is only amplifying a trend that started with Hearst and Time Warner. And as Strategy and Business suggested in their recent article, "McGraw-Hill is said to be close to a sale — or closure — of Business Week.

So, as mainstream media continue to tackle the issue of the right internet model, below are three thoughts that complement and/or update my other posts on the topic (see here: Mainstream Media: Recommendation from a reader's perspective and The Future of MSM).

1/ Cross-referencing with links. How is that online media (newspapers, magazines. etc.) rarely, if ever, link out to help readers understand the references in their articles? Not even a site like Wired!

Take this BBC's article randomly taken from today's news about how Russia's economy will decline by 7.5% in 2009. As is their custom, they wrote the entire article on line without any links whatsoever.

"Russia's economy will shrink by 7.5% in 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev has said - but claimed Kremlin intervention had prevented a worse decline.

Russia, which is heavily reliant on oil exports, has been hit by the sharp fall in energy prices. Mr Medvedev said the decline was "very serious" and admitted the government had been surprised at how severely Russia had been hit by the crisis.

However the predicted slide in GDP was less than earlier predictions. "The real damage to our economy was far greater than anything predicted by ourselves, the World Bank and other expert organisations," Mr Medvedev told Russian television."

I have re-contextualized these first three paragraphs for how they might have done it differently:

"Russia's economy will shrink by 7.5% in 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev has said - but claimed Kremlin intervention had prevented a worse decline.

Russia, which is heavily reliant on oil exports, has been hit by the sharp fall in energy prices. Mr Medvedev said the decline was "very serious" and admitted the government had been surprised at how severely Russia had been hit by the crisis.

However the predicted slide in GDP was less than earlier predictions. "The real damage to our economy was far greater than anything predicted by ourselves, the World Bank and other expert organisations," Mr Medvedev told Russian television."

The links I have chosen for these few paragraphs are sourced from a variety of sites, including Wikipedia and Google Maps, of course. By choosing certain words to hyperlink and the source of the new link, there is a new form of editor to invent. Naturally, such hyperlinking takes more time, but in this research for links, two things are going to happen. First, the very act of researching the links to make sure the content is viable is a form of value-added research for the reader/consumer. Secondly, the outgoing links will create synergies and link-love, bringing in more readers over time.

2/ Get more knowledge of your reader, gaining trust and, therefore, more opportunities for engagement. Too often, when you read and/or sign up for a news site, there is no effort to exchange in a give-and-get (i.e. a win/win) approach. News organisations need to find ways to have readers impart their personal information which can be used to enhance the reader's experience. For example, they should view their readers as word-of-bloggers... begat from the word-of-mouth era. This is being done by the New York Times rather well with the "which articles are being blogged about" section.

Just as Amazon has a section of "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought...", so readers of an article could have "Customers who read this article also read ..." Better yet, as the newspapers ramp up their database management system and get to learn who their clients are (intelligent CRM), they can refine the recommendation and suggest even more aligned follow-on articles to read. I would like to see some adaptation of the iTunes Genius or the brand new Genius Mix, for example, which could provide an intelligent 'playlist' of articles to read.

3/ Add the text-to-speech function... Every morning, I read the news online as I am surfing. Sometimes, I listen to podcasts or videocasts which allows me simultaneously to continue doing my online morning activities. As per the Readspeaker service I have included in this blog, there are several -- and fast improving -- read out loud services which can help, not just the visually impaired, but also the ordinary iJoe... to provide an easier experience for reading on the computer screen for us all. A few examples of available services: ReadSpeaker (the one I use), Natural Reader, Ultra Hal, Odiogo and Talkr.

What do you think? What should online media be doing to improve the readers' experience?

And does Murdoch have a chance with his pay-for news scheme (read this great November 2009 article in Vanity Fair by Michael Wolff)?

What does the future hold for Twitter? Announcing the Survey Results

2009-10-07T08:09:00.002+02:00

Over the course of the last month, 39 people replied to this poll question (posted on the blog via polldaddy):

What does the future hold for Twitter?

Ok, so the results are not statistically relevant with just 39 results, but I thought I would publish the results of my Twitter survey all the same as I am not going to wait until 60 people ante up.

15/39, or 38%, said that "Twitter will fizzle out and die an ugly death" which was actually a surprise for me considering the mid-survey news that an investment was being made in Twitter, valuing the company at $1 billion. The second most popular answer was that Twitter would be bought out by another bigger social media site... which, of course, obviously left out the idea that Twitter might be bought by a 'nervy' private equity company. The 'investment' in this case is, naturally, just a means to getting fully bought out.

A minority (11/39) believed that Twitter might thrive on its own and/or provide some value-added independently.

The story continues. If and when Twitter finds its economic model, we may get to the bottom of the end of 'HOW DOES FREE = MONEY?' question. We'll be sure to watch this Twitterspace! And, while I'm on the subject, here are my two favourite Twitter resources:

Tweetdeck: Sets up a dashboard to follow what's going in your Twittersphere
Friend or Folllow: Who are you following that's not following you back? Who's following you that you're not following back

For a comprehensive list of all Twitter resources, go to the incomparable Oneforty.com.

MEDEF 2009: Ethical Capitalism - A call for transparency?

2009-10-05T17:04:00.003+02:00

MEDEF UNIVERSITE D'ETE PLENARY SESSION - 3 September, 2009

"Will capitalism become ethical or not?"
Plenary Session animated by Jean-Pierre Elkabach

Below I will highlight a few points that I took away from the two hour plenary session, brilliantly managed by JP Elkabach, on Ethical Capitalism at the MEDEF Summer University 2009.

As with the other subjects discussed in all the sessions at the Medef UE 2009, the US clearly remains a nevralgic centre for business leaders in France. To be sure, I was not the only American in the audience to be fingered. The newly assigned US Ambassador to France, Charles Rivkin, was on hand to hear a number of rather broad criticisms of the US in the current crisis. Not too surprisingly, a large part of the 'debate' was focused on America, the originator of today's world crisis.

With a few broad strokes, Pierre Bellon, President of Sodexho, ranted (since he feels he has earned the right), "the fault [of the current crisis] lies with bankers...credit agencies...and politicians..." As if that were not enough, he also felt the need to state that "the citizen and the small companies cannot be held responsible." Mr Bellon called for, among other things, greater transparency, the cleaning up of conflicting interests, and the end of the eternal optimisation of corporate profits... What irked me about his tirade was the feeling that there was little accountability in his words There were no corresponding concessions understood in the propositions and there was no ripost from the stage or floor...

Laurent Fabius, former PM of France, explained that the US will have to rebalance its budget. 'It is an enormous "black cloud" that looms over the world' said Fabius about the US budget deficit. Regarding France and the system of 'privileges' (defined as that which is "read in private"), Fabius suggested that the MEDEF should review that which should be allowed to be transparent as he believes that the trend toward total transparency is dangerous. Fabius grandly called for a Social and Ecological Economy, whatever that means.

Christine Lagarde, France's Minister of Economic Affairs, also did not like too much transparency either. However, in a play on words, if not shadows, she prefers to shed "light"... shone on the shadier, darker areas, including the Swiss banking traditions (2/3 of the world's transactions occur in the ignorance of, or outside the realm of the world's governing agencies). However, unfortunately, she did not have the opportunity to elaborate on which transparency she did not want to have...

What struck me about the intervention of the three people I cite above was the recurring issue of transparency. To be transparent or not to be... and about what? This was certainly a topic that came up again and again in the various sessions. In certain regards, on an emotional level, total transparency is an unlikely objective, even dangerous. In any event, is there such a thing as total truth? Unlikely. The issue of total transparency is that one may risk removing all the mystery of life (as one might appreciate in surprises, love and luxury ... ). Secondly, there are certainly some things better left unsaid in terms of avoiding unnecessary heartache...e.g. white lies. Whether personal or political, some secrets are better kept that way. But, how and when to know to stop the transparency tap? Aside from state secrets, there is the case of some 'sensitive' subjects being put into the wrong hands (notably the media), and these do indeed need to be treated with great care. But, shrouding facts behind the veil of secrecy is a tricky business. And, for the cynical, if everything is transparent, there is no more wiggle room for propaganda?

Nonetheless, notwithstanding the philosophical nature of total disclosure (cf Rousseau's Confessions), I truly believe that, in the field of business, there is a need for much greater transparency and I would be worried to believe that Mme Lagarde would not agree. Transparency is, in this case, an issue of strategic communication. This does not mean that one need be saying everything about every subject; too much information is one of today's major curses. Yet, there is much to gain in terms of employee 'buy-in' by being transparent about a corporation's its financials, challenges and ambitions. Such transparency helps galvanize what is sometimes termed as 'psychic ownership' whereby, without needing recourse to stock options, an employee comes to 'own' the vision and the problems and, along the way, becomes part of the solutions, too. Even in the case of brands and their relationship with the customer, transparency is more desirable. The myth of "mystique = value added" has worn thin. The brands need to regain the [lost] trust of the customer which is why there is so much being attention paid to authenticity and transparency. Surely, it is not too strong a leap to suggest ethical capitalism should include transparent values and justifiable value? Would be glad to have your feedback on this topic!

I finish with what, for me, was one of the more poignant phrases of the conference. Philippe Lemoine, President of LaSer said, "[t]he French need to have confidence in themselves..." He encouraged the MEDEF business leaders: "You need to listen better..." and you will find your way better.

#MEDEFUE09

Of Standards, Convergence & Collaboration - Winning back consumer confidence

2009-10-04T09:04:00.002+02:00

Modern life is, at best, complex and, at worst, horribly wasteful and confusing. I am galled by the number of chargers that I must pack with me when I travel with my various electronics. On any given holidays, I will leave with the iPod, the blackberry, the Bluetooth earpiece, the laptop, electric razor, and the camera… And my wife will bring her palm pilot and phone to add two more to the mix. Each requires a specific and, typically, different recharger (such as different voltage requirements and different attachment), taking up a sizeable portion of my suitcase. It's a wonder my carry-on isn't always opened at the x-ray machine.

On another level, I have observed the wildly confusing marketing claims for the duration of laptop batteries. And, going even further, of course, we have the outrageously confusing and mostly misleading eco "green" claims, all too frequently a version of greenwashing.

With a shake of the magic wand, would it not be more sensible for us to have a single charger with variable voltage, a battery life upon which one could rely and a confidence to say that the eco-savings into which one bought are true? In any event, a standardization and convergence on these elements of life in 2010 might go some way to improving my quality of life.

If we take the case of the longevity of laptop batteries, as an IHT article, “Warning: Stated battery life may have no relation to reality” (June 25, 2009), states, you can find wildly varying performances that systematically disappoint. Standardisation as to how long the battery lasts has been created for cameras and (increasingly) for cell phones. However, for laptops, the game remains confused and the consumer remains a frustrated, if not deceived, individual. The current MobileMark® 2007 tests are inadequate and unrealistic. Furthermore, the way to “optimize” the battery’s longevity seems to be fraught with grandma’s tales and urban myths (charge fully, then use the first time until it drains is all I know).

In terms of green claims, it strikes me that the various industry associations have been slow to react. Certain NGOs have attempted to identify green dilution and misleading communications. However, industry would be better off defining the rules of the game rather than letting the well-intentioned NGOs doing so; at the very least, industry and NGO should be collaborating together.

The more I look at the panoply of brands, the breadth of products and the multiplicity of claims, I continue to see the need for a greater collaboration and “higher level” convergence between industrialists. Such collaboration should not hurt the consumer. Indeed, it should go beyond, even protecting the paying consumer (and such an objective would be honourable enough). If industrialists were able to find common grounds of collaboration – and I am not meaning collusion -- this collaboration would be in the best interests of that industry, presumably, enabling it to help enlarge its pie – the sector’s market share.

So, while my inner liberal self might wish to rebel against rules and standards, might feel oppressed by communistic convergence, and certainly would be wary of secretive collusion, I am inclined to believe that the consumer and industry would benefit by figuring out some standard conventions. Of course, not everyone benefits and some would win more than others. The company around whose convention the rest rally will certainly have a first movers’ advantage. But, by clearing up the immense confusion and latent frustration, companies may again go some way to regaining the confidence and trust that consumers seem to have lost, at least in part, in corporate claims and, more broadly, in brands. And by having just one multi-unit charger and a reliable battery life for my laptop, I will certainly travel lighter and better. Of course, I still have to fret about the different electrical plugs. But, that’s another battle altogether.

Alain Prost à l'Universite d'Ete du MEDEF 2009

2009-09-28T08:38:00.001+02:00

Alain Prost au MEDEF Universite d'Été 2009.

L'automobile reflète bien le monde à l'extérieur, a dit Alain Prost. Il y existe une lutte des experts et ingénieurs qui se contredisent constamment, notamment sur le sujet du 'vert'... Qui dit vrai? Selon Prost, le markéting semble freiner la direction, le bon sens, en voulant se positionner sur des niches afin de se différencier l'un de l'autre au lieu de travailler ensemble sur les vrais sujets...

Mais l'innovation est au cœur de ce débat: la recherche du nouveau et de la nouveauté. Des innovations = du progrès...? Ainsi, arrive la question, voire problème, du consumerisme. Et on retombe sur le sujet du gaspillage et les soucis écologiques. Mais il n'y a pas de moyens rationnels pour équilibrer ces choix, encore moins de classifier les biens et les maux. Le monde va vite, trop vite dit Prost (dû à la mondialisation), mais il n'y a pas de moyens de freiner ces changements. Alors, il faut savoir s'adapter...et rapidement, à ces changements.

Je dis que, si la société au sens large gagne, tout n'est pas perdu... C'est au cœur de la définition du développement durable: comment vivre bien aujourd'hui sans mettre en péril l'avenir de nos enfants? Ce sont des belles pensées, mais le moteur des actions est forcément relié à la motivation économique - de laquelle personne n'échappe. Alors, le markéting a raison de chercher son innovation, sa niche. Et Prost a raison que le monde va vite et on a besoin de nous améliorer sur l'écologie. Alors qui dit vrai?

Si cette conférence du MEDEF UE 2009 était tourné autour des enfants et la recherche des temps nouveaux, écoutons eux aussi -- d'ou moins, l'enfant en nous -- car je suis sûr qu'ils seront capable de nous aider.

#medefue09

Mainstream Media Strategy - Recommendation from a reader's perspective

2009-09-28T07:27:00.005+02:00

As mainstream media (MSM) companies continue to scramble to find a winning model, I am inspired to write a post based on the interactive (read: moderation) strategy that the BBC has put in place on its news forums. Having taken a look around at a number of other significant news media sites around the world (NPR, ABC, CBC, MSNBC, WSJ, NY Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, TF1, France 2, The Australian...), the BBC would seem to closest to having a 'good online model.'

The BBC will take an article and, for a limited time, convert the selected article into an online debate where readers have to register to participate (write and/or recommend). In essence, I assume they make the divide along the lines of articles strictly reporting versus opinion pieces. For the sake of this post, I am going to refer to a debate which is already 'closed' entitled: "Is US right to block Google digital library?" This is basically how the BBC's Online Debate works. During the period of debate, the BBC allows registered readers to comment, and very explicitly identifies its full moderation policy. In the policy box (see below), they identify the number of comments sent in, the number published and the number rejected. There is also the number of comments in the moderation queue.

When the debate is closed, they issue the final status. For this particular debate, as marked below, there were a total of 892 comments submitted, of which 539 were published and 35 were rejected. There were some 353 comments (a little more than 1/3) that did not get published. At 539, as we can all recognize, that's just too many comments to want to sift through. Most of them are terribly repetitive and completely without interest.

The final element of note from the BBC's Debate section is the "Recommended" option where registered readers can, at the tick of a RECOMMEND box, give their positive vote. [See the BBC rules here.]

Beyond the article of news you are reading, oftentimes, you can find equally pulsating thoughts and analysis in the internet community's commentary. Too often, however, when reading most MSM sites, popular blogs and the like, there are just too many comments to wade through, amounting to a completely unreadable mass of jumbled thoughts, written in differing styles, without an attractive layout, in no particular order, and with very little interaction amongst them (for this, I tend to like the "reply to this comment" option). However, in the BBC's case, the 539 published comments have a democratically voted triage that takes place via the number of positive recommendations. This makes great sense.

For this particular debate, there were 12 pages of comments which received at least one vote (presumably many of which were self voted). The top "recommendation" received 118 votes, the second one 59 votes and so on.

Overall, I believe that the BBC is pioneering a new best practice... However, as you might imagine, I have a few thoughts regarding BBC's initiative that might improve further their efforts, and could serve as a best practice recommendation for other MSM companies, perhaps as part of a greater solution for the freemium debate.

My Recommendations to media companies: My point of view below is entirely based on being a reader of the article/debate as opposed to the POV of the MSM executive.

1./ More edge to the voting. As a reader, I am much more interested in the comments which have more rhyme and reason. The reader recommendations are certainly worthy, but are not very discriminatory. On a first level, I might prefer a 5-star rating system to add a little more 'value' to the reader's feedback, or an ability to agree/disagree as, for example, the CBC do (which is sorted first to last, and most agreed).

I think that there is room to add a few more dimensions to this democratic (if moderated) style of vote, taking the TED.com system that includes a host of different adjectives that describe the post. Examples of voter categories could be: Well Written, Thought Provoking, Not My POV, Funny, Informative...

2./ Optimal social bookmarking. Another easy add-on would be the social media bookmarking and tagging services. I do not understand why the BBC has not systematically added a more comprehensive list of available services (e.g. what about Twitter?). Social bookmarking can only help spread the word. And, when they do put the tags, the tags come below the comment box... Readers are more likely to tag and bookmark than add a comment I believe, so 'go with the flow' and put the tagging zone front and centre. Here's a good example from mashable (who make the difference between a comment, i.e. thoughtful article, and a reaction, i.e. a 140-character twit).

3./ Most Popular Follow-ons. Another functionality I would highly recommend to the BBC (and other media companies, of course) is the NY Times' Most Popular Page. This page gives the top 10 of the most emailed, most blogged, most searched and most popular movies. The one that caught my attention most was the 'most blogged' list which is a very engaging way to follow the discussion. Of course, I was just missing the 'most commented' list.

4./ Stronger Editorial Direction on Commentary. But, more importantly, to the extent that the BBC is spending so much time and resources on the moderation (only culling 1/3 of the comments), I would be inclined to have a third box, possibly reserved for paying subscribers for those media companies looking to make money [Mr Murdoch], which would involve the choice. with editorial license, of best comments. These comments would be sorted in some way to provide readers with guided orientations and some overall statistics on the vast array of comments. As far as editorial voice is concerned, one interesting option would be to collaborate with value-sharing external organisations (e.g. an NGO, some reputed think tank, an academic institution, etc.). Statistics could include, for example, the number of comments strongly in favour, strongly against... There could be Featured Authors whose comments are judged by the editor to be worth more than others -- comments that may not be commonly judged as popular, for example, because they were written late (ie not enough time to accumulate recommendations) or were too erudite to warrant internet reading. I would even go so far as to recognize the value of most appreciated commenters (providing some heralded recognition, if not in-kind remuneration?).

5./ Interest Groups & Chat Rooms. Another idea would be enable interest groups to be formed on the site which, like Amazon, would allow "readers like you also read this" type of functionality.

There is real value embedded in the comments section, even more so when/if the subject is about a company or a brand (i.e. for the marketers). The trick of course is to keep on encouraging commenting, all the while not publishing everything or, as the BBC would defend, keeping a neutrality in the filtration system. As MSM continue to scramble to find the right economic model, my belief is that there needs to be a closer fit with the experience of the reader. By getting closer to what the reader really wants (time savings, consistent content, aligned values, advice & education, and even entertainment...), the MSM players will find ways to give value to the reader who, in turn, will be more willing to pay for the service. How that payment is provided is as yet WIP -- providing a personal address, opting in for advertisement, etc. -- and a subject for another post.

I cannot practice exactly what I preach on this site (limited functionality of blogger), but I certainly would be happy to have your comments and thoughts (as usual, moderated only per the Minter Dialogue blog policy as stated at the bottom of the page).

Review of the Macally Ecofan bamboo laptop tablette

2009-09-28T06:27:00.003+02:00

I was intrigued the other day to come across a laptop "ventilator" tablette (2300 revs / minute and 23.5 decibels) which is designed to evacuate the heat coming from your portable computer. What grabbed my attention initially, I must admit, was the transparent computer (trick photography of course to show the tablette).

Produced by Macally, the computer accessories company has created Ecofan and Ecofan Pro, which have the additional particularity of being made "eco friendly" by using bamboo and recycled PET in the outer packaging [I am not aware of any other eco-friendly claims though]. Weighing 1.3 kg, the Ecofan Pro allows for three different inclinations (as opposed to one standard inclination for the Ecofan) for better ergonomy. That's it for the good news it seems to me.

What is the ecological benefit to evacuating the hot air from the laptop? None of the doc I read cites any benefit that speaks to me. What I really would have liked is a way to use my laptop on my lap without it burning a hole in my trousers (or feeling like it!). This Ecofan clearly does not accommodate that market requirement because of its design (it will not lie across your lap) and, more emphatically because it needs to be plugged in (the 1m USB chord means you need to be very close to the wall). Instead, I will continue to use a cushion and save the planet for what, to my view, is a waste of bamboo.

BTW, the Ecofan Pro is priced at 39.95 € in Europe or $39.95 in the US.

Why do we sleep? Should we nap?

2009-09-26T07:02:00.003+02:00

I have written in the past about sleep, in particular how interesting and revealing the study of sleep was for me at University (see here). What has always baffled me is that Sleep Researchers still have never scientifically proven why adult human beings need to sleep. We do know that if we don't sleep enough, typically we suffer from irritability, forgetfulness and fatigue, and our motor skills in low-grade repetitive tasks diminish. One thing I also know is that, in 'modern' society, we sure spend a bunch of time THINKING about getting more sleep.

That said, sleep researchers have been making significant progress recently. LiveScience published this article, entitled 'New Theory Questions Why We Sleep', by Charles Choi, which describes the latest research by Jerome Siegel at the University of California at Los Angeles. Sleep "is often thought to have evolved to play an unknown but vital role inside the body..."; but, Siegel suggests that the reason why we sleep is related to an adaptation to the outside environment. Specifically, Siegel "proposes the main function of sleep is to increase an animal's efficiency and minimize its risk by controlling how a species behaves with regards to its surroundings."

There are several other theories as to what is the purpose of sleep. These theories include promoting longevity, a role in learning, reversing damage from daily stress... The Choi article continues to say that "in humans, the brain constitutes, on average, just 2 percent of total body weight but consumes 20 percent of the energy used during quiet waking, so these savings have considerable significance..." Intuitively, the idea that the rest we get is most beneficial for the brain makes sense, knowing that the brain's activity is never fully shut off during sleep and is hyperactive in the REM phases.

"I think this idea of 'adaptive inactivity' is an extremely useful way of thinking about the broader picture of sleep without getting lost in individual theories," said sleep researcher David Dinges at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dinges noted that regular cycles of light and darkness "put enormous environmental pressures on animals that all play into forced 'time-outs.'"

Meanwhile, there are all sorts of myths about sleep, in part perpetuated by a lack of evidence, but also our lack of study/research and, more ominously, mis-information. It is worth noting that sleep (or at least getting to sleep) is also, unfortunately, big business: it is estimated that worldwide sales for sleeping pills (hypnotics) will surpass $5 billion in the next several years.

My own interest in sleep stems from a fundamental belief that sleep management is integral to time management. Actively managing one's sleep should be part of one's daily hygiene, just as much as eating and doing sports. One of the biggest misconceptions out there is that sleeping more is ipso facto healthier, to the point where taking sleeping pills is better than not sleeping enough. This is unlikely to be the case. From this LiveScience article, I quote, "[a] six-year study [Daniel F.] Kripke headed up of more than a million adults ages 30 to 102 showed that people who get only 6 to 7 hours a night have a lower death rate than those who get 8 hours of sleep. The risk from taking sleeping pills 30 times or more a month was not much less than the risk of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, [Kripke] says."

I am personally a light sleeper and early riser, always living on the edge of what is necessary to live my conscious day in a comfortable way. While many people express a certain jealousy, it could yet be classified as chronic sleep deprivation. Do I naturally need less sleep or is it a self-imposed internal regime? Research by Ying-Hui Fu, a professor of neurology at the University of California at San Francisco, Mission Bay, suggests that a gene (DEC2) may be responsible for the amount of sleep we need (at least for the short sleepers). So, perhaps I am genetically predisposed?

If one is to sleep or rest effectively, there is also the solution of the nap. On weekends, a longer nap helps to accommodate the sporting endeavours and longer social engagement on the Saturday night... But during the working week, at least for those working in a company, the nap -- even the power nap -- is basically out of the question. Quite astonishingly, per a Pew Research Center study, reported in this article in LiveScience, napping is an activity done daily by 1/3 of all adult Americans. But for the other 2/3 [i.e. hard at work], it is a daily dream. Imagine a company where you could, without fear of reprisal, just crawl up for a power snooze of 10-20 minutes when the deep urge fell upon you. Would that not feel like a true daily gift? How much do you think that would be worth? Instead, snoozing is, almost uniformly, voraciously frowned upon and left to do on the commute home, stuffed in between two bodies on the tube/metro/subway or, worse yet, swinging upright, hanging on to a handle bar while standing on a moving bus. Of course, for power naps to be permissible, there would have to be some level of controls. The key is to set clear time-delimited objectives without focusing on exactly "when" the work is being done. This would also be a vital condition to creating more flexible hours for employees. On a side note, the much maligned pigeons (at least on this blog), apparently integrate the power nap into their daily crumb-finding, building-desecrating life - read here for more on those napping pigeons.

In a somewhat counter intuitive result of the Pew study, the most frequent nappers according to revenues were actually those in the middle, i.e. the middle managers : "Among people making more than $100,000, 33 percent said they nap regularly, while 42 percent of those making less than $30,000 clock out during the day. The income group that naps least? Those who make $75,000 to $99,000 (21 percent)." If such is the need for the human body, for the bolder CEO's or leaders among you, is it not the smart thing to do to invest in organising a nap room, like they did for NASA's Phoenix mission team members?

What's your opinion? Is napping a luxury or truly necessary? Which do you prefer, the power nap or 90-minute snooze? Would a nap room make work conditions remarkably better? How might you go about instituting a 'nap policy' in an organisation?

I love brands ... at a major discount?

2009-09-23T18:30:00.007+02:00

I love brands... Yes, I do; but, it would seem that, especially over the span of the latest economic crisis, the "consumer" has become decidedly less enchanted with brands, per se. On the one hand, the crisis has accentuated the need for consumers (and companies) to cut back on expenses and be more budget conscious -- helped by the transparency offered via price comparison sites. On the other hand, in a world of hyper-consumerism and a return to good sense and more reasonable values, consumers are also looking for greater authenticity and meaning in their purchases and their relationship with the goods and services they consume.

A study by the BBDO ad agency in May 2009, showed that 48% of people in France seek to consume more intelligently, to avoid unnecessary waste and sophistication. Staying with France, a TNS Sofres study released this summer said that 7 of every 10 French people believe that consumer product brands attempt to "deceive" them. Eight out of ten consumers in France do not trust consumer brands. But this is not unique to France--far from it. To cite just Australia, a similar study showed that the Australian consumer doesn't feel respected by the brands. According to the TNS survey in Australia, 58% of the Australian public feels indifferent to brands. The major brands have seen the pleasure associated with the purchase act drop (from 2007 to 2008) by 7 points to 60% and the confidence barometer fall 6 points to 59%. (Source Chef d'Entreprises). Presumably, if I dug around the stats in the US, UK and other western countries, the same type of trend would be observable.

The net, net, (not to mention the 'net) is that the consumer is no longer prepared to buy a brand blindly. The brand capital [aka equity] for brands which fail to 'give back' enough value and meaning are undoubtedly taking it on the chin and it will be difficult to catch back lost ground on the other side of the recession [RIP]. However, it may yet be too early to see the effects on the 'losing' brands in terms of sales since some portion of the failure may be masked by [overly] aggressive marketing; which would mean that looking at the net price per unit and brand profitability.

Maintaining the perceived value in the realised price is strategic to the long term survival of brands, in order to help them invest in R&D (and innovation in general), but also in the appropriate distribution channels, education and, even, in society and/or the community. A shop on Oxford Street (London), called I Love Brands, captured for me the essence of many brands today as far as the post-recession consumer is or will be concerned: I Love Brands [that have no meaning or values] Only at a Major Discount... The list of brands blaring out on this shop front window included Dior, Valentino, Bottega, Versace, Fendi.... Proof also that it is important to manage carefully one's distribution outlet(s) to have partners in BUILDING your brands with you.

And the bottom of the barrell, although I enjoyed the (certainly unintended) play on words, the shop had a nice little rack on the right side of the doorway on the pavement, from £20, 70% OFF:

Closing Down Sale Mens Shoes Upstairs

So, what are brands to do? To start with, they need to make sure that the higher prices are justified, not just by innovation and great product performance, but superior customer service, a sense of meaning, greater values, and a healthy dose of customer listening and interactivity. But, above all, they need to regain their customer's trust and confidence, something which seems to be cruelly missing for so many brands.

In terms of the interactive/emotional connection, I have a few good examples (credit: Branchannel) of brands investing in getting people together, to foster the community/good feeling:

T-Mobile in England brought together 13,500 people in a flash mob, HEY JUDE singalong.
Apple and Nike banding together for the HUMAN RACE (24 October 2009)
IBM did a crowdsourcing event to inspire change under the name of Smarter Planet University Jam, whereby some 2000 people from 40 countries joined together.

Some nettle-related cheeses and great service in London

2009-09-23T08:14:00.003+02:00

During my visits to London, I tend systematically to buy cheese, English cheese that is, to bring back home to Paris... to my French wife and family. Coals to Newcastle you might think! But, no. We happen to believe that the Brits have some of the finest cheeses going, enough to hold their own any day against the Tommes, Crottins and Bries of the world. It came as a major surprise to me that Britain's cheese exports amount to a dismal $374 million versus $2.7 billion for France, $2.4B for Germany and $2.1B for Holland (FAO via wikipedia) ... It turns out, of course, that the UK isn't even in the top 10 cheese producers in the world either.

To name a few of the celebrated cheese halls I tend to visit in London, there is Selfridge’s, Harrods and Whole Foods on Kensington High Street, testament enough that there is definitely a good cheese culture in England. However, I have two special addresses to share with you:

La Fromagerie on Moxon Street (London W1U 4EW; tel: +44 20 7935 0341), which remains my absolute favourite cheese shop in London. Here I picked up my usual suspects (CORNISH YARG and STICHELTON, a sumptuous Stiltonesque cheese from unpasteurised milk). And, along the way, I picked up some great advice on how to store your hard cheeses from the resident Maître de Comte, Gabriel: put the cheese, unwrapped, in a tupperware with a couple of cubes of sugar. You can store the cheese as such in the fridge for a couple of months. Merci Monsieur Gabriel.

And, at the South Kensington tube station, there is La Cave à Fromage (24-25 Cromwell Place, London SW7 2LD; tel: +44 845 10 88 222). Aside from the fact that the owner went beyond the call of duty to get me a reservation and a glass of champagne at a restaurant, late on a packed Thursday evening (thanks!), I also picked up a glorious MAY HILL GREEN cheese with its nettle coated rind, and sister cheese of the famed Stinking Bishop (BTW, the link sends you to cookipedia which has 21K+ pages of recipes, ingredients, etc.).

So a couple of nettle-related cheeses to recommend when you next go shopping in London, from fromage shops that provide service a slice above!

V for Victory or V for V Painful? Obama and Michelle see things differently....

2009-09-21T20:31:00.005+02:00

This photograph from the UK's Guardian newspaper (17 Sept 2009) caught my attention initially for the curious position, in the foreground, of the unfortunate person on the receiving end of a flip in a judo exhibition. Then I zeroed in on President Obama and Michelle Obama's expressions, framed between the outstretched legs.

The photo is a jewel for those of us observing the difference between the archetypal feminine and masculine reaction to an event. You have Obama's smile juxtaposed against his wife's aghast expression. On the one hand, you have a man appreciating the athletic effort of the 'victor,' while, on the other, the woman is feeling the effects of the loser landing on his head. Is it V for Victory or V for Very Painful? In either case, watching sports brings out our emotions and, per this photo at least, the experience is very different according to your point of view (and I'm not just talking the team you support).

Do you have another view on this photo? And how different is the experience for men and women (or the masculine and feminine viewpoint) when observing the same sporting event?

US Open Tennis 2009 Winners

2009-09-15T06:23:00.010+02:00

In a slew of late-in-the-tournament rain delays, the US Tennis Open 2009 provided two shocking winners for both the men and women's tournament. Both sides produced what I might describe as wonder kids (or if you prefer wunderkinder), but with a twist.

On the Women's side, the Belgian Kim C lijsters took full advantage of a wild card entry to sweep through 5 seeded players -- not least of which both of the Williams sisters -- to win in comfortable style 7-5, 6-3 against another surprise finalist, #9 seeded Caroline Wozniacki, from Denmark. Clijsters, who 'retired' prematurely in 2007, had taken off 2 years to have Jada, her daughter, who came on court (with father and basketballer Brian Lynch) to help her mother with the Trophy. Not since 1980, when Evonne Goolagong Cawley defeated Chris Evert at Wimbledon, has a mother won a Grand Slam title. Along the way, Clijsters also became the first wild card entry to ever be crowned US Open champion. The unseeded Clijsters jumped to 19th seed in the world immediately after the victory, now that she has completed her third professional tournament. A fairy tale tournament and year for Clijsters, whose father died at the beginning of the year.

In the Men's draw, it was Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, the 20-year-old sixth seed, who twice came back from a set down to win a monster five set match 3-6, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2 against the perennial favourite Roger Federer. Federer had been carrying a 40-match, 5 crowns-in-a-row unbeaten streak into this final. Ironically, another Argentine, David Nalbandian, was the last man to beat Federer at the US Open (in the fourth round of 2003). Del Potro joins Guillermo Vilas (1977) as the only other Argentine to have won the US Open. And it was the first time in 10 years that the final had gone to five sets. Federer was undoubtedly flustered yet again by the hawk eye, a technology that has earned Roger's general disapproval ("I think it's nonsense..."). So Federer will go down in history with five consecutive wins at the US Open, behind Bill Tilden's 6 wins (each time over the feckless William Johnston) and Richard Sears (7 in a row at the end of the 19th century). Del Potro was an unlikely winner as far as I was concerned to the extent that he even managed to get beyond the high-potential Cilic in the quarters. Then he blew aside a lame #2 Nadal 6-2,6-2,6-2 in the semis.

For the doubles, on the men's side it was the fourth seeded Leander Paes (IND) and Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) who beat third seeded Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) and Mark Knowles (BAH) in three sets 3-6,6-3,6-2, having also beaten the top seeded Bryan brothers (USA) in three sets in the semi-final.

And on the women's side, the 4th seeded Williams sisters (USA) powered to victory over top seeded Cara Black (ZIM) and Liezel Huber (USA) by a score of 6-2,6-2, to redeem their singles performance.

Interesting fact on the men's front: a right hander has won the title every year since 1985 (Lendl). However, from 1974 to 1984, it was a left hander who won (11 years in a row, and featuring four different players: Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Guillermo Vilas and Manuel Orantes). See more US Open Stats here.

Looking for an Older Version of your Software ?

2009-09-15T06:21:00.002+02:00

Having spent the better part of the evening trying to download an older version of Internet Explorer in order to play an old DVD for my daughter's homework, I finally landed upon the best solution:

OldVersion.com

OldVersion so rightly says in its tagline: "because newer isn't always better..."

But in my case, it was because new just doesn't work for my DVD...

OldVersion currently has 2862 versions of 190 programs for PC and 601 versions of 35 programs for the Mac.

OldVersion.com has several stated objectives which are quite noble and appropriate, including discouraging the use of spyware by software companies and helping computer users who are unable to continually upgrade their computer. As they write, "[w]e are doing our small part to help bridge the digital divide by allowing everyone to enjoy the same software titles regardless of their hardware."

Anyway, if you are looking for an older version of the software you used to love or which you found lighter and more useful, then OldVersion is your place.

Lech Walesa at the MEDEF Universite d'Ete 2009

2009-09-10T07:58:00.002+02:00

Lech Walesa, ex-President of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, gave a resounding speech at the MEDEF Universite d'Ete 2009. Walesa retraced the history behind the Solidarnosc movement he led in Poland and then presented his case for progressing the European cause. Here are a few sound bytes (translated from the Polish into French and again into English by me).

Walesa spoke about the extraordinarily peaceful times we live in, saying that "no generation has ever had as great a period of peace and we have a great chance to make a unified Europe, without the use of force."
--Commentary: Of course, the 'peaceful era' doesn't necessarily seem to be the case for the Americans.

He continued by asking whether today's generation will be capable of taking advantage of this worldwide truce? Walesa called for more action to create a unified Europe. "I believe that this generation, via democratic debate, will understand what is missing... what is needed..."

"If the individual's wishes continue to be privileged, we cannot do much ... we will continue to have the crises.... such as the economic crisis we are experiencing today" -- meaning that there needs to be more solidarity...

"I am just a revolutionary, and I don't have all the answers..." including to the question "what economy, what economic system is needed for a unified Europe?" A second question: "Which Democracy, which liberty [for Europe]?"

"If I could tell my [dead] father that there are no frontiers in Europe and that there are no soldiers between Germany & Poland, he'd have a heart attack."

"I'd like to be the world's last revolutionary. I would like to have lots of monuments, but with due reason because I would have succeeded and you would have succeeded..." i.e. that there would be no more need to revolt.

I enjoyed his speech and his passion. I also believe that the questions he raised for Europe and the clear risks that are poised in not unifying Europe are indeed critical for today's generation. Of course, on a few other points, I considered his thoughts unlikely to gain traction (especially that the way to avoid all crises lies in finding solutions to create general solidarity...). Nonetheless, if he's not the most appreciated person in Poland, he certainly gathered a few [more] fans in France with this speech.

Here's the video of his speech on MEDEF TV (translated into French only) and featuring Laurence Parisot's introduction and a question from the floor.

Cherie Blair delivers opening speech at MEDEF Universite d'Ete 2009

2009-09-05T22:14:00.001+02:00

If the plight of children and the role of women is the key issue for the MEDEF Summer University [Universite d'Ete] 2009, Ms. Cherie Blair was a wonderful choice to open the conference. If her speech felt a little long, there were many interesting points raised in her 30 minute speech. I captured below a few sound bytes that resonated for me:

The men among the 3000 people in attendance in the room (and in positions of power in general) will need to be, not only interested in, but, to play a critical role in solving the challenges of the 21st century facing our children. As Ms. Blair suggested, most of the women in the room are probably already attuned to the issues... However, it is only when men and women work together as equals that "we can make a difference."

The Convention on the Rights of the Child, a universally agreed set of non-negotiable standards and obligations, is signed by all countries of the United Nations but two: Somalia and the United States. Maybe President Obama will sign up the US?

There are 1 billion children in the world lacking proper sanitation.

All the research and studies show that an investment in educating a girl [in third world countries] is a better investment than investing in a boy. Educated women have healthier, fewer and more educated children. And, educated women are likely to have a stronger voice in their family and their economy....

"Educate a man, you educate an individual.
Educate a woman and you educate a family and a nation."

Tony Blair was told by a patriarch of the backbench, back when he was serving as an opposition MP, that if he kept leaving the House of Commons promptly after the 7pm o'clock session (to take care of his children) without spending some time fraternising with "the boys" that he would never get anywhere in politics....

Ms. Blair described being a working mother as being an experiment in organized chaos... There is so much to do in managing and finding work-life balance. In order for the concept of "flexible work" to get to the next level it will take concrete actions -- not words -- led by the top [and visible] executives. On this point, I fully subscribe to the need to have role models, role models who can succeed to find that equilibrium all the while replying adequately to the pressures and needs of the company's stakeholders.

France has a system that suits a society where fewer women work... i.e. Ms. Blair suggested that serious change needs to come to France. She did not elaborate on this point, but one must assume she is referring, among other things, to the midweek break at schools in particular. On the other side, France has an amazing crèche system that starts at the age of 3 years old...

As opposed to believing that the youth of today are aimless, shallow and uncultivated, Ms Blair insisted that today's young people have incredible compassion, energy and depth. Plus, they have a connectivity across the world... It would seem that we, the parents, should be learning from our kids.

To a question from the floor about a good model to follow (outside of France) in terms of treating women and children, per Cherie Blair, there is no one best solution, but there is a range of models. If she did not specify which countries were in that range, Ms Blair referred to the World Economic Forum which scales the countries of the world in terms of the gender gap across a number of criteria. It's true that the Nordic countries dominate the top 5, she said and that Europe has the best record among the regions. However, "the Scandinavian model is too prescriptive in terms of childcare," meaning that women may not even have the choice to stay at home with their children. [I have written about the WEF Study previously on my blog .]

A woman who has taken a gap out of her career to have a child and take care of that child should be able to return to work under truly normal conditions. Ms Blair said, "[T]here is too much subtle culture in business that says 'we know we have to [give a woman maternity leave, etc]'... but, if you are going to do that, we know you are not really serious about your career..." This is a problem for women, and an even bigger problem for men who are interested in parental leave and a share on the home front because of the persistent prejudice on the career.

Overall, a well presented case... Hopefully, it did not fall on deaf -- largely male -- ears.

Ontologies and the Semantic Web - The future of Knowledgement Management?

2009-09-01T08:09:00.005+02:00

If you are like me, you will have said, "what on earth is an ontology?" Some form of scientific anthology? Well, I first came across the word "ontology" here, a post in which Professor Michael Wesch from Kansas University said/wrote that "Ontology is overrated." While the term remains somewhat esoteric, I am ever more conscious that the ontology concept will catch on, albeit limited to the domain of knowledge acquisition and storage. So, what is an ONTOLOGY? In a geeky paradise, ontology is the new portal. Ontology is the metier of the 21st century librarian.

As defined in the Wolfram Alpha search engine, ontology in an organizational sense, "is a rigorous and exhaustive organization of some knowledge domain that is usually hierarchical and contains all the relevant entities and their relations."

A recent report by University of Illinois professors & researchers, Allen Renear and Carole Palmer, published in Science (14 August 2009), an article entitled, “Strategic Reading, Ontologies, and the Future of Scientific Publishing,” in which they describe and measure the effects of the web on medical research. Broadly speaking, the article highlights the gargantuan rise in the number of articles published, the increased number of articles being read (by fellow researchers, etc.) and the average amount of time spent on reading each article (decreasing). On the one hand, there are the obvious benefits of providing, instantaneously, potentially life-changing medical information anywhere around the world. However, the presence of so many articles poses an ever greater challenge for researchers needing to claim authorship (i.e. original ownership) of an idea or a discovery. (See Illinois News writeup).

As the chart above (from Strategic Magazine) indicates, the volume of abstracts and papers published (on cell cycle research) has skyrocketed.

As information proliferation will continue (in the short term it will undoubtedly continue to accelerate), the need to rationalize, filter and digest information will become critical not only in the domain of science, but in many more areas including arts and business. As Renear says, "efficient strategic reading becomes increasingly critical in scientific work..." and I say that the same will be true in many other areas, too.

Here is the BEAUTIFUL concept behind the ontologies being crafted in wiki fashion around the sciences (and later to all areas of documentable expertises): they have inverted the way research is done. You search for the real information you are looking for and then follow up by reading the supporting article(s) as opposed to reading the article to find the information for which you are looking. Of course, that means less reading per article, but it also saves an immense amount of time on background information (and, often-times, noise). The next step would be integrate into these ontologies semantic web concepts, to make them ever more effective and efficient.

Some examples of ontologies out there:

The Gene Ontology is apparently the most famous of ontologies, and among the ones I found while trolling ontologies on google, is certainly the one that speaks volumes to me.

The Open Biomedical Ontologies, a collection of freely available well-structured controlled vocabularies. When you read the introductory paragraph on this site, you get the feeling of not wanted here, very quickly. Try this for size: "The OBO Foundry is a collaborative experiment involving developers of science-based ontologies who are establishing a set of principles for ontology development with the goal of creating a suite of orthogonal interoperable reference ontologies in the biomedical domain."

And, a third example that is a little easier to get one's head around, an Animal Behaviour Ontology, one set in motion by Darwin undoubtedly...!

Anyway, as the world progresses through the 21st century, I expect many other areas -- less technical than science -- may benefit from the knowledge accumulation and classification methods inherent in these sort of wiki-library ontologies. The discussion on ontology takes on a whole other layer when we take into consideration the ongoing "battle" for the digitalisation (numerisation) of the world's books -- truly a new métier for the 21st century librarian. And, the way the Google Books system works is very similar in look & feel to the various ontologies: find the researched term, then open (or pay for?) the whole text...

Will ontologies play a significant part in knowledge management systems? Can ontologies move into the mainstream? What do you think?

MEDEF Universite d'Ete 2009 - Live Blogging To Come

2009-08-26T22:57:00.003+02:00

I have been invited to participate as a Live Blogger [Journalist] at the MEDEF Université d'Eté 2009 ("Summer University 2009") which takes place next week from 2-4 September. The MEDEF is essentially a union for French business people. It is the leading network of businessmen and women in France, boasting 700,000 member firms (90% with less than 50 employees) and is run by the enterprising CEO, Mrs. Laurence Parisot. As Mrs. Parisot says, " Enterprise is life… and life should be wonderful!"

The theme for this Summer University is perfect for anyone wanting to look forward, to a constructive new way of doing business: "In Search of the New Times."

The MEDEF Summer University Conference takes place at the HEC campus (Jouy-en-Josas) just outside of Paris, and consists of four half-day sessions. There are no less than 15 members of the current French Cabinet on stage at one time or another, including the Minister of the Economy, Christine Lagarde and the ever charming and dynamic Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who is in charge of the Digital Economy. There are also numerous CEOs (eg Maurice Levy - Publicis, Louis Gallois - EADS, Didier Lombard - Orange, Christophe de Margerie - Total), several ex-Prime Ministers (Juppé, Rocard...), some 'celebrities' (Alain Prost, Yann-Arthus Bertrand, Eva Joly) and a couple of foreign dignitaries (esp Mrs. Cherie Blair whose site is designed to help show "how women all around the world can work together to improve their lives").

If the programme is entirely in French, I intend to provide an international report in English! So, watch this space.

Six Pixels of Separation - Mitch Joel - Ask "Why?"

2009-08-23T11:21:00.004+02:00

Written by Mitch Joel, a man [and social media guru] whom I have had the pleasure of being connected to for the past 5 years, "Six Pixels of Separation" has just come out in North America. I haven't read the book yet, but I surely will. In the interim, I thought I'd post this YouTube video from Mitch.

Why?

It is one of the world's greatest questions, and yet one that is so often left out, especially as it regards management orders and style. If you give the why, you will get the buy in. And, as this 1"19 video from Mitch Joel says, if you understand WHY, you might put in place and execute a better social media strategy.

"Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone."
Available on Amazon of course, here.

Seigneurie d'Arse - A Cheeky Wine?

2009-08-23T07:58:00.001+02:00

Here's a wine whose owner did not worry much about the Anglophone buyers. No further comment.

Costs around 4 euros. From Haut Fitou, Cascastel des Corbieres,

"The Master Wine Growers of Paradise"

CONTACT:

info@cascastel.com 11360 Cascatel Des Corbières Cascasel Corbieres, 11210 France +33(0)4 68 45 91 74