Climb to the Stars

My Web World Has Grown

2009-11-05T13:46:04Z

[fr]

Quand je repense à mes "débuts" (comme blogueuse, il y a près de 10 ans, ou comme consultante en blogs, médias sociaux, et choses associées, il y a 4-5 ans) je réalise que la mare du web est devenu un lac. Si je me suis réveillée un beau matin en constatant qu'on me considérait un relativement gros poisson dans la petite mare, les temps ont changé -- et je ne m'en plains pas.

Depuis longtemps, j'ai renoncé à être "à la pointe" (oui je sais, pour beaucoup d'entre vous, je le suis, mais croyez-moi, il y a encore de la marge). Ma vie s'en porte mieux, et à en croire mon agenda, mon business aussi.

[en]

The day before yesterday, a tweet of mine prompted me to get into blog gear again (honestly, why do I need other people? seems I have enough inner dialog going on).

The idea, as expressed in my tweet, was half-baked. I was actually thinking back to when I started blogging, or even when I became a freelance “something-or-other” 2.0 consultant. There are more people around today. The pond is bigger. This is a normal phenomenon when it comes to adoption: if you’re an early adopter, a cutting-edger, well, sooner or later those technologies or subcultures which were the turf of a happy few you were part of become more and more mainstream.

I’m seeing that. It’s been going on for some time. There are people all over doing tons of interesting stuff and I can’t keep up with them (I don’t even try). And here, I’m not even talking about all the wannabe social media experts.

So yes, the pond has turned into a lake, and I find myself a smaller fish than I used to be. Though I sometimes look back with a bit of nostalgia upon the “golden days” of blogging or Twitter, it suits me quite well. I actually never tried to be a big fish: one day, I suddenly realised that it was how people saw me. So I went with it, quite happily I have to say.

But it’s nice to slow down. I’ve never really been in the “breaking news” business, and have no desire to. I feel I’ve retreated somewhat from the over-competitive fringe of my web world, and my life is better as a result. Business too, if I look at my calendar for the upcoming months.

There are times when I regret that my “poly-expert” profile does not allow me to stay as up-to-date with everything as I’d sometimes want to. I haven’t given a talk in a school in nearly a year, and I miss it. I’ve played with Google Wave, but haven’t taken three days to dive into it completely as I would have done five years ago. (One of the reasons, here, is that I simply can’t afford to spend three days diving into something, like I could when I was an employee. The irony is not lost on me.)

All in all, there are more people now in my web world, and in the web world in general. It’s a good thing for the world. It has changed my place somewhat, but overall I’m pretty happy with it.

I don’t feel I’ve shrunk to tadpole status yet, though!

Happy birthday l’eclau!

2009-11-03T10:56:37Z

[en]

Eclau, the coworking space I opened one year ago in Lausanne, is now... one year old. We're partying tonight!

[fr]

Eh oui, c’est aujourd’hui. Il y a un an, le 3 novembre 2008, on prenait possession de l’eclau.

Oui, ça ressemblait à ça. Quel contraste avec maintenant!

Si vous êtes libre ce soir, venez donc fêter avec nous, dès 18h à l’eclau.

I Need to Blog!

2009-11-03T08:56:32Z

[fr]

Ma vie a pris une jolie forme cette année. Par contre, j'ai un peu négligé mon blog ces derniers temps (je ne dis pas ça par culpabilité, mais parce qu'un sentiment de "j'ai besoin de bloguer!" vient de me prendre aux tripes).

[en]

Here we are again. Another long break on CTTS (unplanned, as always) and another “OMG I need to blog more!” post.

But this isn’t a “I feel guilty, my poor readers, I’ve abandoned you” one. I don’t do those, you should know by now.

No, it’s a cri du coeur: I just sent this tweet a few minutes ago, and immediately after was overcome by an urge to blog — 140 characters just didn’t cut it.

I’ve been working too much these last weeks — enjoying life, too, though. I honestly have a very good (happy) “work-life” balance (yeah, I know the expression is loaded, bear with me). But I miss writing here, and I’ve only just realized to what extent.

Once before — OK, maybe more than once — I took the decision to start my work day by writing a blog post. I did it for some time (my excuses, I can’t dig it out of my archives, see the sad mess my blog still is). But then stress shows up again, and emergencies, and… I stop.

I think that the problem with writing a blog post to start off the day is that it can be pretty quick (this one is only taking maximum 15 minutes or so of my time) but it can also take half a day. So, maybe I need to do it this way:

I will start my workday by writing a blog post, but if after an hour of blogging I have not hit “Publish” I will save my post and continue it on the next day.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about is that I need to build in time for research and fooling around online into my weeks. At this stage, I’ve successfully managed to:

have a morning and evening routine and regular sleeping hours
exercise 30 minutes on my bike every day (give or take one a week, roughly)
take lunch breaks
have an end to my business day
separate maker days and manager days
plan regular mini-vacations (a few days at the chalet)
have a social life (yes!)
have “downtime” for myself at home
unclutter the worst parts of my flat in 15-minute increments
clean the flat roughly once a week
keep my inbox regularly empty, or at least under one screenful
set up a “next action” list system, which, whilst not kosher GTD, works pretty well for me
keep my accounting up-to-date and my finances in order.

Two years ago, none of this was working. I’m pretty proud of how far I’ve come! So, next missions: blogging and research.

Links for 2009-10-25 [del.icio.us]

2009-10-26T00:00:00-07:00

Robin writes a book (and you get a copy) — Kickstarter
New economic models.

Encore la radio! Couleur3, cette fois

2009-10-21T13:56:57Z

[en]

On the radio again this evening, to talk about eclau.

[fr]

Eh oui, eh oui, après Fréquence Banane hier soir (c’était très sympa et intéressant, et je me réjouis de pouvoir vous mettre le mp3 de l’émission à disposition), vous pourrez m’entendre parler de l’eclau tout à l’heure sur Couleur3 (dès 17h00 environ si ma mémoire est bonne).

C’est la semaine radio, mais ça s’arrête là, ouf!

Fréquence Banane: Internet rend-il stupide?

2009-10-20T16:15:11Z

[en]

On the radio tonight -- and tomorrow night. In French.

[fr]

Ce soir, de 20 à 21h, je serai l’une des invités de l’émission “La langue de bois” de la radio universitaire Fréquence Banane. Le thème: Internet rend-il bête?

Grande question pour un débat qui, j’imagine, sera animé (sauf si nous sommes tous d’accord avec moi!), avec Lyonel Kaufmann et Olivier Glassey.

Donc, ce soir, branchez-vous sur 94.55 si vous êtes dans le coin, et sinon, écoutez l’émission en streaming sur le site de Fréquence Banane!

(Je serai à nouveau sur les ondes demain, mais sur Couleur3, pour y parler de l’eclau lors de l’émission Saperlipopette, à 17h30 si ma mémoire ne me fait pas défaut.)

Love

2009-10-18T14:57:25Z

A couple, mid-thirties, obviously love-struck.

So, where’s the catch? She asks.
There isn’t one, darling.
Oh no, there always is: attraction comes with a special variety of hell built-in.

Hand in hand, they make it to hell and back many times, love twinkling in their eyes to the very end.

This is a 50-word short story. Read more by me on CTTS or by others too on Facebook.

Donner 80%, ou la loi de Paréto appliquée aux métiers des idées

2009-10-18T15:04:18Z

[en]

A year ago at SoloCamp, we were asking Dennis Howlett how much to do for free (knowing that stuff done freely is actually our marketing budget). His answer was to give 80% IP away for free, and charge (lots ;-) hehe) for the 20% that's left.

A few months ago I was asked by the Swiss Sales Director of Universal Music if I was used to working 100% and being paid 50% (the assumption being that I don't want artists to be paid for their work -- which is completely wrong, of course). I should have told him "Of course, more even than you imagine -- what, you mean that's not how it works in the music industry yet?".

[fr]

On est tous familiers avec la loi de Pareto: 20% d’effort pour 80% de l’effet, etc.

L’an dernier, à SoloCamp, Dennis Howlett nous en a proposé une application en réponse à la question (qui torturait plusieurs d’entre nous): sachant que donner gratuitement est une forme de marketing très efficace, surtout dans les métiers des social medias, où mettre la limite? Combien donner? Quand commencer à faire payer? Comment ne pas se faire avoir, sans pour autant devenir radins?

Eh bien, sa réponse m’a stupéfaite, j’avoue, et bien tranquillisée. D’après lui, quand on est dans les métiers de la “propriété intellectuelle” (en gros, ce qu’on offre à nos clients, ce sont principalement des idées), une bonne ligne de conduite est de considérer qu’on va donner gratuitement (ou presque) 80% et faire payer (cher) les 20% restants.

Donner 80%!

Je suis presque tombée de ma chaise.

Puis, sachant que Dennis est quelqu’un qui réussit plutôt bien en affaires, que j’avais depuis un moment le sentiment désagréable que je donnais de moins en moins et que mon business en pâtissait, je me suis un peu détendue, et j’ai décidé de garder en tête ce principe.

Et si j’y réfléchis et que je fais un peu l’inventaire de mon “travail gratuit”, je me rends compte qu’on y est assez vite:

tout ce que je publie sur ce blog et ailleurs sur internet
les Bloggy Fridays
l’eclau
les repas, pots, “petites discussions” où je fais du “consulting gratuit” en échange d’une pizza ou de la reconnaissance éternelle de mon interlocuteur
organiser Going Solo et SoloCamp (c’était pas censé, mais ça a fini par l’être, du travail “gratuit”)
les personnes que je dépanne à l’oeil, en ligne et hors ligne
les interviews accordés aux journalistes, participations non rémunérées à tables rondes et autres événements…

Je pourrais continuer encore la liste.

Bien entendu, il y a un retour sur investissement, là. C’est mon budget marketing, si on veut, toute l’énergie que je mets dans ces diverses activités. C’est “ce qui me fait”, aussi, et j’en suis bien consciente. Mais rien de tout ça ne remplit directement le compte en banque: ça fait partie des 80% grosso modo de mon temps-énergie que je ne facture à personne, et durant lequel je “travaille gratuitement”, suivant quelle définition on donne à “travailler” et “gratuitement”.

Me voici donc à répondre enfin à M. Fontana d’Universal, mon interlocuteur contradictoire lors du “débat” sur le piratage à la RSR1 il y a quelques mois, lorsqu’il demandait (ironiquement et sûr de sa réponse) si j’avais l’habitude de travailler à 100% et de n’être payée qu’à 50%. (L’homme de paille favori de mes détracteurs concernant les questions de partage de fichiers semble être que je ne veux pas que les artistes soient payés pour leur travail…)

Oui, oui, Monsieur — et même plus que ce que vous imaginez. C’est comme ça que ça fonctionne, dans mon métier.

Vous me voyez venir: si l’on accepte de sortir d’une mentalité d’employés (ou pire, de rentiers), on pourrait sans beaucoup de difficulté appliquer ce genre de raisonnement au monde des oeuvres de l’esprit en général, y compris la musique. Pour les détails, il faudra repasser, car je ne les ai pas (j’en entends déjà qui hurlent) — mais n’y a-t-il pas là quelque chose à creuser?

Six Twitter Tools

2009-10-11T15:30:20Z

[fr]

Une série d'outils/sites autour de Twitter que vous trouverez peut-être utiles.

[en]

This is just a small list of links to more or less useful Twitter tools and sites, that you can use (amongst other things) to figure out if this or that new (or old) follower is a spammer or not. I find that kind of information useful when deciding to publish or not “Twitter comments” here (they come in through BackType Connect). None of these ask your your Twitter password, they all use OAuth (you should not be handing out your password to any third-party service, by the way).

TwitBlock goes through your followers and tells you (with extensive details) how likely it is that they are spammers or bots. You can block them directly from the site (be careful!) You can also just ask it to check one specific account (this is how I know that there is very little likelyhood that @stephtara is a spammer, cool!)
Tweet Blocker also goes through your followers to chase for spammers, giving each of them a grade (I’m an A+ student). I find the explanations given for each evaluation less clear than with TwitBlock. Again, you can block people directly from their site — don’t go overboard.
Foller.me gives you information about a given Twitter account, which can also come in handy when trying to figure out if somebody is ham or spam. Again, example with @stephtara.
Follow cost is rather basic, and will tell you how “chatty” a given user is. This is how I know that I average 13.6 tweets a day (ouch!).
Favstar is interesting, as it centres on favourites, telling you which of your tweets (or any user’s, for that matter) were favourited by whom. I’m less excited by their “100+, 50+, …” leaderboard (the popular just get more popular).
When did you join Twitter? tells you exactly that. (Me? December 8th, 2006.)

Any other ones you find useful? Link to them in the comments. (Yeah, there’s a wave, too. Who’s going to write a plugin which creates and links post-related comment waves automatically?)

Extracting Web Apps From the Browser: Fluid and Prism

2009-10-10T14:50:28Z

[fr]

Prism et Fluid sont des applications OSX qui vous permettent de créer des mini-applications qui sont en fait une fenêtre de navigateur (Firefox ou Safari) qui n'ouvre qu'une seule URL. Pratique si vous avez l'habitude de consulter Gmail, Twitter, Digg etc. via leur interface web.

[en]

This has been a productive morning for a lazy Saturday. A tweet from Tom Morris put me on the track of Fluid, and then Prism. (This is for Mac users, by the way.)

Fluid and Prism are both site-specific browsers, the first based on Safari, the second on Firefox. If you’re the kind of person who always had a Gmail tab open in their browser, and maybe another for Twitter, and for blog comments, and Google Docs, and for Friendfeed, and god knows what, you’ll like this.

Personally, the reason I like desktop clients is that they separate the web service I’m using from the browser. I can Cmd-Tab to it. I don’t see it all the time when I’m in my browser. I don’t lose the tab when my browser crashes.

Site-specific browsers basically allow you to create a simple application which is in fact a single browser window that opens up one single web page. Links in that web page, when clicked, get opened in your default browser.

I have now created “apps” for Identi.ca, Wave, and Gmail, so far. It’s as simple as filling in a small form with URL and title fields.

My only gripe is that I haven’t yet figured out how to replace the URLs favicon by another larger one as the app’s icon. Blown-up favicons are really ugly. I’ve found some sources of icons online, but am not finding all those I need, and clearly not managing to “install” them (I’m sure I don’t need to re-create my apps).

Playing with Google Wave

2009-10-10T19:57:53Z

[fr]

Histoire de s'amuser un peu avec Google Wave, j'ai créé une wave autour de mon dernier article, histoire de voir ce que le contexte "Wave" peut changer à la discussion qui s'ensuit.

[en]

My Wave invite arrived this morning (thanks! I actually got two!) and I’ve been playing around with Wave since I got up. It’s fun. It’s a bit buggy. But I find it really exciting.

In the spirit of experimentation and trying things, I’ve decided to create a wave around my last post, Google Identity Dilemma.

A few notes about Wave:

big waves make my Firefox so slow that I downloaded Chrome for OSX to run Wave in it — seems much zippier
shift+enter “closes” your blip
there are public waves around to help get you started — ask me in Wave or ask your contacts about them (love your network!)
to make a wave public, for the moment, add public@a.gwave.com to your contacts (hit enter, ignore the error message) and then add it to your wave (this might stop working)
invites take a while to “arrive” — between the moment people invited me and I got the notice in my inbox, I think a good week went by.

So, if you are one of the lucky ones on Google Wave already, head over to my Google Identity Dilemma wave, add it to yours, invite your friends, and have a wave-fest!

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