Author: Stephanie Booth

The Price of Freedom [en]

[fr] J'ai une voiture. Le prix de la voiture c'est pas juste le prix de la voiture, c'est aussi le prix de la liberté de monter au chalet quand je veux avec mes chats sans avoir besoin d'organiser tout ça à l'avance. Mon monde vient de s'agrandir d'un coup.

Last week, I bought a car.

Pam

I’ve been car-less since spring 2007. Freelance, I didn’t need it anymore to go to work each day, and 500CHF a month that I wasn’t spending on a car I didn’t use was 500CHF I didn’t need to earn.

My life has changed quite a bit now. My family seem to have all chosen to live in places that are hard to get to with public transport. My brother has children. I have two cats that I want to drag to the chalet more often.

But I was reluctant. My life is simpler without a car. I just take public transport. I don’t wonder whether it makes sense to take the car or not. That’s a decision I’m spared. When I had a car previously, I used it all the time, even to go to the shop 2 minutes away. I don’t want to start doing that again.

I also wondered if it was worth the expense. Would I really use it that much?

But by having a car, I’m not just paying to have a car. I’m paying to have the freedom to go to the chalet with my cats without having to organize transport beforehand. I’m paying to have the freedom to go and see my nephew and niece without having to ask my brother to pick me up and bring me back to the train. Same for eating at my Dad’s. I don’t have to worry about when the last train runs.

It’s like people who buy the “abonnement général” — a yearly pass for public transport. They might not actually travel that much, but it gives them the freedom to hop on the train whenever they feel like it. Like I do with my bus pass, actually. I’m sure there are months where I don’t do 70CHF worth of bus travel. But I like not wondering if it’s worth buying a bus ticket.

A Little Bit of Background [en]

As the founding editor of Phonak’s community blog “Open Ears” (now part of “Hearing Like Me“) I contributed a series of articles on hearing loss between 2014 and 2015. Here they are.

My hearing has been stable since birth, and chances are it will probably stay that way until age-related hearing loss catches up with me. I was fitted reasonably late in life, at 38 (two years ago) and so my interest for audiology and hearing loss in general is quite fresh. I’m a bit of a geek, so I did my homework when I was fitted, but hearing loss wasn’t really a big part of my life growing up (I considered it a detail), and as my loss is mild to medium I clearly approach things from another angle than people with severe hearing loss or profound deafness. Hence the variety of contributors that we are currently getting in touch with for this blog.

Steph on Phonak roof

I’m aware the field of hearing loss/audiology is fraught with occasions to say things the wrong way, so I hope you’ll forgive me (and gently let me know) if I blunder into an issue with big uninformed boots. I’ll do my best not to, of course!

I’d also like to say a few words about my involvement in Phonak’s community blog project, and what I’ll be doing here. I started blogging a long time ago, in 2000. My blog Climb to the Stars is still active, and in it I write about pretty much anything that catches my interest, from futile to serious. I’ve been a “social media professional” since 2005, though I hate the term (“social media” didn’t exist back then). Over the years I’ve worked with  companies big and small to get them started with blogging or social media, manage their blogs, or assist them in establishing relationships with bloggers that go beyond “let’s put you on our mailing list and send you press releases and goodies every now and again”.

A few months ago Vincent and I met up to discuss a possible collaboration. Phonak had been thinking about setting up a community-oriented blog, and they were looking for somebody who had expertise in blogging and and also had direct experience with hearing loss. Based in Switzerland, in addition to that. That would be me!

We kicked things off early this year and as you can see we’re now in the process of getting the blog off the ground, defining its direction, and getting people inside and outside of Phonak interested in contributing. In addition to my blog-editor-in-chief role, I will be writing articles based on my personal experience and reflexions, and also what I’m discovering about audiology and hearing loss through my contacts with Phonak.

I’m really excited about this project, first because it’s a rather large-scale blogging project on a topic that is of personal interest to me, and second because of the role we are hoping this blog will play in the relationship between the company and “the outside world”, if I may put it like that. We find the vision behind Microsoft’s Channel 9 inspiring, and I’m really looking forward to opening the doors to passionate Phonak employees so that you can read what they have to share directly.

If you have questions about the blog or ideas, or if you’d like to contribute, feel free to get in touch!

Hearing Aids Can Look Cool [en]

As the founding editor of Phonak’s community blog “Open Ears” (now part of “Hearing Like Me“) I contributed a series of articles on hearing loss between 2014 and 2015. Here they are.

When I was fitted nearly two years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that hearing aids now came in quite a range of fun colours and textures. Blue, pink, metallic silver, green, you name it. Quite a change from the plastic skin-tones that where the only option available at the time of my first (failed) fitting many years ago as a teenager. Needless to say, I picked pink — my trademark colour — and I’m never shy of showing them off around me.

I discovered more recently that many people go a step further with their hearing aids and implants, decorating them with stickers and gems, nail foils, shoe charms, you name it. The results are fantastic! Vincent regularly shows off his favourites on the Phonak Facebook page. Here are some of those I particularly like.

Pink purple hearing aid with charm Flower Implants Flower on hearing aid Cascading Peace Hearing Aid Charm

Housekeeping note: I’ve done my best to link to what seems like the original source of each photo, click on them to see!Steph's Pink Hearing Aid

This trend reminds me of something I heard Helga (Hack & Hear blog) say in her 28c3 conference talk: the industry tendency is to try and make hearing aids as invisible as possible, whereas she — like others — would prefer them more visible, so that people immediately notice that she is a hearing aid user. Helga also mentioned that there is very little hacking being done on hearing aids, because they are expensive, we need them, and opening them up voids warranties.

Turquoise hearing aid tubes

As I see it, however, people who pimp their aids and implants are actually a variety of hackers — appearance, design, and style hackers. Pretty cool and inspiring.

Can’t get enough? Lipreading Mom has a super collection on her “Show Me Your Ears” page.

Somewhere: Better Than LinkedIn [en]

[fr] Somewhere, c'est bien mieux que LinkedIn.

It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of LinkedIn. Sure, it’s a good place to keep your resumé up-to-date (paper? are you kidding?) and display your network (though Facebook and Twitter do that very well too).

I know some people get a lot out of LinkedIn, but it never clicked for me. I find it dry and boring.

I bumped into Somewhere yesterday, through Stowe‘s article on GigaOm: Somewhere is the LinkedIn for the new way of work. I’d say Somewhere is the beautiful bastard child of LinkedIn, Pinterest, and a blog.

Somewhere profile sbooth

It’s very visual. Basically you share information about your work life/profile in 250 character snippets accompanied by a photo. Your profile looks like a collection of cards (here is my profile). You can imagine what a challenge this is for me. I usually don’t even illustrate blog articles, and my work in general isn’t very visible. Most of the time it took me to add my first two “sparks” (that’s what the cards are called) was figuring out which photo to use and digging it out.

But the principle is great. And I think it’ll be of particular interest to freelancers. Right?

You should try it out. I have an invite code (J0rMyZH2) but it seems to not work (let me know if it does). Otherwise you can head over to Swiss Miss who has a working signup link in her article.

Now I just need to figure out how to change that frowny profile photo I initially picked.

The Simple Life [en]

I’ve been at the chalet since December 29th. I like it here. I’ve been “down” 5 times: once to see a new client in Zurich (more about that in the weeks to come), once to bring a car back to Lausanne, once to get my nails done, once to get an MRI done (wrist, nothing too bad), and once for a foundation board meeting.

Chalet et Grand Muveran

My life is simple here. Few possessions, few activities, few people, few responsibilities. The Paradox of Choice in reverse. As I’ve often noticed in the past, freedom is in fact in all that you can’t do.

That’s why people go away on holidays. There’s stuff to do on vacation, of course, but there is so much more from the daily grind that you can’t do.

Here I eat, take care of the cats, go skiing, buy food, fool around on the computer with my slow 3G connection (when I’m lucky, otherwise it’s Edge, or nothing), do some work, sleep.

But this state does not last. I’m already starting to make connections here. I’m starting to know people. I go to the café in the village which has great chocolate cake and wifi. I’ve been through this when I lived in India: within a few months, I’d reconstructed for myself a life full of things to do, of people, of meetings, and activities. That’s how I am — I cannot remain a hermit for very long.

At the end of the week I’m going back to my city life. I’ll miss how easy it is here to talk to people. I’m not from here, but I feel like I fit in. I like the outdoors. I like my clothes comfortable and practical before pretty. I don’t need a huge variety of restaurants, shops, night-clubs, or theatres to make me happy.

I know I’ve already mentioned it, but my life slows down when I come here. Even with an internet connection. I try to bring this slowness back into my life in Lausanne, but it’s difficult. Specially as things will be a rush next week: I’m hosting a WordPress meetup workshop on Tuesday evening, then there is Lift, then I have a friend visiting, then I’m coming back up here 🙂 for a few days. The week after that will see me back in Zurich…

As I write this, maybe what I get here (or elsewhere on holiday) that is hard to get in Lausanne is long stretches of time with no outside commitments. No meetings, no appointments, no travel. Just weeks ahead with nothing else to do but live and ski.

C'est le moment de voter! [fr]

[en] Two UDC "initiatives" on the voters' menu: one to remove abortion from basic health insurance, and another one to "stop massive immigration". Vote no to both, of course.

Je suis toujours à la montagne, et j’ai profité d’un petit crochet en plaine hier soir pour ramener mon matériel de vote. Le 9 février approche!

Enveloppe de vote.

Deux initiatives UDC au menu:

Consignes de vote pour scrutin du 9 février 2014.

Les consignes de vote sont assez claires, et l’unanimité des différents partis (non-UDC, s’entend) pourrait nous encourager à céder à la tentation de négliger notre devoir civique. Personnellement, j’avoue que la dernière initiative UDC “contre les familles” (et son succès avant votation) m’a pas mal secouée de ma torpeur.

Comité d'initiative contre le financement de l'avortement par l'assurance maladie de baseSortir l’avortement de l’assurance de base. J’avoue que la page “arguments du comité d’initiative” me donne juste envie de vomir. Je résume les raisons pour lesquelles on va massivement voter contre cette initiative rétrograde:

  • obliger les femmes ayant fait le choix d’une IVG à la payer elles-mêmes ne diminue pas le nombre d’IVG, mais simplement le nombre d’IVG en milieu hospitalier (bref, le retour aux dangereuses méthodes de grand-mère)
  • les grossesses non désirées sont l’affaire des femmes et des hommes (mais oui, faut être deux, vous savez?), donc la solution de “l’assurance privée” pour les femmes désirant être couvertes pour une éventuelle IVG (parce qu’on planifie ça… ouais, d’ici 2-3 ans je me ferais bien avorter), c’est juste… j’ai pas les mots.

On a besoin que l’avortement soit couvert par l’assurance de base pour s’assurer que toute femme qui a besoin d’avoir recours à cette intervention puisse le faire dans de bonnes conditions. On voit bien aux arguments des partisans de l’initiative qu’on est en fait dans une lancée anti-avortement. Si cette initiative passe, soyez assurés qu’il y en aura d’autres derrière. Ne vous laissez pas avoir par son caractère faussement bénin: “on veut ‘juste’ pas que ce soit couvert par l’assurance de base”.

Immigration de masse

Quant à la soi-disant immigration de masse… un petit coup d’oeil aux arguments du comité d’initiative suffit pour voir qu’on fait porter le chapeau aux “étrangers” pour tous les maux: le transports publics bondés, le chômage, les loyers, bref, si le monde va mal, c’est à cause des étrangers. Je ne vous ferai pas l’insulte d’argumenter contre cet étalage de xénophobie primaire. Affaire classée.

Update: et bien sûr il faut voter OUI au FAIF!

Update 2: à lire aussi, l’article de Claire “Non à une initiative rétrograde“

Un blog, à quoi bon? Meilleur SEO et meilleur réseautage [fr]

Dernièrement je me suis trouvée prise dans une discussion sur l’utilité (ou l’inutilité présumée) du blog. Le contexte: faire connaître en ligne une petite entreprise.

Pour se faire connaître en ligne, en dehors des moyens marketing “traditionnels” (“se médiatiser en 2.0“, en somme), je dirais qu’il y a deux axes:

  1. avoir du contenu trouvable à travers un moteur de recherche
  2. avoir un réseau qui multiplie le bouche-à-oreille

Un blog peut servir aux deux. Il n’est ni nécessaire, ni suffisant — il y a d’autres moyens — mais il a un très bon rapport “énergie/effet”. Du coup, c’est généralement ma première réponse à toute question du genre “comment je me lance?” — écris déjà un blog.

Prenons donc ces deux axes l’un après l’autre, même s’ils sont liés.

Etre bien placé dans les moteurs de recherche

En premier lieu, il faut comprendre comment fonctionne un moteur de recherche dans les grandes lignes, et si on a un “site vitrine“, s’assurer qu’il fait déjà les choses bien:

  • du contenu pertinent par rapport aux termes de recherche pour lesquels on veut être placé
  • des titres de page et de rubriques comportant les mots-clés les plus importants
  • absence d’obstacles côté “technique” (bon balisage, accès autorisé aux robots, serveur raisonnablement réactif, pages accessibles, titres en texte et non “en images”…)

On oublie souvent que le placement dans les résultats de recherche, c’est toujours par rapport aux termes de la recherche. Par exemple, mon site web professionnel se retrouve placé différemment pour “consulting en blogs” ou “stephanie booth“. Allez regarder le contenu du site, et vous comprendrez pourquoi.

Un autre élément extrêmement important pour l’optimisation du placement dans les moteurs de recherche, ce sont les liens entrants vers un site ou une page. Par exemple, faites une recherche google pour le nom de Brigitte Djajasasmita. Vous allez trouver parmi les premiers liens son profil linkedin et son blog, avant la page que je lie ci-dessus. En effet, celle-ci est plus récente, vu qu’elle a été créée dans le cadre de la formation qu’elle suit en ce moment, et moins bien “imbriquée” dans le tissu du web par des liens en provenance d’autres sites. Là, en faisant un lien vers cette page en utilisant comme “texte de lien” son nom, j’améliore le placement de cette page dans les résultats pour une recherche sur son nom. Mais attention: je ne le contrôle pas, je peux seulement tenter de l’influencer.

Alors, le blog là-dedans?

Le blog, c’est une usine à contenu que les moteurs de recherche adorent. Les articles sont généralement relativement courts, mais pas trop, ils ont un titre qui se rapporte bien à ce dont ils parlent (si on fait pas n’importe quoi), et ils ont une page rien qu’à eux où ils sont accessible jusqu’à la nuit de temps (le permalien). Ça encourage les liens entrants, la garantie d’une URL stable. La thématique d’un article est aussi généralement assez précise, ce qui fait qu’il risque fort d’être très bien placé pour la recherche qui lui correspond, et la page du blog change sans cesse, ce qui prouve à Google et consorts que le contenu est bien frais (ils adorent).

C’est beaucoup plus facile de mettre du contenu dans un blog que dans un site, parce qu’on n’a pas à se poser la question du “je mets ça où?” — sur un blog, ben on blogue, et ça vient se mettre en haut de la page, c’est automatiquement rangé par date, et par catégorie/tag si on utilise ça. Dans un site hiérarchique classique, il faut d’abord se prendre la tête pour savoir où on va bien pouvoir ranger ce qu’on compte écrire. Et souvent, faute de trouver un bon endroit, on ne l’écrit pas.

Avec un blog, on crée donc du contenu “annexe”, en rapport avec la thématique qu’on veut mettre en avant, qui est d’une part un attracteur à recherches et d’autre part un attracteur à liens.

Faire marcher le bouche-à-oreille avec un bon réseau

Le blog va aussi se rendre utile pour augmenter l’efficacité de son réseau et l’étendre, ainsi que pour favoriser le bouche-à-oreille en ligne.

Alors c’est clair, le réseautage est d’abord une affaire d’humains. Mettre des gens en relation, chercher à leur être utile, se faire des amis… c’est la base. Facebook et Twitter sont extrêmement utiles pour garder sous forme numérique les liens que l’on crée et les entretenir par petites touches (ou grandes…).

Alors, le blog?

Voici certaines caractéristiques du blog qui en font un “booster de réseau”:

  • le ton personnel qui rend le blogueur humain et approchable
  • les commentaires qui invitent au dialogue, à l’échange (pour de vrai!)
  • l’accumulation de contenu qui finit par démontrer l’expertise du blogueur, et ainsi encourager la confiance
  • les liens sortants vers d’autres blogs ou sites qui peuvent alerter leur auteur à l’existence du blogueur
  • les articles à thématique ciblée et bien référencés (voir plus haut) qui peuvent servir de “premier point de contact” pour une relation à naître
  • des informations utiles pour le lecteur, qui s’en trouvera reconnaissant et voudra peut-être en savoir plus sur leur auteur
  • une publication plus ou moins régulière qui a une chance de fidéliser un lectorat.

Le blog a aussi l’avantage, comparé à Twitter et Facebook, de présenter du contenu qui dure. Vos tweets et statuts Facebook sont enterrés en quelques heures, tandis que vos articles de blog seront encore là après des mois ou des années.

En résumé: si pour une raison ou une autre vous cherchez à augmenter votre empreinte numérique, à vous faire mieux connaître en ligne, démarrer un blog ne coûte pas grand chose qu’un peu de votre temps. Filez chez WordPress.com vous faire un compte et lancez-vous (et vous pouvez utiliser le même WordPress.com pour faire un bête site-brochure, d’une pierre deux coups).

Reste la question de savoir ce qu’on va bien pouvoir écrire, dans ce blog. Pour certains, ce n’est pas l’inspiration qui manque. Pour les autres, ce sera l’objet d’un prochain article, celui-ci étant déjà bien assez long!

Update: sur le même sujet, l’article “Pourquoi avoir un blog?” de Claire, qui donne quelques exemples sympas.

LeWeb13: Kevin Marks, The Web We Found [en]

The Web that Kevin found 10 years ago and how it is changing now. Left Apple in 2003 selling stock for $10 and joined Technorati, switched to LAMP. The browser war was over, IE6 had won, XML was replacing HTML.

LeWeb'13, Kevin Marks

Was everything over? Not really.

Webkit. The hegemony was not really there. Mobile: Sidekick. steph-note: I used to chat with Kevin at the time while he was on his sidekick commuting to work.

Did we have a social web 10 years ago? We did. Friendster. Realtime? Not really. Google updated their index once a month in the Google Dance.

They way you got to things on the web were portals.

What changed? Blogging. A parallel social web overlaid on the web we were all using. Personal publishing pages connected to each other and updated in minutes. Technorati was indexing that. Minutes rather than once a month.

The key thing were interoperable open specs. Over the next 10 years new devices came along. The Sidekick was ahead of its time, but these new devices all started out with a good web browser, and the apps came later.

Blogging was absorbed into social silos: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. More streamlined but more constrained.

Mobile has now displaced desktop. Biggest OS = Android. IE is now irrelevant.

In 2013, social is consolidated silos. Links spread rapidly, hashtags bridge them.

Myths:

– Apps will replace the web
– Facebook is your website — you still should have your website
– Mobile is some special different thing than the web that we had before

The App is just a browser that only works on one site. steph-note: I’ve always seen them like that.

Facebook is the new portal. Starting to feel like Yahoo a few years ago. We work around it.

Mobile screen resolution has caught up (more pixels than your laptop at times). Distinction of small and large screens is not as binary.

Long-term view:

– open outlasts companies: we’ve seen companies come and go, but open protocols are still there
– open protects people, they aren’t trapped in the destiny of a company; an open flow of data between sites protects you; open protocols is also why we now have all these devices (Webkit lay the seeds for Chrome and the iOS browser)
– open saves effort

IndieWeb: your own website, developers making tools, using silos to connect. Connecting across silos and becoming resilient against any one of those going away.

Principles:

– you should own your own data, have a website which is not a Facebook page or a Google Plus page
– you should have visible data; what made Google and Technorati possible was that web pages were visible and indexable and shareable. Social silos going up are taking this away. You can’t crawl Twitter anymore. Bits of Google Plus you can’t crawl either.
– POSSE: publish own site syndicate share elsewhere steph-note: what us bloggers are doing

Make tools for you, not tools you think somebody else will use. If you don’t use it nobody else will. Cf. Odeo.

Document. Say what works. Open Source what you make.

If you’re a company an hire a developer to work on an Open Source project, and they leave the company, they might continue to work on the OS project and contribute code. A project in a company is only going to last as long as the management chain understands the roadmap — fragile.

Design and UX are most important. Protocols come later.

Be modular. Don’t try and build everything. Use silos and swap pieces out.

The Long Web. Are you making something to last or to disappear? Expect it to last. Don’t destroy history. Spread copies elsewhere. steph-note: blogging again

Bet on the Web: open outlasts closed. Make infrastructure.

LeWeb13: Ramez Naam [en]

Wiring the human brain. Sending information from one’s person mind to another. Nexus: mankind gets an upgrade.

LeWeb'13, Ramez Naam 2

Keanu Reeves “I know Kung Fu”.

Working circuit printed on human skin, with sensors & ambient supply. Google glass style contact lenses. Pill cam, in use since 2008 in thousands of patients (clinical trial). 3 cameras taking 30fps from inside you.

Let’s go beyond that and talk about the brain. Internet of things: the “thing” we’re the most concerned about is ourselves.

Cochlear implants. 200K people that no hearing aid can help. Data sent directly to the brain.

First motivation for these “cyborg” technologies is medical.

Also progress for sight. Man who lost an eye at 18, and the second (accident) a year later. Now he has a CCTV camera on his glasses. Limited mobility vision. Can very carefully park a car. 16px by 16px grid. Terrible, but a quantum leap up from 0px, and a proof of concept: we can send digital vision to the brain.

Another man, paralysed from the neck down and vocal cords destroyed by tracheotomy. Electrode in motor area of his brain allows him to type on computer.

Damaged hippocampus tissue can be replaced by chip.

Increasing performance in certain tasks in monkeys (Planet of the Apes).

Two monkeys in two rooms with electrodes in their auditory cortex, connected. One monkey hears one sound, the other hears the same sound and knows what it means.

Rats: one is trained to respond to a series of lights => specific lever. Second rat performs much better on the test than if he had no prior knowledge. (Thousands of km away.)

Two computer scientists playing a video game as a single player thousands of miles away.

Hippocampal bridge: prior knowledge of the maze for a second rat.

This is far ahead, more than 10 years.

Issues: this is your brain. Who wants to play with it? If you’re blind of deaf, benefits can be great, but if you’re healthy… ahem.

Digital stuff never malfunctions and is never hacked. (NOT)

You don’t want the NSA in your brain either…

All that said, Ramez is very optimistic, because of the history of information technology.

The printing press increased the pace of innovation and scientific progress. Newton was able to write his book only because he was able to absorb the ideas of hundreds of others before him through books. And printing allowed him to spread his ideas to hundreds and thousands of others.

Increase our ability to spread ideas => more ideas. Also, democratisation of knowledge. Changed the relationship between the government and the governed.

Even the idea of civil rights was only made possible by the cheap distribution of new disruptive ideas.

See things through others’ eyes? Maybe literally possible in the future.

LeWeb13: Brady Forrest [en]

Brady has dived into hardware during the last year.

It all began with the Arduino. Almost an accident in the way it changed the world. Open-sourced, cheap. Designed for students.

Now is a great time for experimentation with hardware. That’s why we have the quantified self, and connected homes…

Prototyping is now “solved”. Anybody can prototype a hardware project. Don’t even need to know basic code.

Circuit Stickers. Stickable circuits that you can put all over the place. Crowdfunded. Trouble shipping. Building and shipping thousands of products is hard. Prototyping is just the beginning. You can’t walk into a factory, show a prototype and have it made.

That kind of scale requires rigour, teaching other people how to build your complex product perfectly thousands or millions of time.

LittleBits. OSHWA.

Open Source hardware business models. Challenge: being copied. Challenge 2: the prototype is not your documentation. AWS for manufacturing.

Third, products like SmartThings or ThingSpeak. Gadgets that don’t talk to each other. Need for open APIs.