Author: Stephanie Booth

Notes from LeWeb'12, Tuesday Morning [en]

I’m at LeWeb’12 in Paris, if you’d missed the news. I arrived late at the main stage, after dealing with the inevitable “badge drama” that shows up on the morning of the first day. (A few of the badges for official bloggers couldn’t be found…) After that I headed upstairs to the official blogger lounge so I could power up a bit and check it out “live”.

I arrived in time to catch the second part of the NASA talk about Curiosity Rover (@marscuriosity). Read Rachel’s live-blogged notes. The video footage of the touchdown on Mars and the reaction of all the people working on it was very moving.

SmartThings. Now that was interesting. (Not that NASA wasn’t but… in a different way.) How about providing a single centralized interface (on your phone) for interacting with physical objects? Obvious example: a light switch. Less obvious example: getting an alert when the liquor cabinet door is opened. And how about adding layers of intelligence so that an event can trigger another? Example: turn the lights on when the front door is opened.

I’m only scratching the surface here, but I’m feeling the same inkling of excitement as when I was listening to the talk on 3D printing at Lift earlier this year. The code is simple, I feel like tinkering. It feels like a playground, like the web felt to me 14 years ago and social tools 8 years ago.

SoundCloud CEO made a great point about the importance of sound, and this vindicates a point I’ve been trying to make since the early days of videoblogging: sound allows you to do something else while you’re listening to it. Video? Not so much. You’re watching video, or you’re not. It’s hard to watch video and do the dishes at the same time. Possible, though. Watch video and drive? Nope. But you can listen to audio during that time. Which makes me think: should I be doing more video, or more audio?

The big surprise of the morning for me was charity: water. I’d heard about it, of course. I’d heard about people giving up their birthdays. But from where I stood, it sounded like another of these American charity/volunteer/cheesy thingies. Listening to Scott’s story on stage though, I’ve been turned. I especially like their 100% model: 100% of donations go towards the “core charity”, and the organizational costs are covered by private donors, foundations, sponsors…

I remember from my brief experience with Wildlife SOS in India that it’s way easier to find people to give money to feed or save the bears, than it is to find people to provide money to pay salaries or a new computer that’s needed for the office. The 100% model helps solve that problem. You need to be good at marketing and fundraising, though 😉

Another thing Scott managed to do is create a strong non-stuffy brand. Charity: water is a non-boring charity — which is maybe why I perceived it as “very American” through the lens of my Swiss values. But actually, upon looking closer, it’s great.

The 100% model and use of “modern” technology (GPS trackers! Google Maps!) means it’s possible to introduce traceability for all their actions. You can actually pinpoint where each donor’s money goes, and nobody feels kind of “cheated” of their desire to make a direct difference in people’s lives because their donation went towards paying for software licenses rather than actually building a well.

No live-blogging, you’re asking? Nope, but definitely pretty much live-storifying of all the coverage provided but the wonderful official bloggers at the conference.

LeWeb'12 Official Blogger Coverage [en]

[fr] Les articles publiés par les blogueurs officiels à Paris, LeWeb'12.

I’m collecting photos, posts, videos and the like produced by the official bloggers during LeWeb’12 Paris. You can follow the conference live online if you’re not here in Paris with us.

The storify below is a work in progress. Check back regularly!

[View the story “LeWeb’12 Official Blogger coverage” on Storify]

LeWeb’12 Official Blogger coverage

This is not really a story because I’m dumping articles, videos, and photos in here as I manage to lay my hands on them. This should, however, be representative of the kind of long-lasting coverage Official Bloggers provide at the LeWeb’12 conference in Paris.

Storified by Stephanie Booth · Tue, Dec 04 2012 03:04:13

Benjamin Cichy (NASA): ‘Ontdekken zit in onze natuur’ [leweb] | Wilbert KramerWat heeft Mars te maken met de ‘Internet of Things’? We wisten vroeger niet zoveel over Mars. We dachten dat Mars net was als de aarde. Toen kwam de ‘space age’: de vraag ‘is er leven op Mars?’ kwam op. De eerste twaalf missies naar Mars zijn mislukt.
LeWeb 12, The Internet of Things, or life really | Arne HulsteinAs most of you will know by now, I am currently in Paris at LeWeb. Interestingly enough, I have been at main stage for about an hour and a half now, and I have just been listening breathlessly. There have been some great speakers and some great subjects.
LeWeb 12: NASA and Mars | Licence to RoamLIVEBLOGGED = there will be mistakes Benjamin Cichy, Chief Software Engineer, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Talking about Mars. For years we knew little. It could be like earth. It had seasons, polar ice caps, had winters and summers. It could have had a rainy season.
LeWeb 2012: Tony Fadell (Nest Labs) en Xavier Niel (Iliad Group)LeWeb 2012: Tony Fadell (Nest Labs) en Xavier Niel (Iliad Group) Geplaatst op 4 december 2012 door Jeroen in Internet, Internet of things Na de officiële opening door Geraldine en Loic Le Meur wordt LeWeb 2012 afgetrapt met een gesprek met Tony Fadell, CEO en co-founder van Nest: een slimme thermostaat.
LeWeb 2012: Apparaten aansturen met je hersenen – Ariel Garten (Interaxon)LeWeb 2012: Apparaten aansturen met je hersenen – Ariel Garten (Interaxon) Geplaatst op 4 december 2012 door Jeroen in Internet, Internet of things Arial Garten is CEO van Interaxon, een bedrijf gericht op "thought controle computing". Thought controle computing is het aansturen van apparaten door je gedachten aan uit te lezen.
La competencia de Startup de ya inició | Valeria LandivarLos invito a seguir en vivo la competencia de Startup que acaba de iniciar en el Salón PlenaryII en LeWeb.
Descubre las 16 semifinalistas de la competencia de Startup de | Valeria LandivarComo cada año LeWeb organiza la gran competencia de Startup, la participación es gratuita y los 16 finalistas reciben dos entradas para asistir al evento y la invitación a tener un espacio en uno de los salones de LeWeb y así poder presentar a los participantes una demostración de sus productos, lo que les da una gran visibilidad ya que no solo periodistas de todo el mundo participan en este evento sino también grandes inversionistas.
¿No pudiste ir a Paris? será transmitido en vivo en Youtube | Valeria LandivarSi quieres disfrutar de este evento en vivo, es posible de seguirlo gracias al canal que los organizadores han creado en Youtube: youtube.com/user/leweb Si quieres participar a la conversación puedes hacerlo en Twitter con el Hashtag y visitando la pagina oficial en Facebook y Google+
Loic y Geraldine marcaron la apertura de | Valeria LandivarLoic y Geraldine son las dos personas que lideran el gran equipo que organiza LeWeb’12 Loic inicio dando la bienvenida a todos y explicando las maravillas que la gente ha creado para conectar nuestro mundo real con el mundo virtual. El hablo sobre los productos que estaremos viendo este año de la mano de empresas innovadoras que subirán al escenario.
Opening Le Web ’12: "Internet of Things gaat verder dan je smartphone" | Wilbert Kramer"De Internet of Things gaat verder dan jouw smartphone.", aldus Loïc. Drones, de FitBit (moderne stappenteller), Withings (een weegschaal met Wifi) en de headband van Interaxon (gedachten lezen), die vandaag geintroduceerd wordt. Dat belooft wat! This entry was posted in Le Web ’12 by Wilbert Kramer. Bookmark the permalink.
LeWeb 2012: Tony Fadell (Nest Labs) en Xavier Niel (Iliad Group)LeWeb 2012: Tony Fadell (Nest Labs) en Xavier Niel (Iliad Group) Geplaatst op 4 december 2012 door Jeroen in Internet, Internet of things Na de officiële opening door Geraldine en Loic Le Meur wordt LeWeb 2012 afgetrapt met een gesprek met Tony Fadell, CEO en co-founder van Nest: een slimme thermostaat.
LeWeb Paris 2012 Unofficial Official Blogger Partyjvthekke
LeWebLeWeb Paris 2012: behind the scenes tour en blogger party Geplaatst op 4 december 2012 door Jeroen in Internet Morgen is de eerste dag van LeWeb 2012 in Parijs. Na LeWeb London, ben ik dit jaar ook in Parijs geselecteerd als "Official Blogger".
Marie Pourreyron’s photos on Google+LeWeb (12 photos)
Here at with @loic kicking off talking about the "Internet of Things" #ob http://instagr.am/p/SzxJhiSrT9/ Chris Heuer
Чем заняться Лайфхакеру в ПарижеЧем заняться Лайфхакеру в Париже 4-го по 6-е декабря в Париже пройдёт крупнейшая европейская интернет-конференция LeWeb 2012, и Lifehacke…
LeWeb’12 Behind the Scenes for Official Bloggers | Climb to the StarsVisite derrière la scène pour les blogueurs officiels. [en] So, the spirit for me this year is "more posts, less blabla" – keep the long …
Content from LeWeb’12 Behind the ScenesSets let you organize your photos on Flickr. Explore the 25 photos in this set.
Follow the official bloggers on Twitter, and see who they are!
@anca_foster/LeWeb_Paris12 on TwitterInstantly connect to what’s most important to you. Follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news.
@tixx/LeWeb12 Bloggers on TwitterInstantly connect to what’s most important to you. Follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news.
@ramonsuarez/LeWeb12-bloggers on TwitterInstantly connect to what’s most important to you. Follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news.
Official bloggers | LeWeb’12 Paris

LeWeb'12 Behind the Scenes for Official Bloggers [en]

[fr] Visite derrière la scène pour les blogueurs officiels.

So, the spirit for me this year is “more posts, less blabla” — keep the long rambling ones for… I don’t know when, and just publish stuff as it comes up.

I’ve just uploaded the blurry (inevitably, with low light and fast-moving official bloggers led through the venue by Loïc) photos I took during the behind-the-scenes visit we organize every year for official bloggers.

LeWeb'12 Behind the Scenes 2

Loïc very kindly walks us through the unfinished venue. I really appreciate (and the official bloggers too) that he takes the time to do this. We get to see the stage and lounges before everybody else, ask him and Christophe (the producer) questions, watch everything be built before our eyes, and check out places which will be out of bounds once the conference starts.

Incredible to imagine all the work that is done during the night so that everything is ship-shape by the time LeWeb stars the next morning!

So, here are some of the photos I took with a few comments.

Setting for official speaker photos:

LeWeb'12 Behind the Scenes 13 -- Official Photo Shoot Setting

The speaker lounge:

LeWeb'12 Behind the Scenes 20 -- Speaker Lounge

The official blogger lounge (sporting a satisfying amount of power strips and ethernet cables, thanks ESPN!)

LeWeb'12 Behind the Scenes 21 -- Official Blogger Lounge

Post-It portrait of Marissa Mayer in the making:

LeWeb'12 Behind the Scenes 24 -- Marissa Mayer Portrait in Post-Its

WordPress!

LeWeb'12 Behind the Scenes 23 -- WordPress Booth

Behind the stage. In the dark. Lots of screens. Shiny tech.

LeWeb'12 Behind the Scenes 12 -- Backstage; Geek Paradise

Even better: in the Tardis-like video bus behind the venue

LeWeb'12 Behind the Scenes 14 -- Inside the Video Truck

And yeah, the stage!

LeWeb'12 Behind the Scenes 7 -- Stage and screens

Hope you’ll enjoy LeWeb this year if you’re here. I’m definitely excited to be tomorrow!

Here We Go Again [en]

[fr] Des nouvelles du front.

Here we go again. My last post dates back to November 19th. This would seem to say the after-effects of the Back to Blogging challenge were short-lived! Not quite, though, because I’m writing today, and nearly wrote Tuesday, and am still focused on writing shorter.

The week before last was module 2 of the course on social media and online communities that I direct at SAWI. That means 4 days in the classroom, although I’m not teaching all the time (about two-thirds of the time I’m watching somebody else teach, and learning stuff!), with a conference and networking event by Rezonance on the Thursday night. (Needless to say I had other stuff going on the other evenings.)

The module went great, I was very happy — and from what I heard the students were too — but it was utterly exhausting.

Early this week I finally managed to extract myself from the nightmare of dealing with IRCTC Customer “care”. This is the blog post I started writing, and might finish at some point. Endless to-and-fro e-mails, disastrous user experience, crappy website, ridiculous security rules… I’ll spare you the details for the moment. Weeks of frustration were suddenly solved when I accepted I would get nowhere through official channels. An Indian phone number from a friend in Delhi and a few confirmation codes by IM later, I was finally booking train tickets for my January holiday.

I’m heading to Paris tomorrow for LeWeb, like each year. I’m looking forward to it! Maybe tomorrow or later today I’ll write a post on how to pitch me (or how not to pitch me). Short version? Do your homework. Know that I’m not interested in breaking news. I like cool new toys but what is cool for you is not necessarily cool for me. The main thing that interest me? People. What I’ll do for a friend, I won’t for a stranger. My contact page is harsh, but still stands.

Other than that I’m having some drama with the cats and the concierge. Three cats in my building go out. Tounsi, Quintus, and my neighbour’s Salem. (All the others are indoor cats.) One or more cats are spraying in the corridor. We don’t know who it is. All three cats know how to sneak into the building in between somebody’s feet when they walk in. So there are regularly cats hanging out in the corridor. I clean any markings I find with water, but unfortunately they leave stains (attack the flooring?). So my concierge is asking me to “make an effort” but won’t tell me exactly which effort I’m supposed to make (yeah, prevent my cats from being in the corridor; I’m already doing that).

 

Back to Blogging Challenge Wrap-Up [fr]

[en] Retour sur le challenge "back to blogging".

So, a good ten days after the end of the Back to Blogging challenge, how are things going?

Well, first of all, I’ve been putting off writing this article because I’m setting myself constraints which make it a big pile of work. For example, the last two days of the challenge I was too busy to link to the articles by other participants (arguably the longest part of publishing those posts). So I’m thinking “ah, I need to do the wrap-up, but before that I should complete those articles”. Well, nope. Obviously it’s not going to happen. Maybe somebody else feels like putting a list together for those two days?

I’ve also been thinking “ah, I should make a list here of all the bloggers who successfully did the 10 days”. Participating is great, and I’m sure many of those who did not complete the challenge got something out of it, but hey, sticking to it is even greater!

So, congratulations to all those of you who stuck through the whole ten days. I’d love to hear feedback on what participating did for you!

For me, even though I feel myself sliding back into “long blog post” mode (this is an attempt to break that) I kind of got into the habit of “a post a day”, which means that when I skip a day, I notice it, and blog the next day. So I’ve been publishing pretty much every couple of days I’d say, which is pretty good.

The other thing I got out of the challenge is a sense of community amongst bloggers — something I hadn’t felt for years and really miss from the early days of blogging. I was really amazed at the sheer number (about 20!) of people who took on the challenge!

At the root of this sense of community, in my opinion, is reading what other people write. A blogger is not an island. In my last post musing about what makes a blog a blog, one of the criteria that comes up is that a blog is in the network. It links to others, is linked to, commented upon, the blogger has contacts with other bloggers or readers. A blog cannot thrive in a vacuum.

Let’s try and keep that alive, shall we? Or we’ll be overrun by the fashion bloggers 😉

C'est quoi un blog? Quelques réflexions à défaut d'une définition tranchante [fr]

[en] What's a blog? Thinking about it.

Deux articles sont apparus sur mon radar cette dernière semaine:

Les deux posent des questions de catégorie, limites, définitions. Elles sont liées: si on sait ce qu’est un blog, on sait ce qu’est un blogueur — et vice-versa. Ou bien…?

Durant mes études d’histoire des religions, j’ai appris que les catégories rigides ne fonctionnaient pas trop quand on commence à toucher aux sciences humaines. On a plutôt des définitions ou regroupements par affinité. Je crois qu’il est illusoire de vouloir dresser une liste de critères à la “si et seulement si” pour définir ce qu’est un blog. De même, je crois qu’il est illusoire de vouloir faire une distinction nette entre blogueurs et journalistes, dans le cadre des RP ou d’accréditations pour une conférence.

Il y a très longtemps, j’avais fait une page sur SpiroLattic intitulée “C’est quoi un weblog?“. Vous imaginez bien que ce n’est pas aujourd’hui la première fois qu’on se pose la question. Plus récemment, j’ai écrit ici un article (en anglais) sur les relations blogueurs, dans lequel je tente de poser quelques distinctions entre journalistes et blogueurs qui justifient de traiter ces derniers différemment.

Je vais tenter de démêler un peu ces termes. Ce qui suit n’engage que moi, ce sont mes définitions, mes conceptions, et elles n’ont pas la prétention de faire autorité (ou pire, parole d’Evangile). Tiens, d’ailleurs, en passant, à Coworking Europe j’ai l’impression qu’on a passé une bonne partie de notre temps à nous demander ce qu’était le coworking. Quelques débuts de réflexion de ma part là-dessus.

Donc, un blog — ou un weblog, comme on les a appelés durant des années — c’est quoi? Je vais essayer de partir avec une définition minimale sur laquelle tout le monde (je l’espère) sera d’accord:

  • un blog, c’est une sorte de site web
  • un blog, ça contient des articles datés (billets, posts) organisés en ordre chronologique inverse.

Je pense que si on a affaire à un truc qui n’est pas un site web, ou qui n’est pas une collection d’articles datés en ordre chronologique inverse, on aura de la peine à appeler ça un blog. Par contre je pense pas que ces deux caractéristiques soient suffisantes pour définir un blog. Nécessaires, oui, mais pas suffisantes.

Allons un cran plus loin: voici certaines caractéristiques qui sont généralement partagées par tous les blogs. Mais elles sont plus discutables. On pourrait hésiter, face à un “blog” qui ne les a pas toutes.

  • un blog permet de laisser des commentaires sur les articles
  • chaque article du blog est archivé à une URL stable permettant de faire un lien direct vers celui-ci
  • on sait qui écrit: il y a une personne ou des personnes identifiables derrière le blog, même si c’est sous pseudonyme
  • les anciens articles du blog restent en ligne, archivés chronologiquement
  • un blog facilite et automatise la publication grâce à une technologie spécifique (outil de blog/CMS) côté serveur
  • un blog est intégré d’une façon ou d’une autre dans quelque chose de plus large que lui, à travers des liens vers/depuis d’autres sites/blogs (intertextualité), ou des échanges entre le(s) blogueur(s) et d’autres via commentaires ou blogs interposés (communauté de lecteur ou e blogueurs)
  • un blog contient principalement du contenu original
  • la mise en page d’un blog consiste en une colonne principale présentant les x (généralement 10) derniers articles les uns sous les autres, généralement accompagnée d’une ou plusieurs colonnes latérales avec du contenu secondaire.

(Et hop, petit article en train de se transformer en tartine.)

Rapidement, pour chacun de ces points, un petit argumentaire expliquant pourquoi je ne les considère pas obligatoires.

Commentaires: clairement, la plupart des blogs aujourd’hui permettent les commentaires, mais il faut savoir que durant les premières années des weblogs, les commentaires n’existaient pas. Historiquement, c’est un peu restrictif. C’était pas des blogs qu’on avait? Le blog de Seth Godin, c’est pas un blog? Alors oui, un blog en général ça a des commentaires, mais l’absence de commentaires ne permet pas de dire “c’est pas un blog”.

Permaliens: pour moi, c’est une caractéristique importante du blog. C’est ça qui fait que le blog fonctionne, comme format de publication. Ça attire les liens. Chaque article est archivé pour toujours, avec un lien stable, le paradis! Mais on trouve encore des gens qui disent avoir des blogs, et qui ont des trucs qui ressemblent à des blogs, mais où il est impossible (ou très difficile) de faire un lien vers un article. Exemple: Solar Impulse. C’est un blog ou pas? (Alors oui, quelque part caché j’avais réussi à trouver comment révéler le permalien de l’article, mais on peut pas dire que ça encourage les liens.)

Auteur(s): ça, je crois que c’est super important. Il y a un être humain derrière un blog. Même si on ne sait pas son nom, il est là. Il a une personnalité. Une agence de comm’ ne blogue pas — ses employés le font. Le ton institutionnel, désincarné, impersonnel: c’est peut-être des news publiées avec un outil de blog, mais pour moi ce n’est pas un blog. Vous savez des edge-cases à proposer pour ce critère?

Archives: le format du blog est fondé sur l’organisation chronologique inverse du contenu. Les catégories sont venues bien plus tard, font à mon avis partie des “bonnes pratiques” pour un blog mais ne sont pas une fonctionnalité obligatoire. Si la première page est en ordre chronologique inverse, on s’attend à pouvoir “remonter le temps”, et trouver des archives temporelles. De plus en plus aujourd’hui, on voit des blogs (“blogs”?) qui s’en passent. Pour moi, on tombe dans le blogazine quand le thématique prend le dessus sur le chronologique. Edge case? Le Rayon UX, qui est à mon sens toujours un blog (t’en dis quoi, Fred?) même si il manque furieusement de chronologie dans l’organisation de son contenu.

Technologie: quand blogger.com a débarqué, une des choses géniales que faisait ce service était d’automatiser l’habillage répétitif des articles et leur transfert sur un serveur web. De façon générale, les blogs modernes utilisent un outil ou service de blog qui épargne au blogueur bien des manipulations techniques. Par contre, je refuse de poser ça comme une exigence. Il y a des blogs cousus main. Zeldman l’a fait pendant de longues années (disant même “c’est pas un blog!” pendant longtemps), et à moins que je ne me trompe, Karl fait toujours son blog à la mano.

Réseau: souvent, quand je regarde un “blog” en me disant “ça ressemble à un blog, mais ce n’en est pas un”, c’est cette dimension qui manque. Le blog qui blogue tout seul dans son coin, ignorant la multitude de pages du web et de gens qui les fréquentent. En général, le blogueur fait des liens vers d’autres pages (si ce n’est d’autres blogs), on (= d’autres blogueurs) fait des liens vers lui, s’il y a des commentaires il y a un minimum d’interaction — ou via articles interposés. Il y a une “culture blog”, et c’est celle du réseau, de la relation, et de la conversation.

Contenu: oui bien sûr, le blogueur produit du contenu, ajoute de la valeur quelque part. Est-ce qu’un blog sous Tumblr qui ne fait que republier sans commentaire ce qui a été trouvé ailleurs est toujours un blog? Si Digital Crumble était mon seul blog, j’avoue que j’aurais du mal à me dire blogueuse.

Apparence: j’avoue être assez vieux jeu sur ce coup. Une mise en page magazine, pour moi, ça transforme le blog en blogazine. Un blogazine, ça peut être bien — mais ce n’est plus un blog. Le chronologique a cédé la place au thématique. Et ça se voit dans la façon dont l’information est organisée sur la page d’accueil. Sans articles les uns sous les autres, j’ai du mal à appeler ça un blog. On voit d’ailleurs des blogs qui étaient partis dans une direction 100% blogazine revenir vers quelque chose d’un poil plus chronologique, même si c’est pas un long défilé d’articles les uns sous les autres. Exemple: celui de Tara Hunt.

Alors un blog, c’est quoi? Un blog, c’est plus ou moins ça. C’est cet ensemble de caractéristiques. Mais on va trouver des choses qui n’ont pas toutes ces caractéristiques et qui sont quand même des blogs, tout comme on en trouvera qui remplissent tous les critères mais… n’en sont pas. Signe qu’il faudra réfléchir plus et affiner. Définir, c’est un grand travail de va-et-vient.

Un blogueur, alors? Quelqu’un qui blogue. Mais je m’attarderai un autre jour sur ce qui le sépare du journaliste.

The Problem With Being an Early Adopter [en]

[fr] A force de grimper dans le train super tôt (et d'y rester), j'ai des fois l'impression de rater le train suivant, plus rapide, où s'installe la majorité des gens. Est-ce que tous les pionniers sont condamnés à devenir un jour des has-been?

I’m an early adopter. Not as early as some, but much much earlier than most. And I’m a quick adopter: once I’ve adopted something, I tend to use it a lot. I also stop looking, when I have a tool that does the job. I try to behave a bit more like a satisficer and a little less like the maximizer that I am deep down inside.

One of the problems with being a pioneer/early adopter is that you tend to remain stuck with the first versions of things, and miss out the second wave implementations.

I open a francophone coworking space in 2008, relying on the anglophone coworking community for support, and when I come out from under my rock in 2012 I realize that there is a whole world of francophone coworking that has grown in the time being.

I’ve been using WordPress forever, but completely missed the switch to automatic updates — because I’ve been doing it by hand for so long that setting up FTP on my server seems like too much overhead.

I’ve been running my own server for a long time, and it was recently brought to my attention that Linode existed (thanks Bret).

I’ve been using Google Docs forever too, and the other day I discover Hackpad, and realize that maybe I’ve stopped being cutting-edge.

Is this what happens? Do all early adopters turn into has-beens at some point?

A Conference Where I Hardly Knew Anybody! [en]

I had a really lovely time at Coworking Europe — it was actually very relaxing to be at a conference where I hardly knew anybody to start with. I got to know the two people I’d already met a bit better: Ramon Suarez of BetaGroup Coworking in Brussels, and Linda Broughton who founded and ran Old Broadcasting House coworking in Leeds, and was also one of the speakers at Going Solo.

It was really a change to not have the pressure of wanting to catch up with an inordinate amount of people I already knew and liked and would end up spending only a few minutes with, as it often is when I go to my “usual” conferences Lift and LeWeb.

A conference full of “new people” is like a library full of unread books. I certainly missed out on getting to know some other great people, but I did get a chance to hang out with and get to know some really lovely people I hadn’t even heard of before coming to the conference.

I love how the world is always ready to present you with new stimulating encounters. I personally like taking the time to know people a bit and tend to hang out with the same crowd throughout the conference. This is fine if you don’t know too many people. It can be very frustrating if the people you’re not hanging out with are also people you already know and appreciate and aren’t spending time with during the one occasion in the year where you have a chance to. And then I end up writing posts like this one.

It was also really nice to be in an uncommercial conference. To have a day of unconference included (I ended up hosting a session, something I absolutely hadn’t planned to do, and did on the spur of the moment because I wanted us to question the assumption that “more” is always “better” (more people, more money, more networking). I got the same kind of “high”, inspiration and remotivation that I got from my participation in Startup Weekend Lausanne earlier this year. I think I need to start going to slightly geekier events again. Like Paris Web.

Some of the people I met and got to spend a little time with, in addition to Luis and Linda: Rebecca, Stefano, Julie, Philippe, Anna, Tony, Adam, Pierre, Nicolas, Pascale, Anna… and a few more of you whose names I can’t recall right now or never learned. Say hi in the comments!

Les journaux se meurent — et les livres? [fr]

[en] Found a book by a Swiss publisher I want to buy. No way to order it online. And the publisher's contact e-mail mailbox is... full, and bounces.

Ce matin sur Facebook, je lis ceci (merci Charly):

Les journaux se meurent. Des centaines de journalistes perdent leur emploi. Mais que cache réellement cette situation sans précédent qui n’épargne pas non plus les médias audiovisuels? La crise du modèle basé sur la publicité n’explique pas à elle seule pourquoi certains groupes disparaissent et d’autres émergent jusqu’à étendre leurs tentacules sur l’ensemble d’un pays. En Suisse, les journaux gratuits font la loi et l’emprise de Tamedia ne semble plus connaître de limite après le rachat d’un autre géant, Edipresse. Pour la première fois, un groupe contrôle l’information de Zurich à Genève, sans que l’opinion publique ne bouge le petit doigt. Parallèlement, les médias perdent le goût de l’analyse. Soumis au tout économique, ils glissent hors de la réalité, fabriquant du rêve ou relatant du fait divers anxiogène. Comment en est-on arrivé à une situation qui comporte des dangers pour la démocratie? Deux journalistes d’investigation disposant d’une longue expérience professionnelle, l’un alémanique, l’autre romand, démontent le mécanisme d’un système d’information qui réduit le citoyen à un simple consommateur.

C’est la présentation d’Info popcorn, un livre que je lirais bien. Que j’achèterais bien, en fait. Malheureusement, sur le site de l’éditeur Eclectica, pas de magasin en ligne. Dommage.

Alors je leur écris, il y a une adresse e-mail sous “contact”, pour leur demander où je peux commander le livre. Parce que “disponible en librairies”, c’est gentil, mais je ne suis pas chez moi, là, je suis à l’étranger, et même si j’étais chez moi, je fais venir les livres à moi en 2012, je ne prends pas 1h pour aller voir s’ils sont dispos quelque part en ville.

Message en retour: e-mail pas livré, mailbox pleine.

Gros fail.

Le livre ne va pas mourir, ça j’en suis sûre. Les éditeurs, par contre… ça reste à voir.

Coworking: Fixed Desks or Hot-Desking? [en]

[fr] A l'occasion de la conférence Coworking Europe, j'ai pris part à un panel discutant des avantages/inconvénients des postes fixes ou mobiles.

I was on a panel at Coworking Europe about fixed desks versus hot-desking. When I opened eclau, I had a vision for it based on how Citizen Space had been set up. Mid-2008, Citizen Space was my ur-coworking-space. I was in contact with Chris and Tara and had spent a little time at the space over the summer 2007 during my stay in San Francisco.

It quickly became apparent to me that eclau’s architecture (and possibly Lausanne’s business culture) was not working out well with my desire to have a heart of fixed-desk resident coworkers.

Eclau has very few walls that are not interrupted by pipes, radiators, or windows, making it difficult to install desk+bookcase combos that most people needing a fixed desk required.

Also, people who came to visit for a fixed desk often turned out to be either people who wanted to store a lot of stuff in the space, or who wanted a “real office” and were just trying to save on the costs.

After a year or two, eclau counted only a couple of fixed desks, and way more “hot-desking” members. Roughly two years after opening, eclau 2.0 re-focused the offer on free seating, making fixed desks an extra option available to existing members. So far, nobody has actually got around to taking the fixed desk option.

That’s for my story.

One interesting idea that emerged from the panel was that coworking space managers are trying to maximize the returns for the space they have. This is kind of an alien idea to me, as I don’t earn a living with eclau — I just want it to “not cost me anything”. The debate over fixed vs. flexible desks brought us to speak of our price plans and business models, which tend to reflect how important revenue is to the space manager. Clearly, if you’re trying to make a living out of your coworking space, or if you’re making a living doing something else, the way you approach these issues will be quite different.

At eclau, I don’t really worry that summer months are “empty”. Or Fridays. Of course it’s nicer when you’re not alone when you come to work at the coworking space. But from a financial perspective it doesn’t change anything for me, because I don’t sell desk space, or time in the space, or services. People sign up to be members, for six months or a year minimum, and the yearly membership fee is spread over 12 months. So people still pay for the space in July/August, even if they’re on holiday. They’re paying to be part of the community. Not because they occupy a seat.

This fits with my vision of coworking as “community/people first”. For me the desk renting business is the business that business centers are in.

Some argue that the type of price plan I propose is not flexible. On the contrary, I see it as very flexible. The membership fee is low, because all I’m looking to do is cover my costs. Once you’re a member, you have a key, and come whenever you want. Complete flexibility.

And the rather serious commitment required of full members is balanced with an “occasional member” offer which is virtually free (tip jar) for those who want to come less than three times a month.

I also believe in keeping things dead simple. Want to be a member? Here’s how it works. You don’t need to agonize over which price plan to choose, or wonder if you want to drop in at the coworking space today and use up some of your credit. Once you’re a member, the only thing that determines whether you come or not is your need of a place to work for the day.

Now of course, if I were trying to make a living (or at least money) out of eclau, I would be doing things very differently. Because on a given day, there are a lot of empty desks at eclau. So clearly, I’m not maximizing my revenue from the space. But that’s not my objective. (Which brings us to the other session I co-held at Coworking Europe, about the criteria of success for coworking.)