Two Weeks With (Almost) No Planning [en]

[fr] Pas tellement de planning hebdomadaire ces deux dernières semaines, entre LeWeb'09, la récupération après mon voyage parisien, et la compta 2008 à boucler en catastrophe. On reprend le 4 janvier!

These two weeks went by really fast! The first was spent between TEDx Geneva and LeWeb’09 in Paris, busy blogging (as you can see) and being social and doing things one does when one attends conferences. As for the second, it was spent recovering (major sleep deficit + cold) and dealing with (OMG!) finishing my accounting for my 2008 tax report (no comment).

Although I didn’t really plan the work I still had to do during those two weeks, I didn’t completely give up on it (indeed, this week was spent going “oh, tomorrow I really have to plan my week”) and did manage to place a few of the most important things I was forbidden to forget in my “weekly planning” Evernote note.

I’ve looked at TeuxDeux and it’s pretty, but has a big disadvantage: it’s outside of Evernote. But who knows, I might try it out in the future and adopt it. Sometimes life is full of surprises.

Next week is Christmas week, and the week after is New Year’s week. I’m going to spend them relaxing and writing, so there will only be minimal planning involved until the week of the 4th. However, I have noticed that I remain in a “look forward longer than a day” frame of mind even when I’m not actively planning my weeks, which is a good thing.

Prezi: Never Use Powerpoint Again [en]

[fr] Prezi va tuer Powerpoint, c'est moi qui vous le dis. Vous créez un canevas géant de votre présentation, et à coups de zoom et de déplacement, naviguez à l'intérieur pour illustrer votre présentation tout en gardant la structure de celle-ci bien visible. Powerpoint? Une dimension. Prezi? Trois.

A quick note to point you to Prezi, which I saw in action a couple of times in Paris. For example, see this one below by Kevin Marks on Buzzwords — my talk notes).

Prezi allows you to create a giant mind-map of your presentation, and using zoom and movement on the map, creates a presentation from it.

Check out the Prezi tutorials and videos for more. It’s just blowing my mind, and seems very fun and easy to use too.

I think I’m never ever going to use powerpoint again.

A Quick Thought on Being Public [en]

[fr] Dans un monde où l'on est des personnages de plus en plus publics, s'adressant simultanément à des publics jadis séparés, on peut pour moi soit se réfugier dans la langue de bois pour ne heurter personne, soit se mettre les gens à dos en leur disant en face des choses qu'on aurait auparavant évité qu'ils entendent, soir jouer de l'équilibrisme en privilégiant l'honnêté exprimée d'une manière qui prend soin des sentiments des autres.

In these days of increasingly overlapping publics, I see three ways in which to deal with the fact that we are all becoming — to some extent — public figures, our multiple faces forced to come together as the publics they’re meant for also do:

  • go all tongue-tied and diplomatic, and dumb down your discourse so nobody can take offence or hear something they shouldn’t;
  • be an asshole, by saying things to people’s faces that one normally would keep for behind their backs;
  • walk the fine line of honesty and respect whilst expressing things in a way that cares for others’ feelings.

The third way, clearly, is the most challenging, but probably also the most rewarding from the point of view of personal growth.

A Lot to Write [en]

[fr] Beaucoup à écrire mais une déclaration d'impôts à liquider avant.

I have a lot to write. LeWeb was a blast, and as I’ve been a bit under-conferenced this year, it sent my mind spinning and my list of “things to blog about” has doubled (it wasn’t short to start with).

However, to write about stuff I need to think about, I need a certain amount of peace. And that peace will come when I’ve finished dealing with accounting from 18 months ago (you can have a guess) and my accountant has all he needs in his hands to do my tax declaration before I get in trouble with the authorities. (It’s OK, I have a few days left.)

Peace will also come when I’ve caught up on my sleep debt and fought off the little cold that’s tickling up my nose.

And figured out when to do my Christmas shopping.

After that, expect to be knocked out by a series of extraordinary posts. (Well, maybe not extraordinary — I’m trying to learn to sell myself ;-))

In the meantime, here are some photos of me at LeWeb (I didn’t take many and they’re not online yet) and my Twitter stream if you miss me too much.

La règle des deux minutes [fr]

[en] I write a weekly column for Les Quotidiennes, which I republish here on CTTS for safekeeping.

Chroniques du monde connecté: cet article a été initialement publié dans Les Quotidiennes (voir l’original).

Après deux chroniques un peu méditatives, je me permets de vous servir cette semaine un petit truc pratique: la règle des deux minutes.

Elle est très simple: si quelque chose prend moins de deux minutes à faire, faites-le tout de suite.

Puis, pour égayer votre journée, je vais vous donner un peu de contexte et des recommandations de lecture (anglophones, donc sortez vos dictionnaires ou filez vite faire un petit séjour outre-Manche pour rafraîchir votre anglais!)

Chez les geeks et les gens bien connectés d’aujourd’hui, il y a un grand amour pour les méthodes dites “de productivité”. Allez savoir si c’est à force de vivre dans un monde numérique où le temps ne se déroule pas à la même vitesse que dans le monde extérieur (“Quoi? Ça fait trois heures déjà que je suis devant l’ordi?!”), ce qui ne manque pas d’avoir des conséquences parfois désastreuses sur la gestion du temps, ou bien parce que le cerveau cyber-compatible est excité à l’idée de systématiser la gestion de sa vie, mais toujours est-il que la productivité ainsi que la lutte contre la procrastination et la désorganisation sont des thèmes récurrants dans le monde connecté.

A coups de blog ou de Twitter, on se refile en effet les adresses de sites comme 43folders ou FlyLady, et les livres tels que “The Now Habit“, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People“, et surtout “Getting Things Done” (abrégé GTD, disponible en français sous le titre “S’organiser pour réussir“) finissent immanquablement par se retrouver dans nos bibliothèques, ou du moins sur nos listes de lecture.

La règle des deux minutes est tirée directement de GTD. En très très résumé, un des éléments importants de GTD est de séparer la réception d’une tâche à faire ou d’une demande (on la met dans la “boîte de réception”), la décision quant à ce qu’on va en faire (jeter, classer, déléguer, mettre sur une liste la prochaine action concrète pour avancer), et le moment où l’on fait les choses.

La seule exception à ce processus, ce sont justement les tâches très courtes. S’il me faut moins de deux minutes pour accomplir une tâche, la mettre dans mon “système” et l’en ressortir le moment venu prendra en fait plus de temps que ça. Autant donc s’épargner du travail en évitant tout simplement que la petite tâche en question se retrouve sur une des ces maudites listes de choses à faire!

Une remarque toutefois: l’utilisation de la minuterie s’impose, afin de ne pas se retrouver encore à la tâche trente minutes plus tard…

Quatre points de départ en français sur GTD pour creuser un petit peu:

Deux semaines en Turquie [fr]

[en] As the editor for ebookers.ch's travel blog, I contribute there regularly. I have cross-posted some of my more personal articles here for safe-keeping.

Cet article a été initialement publié sur le blog de voyage ebookers.ch (voir l’original).

Depuis plusieurs années, mon père part chaque été faire de la voile en Turquie avec des amis. Cette fois, il y est retourné pour un séjour de deux semaines dans les terres, avec son amie.

J’ai profité d’un après-midi dominical en leur compagnie pour recueillir leurs impressions, vu qu’ils étaient tous deux rentrés ravis de leur voyage dans ce pays que je ne connais pas du tout.

Ils ont choisi une formule assez souple de voyage en car semi-organisé: des cars circulent sur un circuit “hop on, hop off” traversant divers points d’intérêt. A chaque étape, on peut rester pour la nuit et reprendre le car, ou s’attarder un peu et prendre le car suivant, quelques jours plus tard. Logement et visites guidées optionnelles sont inclus dans le tour. L’idée me paraît séduisante, à mi-chemin entre le voyage vraiment organisé et l’aventure complète.

De qui m’ont-ils donc parlé? D’abord des gens, qui sont accueillants et sympathiques, sans être envahissants. On peut se promener de façon détendue sans se faire harceler par des “marchands de touristes”.

Ensuite, Ephèse. Etape incontournable, cette ville lumineuse et claire perchée sur une colline contient des ruines extrêmement bien préservées. Dans l’antiquité, c’était un port grec puis romain (check!!), mais l’accumulation des alluvions fait maintenant qu’elle est un peu plus dans les terres.

Ephèse.

Les sites archéologiques sont protégés par des structures fermées — on se promène donc dans de grands espaces “intérieurs” qui contiennent plusieurs maisons ou constructions. Les archéologues y travaillent sous vos yeux, rassemblant par exemple des puzzles antiques, plaques de marbre brisées par les tremblements de terre.Ephèse.

En Cappadoce, il y a près de deux cent villes souterraines, utilisées entre autres par les chrétiens grecs du quatrième siècle, victimes des persécutions romaines. Une dizaine de ces villes ont été excavées et rendues accessibles au public. Les autres… oh, y’en a tellement, vous savez!

Pour les filles, on me recommande les bains turcs en Cappadoce. C’est gai, c’est féminin, plein de bulles de savon, détente, massages (et “joyeux anniversaire” chanté en turc pendant deux heures si c’est justement le jour!)

A voir également, Pamukkale: des sources d’eau très calcaires ont déposé sur le paysage une couche blanche qui rendrait presque le paysage enneigé, parsemé de petits étangs d’eau bleue, ce qui en fait un haut lieu des photos de mariage.

Pamukkale.

Pour terminer, il paraît que dans de nombreuses villes, on trouve à côté des places de jeu pour enfants des sortes de “places de fitness” en plein air. On y aperçoit donc des femmes en habits de ville, pantalon bouffant et foulard, piétinant sur des steps hypra-modernes peints de couleurs vives et placés face-à-face.

LeWeb'09: Kevin Marks on Buzzwords [en]

Live notes from LeWeb’09. They could be inaccurate, although I do my best. You might want to read other posts by official bloggers, in various languages!

Do we really use too many buzzwords? Right now, “real-time”. Some words Kevin has found useful to describe the new web.

  1. Flow: the stream metaphor.
  2. Faces: we expect faces. Making the face bigger makes the information more relevant. A large part of our brain is about faces.
  3. Phatic: an action that is designed for social interaction, grooming purposes, not to communicate content.
  4. Following: not assuming that all relations are bi-directional. Basic pattern of the web. Hyperlinks go in one direction. This is what allowed the web to scale to the size it is. Very powerful in a social context too.
  5. Semi-overlapping publics: not just “one” public space, which is an invention of mass media. We all see a different web. We have different publics.
  6. Mutual media: all these networks are ways of making sense of the world, filtering the web for each other to make it more interesting.
  7. Small world networks: it’s easy for information to flow through these networks, and there are also long-range links, so we don’t stay locked up in our small worlds.
  8. Out-groups: homophily, minimal group paradigm. Different parts of the web as different countries. You feel alien when visiting another online community than those you’re familiar with.
  9. Tummeling: the person who connects people with each other. The life and soul of the party.

That’s Kevin’s set of words that help him think about the web.

LeWeb'09: Violet Blue, The Future of Sex [en]

Live notes from LeWeb’09. They could be inaccurate, although I do my best. You might want to read other posts by official bloggers, in various languages!

Safesearch is off!

Future of sex:

  1. instantaneous orgasms
  2. orgasm on demand
  3. sex with robots
  4. virtual sex

Why do we need to speculate on sex in the future? is the present sex so dull?

Instantaneous orgasms

1964, Barbarella. A machine which can almost torture you to death through orgasms.

A patent (more recent, 1999) to use spinal implants to help control pain, and a year ago treating female patients getting her pain treatment… ended up producing orgasms with those implants (by chance at first).

Orgasm on demand

Orgasms on the tap. When you want.

Sex with robots

In SF story. Guy who is getting married but his wife is so boring Mr. Edison makes an android copy of his wife for him.

Andy is 5500 € — high-level android for sale today. All sorts of options. Oral sex option, G-spot, etc.

Historically: treatment of female hysteria — everybody (doctors, nurses) were very happy when the vibrator showed up to relieve them of the hard work.

Virtual sex

Also predicted by SF. MMORPG. Second Life (if they got funding!) – Sex on the holodeck in Star Trek. Very strong role of gaming in sex in the future. Very efficient way to get stuff in the hands of consumers. Having sex in a world where anything is possible.

Virtual girlfriends. If she’s not human, is it cheating? Love plus game (spelling?) on Nintendo DS. Guy who wanted to get married to his AI (ALICE).

*(steph-note: this is starting to get a little creepy for me)*

Japanese guy with a robotic wife, loaded with tons of software, including facial recognition *steph-note: didn’t get the name* — sensors on her body, can recognize touch or tickle… But won’t have true emotion or soul.

Promiscuous new friends, uninhibited sex. Beware though of mad scientists who base their artificial intelligences on their own brains before having therapy first.

Designer sex experiences

As people are less inhibited, we’re seeing lots of dissatisfied and more sophisticated sex consumers. It has to be good for the environment, etc, and stylish.

“Je Joue”, British company, body-safe materials, rechargeable, made to mimic the human tongue, learns from the user. Plays back the patterns that you used. Toys that learn from you. Reading heart beat, body temperature etc. or even brain waves as feedback.

Virtual hole. World domination plans! It’s actually a very well thought-out plan. (Check it out.) Goes all the way to virtual bodies and the whole immersive gear, headphones and goggles.

Disruption

Porn, sex toys and sex info online have been a commodity. Companies want to move in the space and make money. Hackers want to create toys and have sex with robots (etc.) — The distribution chain has been disrupted. Specially for women (empowerment).

1 in 3 porn consumers online are women (distruptive!)

Imagining sex in the future is a way to explore one’s ideas and fantasies about sex. It’s a blank canvas on which people can paint. Sexual hopes and dreams.


Update: check out Violet’s post about this talk on her blog.

LeWeb'09: Queen Rania of Jordan [en]

Live notes from LeWeb’09. They could be inaccurate, although I do my best. You might want to read other posts by official bloggers, in various languages!

*steph-note: photographer madness for the arrival of Queen Rania.*

Doesn’t mind us looking at our computers, tweeting and blogging, etc. Remainder of the speech will be in 140-character sound bites.

Did MJ change the course of the Green revolution in Iran?

We’re part of the new field of digital anthropology.

It can be hard to connect to people when you’re a Queen. Position clouded with protocol, but online people are not afraid to speak their minds. Has created a space where titles mean little. Direct and personal connection that lets people reach out to her, and lets her spread ideas she is passionate about. Monarch on a mission? Takes it as a compliment.

Can the real-time web bring real-world change? Can it tackle the challenges facing our community? Her Oracle of Delphi is Twitter, that’s where she takes her questions. Surprised that the majority of her followers on Twitter thought digital advocacy could not translate into real action. Difficult the get their butts out of their computer chairs!

Green revolution at the front of Twitter, until Michael Jackson died, and took over the Twitter trending topics.

Of course he didn’t change the course of it, the revolution was much more important than that.

With little offline personal involvement, online activism becomes bleating.

We’re at the tipping point. Real-Time is the new prime time. Examples of what she learned of things going on in the world, through Twitter.

All this has hightened our feelings of selflessness, but what we need now is action.

One topic @QueenRania feels strongly about is education, girls in particular. Many statistical advantages to education, but behind the statistics, there are little girls and boys. Personal stories. Most people don’t realize the power of education.

Global campaign for education.

One day for one goal to help children who are locked out of school and in poverty. join1goal.org

LeWeb'09: Timothy Ferriss [en]

Live notes from LeWeb’09. They could be inaccurate, although I do my best. You might want to read other posts by official bloggers, in various languages!

Presentation about building following. Building a global phenomenon with less than 10K$.

There is a heavy price to pay for achieving consensus. The initial title of 4HWW was “drug dealing for fun and profit”. Walmart told him the title was vetoed (rejected all over the place). Used Google Ads, bidding on search terms related to the content of the book. Used a dozen of prospective titles and subtitles in the ads, and saw which got the best clicks.

Objective end 2006: 20’000 earlyvangelists for his book in 2 weeks. If you have 10K sales in a week, you have a high probability of hitting a list, but you can easily be knocked off the list, so he wanted 2 weeks.

3 Tipping points: indirect, direct, meta.

  1. 43folders. Podcast with Brian Oberkirch at SXSW, by chance. First indirect exposure that triggered more similar coverage. Rather than target the high-traffic blogs, but target the thought leaders who are read by the high-traffic ones.
  2. Scobleizer. Had a huge impact: “I’m going on a trip and taking this book with me.”
  3. Micro Persuasion. The launch and the books popularity became newsworthy.

Pitching feature articles? Probably not going to happen.

Another principle: sell around the product (phenomenize, polarize, and communitize).

A few findings: blog post on the shortness of life (intro to Seneca). People are addicted to new. Current hits rather than all-time. “Copy” is the most underestimated element you can test, e.g. Topics rather than Categories.

Twitter, Slinkset, Evernote. Collects stuff on Evernote, then sends it to Twitter via Slinkset.

Video is interesting because it takes less time to produce. There is a value in adding text. Value in what you don’t say or show.

*steph-note: all this talk about micro-improving to make things more efficient is not really my cup of tea — I mean, I know it’s important, but that’s not my way of functioning. Apologies if my notes are a bit flakey.*

Gyminee. Too many clickable elements above the fold.

Posterous. Another example, they weren’t really answering the question “how will I use it”.

How not to pitch, a book by Tucker Max.

Plan big, test assumptions, and start small.