Nice perspectives for cloud computing in Europe

Creative Commons – photographerpandora

Exciting opportunities are waiting for companies ready to adopt cloud computing.  Indeed, according to a study conducted by EMC and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), cloud computing will make it possible for European companies to save an estimated 763 billion euros  by 2015.

Jean-Yves Pronier, marketing director at EMC France, said that “the adoption of cloud computing gives companies the agility and cost reductions that are now necessary for their development in a difficult economic context “.

In the same vein, cloud computing should also result in the creation of 2.4 million jobs, especially in the areas of distribution and tourism.

Source: http://dsi.silicon.fr/nouveautes/le-nuage-fera-economiser-163-milliards-d% E2% 80% 99euros-a-la-France-1118

Be Bio: my first P2P investment with Friendsclear

Microfinance is something pretty new in France. A couple of months ago, Jean-Christophe Capelli launched Friendsclear Pro, a collaborative website where investors and entrepreneurs can meet.

This website is original because investors can invest as little as 100 euros. Even if you are not that well-off, you can show your support and confidence in a project. When enough investors have backed the project to collect the total amount requested by the entrepreneur, the loan is granted.

As far as I am concerned, I decided to invest into Be Bio. The company has existed since the end of 2009 and is using Friendsclear to finance a new investment. Their activity consists in delivering organic food baskets to employees where they work. Given the momentum on the organic market in France these days, this is definitely a good niche.

What I like about Friendsclear is that:

• this is a new way for entrepreneurs to raise money
• it is a good way to foster entrepreneurship and to help risk-takers
• investors can expect a good return, up to 4.25%
• investors can fine-tune their risk, since investments can start with 100 euros only
• this is one step more towards a cooperative economy, which I have been advocating since 2004!

To learn more about Friendsclear, just visit their website: www.friendsclear.com

After e-book, e-booksellers!

After the dematerialization of books, here comes the dematerialization of booksellers! This is the idea behind French Doucet bookshop’s libraireadomicile.fr. Looking for a book idea for a gift? Needing references for a term paper ? Or maybe you have discovered a great idea in a book  but can’t remember the author or title?

Libraireadomicile website offers a form where you can enter characteristics of the book you are looking for. You will then receive by mail a complete bibliographic record that will help you find the book of your dreams!

Wiki Art: collective works in search of an author?

Crowd, photo par James Cridland

One of the characteristics of Web 2.0 as described by Tim O’Reilly is its “hackability”: sites, services and applications are built by successive strokes, by continuously rearranging existing bricks. This is the spirit of mash-ups (aggregation of content from other sources) or applications using other web services’ API (Google Maps, Twitter, etc..)

This trend is not only technical, it is behavioral. It has an impact on various aspects of life, including art. The Los Angeles Times provides a good analysis of this in their article “Essay: Technology changes how art is created and perceived”.

The article relies on several examples. One of them is the Johnny Cash project . It is a tribute to Johnny Cash  on which Web users are invited to collectively build a video clip for the song “Ain’t No Grave”. Participants can submit a drawing for each frame of the video and / or vote for their favorite designs.The result of this process of collective creation (crowdsourcing) will be the final clip.

Another example is Reality Hunger , a book by David Shields, made as a collage of 600 fragments from other books.

The phenomenon of “remix” or enhancements of existing works has gained an unprecendented momentum. True, works inspired by earlier pieces of art are not new.  Pop art has extensively used this creative process, with Andy Warhol or Lichtenstein, for example.  But until now a person was at work, crafted the overall plan, provided a direction, an intent.  It is still the case with Reality Hunger.  But will the sum of thousands of  uncoordinated edits in an initiative such as the Johnny Cash project result in a coherent piece of art? If so, it will not necessarily be anonymous (participants can register a user name) but it will be apersonal if not impersonal ; it will be a one thousand contributors work without an author. Unless we suggest that this collectivity of users  is driven by an invisible hand, a metaphysical collective being,  and that the final work reflects a person transcending the multitude …

An introductory course to artificial neural networks

Is it still accurate to talk about “emerging countries” when we can see that the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur can produce videos of such a quality ?

Prof.S. Sengupta, Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering, IIT Kharagpur

More videos: National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning

Wikiloan, social network for peer-to-peer lending

Will the world of finance be shaken by new business models induced by the cooperative phenomenon, as it happened for music, movies and the press? At least, P2P banking and lending are unquestionably on the rise. The latest news in this market comes from WikiLoan, a P2P lending platform that plays the social network card. Just like on Twitter, you can post there short messages, follow contacts and be followed. But the main goal of the site is to allow members to lend to and borrow from each other. You can apply for a loan or conversely lend money in various categories: debt consolidation, education, home improvement, organizing events, etc.. The borrower and the lender can agree on the rate and repayment terms. The site makes its revenues from different types of commissions such as flat fees or percentages on lent amounts.

In April, WikiLoan will launch a new offer: the distribution of prepaid phone cards and other cards to pay for small purchases. This offer mainly targets people excluded from the traditional banking system, that is to say an average 28 million people in the United States. They will be able to buy cards in up to 20,000 small local shops around the US. In other words, WikiLoan is progressively building a click-and-mortar social network for P2P lending , relying on virality to extend its share of market.

Intellectual technologies

Yesterday, serendipity brought me from my research on artificial intelligence to the expression “intellectual technologies”, quoted by Nicholas Carr in a recent article. Nicholas Carr explains that this expression was used by sociologist Daniel Bell to describe the tools we humans have developed to increase our mental abilities: reading, writing, calculation, to name only a few. Behaviorist approaches such as organization methods, communication and group interaction practices are other examples, I think.

These approaches have to be learnt. They may become a “second nature” but they are not instinctive, the way language is. We are not genetically designed to read, calculate or interact smoothly in groups.

Yet, it is striking to see that reading and writing have become so intricate in us that they seem quite natural, at least for those who were happy enough to get an education. (True, there is still work ahead before this applies to all people in all countries.)

What if technologies aiming at improving attitudes and social interaction were broadly taught in schools and colleges ?  Should not they be part of every graduate’s ABC ?

In my opinion, they should be a part of what everyone gets to learn at school. There is no doubt that studying books like “Getting things done” (David Allen), The Evolution of cooperation (Robert Axelrod) ou “How to win friends and influence people” (Dale Carnegie) would be as useful and beneficial as studying algebra and literature.

5 reasons why you should be present on several professional social networks

In recent years, professional social networks have become mainstream: Linkedin, Viadeo, Xing, to name only the most famous ones. Having an account in several of them seems to be synonymous with a lot of work. You need to update your profile on each and everyone of them and manage various networks of contacts. Is it worth it ?

I think it is a great opportunity for your career and you should seize it for 5 main reasons.

1. Each network has a special focus
2. Creativity pays in the use of online social networks
3. Online networking should be a task with a time allowed to it
4. Online networking is a mid-term investment
5. Social networks are mostly free

Cooperation or collaboration ?

Why call this blog Cooperatics and not “Collaboratics” ? Both words, cooperation and collaboration, include the same notions: action and a sense of collectivity. Yet the two terms are not synonymous. First, their ethymology is not the same. Collaboration comes from the Latin “laborare” which means “work hard”, while cooperation comes from “opera”, which means “work, activity”. So this term does not have the same connotation of hardship as collaboration.

Besides, collaboration does not imply an individual desire to take part in a common work, while this desire is at the root of cooperation. Collaboration mostly takes place within a structure, and requires an overall plan, which is not needed in cooperation.

In the end, cooperation requires the free participation of individuals to a common work, because they have a personal interest in this participation. It is distinguished mainly by the fact that the person that cooperates brings his/her creativity. Much more than collaboration, cooperation features the concepts of interpersonal network and self-organization.

Co-creation

I am starting a new topic on this blog, called The Cooperation Lexicon. It aims at focussing on specific terms, explaining and discussing them, as well as providing examples.

Today, let’s study co-creation.

Co-creation is a process in which an organization creates, in a cooperative mode, with its partners or customers:

• a product or a service
• a marketing campaign
• new concepts

Co-creation is most visible at the time of innovation. When French bank Caisse d’Epargne gives a free hand to youngsters to imagine a new credit card design, co-creation operates in this way: the bank is setting up the contest, provides voting tools, while young people contribute online ; at the end of the day, there is a new product, a freshly designed credit card.

But co-creation can also be a part of a brand’s personality, not only during the creative process, but on a daily basis, because it is deeply rooted in its offer. Take Ikea, for instance. Their consumers co-create the store chain’s offer by getting their items themselves in the stock and bringing them home in their own cars, thus allowing lower prices. The same is true for Amazon: readers’ opinions and comments are one of the main key success factors of the site. Of course, competitors have copied Amazon, but the brand keeps improving the co-creation with the readers, just because it is part of the brand’s identity.

Co-creation does have limits. For a consumer, being a part of it takes time. It is crucial that the company provides the right tools, especially interactive tools, so that co-creation be a pleasant experience. It is also key that the questions asked to or the tasks requested from the customers be clear enough. Indeed, it is very difficult for a consumer to answer questions like: “what do you want ?” or “how should we design our next product?”.  It is often more efficient to show consumers creative drafts to comment on. This is typically what French public transportation company RATP does with its participatory website. Another important issue is benefit sharing. When a consumer co-creates with a company, he/she brings their creativity and sometimes their work. It is just fair that the company acknowledges it some way or other, for instance with prizes or VIP events.