Street

Canada’s Most Influential Women in Social Media, i’m in!

Update: Wow. The news came last week, i’m among the 31 people listed as semi finalist as one of Canada’s Most Influential Social Medial Individuals!

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Dear readers! I have been nominated as one of Canada’s Most Influential Women in Social Media, isn’t that fantastic? What an honor, just to be nominated!

You can view the profiles of the 31 women nominated, and then register your vote here!

You must have noticed that this last year have brought a lot of changes in here, meaning, i have tried to leave out everything that could associate me with the words ‘Marketing consultant’ , ‘Geek’, or ‘Podcaster’. This was a wish from me to get out of all etiquette i have been given over the last years – etiquettes which i felt always kept me in a blur, not letting people understand what i am really interested in and who i really am.

My passions are already known by most of you – my deepest wish by using technologies has always been to help people communicate and share together, to help them grow personally and creatively wise. I’ve always believed that helping people communicate with each other online is more important than trying to sell them something.

I did and still believe in authenticity, spontaneity and the personal sharing of our thoughts and stories online to make our world and ourselves better people, and this is where technology can be helpful from my point of view and interests. Never have i been interested in marketing any products online, unless i deeply believed in the product fitting into my values of bringing humanity to its best.

All that to say, i am deeply happy to be nominated as one of Canada’s Most Influential Women in Social Media, even after taking a step back and keeping myself a little on the side track of the fast lane, this to keep closer to the person i really am, online and offline.

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More infos on my projects:

Meïdia Studio: Opened in 2003, Meïdia specialize in creating innovative concepts using new web technologies for clients like the: Le Cirque du Soleil, Ubisoft, Radio Canada, Musique Plus, Culture Québec, Tellabs, Article Studio, P45, Maison d’édition de La courte échelle, Astral Média Interactif, Passeport Santé.

Creacamp: Creacamp is an event where womens meet to present their work and DIY projects, this with the goal to promote the talent, ideas and experiences of each, and to lay ground for sharing about our process. The event is made of short presentations made by womens only, but its open to anyone to assist.

6×6 Collaborative collages: using the power of an international online community since 2006, 6×6 brings people together to exchange material and create 6×6 inch collages using each other’s material. The results are for everyone rich in colors, textures, process and experiences!

Faire parti de la solution

Kind bloggers

This Next!

Etsy is the coolest for handmade stuff – ThisNext (see my wishlist) is another social network, asking low commitment (exactly how i like them), strong in ergonomics – the coolest right now to find all kinds of creative jewels, handmade or not, which you wont find in stores. Here is for example a creative card game found on ThisNext.

Really cool finds, but beware to keep your wallet away!

Telecrafting

It is with *great* pleasure that i welcome a new Vu d’ici contributor, Bruno. Bruno has been quietly watching and contributing to the web here, and there.

*applause!*
m-c

Ponoko is an interesting new site that offers to make objects from your design.  It’s also a market where you can sell either your design or the stuff you have made there.

“Armed with nothing more than an idea, professional and hobbiest designers, crafters, hackers and artists can turn their ideas into real products – and new revenue streams – using our web commerce and digital make-on-demand services. No upfront costs. No minimum orders. No inventory. Simply click to design, make, sell and deliver your creativity to the world, at your own speed.”

Nice pitch, but of course it’s a little more complicated than that. You have to design something, order it, have it sent to you, test it, change the design and hopefully they’ll be able to make something that works. Or you have to begin the whole process again and you don’t know the cost until you have submitted something, which I didn’t do.

The step by step explanations are very clear, though. The choice of materials is limited but interesting. Personally, I am intrigued by the potential of acrylic, especially to do colored lights like this one I found this week on the ideaco website .

Over all, it’s not yet the desktop universal fabricator from science fiction stories, but it’s a nice step in this direction. If you try Ponoko, please let us know about your experience.

Story by Bruno for Vu d’ici.

We all carry a piece of each other’s puzzle

Is Google everyone’s darling?

An Austrian journalist is criticizing Google and its business practices since a while now. At the end of 2007 he published a document with the title “Report on dangers and opportunities posed by large search engines, particularly Google” (pdf download). The blogosphere was reacting strongly against this document since Google seems to be everyone’s darling (who is not using it on a daily basis?).

Now he published a book called “Die Google Falle” (”The Google trap”) where he is writing about how Google is actively supporting censorship in China and about their data mining (data gathering) practices. And just recently Google share holders asked for a statement by the company concerning human rights and censorship. It looks like that pressure on Google from the public is growing.

In my opinion it is important that there are people who analyze and criticize mainstream online services like Google or others – just to keep the balance! Because these public companies are exposed to huge pressure from share holders which demand constant growth and profit. It is understandable that they will do everything to meet the expectations.

You can find more information to this topic on Altavista or Hotbot.

Surprise files

The Beckhams and the Hiltons of the web

A british school survey carried out by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers lead to the conclusion that 75% of today’s school children want to become famous sport or pop stars. Boys prefer David Beckham while girls favour Victoria Beckham or Paris Hilton.

The teachers are alarmed, because most of the children will realize that they won’t become the next Beckham or Hilton easily. They will grow up with a feeling of failure or low self-esteem when celebrity status is not achieved.

In my opinion this is not something new at all. Hey, my hero was Captain Kirk

I believe that most of the people nowadays want to become famous in the one or another way too:

being a successful entrepreneur, becoming financially independent (popularly known as “becoming rich”), having a lot of readers on your blog, hundreds of “followers” on Twitter, all these are indicators of the silent wish to be liked, valued and seen by other people.

I think these wishes are natural among all human beings, as long as people don’t suffer from peer community pressure, stress caused by pressure to become “famous”… and that’s where my critique of the “Web 2.0″ comes in:

I think the web tools we are currently using (like blogs, Twitter, MySpace or Facebook) can increase exactly this feeling of peer community pressure, because we are permanently following the life of our new “idols” (a blogger, or someone on Twitter or facebook) and then compare and measure ourself with these “idols”.

These new behaviours can easily result in a feeling of failure and low self-esteem. And beware! Some people are really good at “personal marketing” and trying to increase their community status on behalf of your feelings. Be conscious about it. Just think of it the next time you compare the number of people following you (”followers”) and people you follow (”following”) on Twitter.

On this, i wish you a relaxed day, without any peer community pressure!

(text by Chris Car)

Etsy’s Alchemy

This video shows what is Etsy’s Alchemy: a way for crafters to create custom items on request, and for buyers to ask for exactly what they want!

Found on Millea’s blog!

My Starbucks Idea – business 2.0

“Name tags on employees. I like to be able to start a conversation with a name. I see the same folks all the time and enjoy speaking with them, but i don’t always remember their names.”

“Not all employees are as friendly as they should. I think you should reemphasize customer service since that is one of the reasons I go to Starbucks.”

“Hire more mature people who have a more developed idea of what customer service is.”

“have a separate line “express” for drip coffee only.”

“Starbucks needs to make ALL stores have free Wi-Fi. In Seattle I go to Tully’s, because of the free Wi-Fi, not superior service.”

“More of the comfortable-type chairs (cushion) – fewer tables and hard chairs. Offer the bar-type seating in more stores.”

All the above quotes are taken from Starbucks’s new venture, MyStarbucksIdea.com, a true web2.0 jewell, both for Starbucks, and their customers.

Raw, yet friendly and simple : hand your customers a mic so that they can let you know what they want. Show them that you listen with both ears, and they’ll tell you exactly what you need to do to make your business better.

iSmoke

Oh – this is new! It’s not comparing advertisement anymore, it’s supporting advertisement now!

Did Apple pay Lucky Strike to do this or did Lucky Strike pay Apple to use the shape of an iPod? Nice idea!