Introducing Yugma

Yugma does what WebEx do but is entirely browser based, and cost a fraction of the price (it's free for all basic collaboration services including web conferencing). I am using ioften with colleagues from the US and I am impressed by its simplicity of use and powerful features.

Paris to offer free Wi-Fi

105 Parisian locations will be covered by free Wi-Fi. They include libraries, parks, public places and so on. Would Mr. Livingstone consider a similar initiative? How about getting corporate sponsors to fund it?

Article in French

London underground dinner party

Hats off. And as one of the commenters accurately noted: " I've never seen Londoners smile on a tube before".

Shift happens

Prepare to be surprised.

Teens Leaving MySpace For Facebook?

I am reading and hearing more and more about this. See this post from YPulse for example.

European Internet users spend more time online than watching TV or reading newspapers

European internet users spend 14.3 hours a week online, compared with 11.3 hours watching TV, and 4.4 hours reading newspapers or magazines, the research group said. 36% of people who go online said they spent less time looking at the television as a result.

BBC News

Will Facebook kill Linked-In?

Bernhard Warner thinks so in a recent Times article. He his rooting for Facebook against Linked-In, which he finds too “stuffy” and prone to macho “my network is bigger than yours” attitude. By contrast Facebook users are more laid-back and you get to know more personal stuff about them.

I've been on Linked-In for a few years and signed-up to Facebook recently, as most people I know in the UK (network effects?). I receive a lot of “spamvitations to connect” from Linked-In, mostly from people with whom I have no real affiliation to or no desire to connect with. I always politely refuse and explain that I rather have a small network of people I really know and trust rather than a loose constellation of passer-bys, only interested in their “500+” networkers’ badge.

Networking is not about collecting “connections” but getting to know people beyond what’s written on their business cards. Too many Linked-In users treat the network as a customer database. Facebook, at least for the moment is indeed a better tool than Linked-In for quality of relationships, which determines a personal network's value.

New UK Fiat website

Fiat re-launched its UK website with sleek 3D flyovers. Nice work from AKQA. I am waiting to see what is in store for the re-launch of the Fiat 500.

Fiat is a Digital PR client in Italy.

Preserving our collective memory in the digital age

The BBC is running a warning from the Chief executive of the UK National Archives: "Unless more work is done to ensure legacy file formats can be read and edited in the future, we face a digital dark hole."

Think about it, we can still read 5,000 years old Egyptian hieroglyphs or medieval manuscripts but we can't access a file on a floppy disk, read a Betamax tape or a Philips CD-I... There is a danger of loosing our collective memory because we record it on highly perishable media. And the pace of change drives the cost of re-recording it again and again for national archives, who are often poorly funded.

I reckon that in 10 years time, it will be fashionable to handwrite letters again, just because it involves efforts and makes the recipient feel special. And your letter will be preserved for hundred years for posterity, unlike that "reply all" email.

BBC article

Funny Hansaplast condom ad

The world's most expensive external hard disk

As seen on Amazon.co.uk this morning. Usually I prefer typos to go the other way.

Are search engines responsible for the content of the websites they link to?

Brian Retkin, a UK businessman is suing Google over claims that the search engine directs people to 'deeply offensive and commercially damaging' material about his companies on the internet.

If the case is successful, any search engine accessible in the UK could be liable for defamation suits.

From VNUNET.com and Tech.blorge.com

Just one in five customers getting broadband service at speed advertised

From Thisislondon.co.uk.

Jason Lloyd, Head of Broadband at the survey commissioner: "I urge all people to check what deal they are on and then ask their broadband provider for a free upgrade".

I will follow that advice as my own broadband provider delivers me speed of up to 20Kbps at present...

Bob Thurman: Becoming Buddha -- on the Web

From Ted.com

Myspace v. Facebook? Social sites reveal class divide in America

Finally, something interesting to blog about: The BBC reports on a 6 months research project from Danah Boyd (I used some of her work for my own MBA research project and I value her insight). Her paper: Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and Myspace concludes that Facebook users come from wealthier backgrounds are are more likely to attend college - which makes sense since Facebook was initially restricted to those with a college/uni email address. Myspace users are more likely to be "non-hegemonic" teens. Now if we were to throw A Small World into the mix...

Hamster powered phone charger

From Ananova.

Le blog de Valéry Giscard d'Estaing gives me a French lesson in blogging

81 years old ex French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has opened a blog. It gave me the opportunity to learn how to translate blogging vocabulary into French. By using the following words on your blog, you too could add some French flair and sophistication to your daily "billets" (postings).

French blogueurs vocabulary:

• A blogger = un blogueur. Plural: blogueurs
• A blog post = un billet. Plural: billets
  
• A comment = un commentaire. Plural: commentaires
  
• A trackback link = un retrolien. retroliens
• RSS feed = fil des billets

Merci Monsieur le President.

G8 summit, Nicolas Sarkozy and treacherous vodka shots

French President Nicolas Sarkozy looking worst for wear (and late) at a press conference after a lengthy meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.




Via Guy who saw it on The Register

iGoogle

Customise your Google homepage with dozens of widgets through iGoogle. I like the fact that I can access my Yahoo!, MSN Hotmail and Gmail accounts on one page. This type of personalisation has been around for a decade and most "portals" provide it but somehow iGoogle has the extra "cool" factor that will make me use it past its novelty factor.

Steve Jobs: Stanford's commencement speech

Very inspirational.