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Google Announces Map Contest: $50K for Adding Schools, Hospitals & More

cgseo — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:00:22 +0000

Google is announcing a new contest for local would-be heroes. The Map Maker Global Competition , which challenges users to add high-quality data on universities, schools, hospitals and medical clinics in Google Map Maker , will run from December 15, 2009 to January 31, 2010. The grand prize for the user who adds the greatest quantity of data is a $50,000 UNICEF donation to the winner's home country. Sponsor The winning team or user will moreover receive a VIP tour from UNICEF officials of the local projects that will benefit from the donation as well as an all-expenses-paid trip to the Google Super Mappers 2010 conference. Top mapping contributors will appear on Google Map Maker and ultimately on Google Maps. Google's Map Maker shows users satellite images and asks them to add data to make actually useful maps. These "citizen cartographers" can add directions, streets, schools and more; data is subject to peer moderation. The app is available in English, Spanish, French, Russian, Romanian, and Vietnamese and in more than 170 countries. UNICEF rep Gerrit Beger told Google , "We know that mapping is a proven method to enhance community development. Google Map Maker is a powerful tool to create better situational awareness for both young people and communities at large. It will enable organizations like ours to better deliver services, respond to crises and adapt to change." Google has also just wrapped up a similar competition focusing on Latin America. In that event, more than 50 teams from all over the world participated, which led to a 500 percent increase in mapping activity for several Latin American countries. Discuss

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Google Announces Map Contest: $50K for Adding Schools, Hospitals & More

Social ME-dia with Skyrock’s CEO Pierre Bellanger

admin — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:27:00 +0000

In the mid-eighties, Pierre Bellanger launched Skyrock pirate radio station as a continuation of his efforts with the French free radio movement. A community inclusive of a diverse voices and agendas, Skyrock inspired a generation of 18-25-year-olds who had never lent their unscripted opinions to a mass distribution medium. As Skyrock developed an IRC channel and later its own blogging software, the community evolved into what it is today - the third largest social networking site in Europe. Sponsor Often compared to MySpace and Facebook, most journalists tell the story of how Bellanger has grown Skyrock from a simple radio station into a business that earns more than €38million euros in annual revenue. Nevertheless, perhaps the most fascinating story is the founder himself. Says Bellanger, "We were trying to create revolution. My political act is to create a system of self-expression." In America terms like "self-expression" and "revolution" tend to accompany arguments for First Amendment rights. In Pierre Belanger's usage, "self expression" is about using the first-person singular "I" when unravelling events. Belanger's "revolution" entails a cultural shift in how French public radio media went from being a government monopoly, to being a medium where French youth could narrate the news from their own perspectives. Many believe that Bellanger's Skyrock community was the precursor to what can now be described as life streaming. In other words, the mass distribution of amateur opinions is considered here as a political act. When asked how Bellanger managed to run a revolution-generating platform as a business he replied simply, "Revolutions are only effective when they're profitable." Explains Bellanger, "There is already community dialogue, I want to help brands create a bond with the audience." While the Skyrock CEO monetizes with banner advertising, one of his major "dialogue-enhancing" campaigns is a Coca Cola-sponsored volunteer listing board entitled

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Social ME-dia with Skyrock's CEO Pierre Bellanger

The Green Watch: Crowdsourcing Air Quality Measurements

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:51:02 +0000

Yesterday, during a meeting with a number of startups in Paris, we met up with the team behind the Green Watch project. Just like Google collects data from cell phones with GPS chips to aggregate real-time traffic information, this watch measures ozone levels and noise pollution. The watch connects wirelessly to the wearer's mobile phone and sends updates to Citypulse , an open platform for receiving and storing environmental data. The Green Watch is currently only a prototype and not available for sale. Sponsor While it is still an early stage project and mostly meant as a proof of concept, the Green Watch does opens up interesting possibilities. Currently, environmental data is typically collected at a small number of locations. In Paris, for example, only 10 public sensors measure the air quality for the whole city. Crowdsourcing the measurement of environmental data could make it possible to create a real-time map of current ozone levels, for example. Through the Citypulse platform, the Green Watch project wants to make this data available for free. Citypulse was developed by the members of Citu , a group of French university labs, startups and government organizations. How Do You Convince People to Wear These? Of course, in order to turn this project into a commercial success, the developers would first have to persuade users to buy these devices for completely altruistic reasons. The prototype is also rather bulky . Also, as wrist watches are slowly being displaced by mobile phones, the developers will have to give users a good reason to wear a watch again. Air quality sensors, after all, don't work very well in trouser pockets. Disclosure : The author met with the Green Watch team during a lunch that was sponsored by Cap Digital and Invest in France. Discuss

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The Green Watch: Crowdsourcing Air Quality Measurements

ReadWriteFrance and the Power of Real-Time Political Commentary

cgseo — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:30:00 +0000

With only one day until the Le Web Conference , ReadWriteWeb invited editor of ReadWriteFrance Fabrice Epelboin to share his thoughts on this year's theme - the real-time web. While many choose to focus on the negative aspects of real-time technologies including information overload, Epelboin offers a positive view of how the real-time web offers French netizens an effective tool for political commentary. Sponsor In a Facebook post marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, French President Nicolas Sarkozy claimed that he'd taken part in the event at Checkpoint Charlie on November 9, 1989. Nevertheless, according to Epelboin, after some fact checking, journalists discovered that the date of the event was unlikely to be true. In protest to what appears to be Sarkozy's effort to rewrite history, bloggers across the country got creative. Nicknamed, "Sarko on the Moon", real-time netizens tweeted their best rendition of the President Photoshopped into historic scenes. While a fun exercise in citizen-driven political satire, the campaign renewed criticism of Sarkozy. Many netizens have openly railed against the President for his aggressive enforcement methods. Most noticeably, Sarkozy enacted the internet policing agency HADOPI, an organization authorized to monitor innocent citizens for illegal downloading. For more on the real-time web, check out ReadWriteWeb's latest report Discuss

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ReadWriteFrance and the Power of Real-Time Political Commentary

What a Rock Band Can Teach Businesses About Social Networks

cgseo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:03:31 +0000

Chester French is a rock band that has built an application on the Force.com platform. That's compelling for the simple fact that when a rock and roll band develops its own application, you know that the market is seeing a far wider adoption than it has ever before. Even more, it's an important reminder of the advantage of building your own applications over complete reliance on a social network that does not give you access to the customer information that you have developed on the platform. Sponsor Known for its dose of "pop pastiche," whimsical lyrics and high energy, Chester French has shown enough popularity to get a record deal with Interscope and perform on the same bill as Weezer . Chester French - She loves everybody Uploaded by le-pere-de-colombe . - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more. The band built a VIP application for its fans using Force.com. VIP members receive perks for being on the VIP list. The more they promote the band, the more points they get. Prizes include music and t-shirts. Here's their story as told by singer D.A. Wallach. It's an interesting tale about the music industry and how one band built its own application to form direct relationships with its fans instead of being highly dependent on a social network site. It's a problem that doesn't just plague rock bands. A hosted platform can be a bit of a trap. Often, you do not own the data. Application platforms may not be as open as we'd like but you own the information and it can be exported .You can't say that much about Facebook, which is lacking as a business platform simply because you can't export your own contact information. I asked Marc Benioff about this last week in context to how Salesforce.com is integrating with Facebook. He said it is the individual's decision about how they want to move their information around. But what is the point of a Facebook application environment if the contact information you develop is locked up? That's going to be a big question for social networks as more businesses move to platforms like Facebook. Contact information is scattered for most people. An application may be the best answer for companies when developing relationships for commercial efforts. Social networks are becoming important for business but their value is compromised when they suck in your customer contact information but don't let it out. Discuss

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What a Rock Band Can Teach Businesses About Social Networks

Pearltrees: A Design Interface for Remapping the Web

cgseo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:30:00 +0000

It's rare to look at a bookmarking tool and feel convinced that it's going to win a design award. Pearltrees is such a product. The French site offers us a new way to explore and contextualize the web. In what looks like a mind map structure, users collect "pearls" (links to articles, videos and web pages) and drag and drop them to form a body of knowledge that folds and expands upon itself. In an interview with Pearltrees CEO Patrice Lamothe, ReadWriteWeb found that company already has a loyal user base including our friends at ReadWriteFrance. Sponsor Said Lamothe, "We wanted a type of game play that was playful to use and map the web...and the fact that you can group and ungroup content easily means that you can re-catalogue it and keep it current." Rather than looking at the web as a series of linear pages, this service lets us build tree graphs of connecting arguments, share them and then break them at any time. Using a browser bookmarking tool, we can add and connect related pearls or ideas, place them within other pearls or start a new pearl tree (or train of thought). Rather than displaying a list of items, your pearls connect to your profile. You are literally the center of the universe and your thoughts follow you wherever you go. Naturally, as a newly anointed God of information, other great thinkers will gravitate towards you. Shared pearls connect you to others and allow you to view their collections. From here you can choose your favorite content and omit the noise. From here you can email your pearls, embed them in your blog or broadcast them to Twitter and Facebook. The Future of Touch Interfaces Given the unique user interface of Pearltrees, Lamothe expects that the company will roll out feature releases and enhancements on an ongoing basis. Says the CEO, "Once we've launched the web interface, the potential of a touch product will be very exciting." At this point, I almost fell out of my chair thinking about the possibilities. Using Pearltrees in conjunction with a touch interface would be extremely practical. Rather than swiping down long lists of links to find articles, images or videos, users could tap on their desired pearl and follow the connectors to the information they wanted. Not only would this greatly improve the research experience, but it could also change device design. For some reason, many touch interfaces mimic the experience of the first personal computers. We are offered a series of boxes from which to start our applications with little room for reorganization or prioritization. The Pearltrees model may prove to be the most efficient way to navigate period. To try the product register at pearltrees.com or click on ReadWriteFrance's pearl below.