Micro Blog Streaming and Awareness

Micro blogs (Twitter), social networks (Facebook) and rich media posts (Flckr and YouTube) give us the ability to receive streams of events as they occur in near real-time about unfolding events or just answer our curiosity needs to know what’s happening in our communities of interests. Events such as Obama’s rise to the presidency, and today the protest against the election in Iran, have been fueled and benefit from this Web movement. What was seen as an ingenious way for the Obama campaign to spread it’s message, is now seen as the instrument of free speech and media control disruption in Iran. When an event is that important, and being watched by so many, we can count on the news to leverage and filter these sources for most of us. The reality is that unless your are passionate about a given topic or your social network, you would not think of going to micro blogs to be informed about what is going on. And the reason is simple... Why would you waste your time reading through hundreds of insignificant and chronologically sorted posts from people you don’t know? Even Connan O’Brian, as the new host of the Tonight Show, now has a satirical skit about how meaningless celebrity Twitts are in contrast to the hype made about Twitter. Who really cares if Angelina Jolie Twits “I am having a terrible coffee in Malibou”? So why the hype and when does it matter? The hype is there because many media have learned to use Twitter to reach a larger audience at no cost... that is why every media talks about Twitter. This basically gave all the media a way to do what they could not do with phone text messages... so they promote Twitter every time they can! Now why does micro blogging matters? It matters because it is the voice of the people (although fading quickly thanks to those mega-media spammers). This is where an important distinction must be made; the voice of the people is not the same as the words of every one. This is why no one who values his/her free time will read the chronological stream of 140 characters statements from people waiting in line to buy the new iPhone or complain about Junior High’s principal.

Micro blogs are chaotic in nature and increase our information overload, unless someone who cares about a given topic, observes, searches, filters, selects and delivers the valuable nuggets for us to pay attention. To this day the micro blogging phenomena has been focusing on self-promotion, community awareness, and used for people-reporting. Now how do we make sense of the information overload we all love to create and share? In contrast from today’s iteration with micro-blogs, DARWIN a WikiGazette LLC awareness and discovery engine, take a different approach by acknowledging the chaotic nature of this information, and focusing its model on the emergence of correlated themes coming from all even-driven sources. Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

The Pulse 2.0 of Success

Organizations of every size believe their vision for the future must lead their actions to be realized. To ensure that actions are aimed towards that end, the challenge of the executive team is about gaining the trust, leading the inspiration and ensuring that the vision will be adopted and acted upon. An experienced executive team will also ensure that the organization’s stakeholders express their vision and share its ownership. This provides for a better feasibility assessment and execution commitment.

Maintaining and reinventing a vision is a highly iterative process that shapes future outcomes. This process can be most effective when observing measurable results as early as possible in the vision’s life cycle. The results are often used to measure if the vision was correct or requires improvement. Nowadays this form of measurement provides leadership with a rear-view mirror decision-making perspective. In fact, when an organization measures sales, it is the outcome of coordinated collaborative efforts that have often occurred months before becoming a key indicator of success. Today management needs to have real-time visibility on the company’s vision adoption and actions that lead to the measured result. With the emergence of Web 2.0 collaboration tools, many teams and knowledge workers use chat rooms, blogs, wikis and other means to coordinate their activities and implement best practices aimed at reaching their common goal. Unfortunately, this information and knowledge is rarely observed as a measurement of the pulse of what is going on day-to-day. These tools remain segregated, ambiguous and lead to perishable or ignored content simply because they are too heterogeneous to provide measurements. Yet employees use them for deliberation, decision buy-in, delegation and strategic purposes.

We have a platform that provides an overview of pulse of different initiatives across the enterprise’s Web 2.0 collaboration. Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

Entre le cristal et la fumée - Henri Atlan (Between cristal and smoke)

I am not sure that this book is available in English but it further strengthens my research in extending the Chaos Theory to consuming information using the interpretations of the human cognitive abilities when facing a collective corpus of multidimensional data. I am finding many parallel ways to explain the organization of what is alive with what I believe to be a similar model for chaotic information. Henri Atlan outlines many concepts of Neodarwinism and Costa de Beauregard’s views of thoughts and matter. With modern computing capabilities, I am more and more inclined to build and find support in experimenting with life-model algorithms. This is also supported by François Jacob work that brings stronger arguments for the models of physico-chemistry. I don’t how many of my friends and ex-colleagues share my passion for extracting/elevating order out of chaos through mathematics and human cognitive interaction with systems... for my old IBM/Lotus friends this is not a far stretch from KM and the COI work we did. I invite you to contact me and share your ideas with me. I will start to shift my focus from KM to Chaos Management as it offers much better information consumption in the age of information emerging from so many dimensions and levels of relative importance. Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

The value of computing and knowledge.

In an effort to put a price on a new information consumption engine that I am building, I was asked to figure out what a license cost might look like. After nearly 20 years in the field of Knowledge Management I have been able to measure the value of systems that accelerate a known process through computation and workflow rules... but a system that actually acts as if it is thinking and produces unpredictable results is a different animal all together. I believe that we are starting to reach a new paradigm shift in computing where AI systems mining chaotic information start to look more like an expert than an expert system. I have been able to elevate chaotic information into structured knowledge that has value only to the cognitive process of the human recipient. A very similar process to the one we are engaged in when we discuss, discover and enrich our knowledge from others. From that premiss, I can only think that such a system should be valued and measured according to what it brings to those interacting with it. Basically it should be considered as valuable as co-workers. Perhaps this is a stretch today for most of us, but with IBM's research in human-like computing I can see the day when we will price these systems according to interaction benefits over measured ROIs. Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

Building a WEB2.0 Virtual Cortex

For many decades science fiction writers have fantasized about human-machine neural implants. The ability for humans to control machines with their minds (a reality today with the use of brain signals to move a mouse and prosthetic limbs) pales in comparison with machines capable of transferring knowledge (as seen in the early “Start Trek” or, more recently, the movie “The Matrix”), or event tap into our cerebral cortex to store information or create fabricated realities (as explored in “The Matrix” or William Gibson’s ? “Johnny Mnemonic”. MIT and CalTech are actively researching these options as the technology to interface the human brain with machine is becoming a reality. It is only limited by technological advancement, time and our biological understanding of the brain’s functions.

One aspect that has escaped most futurists and science fictions authors is the existence of a non-human neuro-pathway repository that is built from chaotic human experiences (let’s call it a Virtual Cortex). This concept is not far fetched when we observe the evolution of the WEB2.0 where events are accessible through RSS feeds. If you look at every event as recordable, categorizable and connectable to other events that are captured in time or within similar dimensions (categories), you can easily draw a parallel with the human’s ability to capture and organize the events that occur in their respective lives.

My work with WikiGazette exploits this concept to create an Ontotropic* Web Discovery Engine. Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

I went to see Religilous last night!

I went to see Religilous last night. I have to say that it was refreshing and it took me back to a time when it was OK to challenge religion and understand its role in the right time period (in school when I was 14! - JP Sartre, Albert Camus and Arthur Koestler; Granted! not part of the US curriculum, but still.). I have always be astonished that people in our century could still believe in religious anecdotal stories as if they were not figurative; and this across all religions. Which further proves the absurdity of religion in our increasingly unstable and self-annihilating capable age. I believe Bill Maher got it right in terms of demonstrating the absurdity and the dangers of blind faith. All of us recognize this, yet we put the blame on the other religious club; hence the problem. Like Bill Maher, I think that faith is a great thing to have when you are down; life can be quite absurd and you need to grab on something somehow. This being said one thing captured my attention in the movie; Thomas Jefferson’s view on religion. In fact Thomas Jefferson’s view on religion is pretty close to my own and the way our country’s relationship with religion should be. Funny that the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers saw religion as having negative impact on the prosperity of democracy. He went as far as reducing the bible the its essential moral compass aspect.

Extracted for WikiPedia: From his careful study of the Bible, Jefferson concluded that Jesus never claimed to be God. He therefore regarded much of the New Testament as "so much untruth, charlatanism and imposture". He described the "roguery of others of His disciples", and called them a "band of dupes and impostors", describing Paul as the "first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus", and wrote of "palpable interpolations and falsifications". He also described the Book of Revelation to be "merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams". While living in the White House, Jefferson began to piece together his own condensed version of the Gospel, omitting the virgin birth of Jesus, miracles attributed to Jesus, divinity and the resurrection of Jesus. Thus, primarily leaving only Jesus' moral philosophy, of which he approved. This compilation titled The LIFE AND MORALS OF JESUS OF NAZARETH Extracted Textually from the Gospels Greek, Latin, French, and English was published after his death and became known as the Jefferson Bible.

Like Jefferson I believe in the essential need to illustrate morality for people to be prepared with social tools. After all, Jean-Jacques Rousseau did as much as reconciling sate and morality with the “Social Contract” in 1762. Now why is it that these great men, who influenced independence from tyranny and democracy, are not put on a higher standing to guide our moral values? (Oh yah right! They were not appointed by God ;-)

This is the next challenge I would like to see Bill Maher take on as a second step that might inspire people to educate themselves and look at alternatives... if self-moral governance weighs too much for us, of course!

Enjoy the movie and don’t fear speaking out. Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

YEI 2008 Conference in Paris - Video

I express my experience and challenge a near the halfway of this video. Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

Response to W. Malone and Mark Klein's Harnessing Collective Intelligence to Address GLobal Climate Change

“Harnessing Collective Intelligence to Address Global Climate Change”

– Response by Thierry Hubert

As an early designer and adopter of collaborative technologies, from my days at PWC and Lotus/IBM, I have to express my enthusiasm and optimism when I read your article. The “Stories of a Possible Future” are very inspiring and offer a practical use of WEB 2.0 collaborative technologies that serve an initiated and dedicated community of users. I can’t help but make the parallel with the promise of breaking the enterprise vertical division through collaborative technologies with hope being that knowledge from one department would be visible in the other to improve responsiveness and productivity. Since then we have seen the emergence of runagate initiatives that move faster than the organization’s ability to absorb, thus creating an organic model for collaboration. These technologies and collaborative models are now available on the WEB. The reality is that they are not new. They have a greater reach and are initiated without governance. In reading the paper I found the scenarios compelling but still catering to a federated extended community. The social WEB2.0 social dimension and its interest in Global Warming through ideas and concerns do not appear to be captured and leveraged in this proposition. Furthermore, the elevation of scientific data to the common people for actionable use in terms of political pressure and awareness would require the Climate Collaboratorium’s actors be willing to extrapolate their finding in a consumable by the public. I also would like to understand a little more about rating information in such a complex corpus of information and simulation tools. The simple facts and highly rated information are not enough to have an impact when faced with socio-political challenges and interests. Scientists and reputable professors with empirical evidence and data are still challenged by opposition that serves to lower the reality being expressed. Throughout history evidence that conflicts with economic forces and the establishment are met with resistance. A collaborative Web can serve both sides and user ranking as a mean to elevate conflicting points-of-view. I would be very interested to see how a social conflict dimension could be made visible, as well as a physical constraint. Perhaps a consolidation of the WEB20 though contextual lenses, instead of popular ranking, with Climate Collaboratium would help bring awareness to the concerned and fragmented people and elevate the WEB20 contribution for research, ideas and social implementation feasibility.

In conclusion, this paper’s position was fascinating. It created more questions than answers and that is a good thing. It confirmed my interest and studying the need for contextual and multi-dimensional navigation and tagging. I look forward to more on harnessing collective intelligence beyond professional communities. Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

Pont Neuf Bis - Against a Strong Currency, a Positive Outlook by the French American Chamber of Commerce; New England Chapter.

This is an article published about Pont Neuf Bis (my French product import business) published by the French American Chamber of Commerce. Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

WikiGazette - YEI 2008 Winner

After many years of efforts and innovation in Knowledge Management we won recognition and are we being sponsored by the French government and institutions. We are now going to realize our objective of creating an Organic Relevance Service through "Delivering the Forest instead of fetching the trees"! More to come.... .. Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

Simply the largest oyster I have ever eaten

Before my return to Boston after enjoying friends and family in Paris, I went to eat one of my favorites before my return to Boston; “le plateau de fruit de mer”. Here it is… simply the largest oyster I have ever eaten! A “creuse” from Normandy of gigantesque proportion and taste. I did not spoil it with lemon or mignonette… I hate it whole, and it is no more! Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

YEi 2008: four New England winners

Four New England-based high-tech start-up projects are among the winners of the Young Entrepreneurs Initiative’s 2008 call for proposals.

Managed by the Office for Science and Technology of the French Embassy in the United States, the Young Entrepreneurs Initiative (YEi) helps US-based entrepreneurs set up business in France and leverage technical and financial resources in Europe and in the US. Successful candidates will benefit from organized business trips to France where they will meet key potential partners and will be able to validate the feasibility of their project. Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

France; Know-how appreciated by the top tier.

I am finding that France’s role in a global economy has less to do with competing with the rest of the world, but instead it is about being the custodian of good taste, culture and quality. I was recently visiting the United Arab Emirates and noticed that the growing upper-class was seeking the quality than even today’s high profile vendors could not deliver as they increasingly depend on China and other emerging countries to meet their demand; hence scarifying their legendary quality.

Yes, big brands are making a fatal mistake in thinking that the pickiest customers are not noticing the decline of quality. So what grabs the attention and desire of these demanding customers? Uncompromised quality in materials and craftsmanship! And also, “make it unique”. The promises of one-to-one marketing and the Wikinomics’ “prosumer” have a place in the high-end consumer space. The question becomes; can France acknowledge that its tradition is in fact its future, that it’s investment in art and schooled craftsmanship is an asset that can equal its tourism, and that perhaps France’s role is to remain a traditional France. When we see the homogenization of cultures and products, the difference that France possesses in its DNA may very become the envy of other nations seeking cultural uniqueness. Perhaps France is the world’s luxury corner store and museum that reminds of greater times and nuances. I, for one, see this as an opportunity and I have decided to actively promote and leverage this cultural asset through the use of WEB 2.0 technologies and services that may help French artisans get global visibility and recognition for their art and sough out value.

More to come... Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

The French are not giving up on search visualization

Here is an update for our KM community members; many of you have heard me talk about the early work of Trivium in search and discovery visualization. I have been contacting them over the years and asking them why they abandoned the core technology in favor of building an HR specific application. Obviously being early in the KM visualization game, they simply ran out of resources and they had to find a niche market to survive. Unfortunately for them another French company (Kartoo) has taken the lead in search visualization utility. You have to take a look at www.kartoo.com they are where Trivium should be today. I don’t know if they have common sources but the coincidence in Kartoo’s wizard and visual models are very close to what Trivium did with Kartograph for Lotus Notes in 1998. Let me know what you think of this utility (they have two others search utilities that offer different representations).

Enjoy!

Thierry Twit This! Sphere: Related Content

Has the time come to change the advertisement overload madness?

Living in the US I can never stop to wonder why people still watch television shows that are interrupted every 10 minutes with endless pharmaceutical, car and self-promoting advertisement. I like a few shows, like “The Office”, but I choose to download it via iTunes and pay for it instead of being exposed to the advertisement. This is a wake-up call to the advertisers. Can you imagine how the business model for entertainment would change if the show creators did not depend on advertisement sponsors to be profitable? Since 1996 with InterCommunity, Instant Powers, WikiGazette and ANDoo I have been promoting the concept of contextual content to the right user and community; today’s’ advertiser’s Holy Grail. Well, we all know Google has embraced the model but they are also facing privacy issues and can’t have a direct line into my real interests and present context (at least I hope ;-(. They have to guess what I want with complex algorithms and mad mathematicians hidden somewhere on the Google campus. I believe that the next wave of contextual advertisement will be permission-based and user-centric. Our challenge, as technologists and system architects, is to find a lasting and ubiquitous model that does not reside on large servers, but instead where the consumer’s experience takes place. Let me know your thoughts on the subject.

Bill, what do you think? Twit This! Sphere: Related Content