tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90224452024-03-11T23:52:51.734-05:00Thierry Hubert's blog<p align="center">It's funny how the more complex a problem is, the more natural and fundamental the solution is. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger91125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-22033041294922132282024-01-22T11:14:00.005-05:002024-01-22T11:14:28.929-05:00Uniting Tradition and Technology: Championing French Craftsmanship for a Sustainable Cultural Future<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2.14em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: arial; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="834" data-original-width="1309" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMo7V7wdzmW0D9-OdXDk9iOQ6AWJ24JnkFxLsq5z6O7Np6Gld07wVe46XeI3mvgs9qx8_20qVbpHBL2a5cWMD3F-3uuy4Ju4M3iPaWZiZPPVrwifJixK2HpLfZbpMCmT5Bkwzkwx8zBNcqucnpejzcRss4g1dSYeqgQBTUYf70bqHG3Xnf2GSR/w400-h254/France%20Artisans.png" width="400" /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As a responsible technologist at the forefront of materializing and automating reasoning, it’s crucial to acknowledge the subtle forces constantly shaping our future, identity, and well-being. Often, the changes we barely notice have the most significant impact. Understanding this can help us truly appreciate the transformative power of change. </span></span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">Our role in advancing technology goes far beyond the technical; it’s about sculpting a world where sustainability, ethics, and responsibility are woven into the very fabric of progress.</span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2.14em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Throughout my career as a technologist and strategist, I’ve been driven to apply my skills to improve business performance. Now comes the ways my experiences further honor my heritage and positively impact community and sustainability. This journey led me to the heart of France’s rich culture and innovative spirit, particularly evident in its exquisite craftsmanship. I recall the early days of facilitating web-based collaboration in the wine industry with InterCommunity at IBM in Paris during the mid-90s. The value of know-how and cultural heritage became apparent as a sustainable core elevating their products. This same passion for tradition and excellence in French craftsmanship was palpable when I promoted French-made luxury Limoge porcelain and equestrian art at the Dubai Horse Show in the early 2010s, opening enduring opportunities for French artisans.</span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2.14em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">French artisans are more than skilled workers; they are custodians of a heritage that marries timeless techniques with a commitment to quality and sustainability. Their work is a beautiful blend of human creativity and environmental respect. As technologists, it’s our duty to protect our environment and empower cultural values to thrive, resisting the homogenization that leads to commercial exploitation, isolation, and a loss of intellectual diversity. Today, more than ever, we must contribute to ensuring our homes and lifestyles continue to improve and remain sustainable. We can’t hide behind the guise of being mere catalysts; we must actively use our strengths to foster positive change.</span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2.14em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I’ve chosen to support French craftsmanship in its battle against mass production and commercialized luxury brands. This choice stems from my belief in the harmonious coexistence of tradition and innovation, offering the world a practical and inspiring model of sustainability. By celebrating and promoting these artisans, we’re not just preserving a cultural treasure but advocating for a future where sustainability is integral to our global community. In doing so, we’re not merely paying tribute to a rich legacy. We’re embracing a future where the elegance of tradition and the promise of technology converge to create a better world for everyone — a world where quality is the natural outcome of thoughtful living. Engaging in this manner also offers a win-win scenario where financial sustainability and growth are shared, which is also economically sound and rewarding.</span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2.14em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Let’s all play our part, from nurturing the physical earth to fostering mental well-being. Let’s make a difference, one thoughtful step at a time.</span></span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-70077658411003820062023-07-14T22:10:00.005-05:002023-07-14T22:10:44.056-05:00The Responsible Technologist<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga53iV76s-XQ3ADRUnPZTJQCQDX2Z790Vzz5IzDNRjcHIWQw6ePOAZAMaaVTfT8hjV-hniC6ExKOn1NnDPw2zMgIa6OIELRqefWDyzzIq4bS5t_5uOvznDI4C6JyrQfOkCjvqqbC9vbjWTjNjK6-3BugnHqORIiGwtxJSBeShDEU0zfQkP4kOjWx_YLJCB/s640/responsible%20tech.webp" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="640" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga53iV76s-XQ3ADRUnPZTJQCQDX2Z790Vzz5IzDNRjcHIWQw6ePOAZAMaaVTfT8hjV-hniC6ExKOn1NnDPw2zMgIa6OIELRqefWDyzzIq4bS5t_5uOvznDI4C6JyrQfOkCjvqqbC9vbjWTjNjK6-3BugnHqORIiGwtxJSBeShDEU0zfQkP4kOjWx_YLJCB/w200-h160/responsible%20tech.webp" width="200" /></a>In an era where technology permeates every aspect of our lives, the role of responsible technologists has become increasingly crucial. As we witness the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, automation, and the materialization of once-abstract thoughts, we find ourselves at a critical juncture where our actions as creators and innovators carry immense weight. The power to shape the future lies in our hands, and with this power comes a profound responsibility to ensure the well-being and sustainability of our society.</p><p></p><p>Being a responsible technologist means acknowledging the far-reaching consequences of our creations and actively taking steps to mitigate any potential harm. It requires us to go beyond the pursuit of efficiency and progress and instead adopt a holistic approach that considers our work's ethical, social, and environmental implications. By recognizing that our innovations can shape human behavior, alter societal structures, and transform the fabric of our existence, we embrace the accountability that comes with our role.</p><p>Automation and materializing thoughts are two particular areas that demand our attention. As we automate tasks, we streamline processes and enhance productivity, but we must also ensure that human well-being is not compromised in the process. Thought materialization, the ability to convert ideas into tangible realities, opens up new frontiers of creativity and expression. However, we must be cautious in wielding this power, understanding its potential ramifications and impact on privacy, agency, and the equitable distribution of resources.</p><p>To be a responsible technologist, we must actively engage in ongoing conversations and collaborations with diverse stakeholders. By involving ethicists, social scientists, policymakers, and affected communities, we can incorporate a wider range of perspectives into our decision-making processes. This inclusive approach enables us to identify and address potential biases, unintended consequences, and ethical dilemmas arising from our creations.</p><p>Furthermore, responsible technologists recognize the importance of transparency and accountability in their work. By openly sharing information, algorithms, and data, we foster trust and empower individuals to understand and influence the technologies that shape their lives. We must also be willing to acknowledge and rectify any shortcomings, biases, or failures that may arise, demonstrating our commitment to learning, improvement, and ethical integrity.</p><p>Ultimately, being a responsible technologist means accepting that our work's impact extends far beyond innovation and progress. It requires us to be stewards of a future that upholds human dignity, respects privacy, promotes equality, and preserves our environment. By embracing this responsibility and actively working towards a more ethical and sustainable technological landscape, we can pave the way for a future that benefits all of humanity. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-43742664202812522462023-04-01T23:50:00.042-05:002023-07-15T00:28:49.955-05:00Human Augmentation: Navigating the Risks of Devolution and Decency in Our Evolutionary Path<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI5Yrwlmgc-AP4ZXZ5WwQdOuxr8n9rSs5Fm6W9dwglCXUkxQ_pxQ9956H3FGYG-SaoQhB6L6v3x81Xwa8nKVzkJdMWBw48dyDgVt3psgXhOBg57TlwW_TUZPsmlX9SShCRDugEZH5fIitsYNCukyHCm4S6k1i2N8HEWQIE1hHpigkqEoQ56kEQ/s512/AI%20US.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI5Yrwlmgc-AP4ZXZ5WwQdOuxr8n9rSs5Fm6W9dwglCXUkxQ_pxQ9956H3FGYG-SaoQhB6L6v3x81Xwa8nKVzkJdMWBw48dyDgVt3psgXhOBg57TlwW_TUZPsmlX9SShCRDugEZH5fIitsYNCukyHCm4S6k1i2N8HEWQIE1hHpigkqEoQ56kEQ/s320/AI%20US.webp" width="320" /></a></i></div><i><br />I have not posted on my blog since I moved to Dallas, and Covid hit us hard. I gave in Montreal and Dallas presentations on the augmented human - a topic that has fascinated me for years as a technologist and was always well-received by the audience. </i><p></p><p><i>In light of the acceleration in AI, Covid, and the dramatic turn our planet's climate is taking, I have rekindled my desire to share my thoughts in what I consider to be a more thoughtful reflection. </i></p><p><i>It starts with this thought: <b>"We are forcing humanity to become the architect of its evolution."</b></i></p><p>Human augmentation through technology has long been a topic of fascination and speculation, fueling our imaginations with visions of enhanced capabilities and a potential leap forward in our evolutionary journey. However, as we embark on this path of technological advancement, it is essential to critically examine the potential risks involved. While augmentation holds the promise of progress, there is a growing concern that it could inadvertently lead us toward devolution, erode our resilience, and force us to become the architects of our evolutionary survival.</p><p>As we rely more on external technologies to augment our abilities, we may become overly dependent on them, leading to the deterioration of innate human qualities. For instance, relying heavily on cognitive augmentation devices may result in diminished critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Over time, this erosion of core human abilities could undermine our capacity to adapt and thrive without external aid.</p><p>The pursuit of physical augmentation also leads to an imbalance between our natural bodies and artificially enhanced aspects. While enhanced physical attributes can provide short-term benefits, they may come at the cost of losing our natural biological functions. Over-reliance on artificial enhancements could weaken our natural immune systems or even reduce lifespan due to unforeseen consequences. This potential devolutionary trajectory raises concerns about our species' long-term sustainability and resilience.</p><p>However, our augmentation could inadvertently reduce our resilience by creating a false sense of invincibility or narrowing our skill sets. By relying heavily on augmentation, we may become less adaptable to unforeseen challenges that cannot be addressed by our technological enhancements. In a world where technology evolves at a rapid pace, relying too heavily on specific augmentations could render us vulnerable when faced with unfamiliar scenarios or unanticipated changes.</p><p>I am also concerned that the potential for inequality arising from differential access to augmentation technologies could further diminish societal resilience. If only a select few have access to the benefits of augmentation, it may exacerbate existing disparities and lead to a divided society. In such a scenario, the majority would lack the necessary resilience to thrive in an increasingly augmented world, further widening the gap between the augmented and the non-augmented, thus undermining the cohesion and stability of our societies. As the risks of devolution and reduced resilience loom, it becomes unavoidable for humanity to actively shape its evolutionary path to ensure survival and prosperity. Rather than passively accepting the consequences of unguided technological augmentation, we must adopt a thoughtful and intentional approach. This is even more evident today as we face a threatening existential climate change. </p><p>We must invest in education and critical thinking to mitigate the risks of devolution and promote the responsible use of augmentation technologies. Cultivating a deep understanding of both the potential benefits and pitfalls of augmentation will empower individuals to make informed decisions and actively participate in shaping their own evolutionary path.</p><p>I deeply believe that our augmentation through technology holds immense potential for enhancing our capabilities and pushing the boundaries of our existence. However, we must tread carefully to avoid unintended consequences that lead to devolution, reduced resilience, and societal divisions. By recognizing the risks and taking proactive measures to address them, we can navigate this transformative phase and ensure that human augmentation becomes a force for positive evolution, empowering us to shape our destiny while preserving our essential humanity. Unfortunately, should the necessity for our self-imposed evolution be unavoidable to our survival, it is likely to lead us to lose our humanity as we dissociate ourselves from the increasingly hostile natural world and seek both artificial substance and reasoning.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-27990852698066148622016-10-22T14:42:00.007-05:002023-07-14T22:28:59.556-05:00The “Millennials” The Disconnected Connected<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgafNPJWjxbEhzQvkXuC0cAtd_KK1gbNKGJho01-OcqtWuxSiROc-fMzNxhoYPw-9Smn_BY7FiN1sUkdiyN0K83HpNsvhixH053xZuejbK-ctqq9XO3bKbNSiuLmzJMIpoZhgiW/s1600/teen-ignoring-mom.png" style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgafNPJWjxbEhzQvkXuC0cAtd_KK1gbNKGJho01-OcqtWuxSiROc-fMzNxhoYPw-9Smn_BY7FiN1sUkdiyN0K83HpNsvhixH053xZuejbK-ctqq9XO3bKbNSiuLmzJMIpoZhgiW/s320/teen-ignoring-mom.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The "Millennials" are marked by an unnoticed plague. Social media is this generation's ignored toxic habit adversely affecting their social and mental health, just as smoking was in the '60s to our bodies. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">We can all observe this generation's dependence on mobile communication. We think of it lightly and only see its disruption's surface. In fact, we are often outraged by this singular consumption that occupies our youth's myopic attention and focus. We know the peril of the experiences they are missing for being unaware of their surroundings as they have their heads buried in a dimension that makes an abstraction of the here and now. This lack of awareness is weakening their ability to learn the patterns associated with the movement of life itself and detect the opportunities and threats that lurk around them. How many fall while texting? How many can't recall the landmarks from home to school? How many feel helpless recollecting basic knowledge they can't reference on their smartphone? Have you seen a young police officer texting instead of looking at the traffic patterns? — Ok, that one might be useful. I recently witnessed a flight attendant, about 25 years old, so consumed by texting that she was not responsive to her duty to open the doors despite being summoned over the PA. These are only a few first-degree examples and observations. But what about the ramifications of these behaviors? </span></div>
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What happens when a child has unfiltered communication with its peers? What happens to the mind's ability to memorize and learn when instant gratification occurs when seeking information on Google? What happens to parenting when parents tolerate their children's subterranean life as an excuse to find relief from their busy schedules? Technology only accelerates time and space in our physical and social reality. It is far easier to measure technology's disruption in the physical world.
In contrast, the social ecosystem is far more complex because it is an arbitrary reality that we accept according to beliefs, protocols, socio-economic pressures, and the search for a relatively happy life. Like our planet, our social system and its mechanisms have evolved. Our need to establish a social protocol through rituals to collectively transcend our ephemeral individual existence is the primary and most common driver for the growth of humanity. We have created methods and disciplines around our ability to co-exist, find peace, and trade — I would postulate that religion is an early social tool designed for governance as humanity expands. But what happens when we accelerate and fragment the tapestry of what connects us?</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
A simple example is the practice of politeness as a necessary tool to facilitate a possible trait through mutual respect. Isn't it interesting that the more we feel autonomous and fulfilled, the less we observe polite behaviors? Have you noticed that often young Millennial adults are rarely polite and have a strong sense of entitlement? Are we surprised, or do the parents amongst us feel a sense of responsibility? Have we bought tranquility by purchasing mobile phones and video games and praising their mediocre accomplishments? We knew better as parents, and we simply allowed this to occur as so many of our parents allowed a great deal of us to watch television as the alternative babysitter. No one is innocent. The fact is that the fast adoption of technology occurs without consideration for its social and mental health impact. Technology's acceleration of communication is, of course, a disruptor and will force change. We know enough about the adverse implications that technology brought when we crossed the Atlantic, invented the phone, and exposed our beliefs and lifestyle through television to cultures that exercise control in areas where we have freedom. Yes, people are threatened by change because change worries us. It is unavoidable, and our respective social models are designed for self-preservation. But here is the real issue. The more we isolate ourselves and surrender to providers, the less we understand what it takes to evolve and survive. We are being distracted and fulfilled by the seductive value proposition of unfiltered communication and creating silos of social media friends that look like us. The result is that we are building a false certainty of ourselves and the world. The system narrows our view of those like us, diminishing our ability to grow, create, and find opportunities from differences. Humanity only evolves through necessities. Remove it, then certitude and provisioned comfort will simply atrophy our ability to make decisions and, ultimately, survive.
Having all the information at our fingertips when the same system further isolates and atrophies us is the paradox that cripples our awareness of the risk ahead. When knowledge is not needed, and when we are content with the way things are, we will stop to evolve. Generation X owns some responsibility for indulging and turning a blind eye for the sake of convenience. The outcome is palpable when we try to educate and challenge our youth. We are disliked and rejected for not being a BFF and the unconditional provider they see us as. Many Generation X parents and employers simply resign themselves by looking for ways to reach the Millennials on their terms. In doing so, we sink them further into the certitude of dysfunction. We need to buckle up and bring real discomfort to the Millennials because necessity is necessary for humanity to move forward.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-9287522898013848482016-07-28T15:59:00.002-05:002023-07-14T22:36:10.322-05:00The Pokémon Go Walk of Shame<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When Pokémon Go was released, my geekiest developer had an awakening. In fact, he used his shoes in a manner unseen before and left his bat cave to venture into the real world of virtual rewards. </div><div class="p1"><br /></div>
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He ventured into Montreal, seeking acquisitions and fame. He discovered new leg muscles and walked all over the city late at night. He arrived late to the office every morning. But this time, from physical exhaustion - not his usual fatigue acquired from playing all night on his Uber gaming platform. He even met other hunters - giving him new hope for connecting with mortals.</div>
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Of course, I took a puff of this most addictive form of treasure hunt. But it was when I reached level 6 on July 22nd at 12:23pm, and upon lifting my head in our very hip tech neighborhood of the Mile End, that I observed a crowd of people engaged in Pokémon Go on their way to lunch (the picture). The zombification was real and palpable to those who had not been bitten. Then a feeling of shame came over me. I did not want to be accused of being a <a href="https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Mareep_(Pok%C3%A9mon)" target="_blank">Mareep</a>. I then opened the application in a manner that was discrete and concealed. The Pokémon Go had become an expression of personality weakness and blind conformism. Surely enough, the use of the application was dismissed dramatically in Montreal's ground zero of geekiness. By July 26th, Pokémon Go screens were rarely seen, and those engaged a week ago are now mocking and looking down upon those still using it. It was so yesterday - the shame of being a week-old late bloomer. </div>
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This is a fascinating tale of how "too much too fast" can lead to a dramatic failure. But it is so revealing of human nature. This need to collect, lead, and be on the bleeding edge of the latest thing demonstrates the recipe that drives us. Even the most savvy techies were caught in this plot to exploit a generation's emotional childhood attachment to the Pokémon brand as a viral accelerator. We don't mind being played, but the exposure was too great this time. We now know that we can be truly aware of what seduces us. We just don't like to be played and exposed for it. But more importantly, we demonstrated that we can reject it and remain in control. But I challenge that the visible fast speed of change fueled this rejection. We are still vulnerable to change that we can't notice - it creates an unseen new normal. That gives an older individual perspective and retrospective to see the danger lurking in the de facto acceptance and certainty of a younger generation. We need cross-generational communication to protect our humanity and rights from a deliberate and undetected change designed to take advantage of us. Not every innovation is delivered as rapidly as Pokémon Go for us to notice the absurdity of collective frenzy and blind buy-in. We conform and seek to be part of communities to have a voice amplified to protect our rights, desires, and sometimes our sense of entitlement. But in this case, if and when I decide to open Pokémon Go, I will paradoxically raise my head to avoid the walk of shame.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0Mile End, Montreal, QC, Canada45.5236275 -73.598489145.501377500000004 -73.6388296 45.5458775 -73.5581486tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-26226256144319887862015-12-10T22:10:00.002-05:002023-07-14T22:38:07.490-05:00The Democratization of Business Intelligence<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Business intelligence (BI) is associated with methods and tools capable of extracting useful information for business insight and analysis. The methods applied are often complex as the technology needs to process large amounts of heterogeneous and unstructured data, all with optimal goals in common — revealing unexpected opportunities and providing a competitive advantage.</div>
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Who Benefits the Most from Business Intelligence? Any business can be the beneficiary of this practice. Business insight exists within all employees in the form of tacit knowledge, yet only a few employees have access to BI tools and methods needed for capitalization. Humans perform BI best, yet the tools and techniques are complex for most of the workforce. This complexity is reaching a tipping point with the awakening of computers being able to perform more Artificial Intelligence (AI) processes powered by Big Data and cognitive technology. We can start to put the complexity in the back end of our systems and reveal the benefits to more users.</div>
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Business people are not waiting for BI tools; it is an intimate part of everyday work. It takes time if we have to deliberately think about it. Many will search the Web, collect RSS feeds, probe social media, do or have assistants doing the work of curation, and repeat to be up-to-date. Others will just detect risk or opportunity as it reaches them serendipitously. That basic set of tasks is exactly what can be automated by the latest technology. The Darwin Awareness Optimizer (<a data-mce-href="http://www.darwinao.com" href="http://www.darwinao.com/" target="_blank">DAO</a>) is such a solution.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></div>
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I believe that revealing and detecting patterns comprehensively to anyone is the first step in changing the enterprise's corporate culture into an efficient cognitive business culture. This evolution is also acknowledged by IBM's Chairman and CEO <a data-mce-href="http://fortune.com/2015/10/13/ginni-rometty-cognitive-business/" href="http://fortune.com/2015/10/13/ginni-rometty-cognitive-business/" target="_blank">Ginni Rometty</a> when she said that "a new technological era is upon us, one that marries digital business with digital intelligence. It's what's known as cognitive business."</div>
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As BI and AI become more integrated into 21st-century business methods, today's businesses can't allow the chasm between data science and business workers to grow. This why not every BI solution needs to be complex and limited to a few experts to keep a business alert and resilient.</div>
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Limiting this capability of BI to a few experts, as is the current model of operation in the business culture, not only puts a huge burden of accountability that slows down insightful BI but also omits the outliers' detection and expertise of the workforce in everyday activities. The democratization of business intelligence offers a wider, more comprehensive, and more insightful awareness at every level of the organization.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-47778745812508836742015-05-03T02:07:00.002-05:002023-07-14T22:40:39.928-05:00Youfie is now the Apple App Store - And its purpose for anyone to figure out.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/youfie/id973073544?ls=1&mt=8" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-vuCjYgUEdetaYIaQuLj-ORbAzLlM1MjOLqWU4nce6wxt9B7zmq1pyTBgffLYJ1hTjzEDTnoxKe0n4iNqlNyUWafTKl2YS-42tO9PYGNNEdamKZOTBM4zBrvFatmBpPwywZms/s1600/Youfie-Spalsh.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
When we think of social media and the internet nowadays, we also think of our known footprint and accept that our identity, and its persistence in systems, is what is used to better target us. This is the reality that, in some countries, is being scrutinized to protect privacy as much as figuring out the economy of releasing such information. Of course, capturing our identity and proclivity has been built by design to support the industry that gives us these wonderful tools that "make the world a better place" (dixit every start-up and silicon valley company). And not too long ago came a simple sharing tool called SnapChat. They decided to make pictures and messages private and ephemeral. That simple decision is not based on any system limitations. Still, instead, it is an intentional feature that gives an element of privacy lost in the era of FaceBook and Twitter. This simple element of confidentiality and disappearance of content is reminiscent of a simpler time. But perhaps more importantly, the freedom that comes with it.<br />
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In that same spirit, we created Youfie, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/youfie/id973073544?ls=1&mt=8" target="_blank">now available in the Apple App Store for your IOS device</a>. Instead of dealing with an ephemeral limitation, I chose anonymity as the shield to freedom and privacy. In fact, with Youfie, no registration is required, and every picture taken is simply dropped at its location with no trace to the author. Furthermore, the author relinquishes rights to the image, as does Youfie. The picture has been taken and abandoned in its place for anyone to view with no knowledge of its author and no one knowing who has viewed it. This would encourage many different use cases. Imagine taking a picture of a political situation and knowing that you won't be traced for bringing awareness. Or walk in Yellowstone Park and see what others took on the spot you are standing. Knowing what has been captured in your neighborhood may help you. No application capturing identities could reveal this unfiltered reality.<br />
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As simple as taking a Polaroid and dropping where you took it for others to see. Now do with it as you please, and no one will know who took that crazy picture... Try <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/youfie/id973073544?ls=1&mt=8" target="_blank">Youfie</a> capture, abandon, and explore.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-31785937811363304592015-03-22T12:14:00.002-05:002023-07-14T22:42:31.068-05:00This TED matters for Darwin Ecosystem's research.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">I always encourage our team to see every TED talk available to ensure that our outlook on technology is challenged and inspired by thought leaders. But when <a href="http://www.eagleman.com/" target="_blank">David Eagleman</a>, a well-known neuroscientist, and writer, showed up, I was excited to see what he would say to enlighten the general public with his fascinating work. I consider him to be the most influential person dedicated to our field of research and soon to be a promising industry. This is the most relevant TED Talk related to the work of <a href="http://www.darwineco.com/" target="_blank">Darwin Ecosystem</a>. The umwelt expansion, paired with the generic pattern processing capability of the brain, makes total sense. Setting aside the use case, this is why it resonated with the TED audience (standing ovation).</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">Darwin Ecosystem has been working on awareness and discovery enhancement, as well as pattern detection, using organic paradigms where the inference of meaning is left to the user's innate ability to detect relevance - not the machine. As a matter of fact, for Darwin Ecosystem, the device is a catalyst and accelerator of senses and reach. But to go further, we are working on a Collective Memory Project in our Montreal R&D office to expand the umwelt from one individual to a collective. We are working with IBM's <a href="http://www.ibm.com/big-data/us/en/technology/" target="_blank" title="IBM Big Data">Big Data</a> and Cognitive Technologies (<a href="https://console.ng.bluemix.net/home" target="_blank" title="Watson Bluemix">Watson Bluemix</a>) to deliver solutions today and support our research in building a Virtual Cortex. Well done, David Eagleman, for bringing this science to a larger audience. It is sure to boost our own research initiative and interest.</div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">Thierry Hubert, CEO</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-45658607156429464692015-03-19T09:31:00.005-05:002023-07-14T22:49:56.859-05:00What drives the our tendency toward visual expression?<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_7ASsMfxkYgP9UauPPe96lBkeEh8idix11YabymETgml-EZzb6MFl64rp1KKkTKxHMJISp6HrHIH9PSXuackxHvcm8BkcDNsCfPUOCog9bXW3GYkTKNn4BCcooZL6jVif91ghK4UZ6ibfgSToLO7GN9eX2snGivAIgBBTN3eG4UXoOZd_gBep/s1024/overload.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="512" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_7ASsMfxkYgP9UauPPe96lBkeEh8idix11YabymETgml-EZzb6MFl64rp1KKkTKxHMJISp6HrHIH9PSXuackxHvcm8BkcDNsCfPUOCog9bXW3GYkTKNn4BCcooZL6jVif91ghK4UZ6ibfgSToLO7GN9eX2snGivAIgBBTN3eG4UXoOZd_gBep/w200-h400/overload.webp" width="200" /></a></div><br />"As long as the centuries continue to unfold, the number of books will grow continually, and one can predict that a time will come when it will be almost as difficult to learn anything from books as from the direct study of the whole universe. It will be almost as convenient to search for some bit of truth concealed in nature as it will be to find it hidden away in an immense multitude of bound volumes." –Denis Diderot, "Encyclopédie" (1755)</div><div><br /></div><div>Our natural knack for it drives our tendency toward visual expression. Human pattern detection makes us good at inferring meaning from what we see, and we're good at sharing information this way. When things get too complex to express with alphanumeric symbols alone, we recruit methods that use our inborn talent with the visual. It's a traditional way of dealing with information overload.</div><div><br /></div><div>Late in the Enlightenment, Diderot and d'Alembert published their Encyclopédie to preserve and share the sum total of scientific knowledge of the time. This was very ambitious. The printing press had driven an accelerating cycle of information creation. It had a contagious power to multiply ideas and facts, travel, and mutate and multiply again. So much had been written down, and there would soon be more. Diderot and d'Alembert recognized that we would have to learn how to learn faster to keep up with data creation. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Encyclopédie kept pace with the speed of information by using an 18th-century data visualization system that processed tons of information from books, letters, and conversations about the appearance, nature, and function of phenomena in the real world and their relationships to each other. Multiple perspectives and dimensions were used simultaneously in arrangements that engaged our visual pattern detection. You could understand how daylight moved across the earth's surface at a glance. You could learn how your heart worked. These visualizations were diagrams. They contained great densities of data. They helped you learn faster than by reading text alone.</div><div>It's been a long time since we've given up the ambition of having one encyclopedia of any number of volumes holding all that is known. Still, we're trying to keep pace with the acceleration of information. </div><div><br /></div><div>Because it knows how human communication organizes itself, Darwin's technology handles information overload by revealing the flow and evolution of information over time. This offers the ability to analyze and visualize the patterns of information form and evolve around topics. The information we share contains our insights, preserves our experiences, and communicates what we are aware of. All of it is discoverable now. </div><div><br /></div><div>What diagrams did for people reading the Encyclopédie, analytics, and data visualization do for all of us now. And just like then, the point isn't the tools themselves but how they are used and what happens afterward. The innovations these tools will make possible will open up a whole new world. We're at an extraordinary moment in the story of technology. What a time to be alive.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-12553391631547523612014-08-25T22:07:00.001-05:002014-08-25T22:07:57.347-05:00Darwin Ecosystem - Paul Edgewater interviews Thierry Hubert<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lATbDtx6k5I" width="480"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-56010501425752697462014-04-05T10:30:00.001-05:002014-04-05T10:32:26.707-05:00Darwin Ecosystem's Tweetzup in action at Big Data TechCon 2014Here is a demonstration that was filmed about tweetzup during the Big Data TechCon event this week in Cambridge.<br /><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/IGqB5S7VNXc" width="480"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-80754362321111903982014-01-27T16:29:00.003-05:002023-07-14T22:54:56.263-05:00Who reads tweets anyway? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb3KHB1ei5EEXgPSAixPLLiaZUqW_Z1CapWD67Rh3nIUG8lJcWMb8fyFh6J67GfSVBmvdr1BJQldBtuZUDj60xVKYLE7Ve41y8kYnsEiesY82AdY0JZmkv3izxHxq7EJ2zswAT/s1600/twitter-overload.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb3KHB1ei5EEXgPSAixPLLiaZUqW_Z1CapWD67Rh3nIUG8lJcWMb8fyFh6J67GfSVBmvdr1BJQldBtuZUDj60xVKYLE7Ve41y8kYnsEiesY82AdY0JZmkv3izxHxq7EJ2zswAT/s1600/twitter-overload.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Who reads tweets anyway? Most brands and organizations hope to understand what people think. What does Twitter give people in return, other than the motivation to be followed? Not much and Twitter fatigue could be felt sooner than you think. <br />
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Twitter is missing that content consumption by the consumer is essential to keep people committed to expressing themselves. After all, this is not Facebook, where people can be extroverts and peeping Toms. <br />
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Twitter's one-way "take" and lame "give" needs to be revisited soon. And their poor search or TweetDeck needs to cut it. Have you tried to make sense of what's up by reading tweet searches line by line? Fun right?<br />
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This is why I developed <a href="http://tweetzup.com/">tweetzup.com</a>. Let anyone know what's up meaningfully without having to read many tweets. The collective emergence of trends focused on what you care about is more revealing than reading everything and wasting time. Furthermore, you can set tweetup alerts about keywords that are trending on the topics you follow. And yes, tweetup can tweet the watch for you.<br />
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Let the machine service the human. Not the other way around. Sorry Twitter, but it is time to think about giving back to the people instead of expecting them to express themselves, knowing very well that their individuality has next to zero chance of being noticed without a ridiculous amount of promotional effort.<br />
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That being said, Twitter is also a great channel for targeted campaign or event communication. In this context, it serves as an open communication utility for a short period. And that is very useful.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-29103059161568453722014-01-06T12:43:00.002-05:002023-07-14T22:56:14.150-05:00Patterns and Collective Cognitive<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6qATLNUJZk70m5WS8nErqLLn9U0FGGGKiirW9hRmPprjUH_cv6E9xcx3u9Nzz4TLVTnRVza6ij4wm8XCVVZMxhVjsBs_nbqNdP-WLb2F4l7Hlhl_ugd_q3TDp4sBmEiTnnut5/s1600/dots5.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6qATLNUJZk70m5WS8nErqLLn9U0FGGGKiirW9hRmPprjUH_cv6E9xcx3u9Nzz4TLVTnRVza6ij4wm8XCVVZMxhVjsBs_nbqNdP-WLb2F4l7Hlhl_ugd_q3TDp4sBmEiTnnut5/s1600/dots5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
When I first postulated in 2007 that the patterns from chaotic systems found in the natural world could also be found in the world of human cognition, I was only transposing principles from one closed environment to another. The natural world comprises rules of physic interacting in the time-space continuum where we can observe weather patterns that are somewhat predictable partly because of measurable cycles such as the earth rotating around the sun for 365 days. The natural world’s clockwork model helps us establish ground rules and references that make the seemingly chaotic interaction of elements understandable and predictable. This is best demonstrated by Edward Norton Lorenz, an American mathematician, meteorologist, and pioneer of chaos theory. He discovered the strange attractor notion and coined the term butterfly effect.<br />
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But patterns are only meaningful if a conscious entity is there to observe them — the old philosophical principle of existence versus the reality we perceive. This perception is what drives our personal and collective awareness. From this simple observation, one can extrapolate that our own cognitive capability, although immaterial and only real in our neural pathways, is in its own right a closed environment and that information is the artifact that we create and consume in the same manner that the natural world produces matter and destroys it. Like the natural world, our cognition is subjected to time space to build patterns that create and reinforce our perception of reality. Likewise, an event causes us to react physically in some cases but also triggers expressions embodied in the form of information. Until the age of the internet, this information was curated with care to be recorded for prosperity. The alternative is for such information to be ephemeral and communicated orally to shape our evolving perception. Today this brief information is now captured and becomes palpable. But more importantly, each expression can be associated with other expressions through temporal proximity. This is no different than observing weather patterns forming over time and becoming observable.<br />
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By applying a purely organic temporal correlation algorithm to information, we were able to show patterns of emerging themes, or keyword memes™, that are connected without any machine-based inference of meaning. This means that we can reveal targeted ways that can be interpreted by an intelligent entity - human or machine. <br />
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You can see keyword memes about <a href="http://www.tweetzup.com/bigdata" target="_blank">Big Data on Tweetzup</a> to experience how we use our core awareness engine to show the movement trending tweets.<br />
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Happy New Year.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-25494210625192338692013-09-14T12:56:00.002-05:002023-07-14T22:58:58.342-05:00Is Twitter a destination for all or just harvesting grounds for brands?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGa8SERl1QINRCN25IIjXe_XYx09GvYmVj393q2BxCHHff17T-HLVHH1uhXRZsz0rq2_9LEr3uxxKWjVDiKUsJVd5suuwHcpOGXWP2hhSbwj8NhVp5jyazIlH8QTv2ESPZHggY/s1600/NYT+Avergage+Minutes+per+Social+Media+Site.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGa8SERl1QINRCN25IIjXe_XYx09GvYmVj393q2BxCHHff17T-HLVHH1uhXRZsz0rq2_9LEr3uxxKWjVDiKUsJVd5suuwHcpOGXWP2hhSbwj8NhVp5jyazIlH8QTv2ESPZHggY/s320/NYT+Avergage+Minutes+per+Social+Media+Site.png" width="286" /></a></div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The numbers are very indicative of what we all know. Suppose Twitter is an open microblogging platform accelerated by the ego-centrism of being followed to achieve the hope of notoriety. In that case, people will mislead, over-share, promote, and overproduce content that will most likely be noticed. This content and practice contamination is the real issue for Twitter providing value in its second wave of value proposition. </span></span></div>
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Twitter needs to correct a fundamental mistake in cornering itself in targeting revenues from companies that seek to know what people express themselves about. Most of these enterprise customers/partners are only interested to know what is being said about them for market research analytics, risk mitigation, and creating campaigns that are not necessarily reaching the people they target. Or reaching fake prospects and mercenary promotors that only serve to falsify the performance analytics.</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Now Twitter is fixated on delivering the noise and the growing corrupted content of the crowd to these companies; however, they are ignoring the elephant in the room: Twitter is not a destination-drive service, it remains a push medium, and it is not designed to help people consume the information that matters to them. This simple yet obvious distinction between pull and push is what Twitter needs to grasp and why users do not spend time reading tweets.</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">It is time to change the way Twitter can be helpful for everyone. It is time to shift the Twitter paradigm from push to pull and from follower-center context to individual-centric context. </span></span><br />
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">How can Twitter expect to make money on a long-tail advertisement opportunity that made the success of Google and now Facebook when Twitter achieves less than 21 minutes per month of user attention? They don't because they did not think about it, and they are losing themselves by the promise of being saved by companies trying to make sense of this open social media platform.</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Ask anyone if they use Twitter to find useful information. Most will say no, they simply post for their friends, and they now understand that following too many people and having too many followers is not necessarily beneficial. Some professionals will tell you that they use TweetDeck (purchased by Twitter) to have real-time searches on tweets to see if people are responding to them. Yet they all complained that they must look at the screen to see a result pop-up. Other more fancy users will talk about Radian6 (purchased by Salesforce.com), but they also told us that they are not quite sure of its value other than creating work for social media experts reporting on progress that might not have an actual impact.</span></span><br />
<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br />Now an IPO for Twitter when they have yet to figure out how to make money from a long-tail advertisement? Look at the Tweetup <a href="http://www.tweetzup.com/twitteripo" target="_blank">ZUP dedicated to Twitter's IPO</a> to see what's up.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.tweetzup.com/twitteripo" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOi0fFR_2RlRtU6HPX0tHHZaiBZlA7y2FoBA3p3I1FDj-ChO95uChrbCmJ4rraaYQVdS8ZvTLkcMoAJbQsNKs1QiIOheKfdDKddvFYbDUYw4yUT6hozJ3kwuzf91ihaAyyybZe/s400/tweetzyp+twitter+IPO+zup.png" title="Tweetzup on Twitter IPO" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">TweetDeck is free and can help if you know what you are looking for. Radian6 is pricy and useful to a minute and particular segment of the professional population. So what is being done to help everyday people and professionals consume what's up -in the Twitter sphere? Quite simply, we have applied our Darwin Ecosystem fetching, correlation, and visualization model to create tweetzup.com to help anyone monitor and create shareable topics of interest and the ability to have real alerts based on the monitoring of the frequency of tweets containing key terms of interest. </span></span></div>
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<span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">By introducing a true information consumption platform for tweets by revealing their real-time correlated movement over time, we can help anyone make the most of Twitter by being informed and discovering people of similar interests. This simple reversal of perspective should also transform what people tweet about. <a href="http://www.tweetzup.com/" target="_blank">Tweetzup</a> allows promoters/advertisers not to have to tweet all the time to be noticed but rather tweet something meaningful that will emerge in the right context when the individual is most receptive. That alone will reduce the noise of promotional tweets and reverse the tweet contamination we see today.</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-66476284851964724342013-09-10T17:20:00.002-05:002023-07-14T23:02:19.943-05:00My take in real-time on Apple's September 10, 2013 event.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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iTunes Festival</h2>
Frankly, I do not care about the event. 20 million people wanted in, so they are live streaming for free. So what is the point? I need my Apple device to join the party and see the streaming event. And that is not free, but then we are enough Apple users to enjoy it. Join the club, other humanoids... I guess.<br />
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Retail Focus</h2>
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OK, the stores serve many customers and provide sidewalk assistance. Can you please stop impressing us with design to help our "experience?" I am waiting for breakthrough technology, not marketing breakthroughs.</div>
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IOS7</h2>
<div>
About to ship 7M IOS devices next month to become the world's most popular mobile operating system. Here are the innovations. Gorgeous home screen, gorgeous colors, OK enough with the beautiful, now the goodies... So far, nice design, navigation, and responsive page stacking. I like Siri and am glad it has increased its capacity and reach. Different and sounds - so what? Cool, but really, bringing this up as an improvement? I like the new collection of picture browsing. Much much better. My wife will be happy as she has been complaining about the pictures' organization for years. The Share Sheet is also very well designed, including airdrop P2P. Now you are talking about distributed and privacy features. Cool! The New iTunes offers stations that challenge Pandora. About time! </div>
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With over 200 features, we can expect great applications with better design. This should finally give me what I wanted to bring Tweetzup to the mobile platform. Apple commented about IOS7 being free - Why would you charge for a platform that supports your online commerce. Of course, it is free. That comment takes us just a little, for idiots here. Drop the free argument Apple. We get your business model.</div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Applications on IOS</h2>
<div>
Apple can be a serious competitor to Google Docs with its iWork suite. I have been using them and love them. The new announcement about making these 5 apps free is the needed approach to challenge Google Docs. The issues still remain in the war for cross-platform shareability. XML anyone?</div>
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iPhones</h2>
<div>
Apple claims that The iPhone 5 is the most liked model, bringing the iPhone to new levels. The recent price announcement is paired with a customer penetration strategy to increase its market share. </div>
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<div>
First, the iPhone 5C includes all the iPhone 5 features and a new design. The color is trivial, but then again, I am not a teenage girl. I wish they could tone down the beautiful design and experience argument during these shows. The <a href="http://thierryhubert.blogspot.com/2013/09/steve-jobs-where-are-you-bad-design-work.html" target="_blank">cases are poorly designed</a> where the name iPhone shows "non," which means "no" in French. That is a basic design mistake, especially for a company that prides itself on design. Nonetheless, it is not revolutionary, but it does what it should do for the right age group at the right price of $99 and $199 with a contract. Unlike the iPad, the covers are just idiotic, given the strong independent manufacturers and the fact that they are made of plastic. Why the redundancy? Not needed. Also, what about the eco-friendly and recyclable mission? Dixit Jony Ive, senior VP of Design: "It's quite remarkable when something feels familiar, yet it's new at the same time." It sounds like a rationalization for weak design innovation.</div>
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<div>
Now the iPhone 5S. I was waiting for innovation, and here is what we got. Again drop the design, and let's explore the substance. Gold with diamond-cut edges? Yep, the gold standard. Now let's look at the innovations. Performance is key, and this phone has it with the A7 with the first 64-bit chip in a phone. Now we are talking, but if we design powerful applications for this phone, we will need to dumb them down for the other phones. Well, c'est la vie. At least we can be 32-bit compatible. This is good news. The power has increased by 40X since the first iPhone and 56X for the graphics. Impressive. The power of OpenGL/ES will help us create our tweetup cloud animation. </div>
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<div>
M7 works with the A7 as a motion co-processor, improving applications addressing environmental motions. The fact that the M7 is separated from the A7 allows better resource management and performance for many applications. As to the battery life, Apple has been able to pack the new features without depleting the battery capacity. </div>
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<div>
The new iSight camera has the right new hardware with F2.2 aperture and better sensors; the real improvement is the 1.5 micron for better color range and light capture. Now the software is keeping up with the hardware. It has preemptive environment detection about lighting and other sensing capability. The new True Tone Flash can now produce the right color variation to adapt itself to the ambient situation. This is true innovation providing more natural colors. The image stabilization is also a great addition through multiple shots selecting the crispier areas to build the right picture automatically. More features are also included in video multiple shot selection through real-time processing. And now slow-motion cameras can create great scenes. What a great use of its processors and software. That is a very cool and innovative advancement without user editing.</div>
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<div>
Security is now stronger and smarter. Apple's innovation in using finger prints is right on target, and they have achieved what IBM could have done on its ThinkPad over ten years ago. The Touch ID capacitive sensor is right on the home button. That makes sense to me, and it is effortless. The extended authentication to other services is also great. I can see many new uses for this innovation. But please replace Jony Ive's videos; his tone and voice make me feel like he is trying to control my brain. Sorry, Jony.</div>
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<div>
The iPhone 5S is priced reasonably, but the case... you could have left that to the store rather than the show.</div>
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Apple starts to take orders on Friday 13. Thankfully I am not superstitious.</div>
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The overall presentation was just OK. The real gems have been hidden by silly distractions like iTunes festivals, music, colors, and cases. This always feels like a substitution for substance. And the meaning was presented but lacked the focus the lighter touchy-feely distractions received. Will I remain a faithful Apple user? Sure. But next time, wow me with a freaking iWatch that lightens my bag-o-tech.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-44185694589435242702013-09-10T15:34:00.002-05:002023-07-14T23:03:28.851-05:00Steve Jobs. Where are you? - Bad design @ work.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Ok, this is just dumb,<br />
<br />
I had to blog about this. Can you believe that the new iPhone 5C's cover hides the name iPhone and shows the word "non," which means NO in French. Please fire the idiots who will kill the Apple company. Please hire a bright college dropout and empower him/her to run the show. It seems to work best that way.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone-5c/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8dJdxR4vBgIbSk3DhucjnIL1ilB15-6rmHp8_s5Z9cvZTLlMTmOiqEd-qvqeRO-DHYsz0_ukmh0X2PA_FKkXVhtXjDIzuQKqQI1wS8ECTcc_xpMc8o6TGwz7avh57DBJ3F15-/s400/apple+5C+-+non.jpg" width="400" /></a><span id="goog_154439399"></span><span id="goog_154439400"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG11ojr4_0F3GSFQaFrTfsbYsUe-F5b-40haOqnboSTDZVWCqUOO_4VSBqydg2zTUs3N6-W6OUXhNfV8AYGoIz7uX3Q4E0JmIvAiRwTRNyZVF7XbUD9659VbnXPHIdeaQ-4wgZ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-09-10+at+4.35.02+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG11ojr4_0F3GSFQaFrTfsbYsUe-F5b-40haOqnboSTDZVWCqUOO_4VSBqydg2zTUs3N6-W6OUXhNfV8AYGoIz7uX3Q4E0JmIvAiRwTRNyZVF7XbUD9659VbnXPHIdeaQ-4wgZ/s400/Screen+Shot+2013-09-10+at+4.35.02+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-73757648119829047112013-09-10T12:26:00.006-05:002023-07-14T23:15:37.282-05:00Tweetzup + YouTube = Serendipitous Searchless Discovery<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIODYzYl3fBAbPRXaNjWb6d6lxVZwkmN_zACj-BoO0bedafqo9V6WXKryYWtj27Y8ngYZiolad-oeo1i-z0H1LHwnZm6upsi7B5GPHXtkIHovBleuZc-5vIxRsGHzW3_0-aTyh/s1600/tweetzup+startup+techcrunch+disrupt.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIODYzYl3fBAbPRXaNjWb6d6lxVZwkmN_zACj-BoO0bedafqo9V6WXKryYWtj27Y8ngYZiolad-oeo1i-z0H1LHwnZm6upsi7B5GPHXtkIHovBleuZc-5vIxRsGHzW3_0-aTyh/s400/tweetzup+startup+techcrunch+disrupt.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
This summer, we expanded the reach of <a data-mce-href="http://www.tweetzup.com" href="http://www.tweetzup.com/" target="_blank" title="tweetzup">Tweetzup</a>
results (correlated clusters of emerging topics from Twitter) by
plugging in a dynamic YouTube search result driven by the user’s interest. As a result, we have discovered that our users now access YouTube videos based on the awareness of movement from
tweets. This makes it more focused and provides entertaining ways to
find popular or recently posted videos. With Tweetzup, the
user does not need to subscribe to YouTube channels and is limited to
only those videos. Instead, users can now choose their topics of
interest, see if they are chirping as an indication of something
happening, and then be exposed to any contextual video without searching.<br />
<br />
Tweetzup
also allows its users to set alerts when a theme is
showing some movement from their followed topics. This also makes it
easy not to be glued to the screen to see what’s up. The system
lets you know via email, or you can automatically tweet the alert to your
community. This is what I do on my Twitter account
@thierryhubert.<br />
<br />
For instance, this morning, the system tweeted the
alert on my behalf with the following message: “DISRUPT is Emerging on the
STARTUP #TweetzUp report <a data-mce-href="http://www.tweetzup.com/startup?interval=15034636&term=disrupt" href="http://www.tweetzup.com/startup?interval=15034636&term=disrupt" target="_blank" title="http://tweetzup.com/startup?interval=15034636&term=disrupt …">http://tweetzup.com/startup?interval=15034636&term=disrupt …</a>”. Clearly, I follow tweetzup’s STARTUP, and I set an alert a few months
ago on the term DISRUPT. I clicked on the link and saw the following:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Right
away, the system highlighted in orange the correlated keywords
associated with DISRUPT showed the tweets, and displayed the most recent
videos posted this morning as the TechCrunch Disrupt event in San
Francisco was occurring. I would have waited for a late
Google alert, depended on my social network friends, or spent too much
time searching Google/YouTube and other news/blog aggregates to achieve
this result. Crucially, it would not have been on one page that
also allowed me to see other emerging terms co-occurring
about the theme <a data-mce-href="http://www.tweetzup.com/startup" href="http://www.tweetzup.com/startup" target="_blank" title="STARTUP">STARTUP</a>.<br />
<br />
About
that serendipitous searchless discovery? Being exposed to my
topics of interest when something is going on is very fertile ground for
serendipitous opportunities. In this case, I discovered a cool
application presented at Startup Alley at Tech Crunch that offers
a strategic angle for our business. This is what I call serendipitous
business intelligence.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-29620732670794547072013-06-01T11:41:00.003-05:002023-07-14T23:20:47.028-05:00The New Nouvelle France. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTEY8Q73bFOe41uCRBSqCSNfNlbrco0XWL10JyTQCajATAgbLMayx2duPiYqOqVfSWcwxQKiWprTK125Ur8nk4PJmWl7orbvdspmQCXnyf1K_ovhBOO8zewRCbG3B5SKUZLKg5/s1600/Item14.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTEY8Q73bFOe41uCRBSqCSNfNlbrco0XWL10JyTQCajATAgbLMayx2duPiYqOqVfSWcwxQKiWprTK125Ur8nk4PJmWl7orbvdspmQCXnyf1K_ovhBOO8zewRCbG3B5SKUZLKg5/s320/Item14.jpg" width="320" /></a>I am French, born in France, and American and Canadian (very confusing for custom agents ;-).<br />
<br />
I spent most of my formative years in Montreal as a child and teenager at a time when being French in Quebec was not an advantage. They called us the maudits français (the damned French). Admittedly for good reasons, the French, and I know what I am talking about, always complain, and they have a self-proclaimed claim to superior knowledge and perception of what the empirical truth should be. Now wrap this little package in an impeccable linguistic mastery of nuances, and voila! You currently have the perfect recipe to create an obnoxious persona that all secretively envy and hate out loud.
<br />
<br />
Living from time to time in France, Canada, and the United States has given me an interesting perspective on how the French are perceived, see themselves, and see others. What appears to be universal is that the French hold a high position in culture and knowledge from centuries of self-affirmation and recognition by others mimicking their social contract, art and engineering-focused education, entrepreneurship (sorry W, but the entrepreneur is a French word), and gastronomy. No wonder why the French can afford to be so damn arrogant. To further feed this perception, I am always amused to see how wealthy Americans, Russians, and now Chinese seek to adopt the French style as if it allows them to pretend to be understanding of the French. It is faltering, but all I can think of is that they are being taken to the cleaners by unscrupulous merchants of objects and services designed to dress the naked emperors that they are; If you want to be French, you need to learn to control, show-off what you know to claim victory, confront people about it, do not care if people hate you, and when asked to do something always say "non" first so that they offer you something to change your mind. If you can master that, they purchase your Louis XVI furniture, but by then, you might just think that it is too gauche and predictable. And that is something that is just beneath you at that stage.<br />
<br />I had fun writing the last paragraph. So what about the New Nouvelle France? For the last few years, I have been going back and forth from Boston to Montreal for business and noticed an incredible influx of young and well-educated French immigrants at a time when things could be better for French graduates in France. This generation is impressive, smart, and fun and has something I have not seen in French people since my days in Paris during the mid-90s tech boom. They want to succeed, create, learn, and enjoy a life intertwined with intellectual pursuit and real social connections to others (and not just the French). This is a departure from the sad and doomed France of today, where people expect to be helped by the government as they are depressed by the lack of job opportunities. Unfortunately, some believe that socialism is a refuge for a secure future. Not the case at all for those who take a Darwinian leap of faith to come to Quebec to seek opportunities and a new lifestyle. This is why I now call Quebec <b>"the New Nouvelle France."</b> It is being colonized by a generation of French citizens who have a superior ability to take risks and be open-minded. I applaud them for leaving a France that is less and less enviable, corrupted (let's put this one on hold for now), dependent, and doomed to fail for lack of innovation and a false confidence that is rooted in exploits of the past.<br />
<br />
The future of the true French spirit, quench for knowledge and conquest, is being revived in the New Nouvelle France.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-60493699224945369292013-01-28T01:38:00.004-05:002023-07-14T23:23:23.117-05:00When cool design is bad design - Air Canada Executive/First<div style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglpxtqDb9vmmHK4wlZs1LXn69suWV4sThHHanAyF6RWcFPMXhoh9d952VtGCHCE5zu9ifviIolXq7kyqTzqxTKoKIl200TPIQM4xpJ7f3GLhzUggFNxL-kUmdKzZBhyfQIeQ6Y/s1600/AirCanada_B767-300-executivefirst_web.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglpxtqDb9vmmHK4wlZs1LXn69suWV4sThHHanAyF6RWcFPMXhoh9d952VtGCHCE5zu9ifviIolXq7kyqTzqxTKoKIl200TPIQM4xpJ7f3GLhzUggFNxL-kUmdKzZBhyfQIeQ6Y/s1600/AirCanada_B767-300-executivefirst_web.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
I am traveling from Montreal to Frankfort on Air Canada's new executive first-class seat (more like a pod). At first, I was impressed by the cool and seemingly futuristic design of these diagonal seats, capable of flattening completely to ensure a decent night of sleep.</span></div><div style="font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
Before takeoff, one of my business partners requested that we sit next to each other (after all, we are three business people going to Germany to close a deal). This was the first issue; the seats do not provide any passenger-to-passenger interaction due to their 45-degree angle and encasing. </span></div><div style="font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They are designed for isolation. First mistake!<br /> <br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then comes the takeoff. A 45-degree angled g-force causes an uneven weight distribution during launch and ascent. You are pushed against the panel, and your back muscles wrestle to find a symmetrical position. Second mistake; comfort.<br /> <br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Once in the air, your tray table keeps you, prisoner, in your seat as you do not have to push the tray forward to slide sideways to go to the bathroom. The third mistake is feeling trapped.</span></div><div style="font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
Then comes the ergonomics of the usable space. The control side has an armrest that can not be lifted to access objects you might have stored. The opposing side's armrest can be lifted but collides with the tray table, which makes it difficult to keep a laptop and close it for elbow use. The seat is narrow enough, and the privacy panels make the space very claustrophobic and uncomfortable to navigate and store objects if you want to work. The touch-screen entertainment system is within arm's reach if you sit up and reach forward. The control panel's blue lights are at eye level when lying down and disruptive when all is dark. The fourth mistake is the storage and features ease of use. </span></div><div style="font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
In summary, inferior design. Now let's look at it from the airline's perspective. First, the economics; by eliminating first class and giving business class sleeping comfort, by compromising on space and the diagonal positions of the pods, the airline is making more money by the seat. From a crew's perspective, the passengers are more likely to remain in place during service and sleep. I hate this configuration, and if I do not need to sleep exclusively and travel with my team, I will book economy tickets to interact and not feel trapped.</span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-79983375260249190392013-01-18T16:22:00.000-05:002013-01-18T16:48:22.874-05:00"I am the Best"; This generation's popular egocentrism movement reveals the death of real communities.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am observing that my industry is becoming the breeding-ground, and accelerator, of this generation's popular egocentrism movement that is increasingly disconnected from community accountabilities. I use the word "popular" defined as "<span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">pertaining</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> </span><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">to,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> </span><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">or</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> </span><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">representing</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> </span><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">the</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> </span><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">people,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> </span><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">especially</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> </span><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">the</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> </span><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">common</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> </span><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">people". This is an important distinction because this new generation is not only admiring ostentatious popular icons, but appears to embrace their attributes in every day life. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">Everything from reality television to idol branding is putting the "brand-of-the-ego" at the center of advertisement strategies. As such, it is not surprising that this generation tries to mimic this new form of fabricated value. </span><span name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;"><br /></span></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiowVZwPwDlckNESrNQdmoWU70yShNGT7_2ddAf4a2wwGX5u8T_bqXRJ7VlQgYz_ByfH-KtuoczC0IJS0ihsqVrOK9_fs6_nthRQk7Kw8mqU5Qw9RwUfZb3F3pp5GP_VLuUziqa/s1600/311790685_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiowVZwPwDlckNESrNQdmoWU70yShNGT7_2ddAf4a2wwGX5u8T_bqXRJ7VlQgYz_ByfH-KtuoczC0IJS0ihsqVrOK9_fs6_nthRQk7Kw8mqU5Qw9RwUfZb3F3pp5GP_VLuUziqa/s640/311790685_640.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">The danger is further accelerated with online social media conduits that allow the every-people to shine and feels that they are something special without true merit. The impact of jumping the important steps of discovering and building skills leaves us with a mediocre generation that has a self-importance feeling without substance. Even more worrisome, as a group they validate and encourage each other. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">This support allows them to sustain this </span><span style="color: #333333;">eroding </span><span name="hotword" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; cursor: default;">artifice</span><span style="color: #333333;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">into their late 20s. Those who succumb to this temptation, because they lack the proper parental or "real" community guidance, are doomed to face reality and lack the true skills to operate in a constructive society.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span>Some of you know my thoughts about the disruption of information technology on the social ecosystem. In brief, all technology is an accelerator of time and space. We all know the natural ecosystem is disrupted when we introduce a foreign organism or entity that would not be able to be injected on its own device. This is why a particular algae in south Africa could not disrupt the shores of England unless it attached itself to the hull of a boat. The same is true for the "social ecosystem" our technology has constantly disrupted societies since mankind has been able accelerate its travel. We brought disease to America, cane toads to Australia and destroyed entire civilizations.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Our communication capability is no exception to disruptions. We know that societies, just like nature, have a change adoption clock. I had the privilege to have a conversation with Walter Cronkite, in Paris when with Lotus/IBM, about the impact of media before the Iranian Revolution in 1979. He believed that the clerical power of Iran was taken by surprise when Iranians were able to see the western world's lifestyle through television. The clerical power felt that they would loose control if people embraced these values. And they did. Iran was on the westernization track, and too fast. The balance of intra-social powers were shifting too fast. This conversation has inspired me to consider the social disruptive factor when creating new web social solutions. This is why I look at this generation with an eye on the future and the impact our industry has on our society.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />In my introduction I mentioned "community accountabilities". This is not trivial. The absence of accountability in any community can lead to the use of force or violence. Basically, if you can't trade with your community for your wellbeing, then you are disconnected. Unfortunately social media services give the illusion of meaningful communities. How many of you know your neighbors? Or depend on your relationships with them to prosper? The fact is that in most urban communities your neighbors will send you a lawyer's letter to ask you to cut off branches, silence your dog, or ask you to put carpet on your floor. That is because many of them have nothing to trade. If you do not have a trading community, then respect, manners and politeness are not needed; force is now needed. This is probably why this generation is mainly arrogant, lacks empathy, manners and uses poor language. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">What do they have to loose? They have no immediate accountabilities, and the media is leveraging this attitude for rating. It is a vicious cycle because the media eventually dictates the new normal (see the above about Iranians embracing western values through media exposure).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />This is not rocket science and we have all been exposed to this new reality. The fact is that if people are divided in the physical world, yet connected in the virtual world through superficial and guided values, the marketing machine will become more powerful. This can lead to an economical power where virtual communities become a significant commercial resource. If we reach this point, no political incentive will be able to protect the people from being reduced to a lesser quality. The have-not will live in the illusion of satisfaction and stagnate, as the emerging new order of the information economy will continue to grow them as a human consumption resource.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />As you can tell, this is a theme that constantly preoccupies me. Perhaps it is my French tendency for the critical and philosophical. I think that this kind of debate is needed for people in my industry to start to have some social awareness and accountability when creating solutions that impact our society.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-29644921896539255662012-11-09T13:03:00.002-05:002012-11-09T13:07:59.183-05:00"Inappropriate message text." by Apple<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNK1hXw_fhTJUlKkkBj2aVBiqABgtwu_ZQ_VtbOWYu6zayd_dj03jnTGQWI3cqz_WbHnYmNwKCy6OYOmU5rcWJOCSODLzs9n84drRusBdBUlVEH-lW40KFMfw9uOkjvdj-o-za/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-11-08+at+10.47.16+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNK1hXw_fhTJUlKkkBj2aVBiqABgtwu_ZQ_VtbOWYu6zayd_dj03jnTGQWI3cqz_WbHnYmNwKCy6OYOmU5rcWJOCSODLzs9n84drRusBdBUlVEH-lW40KFMfw9uOkjvdj-o-za/s640/Screen+Shot+2012-11-08+at+10.47.16+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Since leaving IBM, I have become a fan of Apple computers. It started as a way for me to expand by understanding of what the other side saw in the renewed Apple systems in 2001; And I liked it very much. Then I realized that my PC-based friends and family members kept on calling for support about the ever-growing attacks on their PC. All I could do to reduce the deluge, of unpaid support requests, was to recommend that they buy a Mac. And they did... and they stopped calling. Joy of joy, not only had I made the jump, but I convinced more than 20 people to do the same. All are still friends today, and never blamed or cursed my recommendation. <br />
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With comfort comes the price of surrendering to a higher entity that is supposed to ensure that you remain happy. Although still very happy with my latest MacBook pro with SSD and Retina display, I am noticing that Apple is getting increasingly sloppy and automated. Ok we know that the Apple store employees are trained to deflect issues and criticism. A form of mind control that is easy to see through, as long as the technology works as intended. But when the system is failing to give me satisfaction, then I am less amused because no one, and I mean no one, can help. Last night I wanted to engrave a Smart Case for my new iPad 4th Generation and when I entered "A posse ad esse" My engraving was rejected. I discovered, through process of elimination that the latin word "esse" was not appropriate according to Apple's censorship algorithm. Ironic since the sentence is latin for "From possibility to reality". So I called the 24/7 support line to only find out the the Apple employee had ZERO authority in placing the order for me as he was also confronted by the same limitation. As any Apple employee faced with an unsatisfied customer, he repeated what he saw on the screen, apologized and hung-up. The problem is that my little issue is insignificant, but I have encountered similar reactions to more important and technical issues. <br />
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I do not wish to go back to Windows and the PC world. But my view of Apple is rapidly diminishing, and I can see the day where an emerging alternative capable of allowing media and applications to migrate could create the fall of the Apple from the tree. Ouch, my head!<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-12321345140348179552012-11-08T21:24:00.000-05:002012-11-08T21:27:00.080-05:00Coaching the International School of Boston's Fencing Varsity Team<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMgMhDe4kb1F9D5s60AzJZ1Obe1Wo7mmJxOkz0LD36rVPVYHTZPIo8qIH7uRyZxKJ6qW7RJOlvqlhVcUVAbv4ilUL7hclhqyoN3fpyCdjmjjIniVA4tDhB6OUoehz_-n-mKWeI/s1600/Yesterday+and+Today+-+Thierry+Hubert+Fencing.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMgMhDe4kb1F9D5s60AzJZ1Obe1Wo7mmJxOkz0LD36rVPVYHTZPIo8qIH7uRyZxKJ6qW7RJOlvqlhVcUVAbv4ilUL7hclhqyoN3fpyCdjmjjIniVA4tDhB6OUoehz_-n-mKWeI/s320/Yesterday+and+Today+-+Thierry+Hubert+Fencing.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>(30 years later and still at it!)</i></td></tr>
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Here is a little blurb about an activity I hold dear to my heart: fencing. <br />
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I have accepted the honor to coach the <a href="http://www.isbos.org/" target="_blank">International School of Boston/Le Lycée International de Boston</a>, despite my crazy travel schedule. The tournament season is short but exiting as it will be the first year, after the creation of the School's fencing club ten years ago, that the school will be competing with other New England private schools.<br />
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Competitive fencing requires new skills and dedication. Self-discipline, strategy, athleticism, a strong emotional composition, and respect for oneself and others are core elements in the sport of fencing, and are elevated in competitive varsity fencing. The fencing varsity team has to meet higher expectations, and thankfully they have been taught by <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/robert-hupp/4/851/936" target="_blank">Rob Hupp</a> that fencing is a sport that is best practiced with self-awareness and fair play at a time when too many sports are focused on winning at all costs.<br />
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Our fencers’ education is the fair and noble practice of the sport that provides them with an unpaired advantage and path to becoming formidable fencers. I intend to leverage this strong foundation and guide them physically and spiritually towards becoming competitive, accomplished athletes through both defeats and victory.<br />
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Competitive training includes training the mind. Many of the fencers have heard me say that fencing is like playing chess with your body. I will spend a significant amount of time on the development of strategic thinking, observation and mind-body coordination. It is all about control.<br />
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<i>I hope that this unusual blog post reveals a longterm commitment that has been formative.</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-28995864363337392482012-10-04T09:38:00.001-05:002012-10-04T09:44:08.785-05:00Why I think Twitter is not making its advertisement quota.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnnC4NywZj-GkyatQXV-R8rdj3RTZ6fy5oNsq20Q4O-BDOekb2Tq7qC8KSTx8UgkGdyQCvR2mBqJSTS6YwHzYV04TspSHx8_Ol4KrfEqHTvAVS682WfrcnMsHru0UM2_FaVR-e/s1600/istock_000009600879xsmall1-300x199.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnnC4NywZj-GkyatQXV-R8rdj3RTZ6fy5oNsq20Q4O-BDOekb2Tq7qC8KSTx8UgkGdyQCvR2mBqJSTS6YwHzYV04TspSHx8_Ol4KrfEqHTvAVS682WfrcnMsHru0UM2_FaVR-e/s200/istock_000009600879xsmall1-300x199.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Initially Twitter created an unprecedented platform to capture people’s expression through the primal desire for humans to be popular with no clear monetization model. Twitter has since evolved into a universal communication arena trying to capitalize on its asset through advertisement. In 2011, Twitter failed to meet its revenue objective despite becoming as well known and used as Google or Facebook. The comparative discrepancy in revenue can be attributed to the fact that Twitter users, those susceptible to click on an ad, are all about pushing information; not consuming it. And the vast majority of Twitter queries are from users seeking to monitor the impact of their own communication campaigns, not consuming ad. The Achilles’ heel of Tweather, with respect to relevant on-line advertisement, is its weakness in making information consumption interesting and engaging to its users. I believe that <a href="http://www.tweather.co/" target="_blank">Tweather</a> offers such a solution.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-37243106721680224772012-09-14T10:09:00.002-05:002023-07-14T23:26:25.132-05:00The future, as instructed by Zuckerberg during TechCrunch Disrupt <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT485nCKuC9hhAbaiyywCvJLMxWufAknKba912_sCZXQpQb7rsc0n9DSLpzptRcm74XR2Zenqs1zSnOffbH-d0ENst8YHrIycgtsPirWvUpsOq4CQWQ_ppScNq01rEEKW-M7uw/s1600/Zucherberg+at+TechCrunch-+Picture+by+Thierry+Hubert.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT485nCKuC9hhAbaiyywCvJLMxWufAknKba912_sCZXQpQb7rsc0n9DSLpzptRcm74XR2Zenqs1zSnOffbH-d0ENst8YHrIycgtsPirWvUpsOq4CQWQ_ppScNq01rEEKW-M7uw/s320/Zucherberg+at+TechCrunch-+Picture+by+Thierry+Hubert.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I had the privilege to be at the <a href="http://techcrunch.com/disrupt/" target="_blank">TechCrunch Disrupt</a> event in San Francisco when Mark Zuckerberg had his first public interview since the IPO. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">At first, I was wavering if I should go see him, given the damaging IPO and the history we all have come to accept as defining his character. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The brush with fame took over, and I decided, after all, to see the men in the flesh answer questions that were obviously predictable. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">He was very upbeat and positive and exemplified how we learn from our mistakes and step up to the plate in America. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In all fairness,, he did what was expected of him to improve confidence. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">A few things, though captured my attention. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">His criticism of HTML5 as a sub-standard option for mobile applications was not a surprise, but his focus on mobile as the end-all of the future of consumer computing left me perplexed. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I do not believe that the end is the mobile phone as the terminal of user interaction. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">When Zuckerberg focuses on this vision, he actually mirrors the criticism regarding the failure of Facebook to have capitalized on advertisements on mobile platforms. This is when the CEO loses his eye; he simply invested his strategy in the short-term expectation to monetize the fact that many people use mobile devices to communicate. O I have a very different vision about the future of the mobile phone and how people will interact with information. Let’s say that I believe that the phone will be an information wallet capable of interfacing with pervasive touch screens equipped with human interface exchange features accessing our personal and community information. But I digress. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">One big disappointment, although expected, was that he left after his last question and did not take any questions from the audience. This was a good decision from the board of directors, but I don't think it worked out for Mark, who was starting to have the audience warm up to him!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">What fascinated me is that after Zukerberg’s interview, everyone was asking about HTML5 and mobile native applications. It immediately became the single focus of every conversation surrounding any, and I mean any, site and application shown at TechCrunch. It was amazing to observe the power of a few words and how they could set an “important” expectation from investors and force the retooling of product development teams. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Overall it was interesting to hear him and see the impact of his claims and strategy on the attendees when they left. Fame is a great influencer, especially when you have an agenda to execute. My takeaway is that innovation was clearly different from what he was communicating. Basically, it kept all the issues, other than how Facebook can make more money, open and on the table for grabs! </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzqqYGWoSuVdxOdEFyngdgFWq2GRzwKeENBs6HuVwsyyIPpg40Olara62VvexP5FNJ-hzcrpneubuM5l0bjIrsHY7QMkhsC8uNzNIDIW6HWnLBwAhD0BwEG-ayjBycUoB6-wcT/s1600/IMG_1927.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzqqYGWoSuVdxOdEFyngdgFWq2GRzwKeENBs6HuVwsyyIPpg40Olara62VvexP5FNJ-hzcrpneubuM5l0bjIrsHY7QMkhsC8uNzNIDIW6HWnLBwAhD0BwEG-ayjBycUoB6-wcT/s200/IMG_1927.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;"> (My screen shows the<a href="http://tweather.co/zuckerberg" target="_blank"> tweather report</a> during the event as Zuckerberg was making his way to the stage) </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0635 8th St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA37.7710356 -122.404801637.769466599999994 -122.4072691 37.7726046 -122.4023341tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9022445.post-10039896184341738952012-09-05T11:52:00.000-05:002012-09-05T11:52:49.420-05:00Timely Reporting from Tweets<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In an on-going effort to further illustrate <a href="http://www.darwineco.com/" target="_blank">Darwin's</a> Temporal Organic Correlation power, I would like to draw your attention to <a href="http://tweather.co/">tweather.co</a>'s ability to play the movie of tweets on any given topic. In fact I just observed that the CBS's tweets, as a source of people's reaction to current events, was not as effective as showing in a timely manner a significant natural disaster occurrence. It actually demonstrates that if you have an interest in a given topic, tweather reports will reveal information a lot faster than if you wait to observe how people respond (tweet) to the formal media. <br />
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The event in question relates to the earthquake that just provoked a tsunami alert in Costa Rica. I included the screen shots since the <a href="http://www.tweather.co/cbs">www.tweather.co/cbs</a> and <a href="http://tweather.co/earthquake">http://tweather.co/earthquake</a> tweather reports constantly update themselves with current information. You will notice that tsunami event took almost one hour to be picked-up by the CBS followers.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIr1jI08I2pgAlp_P3-EJuKzXsqsuVTtAhjqdMJiWw4nytPSule9RxlTosXsN1SQY0s8GSG5ohBhZT2sPh0hf4zqADMofMT3f8wabABXeNTvq4jr2TTNT-gqHg44HvaJnLV8j0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-05+at+12.32.13+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIr1jI08I2pgAlp_P3-EJuKzXsqsuVTtAhjqdMJiWw4nytPSule9RxlTosXsN1SQY0s8GSG5ohBhZT2sPh0hf4zqADMofMT3f8wabABXeNTvq4jr2TTNT-gqHg44HvaJnLV8j0/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-09-05+at+12.32.13+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3JDPZDdm-BFAsoIc7kG0Q83YEZ7DGPCHh34HXL62ympJfZTN0C39BMDm-4uUZK3mleRti4ZwmNgT6RnqPDf1KhbOfH0K-ceDDE-O07CcZ90UiklTYsaF9m986z5i4wMjkzgq_/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-05+at+12.32.44+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3JDPZDdm-BFAsoIc7kG0Q83YEZ7DGPCHh34HXL62ympJfZTN0C39BMDm-4uUZK3mleRti4ZwmNgT6RnqPDf1KhbOfH0K-ceDDE-O07CcZ90UiklTYsaF9m986z5i4wMjkzgq_/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-09-05+at+12.32.44+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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I invite you to go to http://tweather.co to see what is trending without the pain of being overwhelmed with endless tweet streams, and create your own tweather report.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0