The Junior-Entreprise’s lipdub!

Here is the lipdub we did for the JE… enjoy!

Technical problem: Dailymotion is bugging me... so here is the link to the LipDub on the song "Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stephani!

My future m-e and me!

First, I have a few interrogations about Internet in the future, for example, I wonder what will the Internet be like in a couple of years? What will it be able to do? Already we can almost get connected everywhere… what will its new applications be? Just a thought! A rather interesting BBC News article called Internet’s future in 2020 debated talked about it quite thoroughly… Some believe that the Internet should not develop any longer, such as Jonathan Zittrain puts it very directly in his book called, The Future of the Internet and how to stop it.

After that, I believe I’ll use the Internet just as I do now… only more often! First because I’ll have a job that’ll probably require me to do so… and also because I want to live abroad, so to keep in touch with my family and friends, I’ll need the Internet more often to talk to them on Skype or on MSN to reach them.

Other than that, I can’t think of any more… ^^

Internet does the trick!

I think that nowadays, Internet are a predominant part of your job once you get it. I think it’s actually YOUR job to use the Internet in you job.. between checking out websites, sending emails and basically keeping in touch with the entire world, you’ll need to use the Internet. The only way you might not use it would actually be if you’re a carpenter or some other manual job, or a surgeon or something. And even so, if you want to make so more business as a carpenter, etc, you’ll have to have a website to advertise your

I don’t know if I have more things to add to this post.

I think Internet is very important once you get a job, and I mean that even when you’re not working, you can still connected to your professional email and take care of things while on vacations when there is an emergency.

I also think companies that are actually based on the Internet are very dependent on the Internet…

Jobs are only a click away…!

Internet is one of the most usefull ways to get a job these days, and so for many reasons…!

Main one: consult online offers

First you can consult the enterprise’s website and check out if they have any job openings. Or, you can go to websites such as Michael Page, or Kap’Stages for interships, where they list a lot of job or internship offers. The great thing about those is you can restrict your choice with the field of work you want, when you wish to begin, etc. It’s very helful, easier and faster than before (I can only assume though since I don’t know how it was before!).

Send resumes in a click

Also, the Internet is more than useful since you have can just send your resume really quickly on the Internet via e-mail! This was never easy before when you could only send your resume via real mail. It’s also faster and less costly (no stamps!). Though it implies that everybody will do the same, so it means more applicants and less ways to be original, except maybe the way your resume looks like… but that’s another story. Also, you get a really fast answer.

Corrected Test

Nowadays, I am working in a 65-employee enterprise that commercializes softwares for children. It is located in the 15^th arrondissement of Paris, rue Maubertin.

It receives a subvention from the State in order to hire young interns, which is how I got my job as a salesman. At first, my job description was marketing manager, but I switched.

We sell a range of products under the Youngsoft brand, and we have many projects associated with marketing. Our billboards in the underground are one of the most expensive ones there. Our Public Relations department also have a very important budget, since we make our own commercials with our writing staff, and we do our own version of user textbooks.

Our quaterly results for this year have all been very positive, plus our market is very interesting right now, which is why we gain funds.

We want to sell our products in Tahiti because we think overseas customers there would be interested in buying the as well.

To sum it up, thanks to our positive professional ethics and interesting market niche, we have a bright future.

YES we can eradicate world hunger (on the Net)!

How does on save the world? One of the cause I want to defend is world hunger, because I think it’s horrible that people in LEDCs (Least Economically Developped Countries) are starving, eating almost nothing, dying of hunger, when here in MEDCs (Most Economically Developped Countries), people are screaching about the crisis, when they still have enough food on their plates. So, this is the problem I want to tackle today: how can we stop world hunger through the Internet?

First: increase awareness

The great thing about the internet is that  the exposure to messages is a lot higher social networks. By promoting for example National World Hunger Day on Social Networks such as Facebook or MySpace through applications or groups, or by creating a webpage only for that showing the disasters of world hunger, or even by doing a wide broadcast buzz campaign on the Net. All this will help people to think about it more and more. When I write that, I think about a commercial that was on TV a couple of years ago: a man saw on TV a child dying from hunger in Africa, and all day long, the same ghost-like child will follow him and then disappear, the punchline being: You may forget, but they don’t. I couldn’t find this commercial on the Internet and I’m really sad I couldn’t because it was really good. It showed how we do not have to think about it all day long, but it doesn’t mean we can forget to give money to them. I think the Internet can have that role, make people remember to give so they don’t forget about it and remain conscious of the fact that yes, people are dying of hunger.

Second: organize forums, meetings

Once people have been warned enough, they might want to go to a dedicated website, such as Action contre la faim, or the PNUD. There, I think that they should not be attacked by “GIVE MONEY” signs, but they could be welcomed through a communication proposing more information, and forums with an ID, etc. People don’t just want to give, they need to know why they’re giving, and who they’re giving too. I think that is were the Internet can help. By creating an on-line community, you can relate to other people that are doing the same thing as you, you can talk to people that are actually in the LEDCs, so you know what’s happening, etc. The importance is to create a live community around a social cause that concerns all of them. This could lead to real-life meetings in Paris, or even a series of Q&A by a specialist on the question of world hunger on a chat space, etc.

Third: donations

Once all of this is done, donations can be gathered through the concern that has been galvanized through the Net. I understand that everyone does not want to be confronted with that every day, and people shouldn’t be if they don’t want to, but if they do,no one should stop them. I think a good way to improve donations is to personnalize the donation. Know who you’re giving to, and how, and what’s happening there, so, a sort of relationship of closeness can be felt, which entices people to give in a more comprehensive way than just giving for giving. This can be done through and only thanks to the Internet, which is a media of transparency and of closeness that any other media does not have. Through this media only can world hunger be eradicated… and yesssss we can do it!

E-Money 10: I don’t have anymore ideas…

I wrote this post yesterday and my computer bugged so it erased everything…! Well, it doesn’t matter, it wasn’t that interesting, since I was just saying how I did not have any more idea, except maybe for playing poker online (which, by the way, makes you lose money more often than making you earn some), or selling things on eBay. As I said so in my introduction, I don’t think the Internet is such a good rational way to earn money, so…

See you next time for a more interesting post than this one… andhopefully a longer one too!

E-Money 9: bring commercials to your home page

Another way for an enterprise or a company to make money on the Internet is to have announcers publish commercials on your Web homepage. This is very delicate because not everyone wants this, but it’s mainly possible for magazines and newspapers’ Internet homepage.

Le Monde’s website has lots of commercial for example, about mostly anything. Or, more effectively, women’s magazines, such as Marie Claire, or any other for that matter, do so as well.

This can bring you money for a website that is visited a lot, which makes the price of publicity increase, making even more money!

E-Money 8: create an e-ntreprise!

How can an enterprise gain money on the Internet? It seems simple: move over your company only on the Net, or create it directly there! You gain or spend less money on a building, since your employees can work from home, you pay less taxes, etc.

I’m mainly thinking about the communication agency Duke Interactive, which is not only on the Net, but also only does communication campaigns on the Net.

E-Money 7: save Bernd!

Crazy idea, but a valid one that got a man 71,466 euros off the Internet. Want to know how? Take a cute yet edible animal, for example a rabbit, name him Bernd, and pretend you’ll eat it if by a deadline you do not have a certain amount money… unthinkable? Well, this website proves the opposite: Save Bernd. It started off as a joke, plus the quality of the website is pretty bad, but he still got some money out of it, thanks to Save Bernd merchandizing and direct donations. 71,466 euros is quite a sum, though it did not reach the intended 1 million!

The full story can be found HERE… and if you don’t believe one could resist those rabbit eyes… ask Bernd!

E-culture or iCulture?

E-culture, the culture of electronic equipments, a culture belonging to a very distinct group of people. Can one really speak about principles and values for a culture that is not really defining itself as one, but more as a way of life…?

The web makes its own rules, principles and values, therefore, I can only create the ones I want to follow for the same purpose. Freedom would be one of them, since the web is a media where people can do whatever they want. Any ideology is referenced on it, except when the government itself is against it (on Google China, the word ‘democracy’ is not referenced).

First thoughts on the question. The word principles and values could be defined: what is each? What do they stand for?

The answer, next week, on Break on through, the doors to the answers of the blog way of life…

Another interesting value of the Internet has come up in class today: networking as a community, and fun. The community is at the core of the Internet, it’s the fundation of why the Internet was created, so it is intesrting to see many Facebook or MSN Messenger applications that help people connect together. Also, the fun is such as simple thing about the Internet that I never thought about writing about it. Funny, isn’t it? Though one can spend hours on the internet doing nothing, and still manage having fun. I tink it is because you create our own world. For example, when there isn’t anything on TV, you switch it off. But the Internet is a media you create for yourself, where you generate your fun from every possible applications and sources you can find… That’s a value of the Internet: self-made fun…!

How about e-surfing the TV channel?

Downloading is a crime, while watching something in streaming isn’t (yet) considered as one. Watching in streaming means that you do not have any files on your computer, the only interactive window you have is your Web page. A great Internet application which I truly enjoy is the website called www.surfthechannel.com.

This application enables you to watch in streaming a very long list of: movies, TV shows, cartoons, animes, as well as documentaries, etc. I really like it because it is download free, and because there is such a wide variety of choice for everything. Loading time is not very long.

Making the grade: what’s a good class?

For me, what makes a good class is a class that works together. You can never get anywhere if you’re doing it alone, meaning a class can only be good if there is solidarity between classmates. What one person knows, another may not know, but by sharing one’s knowledge, everybody ends up knowing it, which makes everyone move forward!

This song by The Beatles illustrates it: “I get by with a little help from my friends!” I wanted another one but couldn’t find it… And I wanted an audio files… but couldn’t find it either, so I found these lyrics on Japan’s YouTube! Amazing what you can find on the Internet these days… (end of digression)

Another idea which helps a class is participation, because if nobody makes the effort of raising their hand and showing a little interest in a class, then everyone ends up doing the same and being passive. Though, to learn, a class needs to me active.

Of course, many things can prevent this, but making efforts is necessary for things to happen nicely, but as people grow up, I believe it should be easier for people to get along better… but maybe that’s just seeing it now.. who knows? I think plain common sense helps a class, but most people lack it.

I’ll need to think more about it first though… I’ll write more on this post. Soon. It’s not an easy subject to think about… especially when you’re in the middle of it!

Go green, with help!

Nowadays, the word environment is on everyone’s lips. And on the Internet more than ever. A website that I found researching, called Make Me Sustainable is very interesting and active towards the Earth and the environment. Their actions? By entering personal informations, such as how much you spend in electricity every month, or your eating habits, they indicate real ways for you to change your habits and do good to the Earth. Make Me Sustainable proposes a real change since it is a personalized help that is doable for everyone that signs up. You get to have a profile on sustainability, you can speak to other users thanks to a generated community and share about your environmental issues.

I think this is pretty interesting. That people use the Internet in a way to help other people, the sense of community really comes to life through websites like this. I am even thinking about signing up on this website! I know Make Me Sustainable because during my internship, I talked a lot about green issues and the environment, and I think it is important to mix together two particular things: social networking and protecting the environment. In a way, people are using the new media tools to reach to the new connected people… 10 years ago, one would have used the television, and before that, the radio, or the newspaper… I think it’s wonderful how things evolve with their time, and how it gets transformed to meet a new public.

English, baby! Leaning English on-line can be fun

There is a slight difference between learning English on the Internet, and working on your comprehension of English on the Internet. For example, watching Desperate Housewives in English without subtitles on Surf the Channel or reading The Times on-line helps you better your comprehension of English, but doesn’t make you speak better. Your vocabulary widens, and your hearing, but not your speaking skills.

Then, how can one learn English on the Internet? I didn’t really know where to look… but then I searched on Google and came up with English, baby! which is a fun website to learn English on-line, for free. This site proposes English lessons, but also a real interactivity with English speaking persons through a community, forums, a chat, etc. You can also consult their on-line dictionary and practice the TOEFL on-line for free… it’s very nice and seems very effective. And most of all, it is not boring looking, it bring s real nice young feeling to learning a language that most other sites don’t have. To propose a community to learn English is an excellent way to improve one’s level.

RSS: the Internet working for you

First of all, what is RSS? I have no clue. I have heard of the term, but I do not exactly what it is. For this, I go to my best friend on the web: Wikipedia. Here is what it says on it:

“RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works – such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video – in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus meta data such as publishing dates and authorship. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based or desktop-based.”

Which is not very enlighting, I think… so, I went on YouTube. And I found this video, which explains everything on RSS very clearly and simply, so I am now able to understand it!

So, from this, I know what RSS is! You can subscribe to a page, such as Net Vibes, which enables you to link it to blogs and news that are updated often, through a RSS link. The pages that can get linked through RSS are indicated byt he following picture: . This can be used, for example, if you want to know if I updated my blog. You click on this icon, and then, it will indicate on your database that you created beforehand, if I did or not put up a new post. It also works for newspapers on-line, etc. Thank you YouTube!

Guess who’s home for dinner?

Another Internet application which I quite like… is called Cook Think. It is not revolutionary, but it helps when you’re living alone, with nothing in your fridge, and you’re hungry (which is often my case). Cook Think lets you chose ingredients from a list, going from apples to spices to pork (you can even add your ingredients that aren’t listed), and from these, Cook Think proposes to you many recipes that are easy to cook and that are available with what you’ve chosen in the list. I like this application, because I often have no imagination when it comes to cooking, so I go there, and it gives me some pointers. It’s pretty fun looking too.

Of course there is the equivalent in French, called Marmiton, which is also fun and has other kinds of

recipes. There, you can create a blog, where you can keep the recipes you’ve tried, you can rate them, and you can even create your own. I think this application is a nice change from the old grandma recipes, where you happen to never have a particular ingredient. At least with Cook Think, this won’t happen…

Text messaging one’s way to the White House…?

Barack Obama, the running democrat for the presidency, is using the Internet as well as other trends to buzz about his campaign, such as text messages. One can sign up on the campaign’s website, and get the right to receive text messages on your phone about the campaign, or simply text message GO to OBAMA. By signing up, you get weekly updates from the campaign as well as advance notice about local events Obama will attend to and important updates about his public appearances.

Is this a good idea? Who is it aimed at? Should it be used by others? I think this idea is mainly done to appeal to younger people, the ones who often don’t bother to vote, between 18 to 25 years old. Going straight to where they spend most of their time, meaning on the Internet or on their cellphone, is a good way to reach them where no other running candidate has tried to before.

Though, if it is effective I don’t really know. I think it shows a great adaptation to new technologies and should be praised for that, but I don’t think that if it’d happen in France, I would sign up for it. Because, you already hear about political campaigns all the time, in the newspapers, on TV, in the streets (“Vote for Obama 2008″ bumper stickers on cars…), so, maybe when you’re on your cellphone, you might not want to get assaulted once again…

I think that if it used by others, it will not be seen as such a big thing, because they’ll just be doing what Obama was doing. And I also think that this kind of application would only work in the US or in Japan. Because in France, a cellphone is considered as your personal space, and you don’t want to be disturb on there. Already having a campaign website was revolutionary for the last running candidates, so I think one will have to wait for more innovations… !

Softwares: to pay or not to pay… that is the question.

On one side, there are open source softwares which everyone can get, and on the other side, there are the commercial software groups. Open Office and Firefox versus Microsoft and Safari. What advantages can one bring, what disadvantages?

The wrong side of commercial softwares is that you have to pay for them, while open sources ones are free. But being free doesn’t mean it is bad, does it? There is a paradox in the softwares I just named up above: I use Firefox and Microsoft, while I keep away from Safari and Open Office. And why is that?

Firefox versus Safari

Firefox, though open sourced, is faster and gets updated more often than Safari. Safari is a Mac-users Internet navigator, and has the particularity of only posting the page once it has completely loaded. Which can be useful, though not for impatient people like me. I prefer seeing the page load one icon at a time rather than wait for a fully loaded page to appear at once. Silly, maybe, but an easy way to chose my favorite navigator: Firefox. Also, Firefox gets updated very often, while Safari doesn’t, which keeps Firefox ahead at least in my mind.

Winner:

Open Office versus Microsoft

Open Office for me is only a pale copy of Microsoft, and I don’t even have the latest version of Microsoft word. Microsoft is not that expensive (100 euros I think…?) and works really well, and, also, is compatible with everything, which is not the case for Open Office. Maybe I feel this way because I have first learned how to used word documents on Microsoft, and downgrading to Open Office confuses me (I don’t understand half of the stuff).

Winner:

The match ends with 1 point for open source softwares, and 1 point for commercial ones… it seems like a tie!

Hello, Google speaking?

Google has launched of a new application to go with one’s iPhone that groups all Google services in one: such as Google Search, GMail, Calendar and even Reader. To use this application on one’s iPhone, you only need to connect to the Internet navigator of the iPhone on Google Mobile’s dedicated website.

I think it is an application that is made to help the iPhone user by only having one service providing all applications. Though, if you use another navigator on your computer, such as Yahoo!, it can become a problem, since you’d have to change your rss page and email address. In other words, you have to like Google, which is not everyone’s case. Plus, it comes of as a bit of a commercial boost for Google that is imposing on the iPhone users more than a help tool for them!:

Personnaly, if I had an iPhone (I really want one… but it’s very expensive!), I would probably download it. One, because I love Google (it’s my homepage on my computer), I have GMail, I use Google docs, very soon I’ll use Reader too! So, I’m a real Google fan, and an Apple fan, so the two combined is great news for me. Though, I don’t think everyone will agree with me there… too bad for them!

A week in the life

For the past week, I haven’t done a lot of things concerning e-culture… of course, I’ve been on the Internet, read my mails, written on my blog, and other things that involve the Web, but I haven’t spent that much time on my computer this week, more on TV… which is surprising even for me, usually the ratio is the opposite one!

Anyways, this past week, I haven’t studied a lot, though I’ve done some research about the thesis we are supposed to write by the end of the school year. I want to do it about the American movies and how they have a cathartic effect on the American people. I’m thinking about Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center which came only a couple of years after the Twin Towers went down, same thing for Platoon, etc, while in France, it took a film maker 50 years to film Indigènes. Though, it’s pretty big subject, so I’ve also researched the subject of filmed theatre, because I think it’s interesting to see how it’s for two different targets, and that it gives off a different feeling filmed than in real time.

Last week-end I also went to the integration week for the new students entering CELSA. We went to the center west of France in the town of Niort. We played games, sang, danced, etc, it was pretty fun! Though it was also very tiring, so I’ll still resting form that one exhausting week-end.

I also went to the movies to see Jar City, which is an Icelandic thriller. I really liked it though usually I don’t like thriller. I think it’s because Icelanders tight lip’s humor is pretty funny, and that the stuff about genetic sickness and all was pretty well thought out.

Well, that’s about what how my week went… not very exciting…!

Debating away: another point of view on the financial crisis

Here is our debate with Jessica on the effects of the Internet on the financial crisis… interesting, you say? I am here taking the negative point: BAD INTERNET!

VID: Very Important Debate

How the Internet influences dancing…? (and not the opposite, as I keep saying in the video…!)

Not a very fruitful debate… but a fun one nonetheless!

My online resume: a preview

I had a lot of work to do this week, so this is just a preview of my resume, I’ll re-do it later because it’s too short and not enough detailed…

Golden China?

Last Sunday, I went to the exposition China Gold at the Musée Maillol in Paris. It is a contemporary restropsective of around 40 Chinese artists. This exposition was really something, mostly because all the painting had something political about it, but also because each on of them was disturbing in some way. The political aspect was treated in every aspect, there were abstract painting of a fire hidden by thorns, or a picture of the last standing house in Beijing, where a new appartement complex was supposed to be build. It was both frightening and revealing at the same time, because it seems that it’s never the Chinese that talk about their oppressive government, and for once here, they showed their revolt about this oppression.

All arts were displayed: photographies, paintings, videos, there was even the picture of a happening back in China.

I’d tell you to go see it, but the last day was last Sunday! Though, you can see some of the art on the following page.

Wiki it!

Hello!

A very short post to detail what we’ve done in class today: we’ve created a class wiki in for our English group, called Say WE. It’s kind of fun, we created an e-portfolio online, where you can put up your resume, videos, etc. Mine can be found HERE.

We can also post the best of our blogs, meaning, in my case, this blog… More to come soon!

My resume, the real thing

Finally, I finished my on-line resume, after fighting with iMovie for some time… Here it is!

Enjoy!

No fingerprints: the complexity of cybercrime

A cybercrime is a crime committed on the Internet, and it is usually the type of crimes that remain unpunished. A Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section was created in the United States Department of Justice to try and regulate them, and usually the equivalent exist in most countries. Cybercrimes are as horrifying as real crimes… there are crimes such as identity theft, that can have horrible circumstances (for example pedophilia), and there can be some things such as intellectual property crime, since everybody can claim anything on the Internet.

For me, the Internet is like a big society of everyone in the World, on-line, with the same laws applying, but with nobody respecting them! Because, apart from an IP address that can be tracked down, one can almost do anything on the Net without being caught. I think creating a department to take care of this is a big step, but there needs to be more control. I am not talking about having people pay for downloading illegally, because I still believe that’s a minor crime (even though I don’t do it), I think it’s more important to catch people passing off as other people, stealing credit card numbers or propagating historically reprehensible ideas on the Net…

Cybercrime is a crime that should be treated as any other crime, but I guess it’s difficult to be a cybercop, since your opponent is a virtual one that often knows more than you about the medium used…

To be or not be someone else… that is the question!

Last time we talked about cybercrime and now I want to develop more on type of cybercrim, which is identity theft. I think that identity theft is a very morally reprehensible crime, especially when it concerns children. On chatrooms or forums, you can never really know who you are talking to, and even when you are talking to someone you know, maybe it’s someone else pretending to be. A little comic that is pretty funny about that:

Laughing about it and saying that it will never happen to us is fine, but I think it is a serious matter. Some sites are starting to be real careful about it and I think it’s good, the information about yourself is kept secret and that’s finally a good thing. But, I have little brothers for example, and I give classes to a 10 years old girl, and I know they all chat on the Net with strangers, and what is scary is that nobody can stop them from doing so (maybe their parents, but when you have a computer in your room?). Identity theft is not only passing off as a kid when you’re a pedophile, it’s also stealing the identity of someone that really exists. I know it’s a very important matter in the US, less in France, but I still think it should be controlled more thoroughly. People should be more warned about this, the consequences, and how to prevent it from happening. For everyone, here is a video called “How Criminals Steal Your Identity?” explaining how to take care of your identity, simple stuff, but things that everyone should be aware about.

E-violence is real violence!!

Violence on the Internet is another subject which concerns me a lot… I think this whole subject makes me go into an uproar! I believe violence on the Internet can take on two forms that are both to be apprehended with caution: verbal violence and graphic violence.

About verbal violence

There are neo-Nazi websites on the Internet it’s a fact (I will not link them let alone search for them though). One will eventually stumble upon one website vehiculating morally reprehensible racist ideas when searching on any search engines like Google or Yahoo!. Anybody can find them. However, more and more, they are tracked down by the cyberpolice, but the Web is so enormous, that when one is put down, I believe that a lot more are created. A good thing about some Internet providers are software that you can install on your computer so it will keep out from graphic websites and other violent wordings, which is both a good thing for adolescent and children.

About graphic violence

I think this is the worst type of violence one can find on the Net, because it is the one that can hurt the most, they say a picture is worth a thousand words… Pornographic websites can be accessed easily by anyone, children included: for example, I tried the simple word “woman” on Google Images search, and the first ones to show up are already naked! Also the diffusion of videos on YouTube of Happy Slapping that can be watched a lots of times before being disapproved of by the community can ggive thr wrong ideas to kids (I searched and there aren’t that many anymore, so it’s a good thing, but there are others…). Happy Slapping consists of filming yourself randomly slapping people in the street without any reason for why you’re doing it. And children surfing on the Web can eventually watch that.

On and all, violence on the Internet is very present and not enough regulated…. and softwares such as the one Numericable proposes, called Protection de l’enfance in association with Action innocence, should be a part of each Internet navigation system!

E-addicted

Now, let’s talk about something less serious… or not. Cyber-addiction is an addiction like any other, and sometimes it can be very serious. There surely different stages of addiction, because I kind of believe we are all cyber-addicts. I am a cyber-addict to some point: one of the first things I do in the morning is turn on my computer. And I spend an average of at least 3 hours a day on the Net. I think it’s terrible of having that turn into a habit. I keep on thinking about this South Park episode called Over-logging (that you can find HERE, some things are way over board, as usual with South Park, but the panic scene of the beginning is very realistic in my opinion…)  when the Internet suddenly stops in the whole country and nobody can go back to their lives before the Internet. Somehow, I think about it and tell myself: what if it happened to us, what would we do? Crazy, yes, but scary too!

E-addiction can be of course, even worse than me going a couple of hours on the Net. I’m thinking about the people playing World of Warcraft for example, that are more connected on the Internet than to the real world. There was even a German movie about it called Ben X. In the movie, Ben’s story is the story of a lot of people: someone who spends more and more time on the Net, and starts believing the game is real. I think it’s a real sickness, because when you start believing that, there is no going back… or it will be really difficult. That position is extreme of course, but there are also cyber-addicts that will fail their school year and will waste their social lives to spend time in the virtual world. Cyber-addiction can take on any form, and I believe that it should be important for people to try and not go on the Internet for every problem. Know how to use the real dictionary or the real Yellow Pages instead of going on the Internet version of it…

YES! We did.

Just a small post to celebrate the victory of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. Instead of voting for the past, the Americans decided voting for the future, and most of all, they did it together. Obama’s victory is more than a simple victory, it’s a wind of change concerning more than 2/3 of the American people that went to vote because they believed in him. It wasn’t a vote against McCain, it was a vote for Obama, and that’s what counts. Even though I am not American, I want to say how glad I am for them: the whole world was watching the US on Tuesday the 4th, and I think no one was disappointed.

Making it big… on the Net

Everybody talks about making money on the Internet, but to me it seems a big fraud… Paying things on the Internet, ok,  but making money? How is that possible…? Anyhow, I know there are ways to make money on the Internet, but to me it seems unreal. How can you be sure that you’re going to be paid? This is my big interrogation on it. Other than that, I know that for example, I wouldn’t do it, because I don’t think it’s safe. I prefer what is concrete and for me the Internet is too immaterial to be a secure way to earn money. So, 10 posts will follow after this about to make money online… for 3 different purposes: personnal, business and social causes.

E-Money 1: Answering surveys

I think one normal, not a fraud, and easy way to make money is subscribing to an on-line opinion survey (for example Opinion Way or O’Pignon in France) on the Internet. You simply answer questions about your life, and if your profile corresponds to what they’re searching for, you will be contacted regularly to answer surveys about anything. For each poll answered, you can get 5 euros or more of coupons every week, which, at least for a student, can help greatly for buying food to survive this trying times…!

Anyway I like doing this, because it doesn’t involve you in any contract, you can stop at any moment, and you can’t get cheated about it. And also, there is no wrong answer, so I think it’s the best way to get a little money on the Internet, even though it’s not a lot of money, nor is it real money, it’s coupons that you can only spend in certain places…

E-Money 2: brand your blog

Another way of making money on the Internet is, if you happen to have a website or a blog that is pretty active, have ads on it. By letting brands enter this space, you’ll be able to earn money because in a way, you’re advertising for them, and you’ll also get more money from clics on the said ads. I think if your blog is pretty active, you can get a lot of money from that. The problem is that you let ads invade your space, so I think it’s a bit biased, I wouldn’t feel as free to write what I want anymore, and maybe the people visiting your blog will feel attacked and flawed by the ads. But that’s my opinion. At least you can get money for it. For example, there is Adsense, the Google ads generator.

I found this photo of this guy showing the money Google Inc sent him, I thought it was pretty illustrative of my point here:

E-Money 3: participate in contests

Also, another way to win money on the Internet is to try and participate in as many contests as possible… and try winning things. If you win stuff that you already have, you can sell them on eBay! I don’t think it’s a very good way to make money, but I guess if you keep participating, it’s like the Loto, one day you’ll eventually win.

I know I participated once or twice, because I always tell myself “why not?” but I never one won, so I guess not.

I vote this post my most useless one!

E-Money 4 and 5: Facebook yourself… for both individuals and business!

Social networks are great to make money: especially Facebook, on of the biggest one, and also one where people go on almost everyday. Also, Facebook has something really good to make money, they are called Facebook Applications. First off they can be made by users, and if it catches on with others users and you have a certain pourcentage of daily users, than you can sell it to Facebook. That is one way to make lots of money easilly. Problem is now there are hundreds of Applications on Facebook and to make one that stands out enough to be bought is hard.

For enterprises, you can create an application on Facebook, create goodies with coupons downloadable on the Facebook interface that can increase your Internet visibility and thus generate money on it. Am not entirely sure how all of this work, but this website, Facebook Application Profits, seems to explain it better than me.

E-Money 6: create a fundraising for a social cause

If you have an ONG fighting for a cause where everyone can feel concerned, it is always good to have website or a blog. It doesn’t cost much, actually, and through this interface you can have people make donations. Having a website for a social cause is first a good way of having your arguments heard, and it’s also where people will go more easily to donate money. It’s easier than sending it by post. And also, you can give anything you want, from very little, to a lot.

For social causes, donations through websites are a great way to raise money, it’s called non-profit marketing.