GoogleMaps, Paris and me

Who said that Internet and new technologies tended to dematerialize our representations of the world?
Here is my city, my "arrondissement", my neighborood and my street! Look closer and you'll even catch a glimpse of my building!

Agrandir le plan

E-culture anthem

BLOG IS ALL, by the Bob Squad (Marion, Marie-Cécile, Magali, Morgane)

Everybody’s got to live together
All the people got to understand
So you love your neighbour
Like you love your brother
Come on and join the band


Everybody needs to use e-culture
Oh it’s the greatest adventure
We’re so happy and we're celebrating
Generosity is the queen


Blog is all
Blog is all
Come on and go with Bob
Blog is all
Yeah ! Let’s blog !

Hello it's me

The No-Strike Zone

Ahahah, silly little french workers! Somehow, train users don't seem to find it very funny...or at least not while the strike is on.
So for a whole week, no trains, no tubes, no buses, no Velibs...no school!
Except of course for e-culture classes, to which we can participate from home since "Internet is never on strike"!
Believe me, it's the first time - and probably the last - I've attended a course in PJ's!

Policing on the internet

In novembre 2007, a finnish eighteen-year old student shot 8 people in his high-school after publishing a video on youtube called "Jokela high-school massacre". “I am prepared to fight and die for my cause,” he wrote in a post, “I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection.” Couldn't be clearer.

Question is: coud this kind of tragedy be avoided by a closer surveillance of video sharing webcasts (such as youtube or dailymotion for instance) or social networks?
As there are more and more e-platforms allowing to share videos, photos, personal infos and news, it is both crucial and increasingly difficult to hunt down actual harmful users.
What's more, this system can question the freedom of speech: e-police cannot arrest potential criminals basing on simple words...But waiting for them to act on their intentions is useless...
So where is the limit?

Success-stories on the internet

They're young, they're rich (come on girls!) and they own their e-companies:

- Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. He attended Harvard University and founded the online social networking website Facebook (with the help of fellow Harvard student and computer science major Andrew McCollum as well as roommates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes).
We don't know the exact amount of his personal fortune but at the age of 23, his company is valued at approximately US$ 15 billion...so we'll assume that he doesn't sleep in the streets...

- Not so young but immensely rich, no need to introduce...Bill "Microsoft" Gates.
He is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is widely admired,his business tactics have been criticized as anti-competitive and in some instances ruled as such in court.
On the other hand, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.
The annual Forbes magazine's list of The World's Billionaires has ranked Bill Gates as the richest person in the world from 1995 to 2007, with recent estimates putting his fortune worth over $56 billion USD.

- Other exemples of success stories, but no so much as far as founders are concerned:
Kamini, a french singer who posted an amateur song about his village in the french region of Aisne, Marly-Gomont, on Youtube and met an unexpected enthusiasm...in may 2007 his CD came out and since the beginning of the year he goes from concert to concert...
So Internet may not have brought wealth in this case but fame and a new life...(see also the exemple of Lilly Allen in England)

About Google

Just to remind the basics, Google is an American public corporation, specializing in Internet search and online advertising. The company is based in Mountain View, California, and has 15,916 full-time employees (as of September 30, 2007).
Google's corporate philosophy includes statements such as "Don't be evil" and "Work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun", showing thus a resolutely relaxed and "generous" motto.

However, the corporation seems to be growing stronger and richer with everyday: Google is estimated worth $23 billion.
With plenty of new applications in very diversified fields - Google Earth, GMail, Google Video, Google News, Google Translate...- Google is no longer a "simple" research engine and it also provides advertizing services (in 2006, the company reported $10.492 billion in total advertising revenues).
With so many field activities, Google is bound to raise controversy, here are some interesting links about the subject:
- Google in China
- Google in the garden of Good and Evil

Generally speaking, we can say that Google often is the heart of attention because its development and activities are related to very current issues (privacy, free speech, intellectual property rights...). What's more, the motto "Don't be evil" induces very strong reactions from those who find themselves concerned by ethical controversies...