L'enseigne de bricolage Castorama, vient de lancer lestrocheures.fr, un site communautaire qui risque de faire
des émules. Concrètement, le site est en fait une plate-forme de mise en
relation permettant aux bricoleurs du dimanche d'échanger gratuitement des
heures de bricolage. Les conditions générales d'utilisation du site, le
précisent clairement, il n'est destiné qu'aux particuliers, logique pour un
site d'entraide fondé sur la gratuité.
En découvrant ce service, on ne peut s'empêcher de penser au principe des
Systèmes d'Echanges Locaux (SEL) ou au concept de time banking (time
dollars) qui consiste en un système de troc dans lequel les unités de temps
(1h en générale) sont les unités de mesures universelles permettant d'échanger
des services et des moyens. Le temps comme monnaie d'échange en somme.
As part of the 2011 edition of LIFT - "Be Radical," Jean-Michel Cornu
animated the 6th of July a workshop dedicated to the FING expedition "Monetary
Innovation" at the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côtes d'Azur.
25 participants passionate and stimulating exchanged on the extensions of
money and the range of possibilities for monetary innovation.
This 3 hours workshop brought together extremely varied profiles and led to
the emergence of innovative ideas, sometimes disruptive, which should help to
define stunning leads of action or innovation... Now we are busy working on
this inspiring material in order to come out with some totally brand new
proposals for the future of money.
See you in September to discover some real gems!
To read the minutes of the workshop (french), it's here.
Imagination for
People is an international community of citizens who believe that
creativity can be used in practical ways to make a positive social impact.
Basically, imagination for the common good.
This platform has been created for you. Inspired by an eclectic mix of
Wikipedia, TED and the need for
a post Facebook experience. Spurred on by the desire to see a new generation of
social networks that would be more meaningful. Motivated by the need to
democratize social innovation, to make it more accessible to
non-specialists.
Here is an interesting alternative to the controversial methods and process of
the retail industry. This experience comes from across the channel and asks
only to be exported... The concept: in exchange for 4 hours (unpaid) per month,
and a modest fee, customers will benefit in return a 10% discount on products
(local, artisanal and organic) sold by their supermarket - and thus help keep
prices low by reducing personnel costs.
The People's Supermarket allows its community - an unprivileged neighborhood
in London - to reinvent the way its members do their shopping: the choice of
marketed products, suppliers, store hours, the business strategy, everything is
voted by members. Imagine that we can complete the business model with a
complementary currency system ...
Arthur Potts Dawson and Kate Wickes-Bull may have given rise to the
cooperative ideal distribution model?
Will the tablet market be more important than the PC market? Like many
analysts, Tim Cook think so.
For the Apple COO, it is a mere question of time. This statement was made
recently at a meeting with Bill Shope, an analyst at Goldman Sachs. This
confidence is nothing extraordinary in itself, Apple is already selling more
Mac than iPad.
The analyst also reports: "Apple seems more overtly optimistic on the
long-term prospects for the iOS platform than it has been in quite some time.
"
According to Bill Shope, Apple will probably be able to sell 8.1 million
iPads for the June quarter, a 72% increase from the year prior.
By Cédric Pierre-Louis on Thursday 21 April 2011, 12:53 - Economics & Finance
Around the world, "complementary currencies" emerge : to facilitate
local trade, to cushion the effects of the crisis, to make possible a
"sustainable" economy and many other things. Complementary currencies have
existed for a long time, but ICT introduces several breakthroughs related
to : the extent of these currencies in terms of diversification of their
functions, the easiness to create (and dissolve) them, the actors who support
them...
This Fing "Expedition" aims to explore new frontiers of money, around two
objectives: to identify opportunities for innovation monetary contributions and
complementary currencies to innovation. Currency is not neutral, it can be a
powerful tool for social innovation!
By Cédric Pierre-Louis on Tuesday 19 April 2011, 20:21 - Entertainment
If you ever wonder yourself what would look like the result when classic
music meets breakdance, check this out :
What do director Spike Jonze, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and dancer Lil Buck have in
common? Not a lot, but it doesn't matter, because they just managed to perform
an amazing and entertaining collaboration here. In this video, shot during a
gala aiming to promote Art in american schools, 马友友 and Lil'Buck interpret
« The dying swan » by Camille Saint-Saëns. Some will maybe
interrogate themselves to figure out if this unexpected cooperation is art. To
those people I will just say the following : if this demonstration give
you some thrill, that means you have been touched by the performance, and only
Art can do that.
Yo-Yo Ma is a French-born American cellist, virtuoso, orchestral composer of
Chinese descent, and winner of multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of
Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. He is one of the
most famous cellists of the modern age.
(Source : Wikipedia)
(Source : thedailybeast.com)
By Cédric Pierre-Louis on Thursday 31 March 2011, 23:20 - Music
Ok, this video is not so brandnew. You probably discovered it elsewhere some
days ago, but I could not help myself posting this terrific music video on my
blog. So enjoy "Iron" by Woodkid aka Yoann Lemoine, a french music video
director who is also a very good singer. Impressive, aesthetic and powerful,
now just watch!!!
Bad news for OpenGL aficionados, John Carmack, one of the most influential
figure in the video game industry, just claimed that "Direct3D (Microsoft
technology) is a rather better API today" than the Khronos Group's API.
Creator of Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake franchises, John Carmack says he now
prefers Direct3D to OpenGL for gaming. "Direct3D handles multi-threading
better, while newer versions manage state
better," Carmack told Custom PC.
"In addition, Microsoft had
the courage to continue making significant incompatible changes to improve the
API, while OpenGL has been held back by compatibility concerns."
As BitGamer's Ben Hardwidge notes, Carmack's id Software has "rigidly stuck"
by OpenGL for both Doom III and Quake 4, as many other game devs migrated to
Direct3D.
At the end of this month, I will attend to the 2nd edition of the Rwanda
Week (25-27th March 2011). I am currently bringing my modest contribution to
the organization and I will also do a keynote about mobile banking outlooks in
Africa (one of my favorite topics). Here is a quick presentation of the
event :
On March 25th, 26th and 27th 2011, the Rwanda Week Forum will hold an
European meeting focus on the Entrepreneurship initiatives of the Rwandan
Diaspora and the partners which support and encourage the economic development
of Rwanda.
The purpose of this event consist in launching officially actions for
gathering ressources in Europe and support initiatives aiming to stimulate the
social and economic development of Rwanda. Conceptualized 12 months ago through
the Rwanda Business Exchange platform, this ambitious project brings together
various «Afro-optimistic» partners looking for being involved in relevant
actions, beyond formal speeches.
This tuesday I will attend to a conference about Stuxnet, a Windows computer
worm discovered in July 2010 that targets industrial software and equipment.
This worm is one of the most sophisticated and powerful ever created. Different
variants of Stuxnet targeted five Iranian organizations, with the probable
target widely suspected to be uranium enrichment infrastructure in Iran.
Stuxnet has also affected some computers in Indonesia, India, United States,
Australia, United Kingdom, Malaysia and Pakistan. This worm has been recently
in the spotlights because of obvious "cyberwar" issues.
It has been a while since I first thought about writing the following
column. I always delayed its redaction for many (bad) reasons (lack of time,
family issues, travel opportunities, work, etc.). But tonight I decided to take
the bull by the horns, sit down and start defining all I want to say about an
amazing country called Rwanda. Like many children borned in 1984, I was old
enough to understand and live through television some historical moments which
left its mark on humankind forever.
Some were happy and let me very positive feelings (Fall of the Berlin Wall,
the end of the Cold War, Bill Clinton's Presidency etc.). Ohers were quite
traumatizing (Iraq invasion of Kuwait, First Persian Gulf War, etc.). However,
for me the worst memory ever was the Rwandan civil war and Genocide in 1994,
during which around 800,000 people died in awful mass killing.
When I started looking for information for writing my master thesis, I
remembered a fascinating article about how the Rwandan government was doing
everything for making Rwanda an ICT hub, with the ambition of being the IT
leader of Africa. So when it was about pick a country for my research, I
finally chose Kenya and Rwanda. What I discovered just blew me away.
Since the end of november 2010, I am studying a new Master's degree - Design
and Management of IT Territorial Projects - at the Paris X university. I am
currently working on my Master's thesis which will be focused on mobile
payment, once again. However I have in mind a brandnew concept which could help
emerging countries reduce their dependence on official development assistance.
I will soon post a "powerpoint" presentation introducing this concept, as well
as a short project summary. Stay tuned.
For now, I just wanted to share with view my point of view about the
controversial principle of intellectual property.
I like comics, but I am not a big fan. As a neophyte at comics, I never
heard about Black Panther. So when I read this article I could not help myself looking for more
information about the first black superhero ever appeared in a mainstream
American comics. The Black Panther aka T'Challa, is a fictional character from
the Marvel Comics universe. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and
penciller-co-plotter Jack Kirby, he first appeared in Fantastic Four #52 (July
1966).
By Cédric Pierre-Louis on Tuesday 23 November 2010, 02:11 - Society & Politics
As you may notice on my blog, I am an "Afroptimistic". I do believe that
Africa will soon no longer be considered as a developing continent and I think
that there are a lot of things we should learn from this wonderful place. To
contribute to the rise of Africa, I become member of the network Correspondants.org which
organizes the 2nd edition of the Innov'Africa forum. Here is the official
invitation (in French) :
Nous avons le plaisir de vous convier au deuxième Forum Innov@Africa, du 13
au 17 décembre 2010 à Bamako au Mali, pour œuvrer à la mise en réseau des
porteurs d'initiatives sur les usages innovants dans le Sud en matière de
technologies et d'innovation sociale.
Plusieurs rencontres sont prévues durant cette semaine de
l'innovation :
By Cédric Pierre-Louis on Monday 22 November 2010, 02:10 - Apple
Last week I attended to a Valtech's "afterwork" (an event between keynotes
and professional meeting related to IT) focused on the iPad. Given I am a kind
of geek, keen on high technologies and design, I could not resist to this
invitation. So, just "afterwork" I jumped in the metro to Valtech Technology
headquarters. Located in a distinguished area (Ministers district), the
building where is situated the international firm is an awesome mix between old
stones and glass. Wonderful combination.
By Cédric Pierre-Louis on Thursday 28 October 2010, 01:23 - Professional Area
Life never fails to surprise me. After working as an event and project
manager at Capital Games, I was hired as a back office officer in the 3rd
largest Corporate and Investment bank in the Eurozone; SGCIB (Société Générale
Corporate and Investment Banking). I would have never imagined I will work one
day in finance, but here we are.
I am part of the FOREX (foreign exchange) back office department, and I am
in charge of the E2K area : Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland,
Italy and Spain. At the beginning, I have to admit that I was quite intimidated
by the position. Indeed, any little mistake can have costly and tragic
consequences, so I did my best to perfectly understand all the process and
master the set of internal softwares daily used. I feel lucky for meeting with
this professional opportunity. It is a very interesting and formative job, but
even if I got awesome advantages, and work with very nice people, I am not sure
I will stay as enthusiastic as I am right now...
By Cédric Pierre-Louis on Wednesday 29 September 2010, 18:45 - Education
Last month I followed in Brussels a training in North/South cooperation and
development issues. I was waiting for attending this session since 8 months...
Now I know why this "Infocycle" meet with such a success. Organised by the
BTC - the Belgian Development Agency - this
demanding program is an unmissable opportunity for those who are interested in
the sustainable development of emerging countries. Let me demonstrate it in 6
arguments :
During the last 4 months, I was project manager at Capital Games, the
Parisan business cluster for Video Game companies. I organized a part of the
Video Game Festival of Paris and the Game Business Summit 2010 in close
relation to Games Fed (Event management & Communication agency which
founded the Festival). I initially wrote the following text for the website
capital-games.org. I will post an english summary as soon as
possible. Stay tuned.
Le jeu vidéo en Ile-de-France (IDF) c’est une trentaine d’écoles, 3000
emplois, 100 sociétés, auxquelles s’ajoutent les prestataires offrant des
services tels que la motion capture, le développement de moteur de jeu, les
technologies d’interaction vocale etc. Au niveau mondial, le jeu vidéo a depuis
quelques années déjà dépassé le cinéma et la musique en termes de chiffre
d’affaires, pour devenir le secteur numéro un de l’industrie du
divertissement.
Conscient de l’importance de l’industrie du jeu vidéo en termes d’emploi,
d’innovation, de potentiel économique, de rayonnement international, et grâce à
l’action de Capital Games, la Région Ile-de-France a renouvelé son soutien,
pour la troisième année consécutive, à l’édition 2010 du Festival du Jeu
Vidéo.
Hi everybody! I'm Cédric, a young graduate from Martinique, a beautiful island in the French West-indies.
After one year preparating Political Sciences institute exams (Paris), I got my Bachelor degree in Management (Lille - North of France) then I chose to continue my studies doing a Master in International Management because I really feel like a world citizen who feels at home everywhere he goes. I spent one year in Valencia (South of Spain) as an ERASMUS student. Then, I came back to the Catholic University of Lille, to pass my Master 2 degree in International Corporate Management.
I contributed to the languages and cultures association - "l'Espace Langues" - of my Faculty in Lille (FLSEG) as a member and manager of the team. I was in charge of its blog and during the university year - 2008/2009 - I became fully part of the "FEDE" team, the student association of my university. I was responsible for the activities of the International relationships department (cultural events, parties for foreign students, representation of the FEDE abroad).
My professional expectations? To work for an IT company or a NGO as a project manager, in a real multicultural environment. There is also something very important for me; make people happy. If my work can improve people's lives and contribute to positively change the world... I will be much more motivated by my job.
As you will notice on my blog, I'm keen on IT and computers. I'm a kind of geek but I do have a social life, don't worry! I like so much traveling, because I do like change and I have a passion for political sciences and geopolitics. Now you know quite a few things about me... and you will know much more while visiting my blog. So welcome to dailyspotlight.net and make yourself at home.
