At one point in time US President John F. Kennedy triumphantly declared “Ich bin ein Berliner!” in a speech to the German people. Now the debate rages on as to whether the president proclaimed he was a Berlin citizen or a donut but that’s for another blog. Today though we learn from TechCrunch Europe that Eric Schmidt from Google may need to head to Deutschland to proclaim that he is one of the good guys as there are calls to ban Google Analytics from sites with a .de extension.

Several federal and regional government officials in Germany are trying to put a ban on Google Analytics, the search giant’s free software product that allows website owners and publishers to get detailed statistics about the number, whereabouts and search behavior of their visitors (and much more).

According to an article in today’s Zeit Online (poor Google translation here), multiple federal and state government officials charged with guarding over national data protection are convinced that Google Analytics is against the law in Germany and are mulling imposing fines on companies who use the service to gather detailed stats based on their website visitors’ usage patterns without the explicit consent of those visitors.

What is probably just as interesting in this quote is the swipe taken at Google’s translation service. I woudn’t know a good German translation if it came up and smacked me in the head (apologies to Herr Manger who was my German teacher for two years in HS. Nothing stuck other than “Ich habe keine idee” which I think means “I have no idea” – NOTE- This was confirmed by Google Translate

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So apparently this isn’t the first time that the German government has voiced these concerns with most of their worry pointed at healthcare data and other sensitive areas. Interestingly enough some of larger media organizations use Google Analytics so this should be fun to watch if it actually turns into anything.

So what’s at risk for those using Google Analytics

One German lawyer that gets cited in the article says the penalties could amount up to €50,000 (about $75,000) per website that uses Google Analytics to keep track of its visitors’ usage patterns.

Google’s take. Well, they disagree of course. What else would you expect?

Google Germany’s Per Meyerdierks, however, says the company is well within its rights to process user data in the United States because it respects the Safe Harbour treaty between the EU and the USA. He argues that an opt-out would be entirely unnecessary, and that users always have the option to refuse cookies anyway.

Now my question to the German government is the following. If you are uncomfortable with Google having this kind of data for many companies what about the individual companies that are collecting the same data using something else and not nearly as secure as Google is?

Social Media Monitoring in Just 60-Seconds. Guaranteed!

Philippine Weather, Outer Space and renaming PAGASA

  

The Philippines has a long way to go in weather forecasting. For a long time, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration or popularly known as PAGASA has been waiting for its order of at least ten S-band Doppler Radars. The first delivery being half of the lot. This has not happened. More about this post here. 

 Footnote to Archangel:

I used to be part of the DOST scientific network myself, but I saw how much room there is in the department and its network for expansion and growth. True, on many occasions it used to be the only place in the bureaucracy where talent is clearly rewarded (I used to get as many as eight to ten cheques on certain paydays because of my work in various projects in our division alone), still the accomplishments of the department leave so much to be desired. 

 Satellite Feature For February 2002

The Philippines has a long way to go in weather forecasting.  For a long time, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration or popularly known as PAGASA has been waiting for its order of at least ten S-band Doppler Radars.  The first delivery being half of the lot.  This has not happened.

PAGASA has been relying in part on the steady stream of free inputs with its membership in the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).  Certain quarters suggested the creation of a Philippine space agency in 2007 and a data communications (satellite) based agency as early as 1988.  No one listened to the proposals.  If the former Sec. Emilia Boncodin of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) even singlehandedly torpedoed down the creation of the Congress-legislated National Transport Safety Board, much more a space agency. And because of Boncodin’s single act, the whole situation is so fucked up that tragic disasters and crises involving mishaps at sea have been happening left and right and can’t be stopped from happening in the future. There were those who unnecessarily criticized and lambasted the proponent of a Philippine space agency, a retiring engineer at PAGASA, as foolish.

The project proposed to create a functional data communication agency, the Philippine Satellite Communication Operation, Research and Development Council (PSCRDC) in 1988, at the diminishing level of euphoria over EDSA I was probably just thrown in the garbage can.  If real and pseudo scholars will check at the Records Office in Malacañang, there is heavy doubt if the document was even registered as received by the Office of the President, even under the heading of Classified matter.  The project paper had a stamp of SECRET all over it.

The PSCRDC was clearly envisioned to be a Philippine space agency and it preceded the idea submitted by Engr. Bernardo Soriano.  Soriano appears to be an admin man, although he should be equipped with a doctorate after serving more than 30 years in PAGASA.  Why he submitted the idea for PASA could be due to his years of experiencing faulty detection and forecasting at PAGASA.

The Philippine Government should review the PAGASA proposal now and not at any other later time.  S-band Radars are all right.  But is it state-of-the-art in storm detection radars (SDR)?  If the investment to buy 10 radars will not cover the entire archipelago, what is the use of having the Dopplers?

Will it not pay more to have a stronger space agency and to invest more inputs for a mechanism to generate more data from outer space than is available today for the country?  After all, how many end-users are there for satellite data?  Nearly everyone has a use for information from outer space, not the least of which are those in the field of environment management, business, civil and military aviation, shipping, land transport, logistics, defense, law enforcement and just about any Googler and ArcGIS map user out there that includes many students, teachers, professionals who know how to.  And if you count them all, the number runs to millions.

That in itself is already a huge market.  Considering that the Philippine business traffic overlaps with those of many other countries, there is also revenue potential in this area.

For this reason, Cyberpark Telecom, our company has extended its sights towards business that relies on outer space data and possibly to generate a positive relationship with Smart Communications in this regard.

While there is only one Philippine satellite, see data from SatNews below, there is also great good that will come about if the satellite were boosted and fully equipped with new components and gadgetry to increase its sensing capabilities and other functions.  And that is where we come in.  If the Agila II Satellite people will not accept our offer, we can go shopping for other partners.  There are hundreds of satellites, real and artificial orbiting in outer space. India alone has ten satellites.  Or we could opt to launch our own satellites in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology in the near future.

By then, government must have renamed the PAGASA into a Philippine Space Agency as Soriano dreamed of.  But today we urge the administration of HE  PGMA to start pushing its cluster of agencies to map out the strengthening of RP’s capacities for using outer space as a valuable resource in many of its concerns.

As we are advocating in Resource Recovery Movement, there is a need for policy regime change in the area of mapping as it relates to environment, to global warming, to its many applications in engineering, architectural township planning, urban development, agriculture, etc.

The link to information on the Agila II Satellite: SatNews

Os desastres naturais conseguem ser tão destruidores quanto fascinantes. Atualmente, os satélites e recursos tecnológicos nos dão a oportunidade de vê-los de ângulos bastante diferentes. Confira a seguir alguns dos impressionantes desastres naturais vistos do alto.

Tsunami no Oceano Índico – 26 de dezembro de 2004
Imagens horríveis de pessoas fugindo de ondas altas viajaram os jornais de todo o mundo no Natal de 2004. Um terremoto de magnitude 9,1 provocou o tsunami que se deslocou da Indonésia à Somália. A escala de destruição foi enorme e os vídeos contam um pouco da história.

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Furacão Katrina – Agosto de 2005
Não foi o furacão mais forte já registrado, mas merece destaque. Os ventos do furacão alcançaram mais de 280 quilômetros por hora, e causaram grandes prejuízos na região litorânea do sul dos Estados Unidos, especialmente em torno da região metropolitana de New Orleans, em 29 de agosto de 2005 onde mais de um milhão de pessoas foram evacuadas.

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Furacão Ike – 13 de setembro de 2008
É classificado como o terceiro pior furacão da história dos EUA. Ike provocou a morte de 164 pessoas, 126 diretas e 38 indiretas. 74 das fatalidades ocorreram somente no Haiti, país que estava tentando se recuperar dos estragos causados pela tempestade tropical Fay, e dos furacões Gustav e Hanna.

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Furacão Isabel – setembro de 2003
Foi o furacão que mais causou prejuízos e mortes na temporada de furacões no Atlântico de 2003. Sendo a nona tempestade tropical, o quinto furacão e segundo maior furacão da temporada.

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It was only a matter of time but it appears as if the time has arrived. While the buzz from some folks inside of AOL

is very positive about the addition of Tim Armstrong it is going to get louder as more major hires are announced. The first is the hiring of a new top ad sales executive for the company. Not a surprise considering Armstrong’s pedigree and the importance of showing that AOL is still in the business of generating revenue through its properties.

As reported by the WSJ

Jeff Levick, who has worked at Google since 2001, most recently as vice president of industry development and marketing, is the latest in a series of Google executives who have announced plans to leave the company.

The 38-year-old executive will become president of global advertising and strategy at AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc. He will be responsible for Platform-A, AOL’s ad unit, and for developing global revenue strategies.

So there are several observations to make here. First, don’t get to comfortable in any new job. Levick is replacing Gregory Coleman who took the job of president of Platform under the previous AOL CEO in February. Two months doesn’t even give most people enough time to find all the restrooms at a company the size of AOL let alone work themselves out of a job. Coleman will be leaving the company. One thing that may be noted is that Coleman came to AOL from Yahoo, which may be a resume liability these days.

Of course, the other side of the story is another executive leaving Google. Need for concern? Too early to tell but traditionally Google has required exiting executives to sign agreements not to hire Google employees for one year. The terms of Armstrong’s agreement upon leaving Google are not known.

People familiar with the matter said AOL has interviewed other potential job candidates from Google as well. That suggests that Google has given Mr. Armstrong, a former senior vice president who was one of its earliest employees, more freedom to hire former colleagues than it has with other former executives.

With AOL now poised to spin off from the Time Warner mothership and new blood being injected in what many thought was a dying entity, could AOL get comeback player of the year honors? Or, will this be an overhyped flurry of activity that puts AOL back in the news but results in the same old, same old? Your take?

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어제 (5월 6일) 아주대학교 구글러 김태원의 초청 강연회에 참석했다. 개인적으로 구글에 대한 호불호보다 김태원이라는 사람 자체가 궁금했고, 2년 전에 그가 쓴 책을 읽었을때, 한번 만나보고 싶었다.

강연회 자체는 2시간 30분 정도 (QnA시간 포함)해서 오후 7시부터 9시 30분까지 꽤 긴 편이었다. 그 긴시간에도 미쳐 준비한 프리젠테이션 자료를 모두 보여주지는 못했다. 상당히 많은 자료를 준비했는데, 너무 과하지 않았나 싶기도 하다.

김태원에 대한 나의 느낌은 책을 사기 전과 사서 읽은 후와 그리고 이번 강연회를 듣고 난 후 세 번 바뀌었다. 책을 사기 전에는 호기심과 약간의 반감 (본인이 말하는 “엄친아”에 대한 느낌 같은?), 그리고 책을 사서 읽은 후에는 상대적 박탈감과 압박감, 좀 더 강해진 반감이 들었다.

솔직히 그가 부러웠던 것이고, 연배도 얼마 차이 나지 않는 사람이라서 그의 성공(이라하기엔 섵부른 걸까?)에 순수하게 동경, 호감을 갖기 힘들었다. 알랭드 보통이 책, “불안”에서 말했듯이 자신과 별로 차이가 없어 보였던 사람이 성공하게 되면, 매우 껄끄러운 감정을 느끼는 그런 것이었다. 다시 말해, 한국 속담에 “사촌이 땅을 사면 배가 아프다”와도 같은 느낌이었을 것이다.

그런데 2년이 지난 이번 강연회에서 그에 대한 생각이 또 바뀌었다. 본인 스스로 “엄친아”로 질타를 많이 받아서인지, 자신이 “엄친아”가 아니라 그동안 얼마나 노력해왔는지를 말했다. 그의 책을 다시 보아도 그는 꽤 많은 실패와 성공을 반복했고, 그건 일반인들과 다를바 없다. 남들과 다른 점은, 다들 많이 가는 길(안정)을 택하는 대신 자신은 다른 길을 택해서 노력한 그 결과가 좋았던 것이다. 그리고 그 바탕은 움직이는 “열정”이었고, 자신은 그 열정을 전파하고 싶어서 책을 썼단다.

강연회 덕분에 그가 매우 솔직한 사람이라고 느꼈고 (물론 책에서도 솔직했지만, 책이란건 포장이 가능한 것이니까 완전히 신뢰할 수 없다.) 그 덕분에 자기는 솔직히 이야기 했는데, 그것이 자기 자랑으로 들려서, 안티가 생긴 것 같다.

강연회 중간에 그가 문희준을 예로 들었던거라든지, 모 대학교에서 “저는 대학교 때, 외국 여행을 제 돈 안들이고 여섯번 다녀왔어요.”라는 말에 청중들에게서 바로 “x새끼”라는 욕설이 나왔던 이야기를 하는 걸 봐서 꽤 마음 고생이 심했을 거라고 생각든다.

우리 나라가 겸손을 미덕으로 여겨서 그런 걸까. 단지 자기가 어떻게 해서 좋은 결과를 얻었다고 PR한걸 “자기 자랑”으로 껄끄럽게 받아들이는 것도 좀 아니다 싶다.

그 밖에도 굉장히 많은 걸 느꼈지만, 지금은 아껴두고 싶다. 그리고 끝나고 나서 책에 싸인을 받을까 싶었지만, 그것 역시 다음 기회로 미루었다. 좀 더 움직이는 열정을 가진 사람이 되어서 그의 싸인을 받고 싶기 때문이다. 여러모로 자극도 되고 많은 생각이 들게 한 강연회라 생각된다.

March 19, 2009

In September 2008, I was privileged to meet the team at The Idea Village during my most recent visit to New Orleans. 32 of my fellow Googlers (as we affectionately refer to ourselves) and I were embarking upon a community outreach trip which came to a screeching halt as a result of a city-wide evacuation for Hurricane Gustav. Fortunately the damage to the city was minor in comparison to past devastation, but our planned projects had to be canceled due to much of the city still being closed to non-essential workers and non-residents. In a serendipitous turn of events, one of my colleagues informed me that she “had a friend” who might be able to help us. Despite being dispersed all over the United States, the team at The Idea Village rallied to make it home and open their doors to a determined group of volunteers willing to brave the elements to make a difference. During our visit, we learned a lot about ongoing redevelopment projects within greater New Orleans and assisted with the development of the launch plan for 504ward’s $200,000 Business Plan competition, hosted in partnership with The Idea Village. Since then, I have kept in close contact with Tim, Lauren, Daryn and team, even hosting them at Google last winter for a presentation aimed at garnering west coast support for our southern friends. So when they asked me to take part in The Idea Village’s IDEAcorps Challenge ‘09 , it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

What peaked our interest most and convinced us to participate is how closely the challenge mirrors much of what we do at Google – connecting people with useful, innovative solutions and information. It has been said that information is the seed for an idea, and only grows when its watered.  By bringing the country’s brightest minds and cutting edge corporations to New Orleans, projects like this will guarantee the growth of tomorrow’s future leaders and spawn a new generation of local business entrepreneurs.

Over the coming week, fellow Googler, LaFawn Bailey, and I will be working with The Idea Village, salesforce.com and the MBA students to provide information on Google tools and processes that will allow them to assist local entrepreneurs in tackling critical growth challenges facing New Orleans today. We will also be visiting bloggers for the week, updating this and other media sources with information on the participating students, entrepreneurs and The Idea Village team. So check back for regular updates, photos and live coverage of our week of entrepreneurship – we promise a crazy and rewarding adventure resulting in a lifetime of impact.

With a little bit of hard work, a lot of determination and most of all, trusting our crazy ideas, I know that New Orleans will once again regain the world class status it so richly deserves.

Tara Canobbio
Google.org

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Tahmin edilebileceği üzere yarışmadaki durumum hiçte iyi değil. Google sitemizi hemen indexlemiş olmasına rağmen dizinleri eklememiş. “Lida Dai Dai Hua Jiao Nang Seo Yarışması”  Halbuki ne umutlarla oturmuştum bilgisayarın karşısına.

Her ne kadar çok fazla post atmamış olsamda gönderilen yazıların indexlenmesini beklemek hakkımdı sanırım. Ama bu beklentim boşa gitti. Şimdi sıra diğer birkaç sitemden bu siteye link vermek.

Seo için yapılan birkaç eğitim programının reklamını görmüştüm. Fakat içerği incelediğimde benim bilmediğim şeylerin olmadığı gördüm. O zaman bu eğitimi almama gerek yok dedim. anlaşılan gerek varmış.

Ecco il terzo lunedì del blog! Di lunedì si può parlare di poche cose, il calcio lo escludo per vari motivi: ci sono miliardi di siti dove poterne parlare, non è la stagione giusta per me e sopratutto a parlare di calcio di lunedì mi sentirei un po’ “carota” biscardi, evitiamo. Settimana come sempre intensa, piena di lavoro e attività personali. Ho iniziato a postare qualche vignettuccia come avete potuto notare, spero sia cosa gradita, è partita la realizzazione di video, cercherò di farne altri al più presto, anzi, accetto proposte. Ora vorrei snocciolare alcuni numeri del blog con voi in queste prime settimane:

Visite totali: 272, a quando ho iniziato a scrivere, probabilmente dopo ce ne sarà qualcuna in più. La prima settimana ci sono state 107 visite contro i 152 della seconda, il post più letto è stato quello sul benedetto Dan Hanna, che a distanza di più di una settimana ancora viene ricercato dai “googler” e qui mi domando: devo essere felice che il maggior numero di visite sia ad un post in cui io praticamente non c’entro niente?? Speriamo qualcuno sia rimasto a leggere il resto del blog… almeno lo spero io, poi voi fate un po’ come vi pare. Altro post molto letto è quello sull’idolatria ed il papa, spero sia sempre più letto visto che per me “denuncia” una chiara contraddizione! Spero ci possano essere ulteriori miglioramenti al blog nel corso della settimana e magari anche un incremento delle visite, che per ora comunque mi soddisfano molto!

DvB

If you want to refresh your memory about how wonderful Google is to employees, you will want to read the Red Orbit “Way of Life in the Google Complex” here. After a summer of transparency, the writer–possibly a Googler or a PR maven in …
arnoldit.com

Googler may refer to:

A person who uses Google’s features very efficiently
Fan of Google.
An expert online searcher
A full-time Google employee.

Cute graphic I made saying Googler encased forever in super shiny, crystal clear high gloss resin.

Hangs from a sterling silver oval jump ring. Comes with 18″ black cord and a lobster clasp.

Would be perfect for that Google savvy geekette in your life or keep it for yourself. You’ll be sure to get comments on this one!

Easy to clean with Windex or warm water.

“गूगल हिंदी अनुवाद की पेशकश” is the Google way of saying “Google offers Hindi translation”.

Google has done once again next to impossible. May 2008 “Google offers Hindi translation” for Indian people. Not only Hindi, but Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam are also part of new development.

Using this feature, user will be able to translate online from English to Hindi and vice-versa.

Translating English to Hindi may not be of so much difficult as, translating Hindi to English. Being computer freak I know the difficulty, to parse the grammar of Hindi language through computer programming. And in either case, translating sentence from one language to another is itself challenge. But at the bottom of the translation-engine is the rule for placing Subject, verb and object in proper sequences. Simple translation of each word does work.

But as everyone might be guessing. The Google translator is not perfect. In simple sentence it will give good result, but in complex sentence, it gives alot of error. Error not only in Words, but also in syntex. Where word is complex, translator put the word as it is.

Ex

“”“I love you””= “” मैं प्रेम आप “” – Sentence with Quote

“I love you” = “मैं आपसे प्यार करता / करती हूँ – Sentence without Quote

But some of the problem are in the area where it is proper noun. Suppose If someone named “Sher Singh” appears in sentence, then it will be translated to Lion Tiger.

“, शेर-शायरी” = “, The lion – poetry”

“शेर-शायरी” = “Sher – poetry”

I found a way to deceive translator in a while. Its Case sensitive. Like,

“Tiger is strong” = “टाइगर मजबूत है”

“tiger is strong” = “बाघ मजबूत है”

Right now in summary I can only say, Google translator fumbles away with literal dictionary words when one tries complex sentences, idiomatic usage or slang words. The Hindi translation of the summary line is “फिलहाल में सार का कहना है कि मैं ही कर सकते हैं , गूगल अनुवादक fumbles दूर शब्दों के साथ शाब्दिक शब्दकोश की कोशिश करता है जब एक जटिल वाक्यों , शब्दों में बोली या उपयोग मुहावरेदार”. What language is this? Can you make it out? Let say it “Hingoole”. A Google standard Hindi + English.

When Hindi mixed with English, we had Hinglish. Now Google made it Hingoole or Hingoolish. Which one sounds better ?

If you are able to make anything out of this new Google tool, start using. Your Hindi proficient parents will simple have boundless happiness with the new google offer. Give a try with some Hindi movie songs and films title names, and see it for yourself @ http://www.google.com/translate_t?langpair=en|hi

Si jusqu’à maintenant le monde du livre a entretenu des rapports de méfiance avec les poids lourds du Web 2.0 que sont Google et Amazon, la question de leur possible utilité pour les auteurs et les éditeurs se pose plus que jamais. Pour une fois, les termes du débat ne proviennent pas d’institutions comme la Bibliothèque Nationale de France ou du Syndicat de National de l’Edition mais d’un écrivain américain populaire et à l’avant-garde des réflexions sur les technologies.

Code Source le nouveau roman de William Gibson est sorti, non sans attirer l’attention des geeks mais aussi des journalistes en mal de matière à penser le présent à l’aune des technologies futuristes. Ainsi, comme pour son précédent roman Identification des schémas où Gibson surfait sur un grand nombre de thématiques contemporaines (les marques, le marketing viral, la Russie ultime patrie des hackeurs, la plasticité des contenus avec un DivX au montage déstructuré etc.), la narration se nourrit d’une mosaïque de thèmes, un peu comme ces murs de photos produisant une image géante.

Quel rapport avec Google me demanderez-vous ? Eh bien Gibson ne s’est pas contenté de gloser sur les possibles applications de la géolocalisation comme grille surimposée au monde réel par opposition à la matrice du cyberespace. En sus de la mosaïque de thèmes, il a écrit avec en tête le système d’indexation de Google. Ce qui nous amène à ce délicieux néologisme qui fait le bonheur des critiques : la googlisation.

La googlisation, c’est l’intégration de l’existence du moteur de recherche comme voie royale pour être lu quand on blogue ou qu’on publie sur le Web. On écrit avec une liste de tags en tête, un titre accrocheur, autant pour le lecteur que pour le moteur de recherche. On utilise les mots et les sujets à la mode dans une course effrénée à la première position dans Google. Le but est d’être le premier à être consulté quand un internaute s’interroge sur un sujet, et entre les termes de sa recherche dans le moteur de Google.

Ainsi les rédactions en ligne sont-elles passées progressivement de l’autre côté du miroir, quand elles se sont préoccupées de rankings et de Google AdSense, d’abord pour augmenter leur popularité, ensuite pour dégager des revenus publicitaires. Un phénomène extrêmement contemporain et jusqu’ici spécifique au Web version 2.0. Dans un tel contexte, la démarche de William Gibson peut apparaître comme logique, voire suiviste (après les blogs, les romans !) à un détail près : les blogs et la presse en ligne sont numériques et prêts à être indexés par Google, les romans, eux, en sont loin.

Cela nous amène à dresser un état des lieux de l’indexation des livres dans Google aujourd’hui (c’est-à-dire avant que les livres ne soient couramment numérisés dans leur intégralité et consultables en ligne comme le propose… Google Book Search !). A l’heure actuelle, un livre est référencé sous forme numérique fragmentée :

• un titre,
• un auteur,
• un prix,
• un ISBN d’identification,
• une 4e de couverture,
• une notice de référencement pour librairies en ligne,
• les critiques écrites sur le Net à son sujet

Tous ces éléments textuels épars et informations diverses sont autant de cailloux blancs lâchés/jetés pour que le lecteur trouve son chemin vers Amazon ou Fnac.com. Imaginons maintenant la multiplication de ces cailloux si le texte d’un roman de Proust était totalement indexé par Google. On entre Guermantes à tout hasard dans Google ou bien Vue de Delft et le résultat des recherches converge naturellement vers Proust. Bien sûr, la notoriété des écrits de Proust est telle qu’il n’est pas nécessaire d’indexer toute la Recherche pour obtenir ces résultats.

Dans le cas d’un jeune auteur nettement moins connu le gain ne serait-il pas énorme ? Une promotion de type virale de son œuvre. Si par exemple, un Allemand cherche des renseignements sur le lycée Ernst Bloch de Bonn, il y aura de fortes chances pour qu’il tombe sur le site du lycée et pas loin en dessous sur La fille sans qualités de la romancière Julie Zeh.

Allons plus loin dans le raisonnement. Imaginons un auteur en mal de publication mais qui aurait fait indexer son livre par Google. Il augmente sensiblement ses chances de notoriété. Tel Simenon déroulant ses polars sur fond d’ambiance liégeoise qui aurait mis l’un de ses livres en ligne avec un partenariat Adsense, il y a fort à parier que tout internaute en quête d’écrits sur Liège passerait d’une façon ou d’une autre par son site et potentiellement cliquerait sur les publicités de l’office du tourisme de Liège.

A présent, envisageons une position intermédiaire entre le type de données actuellement indexées sur un livre et l’indexation du texte intégral. Une bonne partie du contenu Web 2.0 pensé pour la googlisation s’appuie sur le système des tags. Comme pour ce blog, la spécification de tags pour chaque billet permet de toucher un lectorat qui ne connaît pas immateriel.fr mais qui s’intéresse aux mêmes sujets que nous. Pourquoi ne pas envisager pour chaque livre, non pas les tags un peu prévisibles de classification (roman, psychologie, aventure, sciences humaines, voyage etc…) mais des mots-clés, pensés par l’éditeur ou l’auteur, uniques en un sens car adaptés à un contenu unique. Ces tags constituent une nébuleuse de méta-données propre à ceux qui les choisissent, en quelque sorte, une grille de lecture sous la forme de mots, un index pensé pour le Web. L’avantage est principalement de faire connaître un contenu sans tout dévoiler.

D’ailleurs, si la démarche littéraire de William Gibson pose les jalons d’une réflexion sur l’indexation des contenus comme nouvelle étape de la diffusion du livre, il n’en demeure pas moins que Code Source n’est pas à l’heure actuelle intégralement indexé dans Google ; ne confondons tout de même pas fiction littéraire avec réalité contemporaine !

samuel@immateriel.fr

2nd February:

Ok, it’s been about 20 days since this happened, so I do not recollect things all that well. We were supposed to have gaming on this particular day. The Kriya Open Quiz prelims was sometime in the evening. I remember vaguely, qualifying for the second round of NFS MW. Vibu , Vivek and Co. had qualified for the CS second round. Sidharth had also come along. Since the gaming arena was damn crowded, we had to wait a long time for our turns. On top of that we had to pay 10 rupees for registration. All I could manage in between all of this was to crack the Crossword that was given in the magazine. I cracked it along with Vivek and Vibushan. Shyam helped out with one final answer. We then submitted it where we were asked to. I somehow got Vibu also to submit one entry. Vivek wouldn’t listen.

We went had lunch outside. We found the shabbiest of hotels just outside PSG and somehow downed our food with Mountain Dew. To this day it remains a mystery if we ate Chicken Biryani or not. We ordered something called Plain Biryani. Now, some people tell us that plain biryani is Chicken biryani with the chicken pieces removed. Still others seem to think that the biryani in Chicken biryani is cooked separately and the chicken pieces added afterwards.

After lunch, we attended “Googler” and “Mouse Handler”. Vibu and me gave Googler the miss and Vivek gave Mouse Handler the miss. Googler was just plain googling. You were given 5-6 images which you had to find online. Not as easy as it seems. It helps if you are into quizzing though. Mouse Handler was again a set of 5 images which we had to use to design something creative. I did design something creative, but I don’t know why I was not selected

Now all that was left was the Open Quiz. Me, Shyam and Vivek formed a team. Vibu and Sid also stayed. Quiz was done by Gopal Kidao from QFI. We had Frankies just before the quiz as we were hungry. Because of goofing up the prelims (I am solely responsible for this. As always I told my team-mates that I was sure that the answer they were giving me was not the right answer. I’ve done this even before as Shiva and Madhu will confirm) Had we got those answers right, we would probably have qualified for the finals. Worst of all was that two school teams qualified for the finals. I am no longer going to call myself a quizzer. We were at-least happy that these chaps would not be there the next day for the Intercollegiate quiz.

Vivek, Sid left immediately after the prelims. Me and Vibu decided to stay back. So did Shyam. The finals was won by Samanth, Sumo and Jayakanthan. (Not very surprising.)

Vibu and I had dinner at “The Park” in stadium quite late at night and then went home. We shit chatted a bit before going to sleep.

3rd February:

Well, I had the finals of gaming, the inter-collegiate quiz , the Crossword results and my prize money for Paper Presentation to look forward to. The Inter-Collegiate quiz was in the morning and Shyam was supposed to team up with me. Shyam came to the gaming arena huffing and puffing some 40 minutes after the scheduled time of the prelims. He had lost his phone on the the way from home to college and had no way of contacting me. Sad. We went to the quiz venue only to find that it was almost over. People were handing in their entries. We somehow got a answer paper and started going through the questions frantically. We did the quiz in something like 30 seconds. Obviously we did not qualify. We scored some 6 and as far as I heard 8 was the highest score. If only Shyam had not lost his phone. If only we had made the quiz on time, maybe we would have qualified. But then that did not happen. Shyam went phone hunting immediately afterwards and I went back to the gaming arena.

I qualified the second round of NFS too and then the third round. Now only the finals was left. At around the same time, my friends were doing pretty well in CS. 4 of amrita’s teams had made it to the top 6, and the organisers somehow managed to get Amrita playing Amrita. Of the two Amrita teams that emerged, they were again asked to play each other!! That’s where Vibu and Viveks team went down. Some bad organising with the home team being given wild card entries and all.

I drove pathetically in the finals of NFS. Somehow I thought I would win this race, but it was not to be. I once again came third on 4th. I now have the dubious distinction of never having won an NFS finals after having qualified some half a doze times.

So, now all that was remaining was the Paper Presentation prize and the crossword results. This was the most annoying part. I was asked to wait some 2 hours before I was given the certificate for the Paper Preentation and another 30 minutes before they announced the results of the Crossword. Me and Vibu were among the winners apparently. To add to the already bad organisation, I was told that my prize money would be sent to me by mail!! Whoa!! You made me wait two and a half hours to tell me that ? And I had made Vibu and vivek wait with me. I still haven’t received my prize money by the way. 

Amidst all this, someone from Googler called me and I was told that I had won and they wanted to know my college name so that it could be written on the certificate. Now, both me and Vivek were bewildered because both of us had got only 4 on 6 right. After getting Shyam to investigate the matter, I found  out that I had won a participation certificate!! (Actually not even that. It’s a long story and not worth it. So I won’t go into it.)

We left from PSG and went to Barista in R S Puram for my treat. (Which was foolish of me since I hadn’t even got the money yet!!) Rajani and Sid also joined me, Vivek and Vibu. I was a little low on cash. So, I told everyone that they could have one item form the menu. Thankfully, my friends were considerate enough not to order the most expensive stuff on the menu.

We went to Viveks home briefly after that and then back to Vibushan’s house. I had dinner at Vibu’s place. Here, I packed as my train was early in the morning and then we talked some more before going to sleep.

4th February:

Somehow managed to get up on time and get ready for the train. As always Vibu was more than nice to drop me at the station. Got my train on time. It was the bloody sitting train. I don’t want to go into how bad the journey was. All along the way, I cribbed and whined to Vibu and Vivek about it. And once I neared Chennai , to my friends here. Somehow came to Chennai at about 14:30. Got an AC bus to Thiruvanmiyur. Came back home took some rest, and then went to Cafe Coffee Day in Ascendas in the evening with Abhi and Gari for yet another premature treat. It was fun though and in a way nice to be back in Chennai.