Let Me UpGrade U

Just wanted to share the happiness of scoring 10 out of 10

after taking this very very difficult english test !

Let's pop champagne people !

Freakypedia

My first experience with Wikipedia is quite uncertain. Indeed, I wanted to write an article about Rhea, the new member of the hip hop band N.E.R.D created by famous rap singer and producer Pharrell Williams.

So I started by gathering peaces of information about the singer, which wasn't easy as her career just started. Then I created an account on Wikipedia in a wink of an eye, and wrote about Rhea. Once I finished my post, I pressed publish and that's when it got tricky !

My article, is actually not an article yet, it appears on Wikipedia as a discussion. I believe it means that the Wikipedia Team first needs to check if my post gives correct information, if I didn't break any rules by publishing it, and so on...

The problem is, my article is linked to Wikipedia's ornithology project ! I know it sounds weird, because my article is about a R'n'B singer, but I actually discovered that Rhea was also the name of a special kind of ostrich ! I couldn't find the family name of the singer, but I guess the fact that an article already exists under the word Rhea is a problem.

If only this was my only one...I just realized that I had done something very stupid : posting an article in english on the french Wikipédia ! Congratulations, you just cross the line to completely useless ! So needless to say my article is going to disappear any minute...And I just can't manage to post it on the english site ! Ok, let's just say that my first experience with Wikipedia was chaotic.

But beyond the fact that my article about Rhea was a failure, I learned a lot about this incredible tool that is Wikipedia. I had no idea that this online encyclopedia was so controled, I guess I thought that posting an article was just as easy as creating your account. It's frustrating because I spent time finding stuff to say about this singer. But in way, I'm quite impressed by the way Wikipedia imposes its own rules to its users. I think it is necessary, because if anyone could write anything on it, well it couldn't be trusted as a performing tool and a reference in terms of modern knowledge. Even if Wikipedia shouldn't be your only source of information when you want to learn about something, I think it is a good start to know the basics. And if it keeps on being controled like this, it might become even more performing and reliable.

My Video Résumé

Hire me !

99 problems but the web ain't one !

If we consider the web as a jungle, I swear that the jungle fever it can provoke doesn't sound as good as the one Stevie Wonder was singing about !

So here is my top 10 of the things you need to know

before venturing into this virtual jungle that is the Internet

and if you want to survive in I-land...

1.

This one's for the ladies...

Don't you ever send naked pictures of yourself !

Even if the addressee is your boyfriend, or your husband. Men are men, and they just can't be trusted ! Who knows what they'll do with these pictures the day you leave them for someone hotter and younger. Okay I'm kidding, but seriously, don't send emails with intimate pictures, because your email account could be hacked and God only knows where your pictures might end up !

2.

This one's for the rookies...

Never click on a link that looks suspicious !

That's what I did on Facebook when one of my contacts sent me a video link, and that's also why my computer got a huge virus and my Facebook account is now disabled.

3.

This one's for the lovers...

Stop trying to spy on your ex boyfriend/girlfriend by Googling his/her name !

You won't learn anything, it won't change the fact that this person is your ex and that trying desperately to use the new technologies to know what he or she is doing with his or her life is pathetic ! Be careful about that, it can get pretty addictive !

4.

This one's for the haters...

Stop trying to find embarrassing peaces of information about people you hate !

We all did that once, maybe twice for the evil ones. But writing anonymous comments is even more pathetic than spying on your ex because it starts with bad intention.

5.

This one's for the naive and paranoid people...

Don't believe everything said on Twitter, especially when it's about the death of a celebrity !

Two days ago, my best friend called me to announce me that rap singer Kanye West had just died !You must know that I love Kanye since the day I heard his first single All Falls Down, and that I saw him performing on stage several times, so you can imagine how shocking that information was to me. The first trending topic on Twitter was actually RIP Kanye West ! Thank God, it was just a stupid rumor, but my friend and I got so worried. Especially considering the disturbing video that Kanye had just posted on his blog the day before (what do you guys think about that by the way?). Anyway, love him no matter what !

6.

This one's for the impatients...

Don't bother to create another Facebook account if yours has been disabled !

That's what I did, and it turned out to be nothing but a waste of time. I actually thought that my former account was doomed to stay disabled, so I created another one and took the time to add my friends and to tag some pictures. But three weeks later, the Facebbok Team finally dared to answer my emails and announced me that my account was had been reactivated !

7.

This one's for the Facebook addicts...

Don't only count on Facebook to remind you your friends' birthday !

Last week was my Birthday, and as I didn't have a Facebook account at that moment, a lot of my friends forgot it, how sad ?! No facebook account, no B-Day ! So try to remember the exact date of your friends' birthdays without using Facebook because they might leave the network for a while and experience the same thing as me...

8.

This one's also for the facebook addicts (they're everywhere!)...

Stop refreshing your profile page hoping that something is going to happen !

Do I really need to explain this ? Common, we do it all the time ! When you're home and borred, Facebook seems to be the thing which keeps you connected to the outside, and to your social life. But waiting for someone to come and talk to you on Facebook is as desperate as it is in real life !

9.

This one's for the geeks...

Don't fantasize on people you met on networkings !

It is almost like the lottery: you never know what's coming ! It is easy to seem cool and handsome on photos, but harder in real life...

10.

This one's for everybody

Check every piece of information you find on the Internet !

It is very important to know where the document you're reading comes from, if it was written by journalists or bloggers, professionals or amateurs. That's the danger with sites such as Wikipedia, very useful but that also have the tendency to simplify the information.

So like Jay-Z said it, you may have 99 problems, but the web ain't one now that you checked these 10 rules ! Well he didn't exactly said that but...Let's just say that with this top ten, you'll be the survivor that his wife Beyoncé was talking about !

E-Books and Books...they can cohabit !

Liv, Me, Alone

Mission 3 : Fighting Against A F*****g Virus

Ok, I probably deserve it, as I wrote an article about cybercrime a week ago and tried to freak everyone out, but three days ago and for the very first time of my life, I've been infected ! Let me tell you what happened...

I was innocently checking my Facebook account when I saw this video posted on my wall by one of my contacts. It was late, I was tired and I really wasn't in a suspicious state of mind. So I clicked on the link to see what the video was about, and then...Boom Boom Pow ! A very scary message appeared on my screen saying that I had been infected. From that moment, everything happened so fast...All my contacts started to receive messages from me, which I was obviously not sending, inviting them to watch the same video that had just infected me. I changed my password like ten times, but nothing helped ! My Facebook account has been hacked, or phished, or whatever, bottom line is that it has been so messed up ! But the worst thing is, my entire computer got the virus.

So I spent the last three days trying to make this evil virus go away. It was so bad that I couldn't even connect myself to the Internet. So I had to learn something I didn't know : trying to heal a sick computer. As my anti-virus had expired, I had to download another one, which has been very difficult considering the fact that the Internet wasn't working. Fortunately, a friend of mine help me to install different anti-virus sytems and after hours of perseverance one of them finally kicked the virus's ass : Avira AntiVir Personal, which I recommend you as it's free and efficient. Now I can connect myself to the Internet just in time to write my weekly article. This is Live From Liv !

But the thing is, my Facebook account has been disabled. I'm virtually dead ! I thought that the problem was resolved, but I sent a report to the Facebook Team to let them know that I had been a victim of cybercrime, and instead of helping me, they killed me ! I feel like some kind of creepy outcast who doesn't have a social life anymore. I tried to write to Facebook using different email addresses but nobody answered me, so scandalous !

I really wanted the virus to leave me alone, and it did, but I didn't expected to become Liv, Me, Alone.

Thank God Twitter still loves me !

Get Wavy Baby !

Mission 2 : Looking for some hot stuff

Now that I learned the basics of Twittering, I think it's time for me to move to the next level and to try to look for things I've never heard of, which is kind of hard. How am I supposed to find something if I don't know what I'm searching for...Here I am, facing the dilemma that all the researchers in the world have known. Research is one paradoxical activity, but maybe that is what makes it stimulating. Anyway, the good news is, I just found something really interesting while I was surfing on the net searching for something I didn't know. Still following ?
It is a new project launched by Google called Google Wave described as a personnal communication and collaboration tool. This new service will be a merger of e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networkings. I'm sure it is about to revolutionize collaborative work, even if, to be honest, I don't really understand how. Spelling and grammar checking and automated translation between 40 languages will be included into Google Wave. People will then be able to work together in real time even if they are miles apart, because this new device is gathering an impressive number of tools that became essential to work. I'm glad I learned about this project because I often have group works and it's hard for everyone to be available at the same place, on the same day. With a tool such as Google Wave, I think e-learning has a lot of chances to soar because it is going to get easier and easier to work thanks to the Internet.

The man that knows something knows that he knows nothing at all

When it comes to the Internet, I still consider myself as a rookie...

There are many things I'd like to do but just don't know how. I think it's time for me to deal with that because using and knowing the codes of the Internet is the key to modern communication.

So here I am, challenging myself to learn at least three things that I've always wanted to do on the Internet and that could be useful in my future career or my personal life.

Check it out, this is Live from Liv...

Mission 1 : Twittering

Ok, I know this is lame, but I still haven't got the opportunity to spend time on Twitter and to really understand what this trendy social network was about. I do have an account but I'm not following a lot of people, so people don't follow me back that much !

But now I've got a good reason to be a Twitter addict. Remember when I was telling you about the fact that I was writing articles for Onlygroove.com ? Well, this week, I got the chance to make my very first interview ! The artist I interviewed was Jeremih, a young american R&B singer from Chi City, famous for his very sensual song Birthday Sex. Well I really enjoyed doing this, the artist was totally receptive to my questions and we even got to chat a bit. He asked me if I was on Twitter, so I obviously said I was even though I never use it ! Now, I'd really like to thank him for the interview, but I don't know how to do that...If I'm only updating my status, he won't see it because he's not following me. I need to find a way to directly talk to him. Just going to check his Twitter page, waouh, nice pictures...Anyway, think I just found what I've been looking for : a special application that allows to mention someone in your status so that he will see it !

Thanks for the interview @Jeremih

And that's how the job is done !

I know what you're all thinking...It took her that long to do that ?

Well did I ever tell you I was blond ?

Wow, look at this : @Live_from_Liv No prob. Thanx for havin me. Will be back out here soon !

And ever since Jeremih answered me, people I don't even know are following me including US TV Channel Trace !

Does Twitter rock, or what ?

CMM International

What are the impacts of the Internet on music ?

Here are our specialists trying to figure that out...

Mama's Gun

The "six degrees of separation" is a theory first held by Frigyes Karinthy and detailed by sociologist Stanley Milgram putting forward the fact that human society is a small world characterized by short path lengths.

According to different experiences, Milgram showed that one people is generally linked to antoher by a network of five other persons. For exemple, only five people are separating me from the president. Because I (unfortunately) know someone, who knows someone...who happens to know president Nicolas Sarkozy.

In spite of the controversy that surrounds this theory, I found it interesting to relate it to the Internet and especially with a phenomenon that is spreading faster and faster called cybercrime.

Indeed, social networks seem to rely on Milgram's theory and tend to embody it by inviting people to widen their network of family, friends and colleagues. The whole point of a social network is not only to be linked to people you know, but also to get in touch with people you may or could know. The world is becoming even smaller than what the six degrees of separation was telling us. We are getting to know more and more people thanks to the new technologies.

But is having someone as your Facebook friend or your Twitter follower really knowing that person ?

The answer to that question would be no for at least 50% of my contacts. This phenomenon of virtual friendship leads to very dangerous activities.

Twitter has recently been a victim of phishing, which is a specific form of cybercrime. It means that hackers actually managed to create a very convincing copy of the original Twitter website in order to usurp the identity of its users. As soon as you enter your username and password on this fake website, the hackers are intercepting all these pieces of information and can connect themselves to Twitter from your personal account. Not only the hackers have an access to your personal stuff, but their main goal is to send infected messages to fool your contacts too and create a bug.

But the worst thing about cybercrime is not on the Internet, it is when the crime is no longer virtual and becomes a reality. If you google your own name, you will see how easy it is to get information about who you are, what you do, where you live and so on. Websites like 123people are collecting every piece of information about each person on the Internet and can enable you to learn things you shouldn't know about strangers.

But what if you were that stranger ? What if someone was actually using the Internet to learn about you at this very moment ? Wow ! I'm starting to freak myself out...

But in a nutshell, the line between the virtual world and the real one is not that thick, and cybercrime can have a lot of impacts on reality. Let's all try to control our own image, and be careful not to reveal to much of ourselves on the Web, otherwise, who knows who might knock on your door...

Ok didn't mean to scare the hell out of you !

Bottom line is : stay aware, okay ?

Transparency : The Gift and The Curse

Transparency seems to be a phenomenon

directly linked to the Internet.

Hiding from people is becoming more an more complicated,

even for totally anonymous persons.

Google your own name if you don't think it's true,

and you'll soon find it scary !

So you can imagine how twisted it can get for celebrities, especially for politicians who are supposed to represent their party and electors. The Internet is dissuading political figures to lie to the people because the new technologies make it harder for them to withhold information, which is a good thing.

But today, every single word that comes out of a politician's mouth is recorded and posted online, even when it is useless. This transparency allows us to see who our leaders trully are. But is this really necessary ? I don't tolerate the blooper of the home minister Brice Hortefeux insinuating that Arabs can cause troubles in France, I think it is racist and simply tactless. But the problem with transparency, is that it totally erased the line between the official speech and what is supposed to be off the record. Ministers and presidents are being judged for the men and women they are in real life, and Nicolas Sarkozy understood that very fastly and learned how to play with the media by exposing his private life to the public. But the danger with transparency is that it makes people focusing on trivial things.

We are lucky to live in a society that doesn't keep the information hidden. Thanks to the Internet, people from suppressive countries can communicate with the rest of the world : we saw it recently on Twitter with the Iranien dissenting movement. But westerns countries have to be careful not to abuse this gift and turn it into a disinformation tool.

Media's Anatomy

Is there something more thrilling than hearing the magical words

"Previously on..."

followed by the name of your favorite TV show ?

I honestly don't think there is !

Spotted : Your devoted blogger turns out to be a soap opera addict.

Be careful L., you might have to write an article about this unexpected liking...

First of all, I apologize for those who read this article and aren't into american TV shows.

That being said, I can tell you what's been on my mind lately. I noticed that ever since the Internet came into my life, I was watching even more series than before. Nowadays, hundreds of streaming websites such as alloshowtv broadcast all kinds of series for free.

So just as Carrie Bradshaw would write it down in her column :

When it comes to TV shows, did the Internet make us break our habits ?

Even if I was already a huge fan of Friends before the Internet revolution, I became a real addict of soap operas since the day I got my own laptop with the Wifi. I really think that by allowing its users to watch videos online, the Internet dethroned television in the TV shows field. Why would you bother to watch an old episode with awful dubbings at a specific hour, when you can have the latest one on your computer in original version at any moment of the day ?

I used to wait for the video tapes or the DVD to be in store to watch series, but now, I can watch the brand new season of Lost almost as if I were in America. It only takes few hours for websites to publish the videos, or a day if you want the subtitles. If television remains the master media in the field of talk shows, I think the Internet paradoxically stole its thunder with TV shows. And I believe that this new media is to do with the success of series like Gossip Girl that are totally adapted to the Internet users' habits and codes. The French TV Channel M6 doesn't take any risk by broadcasting Desperate Housewives on prime time because the buzz that it provokes online months before guarantees its success on television.

This just made me realize I still haven't seen the brand new episode of How I Met Your Mother !

XoXo

Passion's within a click

Mahalia Jackson

There's a website called Onlygroove that you've probably never heard of unless we share the same passion for soul music and hip hop. I used to visit this site a lot for its reviews and articles. Here's one thing I like about the Internet : whatever you're passion is, you'll find it online. You probably figured that out by now, but mine is music, and more specifically african-american music. From the jazz queen Ella Fitzgerald to the rap singer Nas, this whole musical culture has always inspired me in a way that is hard to explain with words.

The Internet enabled me to quench my musical thirst. It represents a precious opportunity to listen to more underground artists because it's becoming harder and harder for them to impose themselves in the stores, especially in France where they're not famous at all. The Internet is also a great way to understand the origins of the contemporary music because it allows us to rediscover artists who aren't present in the other media anymore. Even if I already knew legendary singers like Nina Simone, the Internet is the only media that can provide so many songs and videos in the wink of an eye.

But let's focus on the website I was telling you about called Onlygroove. You probably wonder why I'm evoking it when I could have talked about millions of sites dedicated to urban music. But this one is particular, at least for me. One day, I was reading a very interesting article on this site and I noticed few mistakes. I felt like writing to the staff just to let them know, so I clicked on the contact rubric to see if I could get an e-mail adress. But something else caught my attention instead and here's what it was :

"The members of the editorial staff of Onlygroove are volunteer writers, specialized in a field they chose to share in order to help, inform or to make the "groove culture" evolve. New passionate and experienced writers are welcome, don't hesitate to send us your application or exemples of articles."

And that's exactly how I became a writer for Onlygroove ! I had always dreamed about making my own contribution to music, but I just didn't know how. Now, I get to share what I love the most, and it wouldn't have been this easy if I had applied for a magazine, a radio station or a TV channel. As a volunteer writer, I am free to write about what I want, without any pressure. This represents a lot for me because I simply love doing it, and it is also a way to acquire experience. For exemple, I might make my very first interview next week, if the press attaché dare to find me a slot !

So not only the Internet enabled me to go further into my passion, but it also made me a part of it, and that's what I call a precious opportunity !

Click on these links to read my articles (in french, sorry!) :

Death of Autotune

Leela James

Maxwell

Iam & B-Real

The only thing constant in the world is change...

Twitter : What are you doing ?

Liv : Working on a new article for my blog

Facebook : What's on your mind ?

Liv feels like dancing tonight, who's in ?

Social networks always ask their users what they are doing while the things they do is obvious : they're killing time checking their personal pages, admiring their profile pictures and spying on their so called friends or followers.

The only thing you could possibily write as a status on Twitter or Facebook is : I'm on Twitter, or I'm on Facebook.

But everyone knows that the Internet isn't about being honest...You have to be extraordinary, to always say something special, even when there's not much to tell. Updating your page is a new way to show the world you exist, and you have to let people know what you do just to stay in the newsfeeds, even if there's not much to do ! Otherwise people will think you're dead, or just borring which is even worse.

The Internet is the Kingdom of impermanence, and Boredom Land is its worst enemy.

So if you're getting bored and feel like saying it, buy yourself a diary, but don't even dare to let people know about it ! The new technologies are preventing us from doing nothing, and I have the feeling that it is now considered as a weakness to be bored once in a while...

Change or die, that's what the Internet says to us.

But a great philosopher once said that people who kept on running away from boredom were not the strongest ones because they were just scared of facing their own reality. Does anyone remember who it was ? Here's a clue...

Internet vs. Music : bridging the gap

For a long time, I thought there were two clans. The clan of those who loved music and respected it by buying CDs, which I belonged to, and the clan of those who desecrated this art by downloading every possible song they liked. I wasn’t wrong...but I was definitely too stubborn !

Music means the world to me, and I've always been reluctant to the idea of listening to it thanks to the Internet. I blame the new technologies for the crisis that the music industry is facing. But who doesn’t ? The french marketplace has lost 50% of its worth since 2002, a year that corresponds to the expansion of the ADSL in France. What a coincidence ! By enabling people to download music freely, the Internet has started up a revolution. It is not the first time that progress imposes its rules on art : CDs replaced EPs and LPs and we didn’t make a big deal out of it. But this time, we moved from a material support to a digital and virtual one, which totally changed the way we used to relate to music. I must say that it makes me feel nostalgic...

I’ve always believed that the happiness of listening to a record could only be achieved by holding the jacket and the leaflet that contains the lyrics while the music played. My first musical memory goes back to Michael Jackson’s HIStory album, and I’m not saying that because he died few months ago. I’m evoking this personal memory just to show how powerful the whole concept of a CD is. I perfectly remember the pictures of Michael Jackson dressed up as a creepy nocturnal creature, without really understanding why, and I also remember asking my mother who was the evil man laughing at the end of Thriller. Would I be able to write about such specific details if this album would have been downloaded on my computer ? Probably, because it was such a good one, but maybe not that well.

My point is, ever since music emancipated itself from its material support, we tend to consider it as ephemeral. Songs became something we consume, and the sacred dimension of music is vanishing away because we take it for granted. You will never throw away a CD, but you don’t mind deleting music on your computer, do you ? To a certain extend, I wonder if this new tendency could have an impact on musical creativity. Internet is a great way for artists to promote their music by using platforms such as Myspace or social networks like Facebook and it gives to the amateurs a visibility that the other media can’t afford them. But the Internet is offering so much to the music lovers that it became difficult for the artists to keep on satisfying their audience. They have to come up with new songs very frequently so that people don’t forget them. Instead of thinking about the message they want to deliver, many artists are just struggling to stay afloat. I’m actually passionate about rap music, and I noticed this phenomenon with mainstream singers like T-Pain who always manage to do new songs by collaborating with trendy artists. But while they’re busy trying to stay on Twitter’s trending topics, they forget about real music.

But limiting the impact of the Internet on music to a criticism of free downloading would be simplistic. I had to wonder why people felt they needed to download the albums they liked instead of buying them. Beyond the money criterion, I think the CD simply became outdated and was doomed to disappear anyway because of a social reason. People are getting used to progress and CDs don’t match with the idea of the unconditional freedom that digitisation is offering. They require to do things from what we already emancipated ourselves, like carrying them around while we can have thousands of songs on one single MP3 player.

The Internet put the music industry through a lot, but paradoxically, it also represents the answer to its crisis. The real challenge now is for the music industry to find ways to promote its projects by using the same media that brought them down. Legal downloading is becoming more and more popular, but doesn’t make up for all the money lost. On the other hand, the websites that provide free and unlimited music without downloading are a way for the record companies to be present online without jeopardizing their economy. Indeed, these streaming websites are totally legal because they are financed by the advertisers and respect the copyrights. What is interesting about the streaming is that it gives a feeling of freedom to the people, without placing them as the owners of the music they listen to. The notion of buying is not excluded on deezer.com or jiwa.fr because they propose to their users to buy CDs or concert tickets on websites like fnac.com. I recently learned while reading an article that people who frequently use streaming music services are more likely to buy CDs because they have the opportunity to listen to them easily and that they discover new artists everyday.

So even if it still means a lot to me to buy a Stevie Wonder album, and if I still care about my old stereo, I think that the impact of the Internet on music can also be positive. The connection between music and us is definitely different now. But it is still there, it is even growing stronger, and that is what truly matters to me.