Archive for April, 2008
Wikibody.org AKA Mapping the human body for academic purpose
April 11th, 2008
You know the feeling. You can’t sleep and your brain is working 100 miles per hour, thinking about stuff. That’s what happened to me yesterday (as most days). This time however, I came up with an idea that I’d like to share with you guys even though it’s not a business project per se, but rather a humanitarian one.
I want to map and inventory humans.
Huh? Yes you read it right. I want to have the largest human database in the world. This database would include pictures and statistics contributed by people from all around the world. These pictures and statistics will be used for medical, research and other academic use. Now I don’t want to simply collect human pictures, I want to collect and inventory body parts associated to specific data like age, measurements, ethnicity, diseases affecting a person/body part, country, sex and so on.
Imagine searching for pictures of skin cancer affecting a hand. It is pretty hard to find decent information right now, let alone extra data such as the cancer stage, the size of the affected area, the age of the person and so on. Google images will probably give you very unpredictable results and will point you to a different site every time. Also, if you are a researcher, you will find the statistical data very handy. Which country has the longest feet in the world? What skin tones can you find in Europe? What is the most predominant hair color in Russia? What is the average nail length worldwide? Which country has the highest level of psoriasis? How tall are 9 years old kids in Finland? What if you want to see pictures of warts on a lip? How about pictures of bee stings on a nose?
Of course, all this would be anonymous to the contributor. Not only you wouldn’t be able to find out who the person is, but you wouldn’t be able to reconstruct the person using a series of images.
I think it’s time to have an online, worldwide map of the human body. Think Google Earth for the human body. Think Wiki and the human body. I present you: wikibody.org
I want this project to be just like Wikipedia: a non-profit organization using an open source platform build by volunteers. Sounds interesting? I think it is. I always wanted to start a great initiative like Wikipedia and I guess this project is interesting enough to get started. What I need from you is to help spread the word and get the ball rolling. It’s for a good cause! If you want to contribute part or full time, please contact me at denis@quebecvalley.com
Posted in ideas, internet | Comments (2)
Is your future doomed because you’re on Facebook?
April 8th, 2008
This is going to be a slightly different post from what I usually write but I think you will like it as it’s part silly, part serious. I was actually thinking about discrimination this morning on my way to work. We have laws against discrimination here in Canada and, I believe, most “civilized” countries. So if you apply for a job for example, your skin color, sex, sexual orientation, religion and so on shouldn’t matter. You should be hired for your qualifications.
But what about your digital life? I usually “Google” people up as I like to make an opinion for myself. I like to know who they are on the web. They might have a business, a hobby, be an author, etc.
But what if an employer Googles you and finds data that would influence their hiring decision or what if they terminate your employment based on this data? Would this be discrimination? For example, could your drunk pictures album on Facebook cost you your future job? Could your pimp-style profile on MySpace destroy your chances of getting a promotion if your manager is a female? Did you really wrote on Twitter that you once got so drunk that you forgot who you went home with? How balanced is your digital life..?
An employer might not want to hire you because customers could Google you and find out about your “hidden life” as well. This could break the relation between the customer and the company. The solution is easy: let’s hire someone who’s got a clean online life!
Journalists try very hard to find pictures of politicians in order to discriminate their reputation. We see this all the time. It will only get easier than ever to find those pictures in the future. This is why I hesitate to truly open myself of Facebook and Twitter. Not that I have a secret life or anything, but anything could be used against me. Maybe I’m too paranoid? On the other side, it seems like there is a new generation that doesn’t care at all. Are they fools? Or perhaps are they simply early adopters of this future lifestyle where “what happens on the web stays on the web”? I don’t know about you but I can smell a lawsuit coming up in USA: “Discrimination against a Facebook profile”.
How about you, do you censor yourself online? Are you afraid of any future issues?
Posted in facebook | Comments (0)
New fund in Quebec (April Fools)
April 1st, 2008
There has been a lot of activity these days in the startup community (much more than on my own blog..!). Many funds and great initiatives were announced recently but one slipped right through the radar and I’m surprised that no one talked about it so far. A small group of local businessmen decided to create a special fund for Web 2.0 companies in Montreal. I recently spoke to Mr. Zingel and Taimen who tried to explain me their unusual funding system. Their belief is that rather than investing in business that have good business plan, they invest in companies that disturb the market with a large buzz words ratio. Their financial advisor (Mr. Sillago) realised that most companies that succeed might not have a good business plan in the beginning (think of Youtube) but often bring new technology that is not heard of. Youtube for example brought many new technology (think live streaming of video files, etc.) It thus has a large “buzz ratio” (which makes them drool in other words).
While I am somehow doubtful this funding model will work, Mr. Taimen says that it has attracted some interest from a lawyer firm (Fierasfer, Ilisha, Saury & Huchen) and many investors from Quebec, Ontario and, interestingly enough, most coastal provinces.
Posted in Quebec | Comments (4)
