I really like this quote from Mr. Card of Forrester: “If it weren’t for Apple, God knows how bad the music industry would be,”.

I guess it’s called evolution. The main questions is, what would it take for Apple to become a “label” just like MySpace?

They could have their cake and eat it too.

I have more ideas in mind for this side project so keep visiting!

That’s probably a very bad argument on my side as many sites are using fancy domain names to gain some attention or to have interesting names such as d.e.l.i.c.i.o.us (which I can never get right) but we’ll see how it goes.

So, what’s better on Identi.ca? So far I like the way we can reply to a specific notice. It makes conversation slightly more organized. I wish we could have a threaded view, that’d be better for low attention span & memory people like me. If I get an update, I might not even know what it was referring to…! :)

How about you? What would make you jump ship permanently?

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

Here are my thoughts on what I really liked in no particular order.

CakeMail – This thing rocks. Having tried it in the past, it’s definitively ready for prime time. I haven’t seen the Google maps / Web statistic part of it but I think it’s pure madness (in an genius way of speaking). The only thing missing is the linking of geographical data to a user. This might be a bit hard – I admit – but will be worth gold to some people, especially if users don’t enter their location in their profile (like most traditional mailing lists).

Keiki – Awesome. I’m a parent myself and although I’ve never paid for parenting books (who does?) having a centralized place for such information is great. A great plus would be to have “certified profiles” who can write special articles (i.e. doctors, pediatricians, etc.) As a parent, I often hear about many weird things and unless it comes from a doctor, I take it with a grain of salt. So something to keep an eye on!

TimmyOnTime – Too bad their demo, their backup and their rescue boat (the videos) didn’t work. The product looks very promising especially for freelancers and consultants. I suggested them to find a solution for larger companies who already use an internal system (i.e. make a plugin to put the data in Oracle). I’m not sure if they want to focus on large companies in the short term so let’s see. Guys, BarCampCanada is coming soon (March, May?) so how about a final release demo?

RefactorMyCode – This is really cool. Marc-André did a nice presentation but I thought it was a bit too short. I agree that it was a “lighting talk” but going a bit deeper would’ve been nice (especially for the geek crowd). Standout Jobs sponsors the project so this means it’s good stuff!

Sylvain Carle – I stopped counting his presentations. Was it 3 or maybe 4? Great speaker. He knows his stuff very well and he mentioned that he had to pitch 40 times in order to receive financing for Praized. Great lessons for everyone. It shows what dedication can do…! I also love his “paradox”: No competition: stupid idea, no competition: amazing idea! How about when there’s a little bit of competition? Or event a lot? Google wouldn’t be here otherwise…! Regarding Google’s mega API: I guess they had no choice. We often say: if you can’t beat them, join them. Well Google said: if you can’t beat them, control them! Sort of…

BlitzWeekend – Heri did a quick talk and managed to gain some interest from some people. Let’s hope lots of people will participate as similar events in the past (mainly Startup Weekends) were very successful. This is a must attend event! (shameless plug as I’m helping Heri organize it)

Austin Hill – No slides but what a presentation! I was very amazed to see his level of knowledge regarding Angel investing. He knows his stuff! Everone was listening. It proves that people are interested in the financial part of any business (hint to VC/angels – why don’t you come for a presentation?)

Finally, yours truly made a presentation about my own project (YulNews.com) and I’d like to take the opportunity to announce you that YulNews now has its own blog. The URL is: www.yulnews.com/blog. The purpose of the blog is to talk about the project’s progress and any social news issues. So you are officially invited to visit and participate!

Heri from MontrealTechWatch has an amazing article about the latest camp. Lots of pictures too!

All in all, BCM3 was very fun and if you haven’t showed up, you must attend the very first Canadian BarCamp. I heard some exciting rumors!

With all those companies fighting for a larger userbase, are we entering a new era where there will be many “Internets”?

K2 doesn’t explain their definition of web 2.0 but I think you can compare this to fashion. “Cool” people tend to wear the latest designs while conservative people rarely move away from the usual blue/black/white/brown palette. How would you feel if you were to visit a lawyer wearing flashy Puma’s and designer jeans? You might feel more comfortable visiting one whose attire is more conservative (although we all know it doesn’t automatically qualify him as competent). How about visiting a lawyer’s website, filled with pastel, oversized fonts, speech bubbles and, of course, a beta label? Doesn’t that sound strange? At least in this century? If I look at most bank sites, they are not cool and they are not meant to be cool anyways (although some could say that an update is well due for most of them).

What about if you sell jeans to kids? Would you want a bland site or a “web 2.0”-ish site with blogs, profiles, widgets for your blog (i.e. This is the jeans that I want – buy it for me) and some viral marketing stuff on it? I’m sure that even a local plumber would benefit from having a blog. By answering free questions, he could quickly become a star in his hometown.

So… It really depends who you are and who your customers are. I think that K2 went a bit too far by using the term “most”. It’s like saying most companies don’t need computers. Maybe they didn’t 10 years ago but most companies use them nowadays… I suspect same will happen with “web x.0”