The Intelligence Factory Consultants

Brazil´s Law of Internet

2011-09-14T16:05:00.000+02:00

The Project, now in Congress, establishes the principles, rights and duties of web users.

National Congress will soon appreciate the bill on the Internet, also called Marco Civil Internet, which provides the principles, rights and duties in using the World Wide Web.

The scope of the project includes users, companies and the government as well. For two years, between 2009 and 2011, and before it was formally established as a project of law by the Ministry of Justice, the issue was discussed by civil society organizations. In the process, it received more than 2000 contributions and 100 thousand accesses by Internet.

This project reinforces the constitutional principles as free speech, privacy and secrecy of communications, human rights, and the broad right of access to the internet for everyone.

It also establishes that the person, and the person only, will be held responsible for the content posted anywhere on the net is becoming liable for any damage caused, and exempting the provider or intermediary (websites, blogs, portals and social networks) from that liability. The service provider will only respond if it breaks a prior judicial decision determining the removal of content.

Another important point concerns the storage of data, and determines that the provider must store for a year the records of users' connection (IP of the computer - and time and date of access). Such data can only be obtained by court order, and this one year term of custody of records could be extended upon demand, be it by the police authority supporting the judiciary.

Net neutrality is another fundamental point, which requires ISPs to give undifferentiated treatment to all packets of data traffic on their networks. They may not favor certain Web sites over others, while providing them, for example, a faster access (faster band).

The state also confirms its role, reducing inequalities in Internet access and encouraging the use of the network as a tool for transparency and democracy. The project, however, does not cover issues such as copyright, cybercrime, and e-commerce.

To become law, the project must be approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Hopefully it will be through and ready for the President´s approval by the end of the year.

Information Security in Brazil

2011-09-06T16:12:00.002+02:00

Currently the demand for information grows by leaps; we have access to everything we need by the means of search engines, as well as access to information from organizations that are whether available on the Web or not; however the information is stored in virtual environments.

IT as well as information security within organizations are growing substantially, and the highly complex subject demands competence professional to control such a dynamic environment .

Ensure the information is not just master the technical part to safeguard the information of an organization, customers, suppliers and others relevant to a business. Information Security is also awareness. Employees need to be aware of the importance of information that flows within the company, be it verbal, written, electronic or otherwise.

Brazil, when it comes to this awareness and concern for rapid development on the subject, still has much to do. We have some initiatives from the Federal Government, as the GSI Instruction No. 01 13.06.2008, which regulates the Management of Information Security in the Federal Sphere; a Law Project to ensure the protection of personal data; the Ordinance of Denatran 1334/2010, which dictates that for it to function as a Central Management Unit (UGCs) it must have certification ISO 27001- System Management Information Security; and the Resolution 3658 of the National Land Transport - ANTT (Ministry of Transport) as to the electronic payment of freight - citing Management System Information Security.

About the protection of personal data, despite the constitutional provision, Brazil does not have anything specific on the subject, differentiating themselves from various countries that regulated the right of the citizen, such as the United States, Japan, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, among others.

ISO 27001 provides the controls in its context, on protecting the privacy of personal information, intellectual property rights, physical and logical access controls,business continuity,to name a few.

Currently, Brazil has less than 30 companies certified in ISO27001.

BCP - Size Does Not Matter

2010-05-27T13:11:00.007+02:00

It is not just about size. When we mention a Business Continuity Plan - BCP, what comes into mind is the large enterprise. But those, in general, do not represent more than 15% of a country's officially registered business . The small and mid-size companies do have its share on the local economy, and a big one.
So, independently of the size of the business,a BCP comes in handy.

First of all, a series of question to be responded by CEO's, Co-Founders and Startup's head managers: Do we need it? Do we want it? And most of all, what for?

The needs of a small or mid-market company to invest in business continuity plans must be totally related to the risks it takes given the business they are in.
- In some areas, regulatory demands are very important and business continuity is required. Let us take for example, the banking and and insurance companies.
- Sometimes, the PCA may be required by a customer, as well as BCP, or Information Security Policies: we have to bear in mind that large enterprises are increasingly dependent on their sub-contractors on major contracts, which may represent a risk for them. So, in order to protect themselves, they force their partners - by contract - to set up a BCP.
- Some organizations that counsel or finance Startups also require assurance for business continuity. They want to be sure that the company, in the misshapen of facing a loss, it will have what it takes to keep on going.
- Last but not least, there are firms that are more motivated to implement a BCP: those who have already had a personal claim, or that have come into contact with a company close to them which has been affected by a BCP, or worse, those who have already experienced some sort of brake down on any area of its business.

How should a BCP be designed?

Before setting up a BCP, the company must ask simple, effective questions:
- What should be protected: Data? Information? Know-how? Collaborators? The information system? Production?
- What is the maximum loss of data or information admitted?
- What is the longest period of interruption acceptable?

The key is to determine the criticality of the elements.

The BCP should reflect the result of all consideration of risk, and according to these criteria, it will be able to adapt its level of sureness to the company.

But this is but part of the process. To be effective, the device must evolve at all times, not to become ineffective. It must adapt to changes that take place in the company - for example, if it merged - in the environment - a drastic example, a TNT industry sets up its business in the same area.

Most important though,it should also take into account the evolution of risks. Who would think of cyber security as a major risk, say, 10 or 15 years ago? Risks today have evolved to the point we must tell a physical from a virtual one. A BCP's characteristics must follow the risks all along.

Implementation

When the decision to move on to a BCP is taken, next comes the doubt whether to do it on its own or rely on a third party for the task. All business will be better off with external help.

Many reasons justify the use of an outside provider.
- Experience. Business are rarely confronted with major physical disasters such as fire, floods or any destruction. Inside teams, so, have a lack of experience when there is such an incident.
On the other hand, third party have this expertise. Its special teams specially suited for the job know not only how to organize full checklists to re conduct operations, but also for restarting the the core functions of the business in the shortest gap of time.

In addition, small and medium business do not have the necessary additional room - located far from its original site - to accommodate their back up data centers and storage solutions.
Companies have to change their beliefs about local backup. Medias are not reliable after a period of time, resulting in restorability issues.

Finally, using third party services for a BCP grants real time update for both system and data, other than its protection. This aspect is very important because small business setting up BCPt often run into the problem of outdating. The ones responsible for business continuity plan are either switched to other activities or the focus towards the BCP diminishes and becomes irrelevant.

Nevertheless,to succeed, even with a third party coaching, the project must be culturally accepted internally at all levels: it is a decision by the company as a whole.

Sources: ABNT, MS, HP

Information Security Team

2010-04-23T18:06:00.007+02:00

It is known that CI professionals, watchers of all calibers, lobbyists and advocators are after valuable information within and without their companies.

Once the information is taken for granted and becomes part of the immaterial assets of the company, it is absolutely necessary to set up policies to protect the good handling of it and its protection.

Who will do it?

A team specifically dedicated to the Information security.

Next questions comes up, how to set such a team? Who will lead it?

Some aspects to take into consideration when setting up a department of information security must be taken into account.

Knowledge in information security is contained in different models currently available: among them we have those of ISO / IEC series 27000 (information security).

The knowledge relating to Management of System Information Security (ISO 27001) and the Code of Practice for the Management of Information Security (ISO 27002) should be disseminated throughout the organization. However, at the time of structuring a department of information security, companies find themselves in a worrying scenario.

1 - The information security analyst should have a high technical knowledge. I'm not referring to the certifications, I'm talking about practical knowledge and experience in the subject.

2 - Some companies insist on promoting someone internal to the IT Department to the position of Manager of Information Security. The professional would actually have a very different profile compared to that necessary to take responsibility.

As an example, I will describe the profile found among those who are promoted to the position of Manager of Information Security described on the above paragraph:

• He has experience in broader subjects such as database and software development, using security features of the very basic information.

• He does not have a history of participation in lectures / events or trainings on information security.

• He is not acquainted with international standards of information security (e.g. ISO 27002) and does not follow the bulletins about new threats on the Internet.

• He performs reading only on books related to database technologies and languages of software development.

• He has a degree on technology in database, MBA in Information Technology and certifications from Microsoft and Oracle.

- You could guess what was his role in the company? That's right! He was responsible for managing the database. Now he is the Manager of Information Security. He has lots of ground to cover up to reach the necessary profile.

3 - Some companies create a department of information security management to access computing environment. It creates users, changes passwords, sets permissions on directories etc... All this to comply with regulations or audits.

4 - Creating a department of information security subordinated to the area of Information Technology is the most common mistake organizations make.

The security area should be aligned to the legal department and audit on the organization chart. The area of information security subordinated to the director of IT functions more as technical support rather than an area responsible for the whole Management of System Information Security.

Success factors

The success of your company is not connected to the technological arsenal. There are some factors that should be considered when deciding to create a team of information security and implement a Management of System Information Security - MSIS. The first factor is to obtain approval from the organization's managers to launch the project of implementation of the MSIS.

At this stage the project team presents the priorities, objectives and scope for deploying the MSIS. It should also discuss a change in the company's organizational structure, including responsibilities, to meet the project objectives and business needs.

The output of this phase is the approval and commitment of managers to implement the Management of System Information Security.

The second factor is the development of diagnosis and analysis on the level of maturity. During this phase, we map the current situation of the organization and present a list of needed improvements in the processes of information security to set up a link between the organization's strategic planning and implementation of security systems.

The third aspect is the creation of an Interdepartmental Committee for the development of policy and standards for information security, including support of the board and / or senior management, based on guidelines from the Information Security Governance, business needs and regulations.

With the support of the CEO

The creation of a team of information security and the defining of their responsibilities depend mainly on the guidelines established by the board and / or directors. These guidelines should be documented in the policy of Information Security Governance.

Governance of Information Security will clarify for managers the company's strategic objectives in relation to information security. Down the line it will present a list of legal requirements / regulations and contractual requirements involving information security applicable to the business.

The combination of these three factors will help your company in creating a team of information security and implementation of a Management System Information Security.

Sources: ISO/IEC 27001,27002; ABNT

Checking Figures

2010-01-27T15:05:00.005+01:00

After the earthquake that destroyed the poorest country in the Americas, the world has shown the most generous expression of solidarity in history.

In the midst of so many reports and press releases is difficult to know who did what and how much has been given.

At this link you will find the raw numbers of each country, per capita figures, and the most generous nations in relation to their GDP.

To see the details, this spreadsheet shows the numbers more accurately.

To compare with what was done in the 2005 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the image below shows what had been promised effectively and delivered by each country:

The numbers of the Tsunami in detail here.

Now if we compare to the spendings of the USA alone in the front in Iraq and Afghanistan, then the feeling of shame is inevitable.

Sources: Information is beautiful, the guardian,reliefweb,OEDC, costofwar

HAITI - What we can do as for now

2010-01-18T11:48:00.007+01:00

Haiti's tragidy has shocked everyone. The Internet does its part to help.

Here's what we can do at this very moment.

Financial Aid:

Musician Wyclef Jean's website - http://www.yele.org/

Donation page in the site: https://co.clickandpledge.com/advanced/default.aspx?wid=23093

Google's special page (post earthquake Google Earth's images included): http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/

List of major organizations accepting donations: http://mashable.com/2010/01/13/haiti-earthquake-donate-help/

To be on top of things going on:

Mercycorps' twitter : http://twitter.com/mercycorps

NY Times' twitter (which follows Red Cross's, Catholic Relief Services's e Internet Haiti's)- http://twitter.com/nytimes/haiti-earthquake

CNN (same sources as NY Times' plus bloggers' and local twitter users' updates) - http://twitter.com/CNN/haiti

This blogger posts regularly: http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/

As all links above are in English, a traduction tool is found here: http://translate.google.com/?hl=pt#en|pt|

Do you want to act?

If you have a special skill and want to help, this ORG is coordenating efforts and accepting help of online work; it also lists some of the disaster's initial figures: http://crisiscommons.org/wiki/index.php?title=Haiti/2010_Earthquake

Ten years promoting Intelligence

2009-11-10T15:44:00.009+01:00

The Master Program on Competitive Intelligence of Toulouse University - France, will celebrate its 10th anniversary this early january.

Among the top French Universtities proposing the Master Program on the subject, it is a pleasure to make it public on this blog the program of festivities . After all, all the consultants graviting around TIF are offsprings of M2IE - UT1!

For those interested in a Competitive Intelligence afternoon conference and debate on major topics , followed by a 'Gala Night' on the best french style and charm in a superb atmosphere, cross check jan 15th on your agendas !

Below you will find the invitation , and if you want to be updated on furhter information, just clic on the first link, between the dashed line.

To contact the responsibles for the event, clic the second link on the announce.



	CONFERENCE / DEBAT suivi d'un GALA À l'occasion des 10 ans du Master professionnel Intelligence Économique, sont organisés, et ceci pour la première fois, une Conférence/Discussio n suivi d'un Gala, le 15 janvier 2010 à Toulouse à partir de 16h. Anciens étudiants, professeurs, intervenants, professionnels du secteur, chefs d'entreprises et tuteurs de stage, sont cordialement conviés à cet événement exceptionnel. POUR PLUS DE RENSEIGNEMENTS : ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ------- Afin de rester informé nous vous invitons à vous pré-inscrire ici ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ------- Le comité d'organisation est joignable ici

World Buzz

2009-10-06T13:45:00.010+02:00

EU New Member

Ireland has joined forces with the Lisbon Treaty Nations. Irish voters have strongly endorsed the decision, 16 months after their first vote rejecting it ,which had plunged EU reforms into deadlock. Around 67% voted "Yes", official referendum results showed. Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen hailed a "clear and resounding" endorsement. Political leaders across the EU have also welcomed the result.

"It was a great day for Europe", said the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, who also urged the leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic - the only other countries yet to ratify Lisbon - to sign the treaty as soon as possible.

A new leader

-Ireland's vote to ratify the European Union's Lisbon Treaty has finally cleared the way for the creation of a powerful new president, intended to elevate the 27-nation bloc's standing on the global stage.

-But do European leaders actually want one? Ahead lies a difficult discussion about how much power and influence a new European Union president should have and whether the post should fall to a political star — like former Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain — or one of his old school technocratic rivals.

-The leaders of member countries will decide, probably this month, and their decision could determine whether the union really seeks the bigger role it says it needs, to try to match the influence of the United States and that of rising powers like China, Russia, India and Brazil.

What is ahead of us?

1 - La Vitrine Politique - The Lisbon Treaty, which aims to streamline decision-making and reform the bloc's structures, lays down a two-and-a-half-year term for a full-time president of the European Council, the body that represents member nations.

2 - Key roles and media time - The treaty, if finally ratified by the Poles and Czechs, also mandates a single new foreign affairs chief, in charge of both policy and aid money, and a new European diplomatic corps. Both new jobs would be subordinate to the leaders of member countries. The position of commission president, held by José Manuel Barroso of Portugal, continues.

Sure Thing

Those to fill the two new posts will have a considerable chance to carve out significant roles for themselves, since they will be the most prominent faces of a collective Europe. Remember, we live a quite particular moment: both financial and natural.

- The northern hemisphere tries yet to recover from a major crisis, a delicate moment. Financial policies and aid would act like a compass needle pointing out to safe waters.

- Mother nature shows its rage in south east Asia, where aid is needed and reconstruction must take place. EU has history in the area, ans help will be sent. As seen for the past months, temperature images in the Pacific indicate we are presently at a prelude of an El Niño year - predicted to be as strong as that of 1998 - while the water at the equator line in the African coast gets colder.

Apart from the financial recovery in progress ,we are in for severe, short period climate changes all over the globe due to El Niño. And the Old World must prepare for the months ahead, which will demand aid in different local areas as a wetter, cloudier winter in Northern Europe and a milder, drier winter in the Mediterranean Sea region might just repeat itself.

Add to that, the threat of the A1H1 virus...

We live changing times indeed, be it in politics, finance or nature!

Rio de Janeiro to host 2016 Olympics

Rio de Janeiro was chosen Friday as the host site of the 2016 Olympic Games, brushing aside an unprecedented personal appeal from President Obama and the first lady on behalf of their home town of Chicago, also McDonald's headquarters, whose budgets adds up to 900 million dollars for next Olympics in London. Strong lobby indeed.

The Carnaval city beat in the last round the surprise finalist Madrid. Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting at the meeting of the IOC in Copenhagen, and Tokyo was eliminated in the second one. In awarding Olympic bids, the IOC holds rounds of voting until one city receives a majority.

Rio, first-time-ever South American city to be chosen to host the games. This victory continues a welcome trend of acknowledging the growing importance of developing countries. The World Cup next year will be hosted by South Africa and in 2014 it will be held in Brazil.

2016 represents a tremendous opportunity for Terra Brasilis. The Olympics will give Brazilians a huge shot of self-confidence and boost the country’s tourism industry and Rio’s public transportation system. It’s also an opportunity to counter the violent imagery of drug lords, gang murders and grinding poverty realistically captured in films such as “City of God” (2002) and "Tropa de Elite"(2007). Those scenes have replaced postcard images of beaches and mountains that used to seduce people around the world.

Lula must defeat Rio de Janeiro's violent crime, which residents call it the biggest cloud over their city's postcard-perfect shot. When the world’s attention is on them, Brazilians don’t take chances. During these types of events, law enforcement is shifted from the local police, who don’t exactly enjoy a reputation for moral rectitude.

Instead, Brazil’s military runs security, sporting assault weapons and tanks. If you think Rio’s drug kingpins are crazy enough to conduct business as usual under those conditions, think it again. As 2012 host city of London has to be prepared and cope with possible terrorist attacks for the its games, Rio will have to work out the drug dealing issue. For the moment, the city will take a good look at what's being done for the London games, besides the exchange of security knowledge for large events with France.

Six and a half years of hard work will show whether COI's choice was indeed the good one - or not.

Sources: Folha de São Paulo, Wikipedia, Climatempo.com.br , Aviso.oceanobs.com, associated press, new york times, le monde, newsmap, migalhas.com, the telegraph, irishnews.

A HOT BEGINNING OF FALL

2009-09-22T19:12:00.018+02:00

Money

Iran´s decision to switch currency accounts is now official, following a decree signed by President Ahmadinejad. Needless to say how important for oil sales. With four million barrels a day, Iran is the world’s fourth largest “black gold” producer. But it does not end there. The political side of this decision has its consequences too. But one at a time.

Asia news stated – 'Iran, the fourth largest oil producer in the world, announced its intention of replacing the US dollar with the euro in the country’s foreign exchange accounts. Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad signed the decree a few days ago.

The order was issued following a decision by the trustees of the country's foreign reserves, Iranian media reported. The decision will be particularly significant in the oil field."

Taking a closer look at the figures, we see that Iran's daily 4Million barrel production represent 80% of its foreign exchanges and 50% of the government budget. And take into account the country is under economic sanctions for 30 years now.

As other gulf nations have not made the switch of currency, they stay put and observe the events; for the moment not big of a threat for the American "greenies". In fact, Iran just wants to be less dependent and thus effected by the economic sanctions issued by the U.S on the long run. As for now, Iranian Central Bank estimated to cut its interest rates for the foreign exchange reserve from 12% to 5% making it cheaper for the Bank to acquire foreign currency.

Politics

On the political side of the issue, we have Iran's alignment with European Union, supposedly easier to negotiate, both on oil and its nuclear question. Far easier to delay negotiations with a group of nations than doing it with one major power.

While Iran argues its program is strictly for the peaceful purpose of power production, the U.S. and many other western countries suspect Iran of nuclear weapons production.

Sounds familiar.

What´s next ?

If we look at current events, we might have a glimpse of whether or not we are in for rough times:

- Iran switches its currency.

- This week Al Quaeda sent threats to Germany, which will hold elections this coming Sunday. If not voting against the situation government, strikes such as those of recent years which terrified Madrid and London, might take place.

-It is known that Iran has a story of love and hate with Al Quaeda since the 9/11 episode.

-This week's UN events are of major role if we look at the big picture. Ahmadinejad speech is of great importance after September 12th announcement of euro 'friendliness'.

- The once controversially elected Iran's president, has now changed the scenario.

- Global community demands for missile installation blueprints

These facts, isolated or not, are very probable to lead to nothing threatening.

The Dark Side

However, looking back through the years, what history tells us is something else:

- Not long ago Saddam announced the same currency switch. He was also suspected of holding weapons for non-pacific purposes. Saddam, as well, had some media time to expose his opinions.

We all know what happened next. In fact it STILL goes on.

The only difference now is that there will not be necessary half a year of preparation and logistics.

It will be just a matter of crossing the border.

__________________________________________

UpDate on the 25th - Iran does have Nuke Plant

__________________________________________

Sources: Niqnaq blog, newsblaze.com, adnkronos.com, themedialine.org, wired.com, american chronicle.com, o estado de são paulo, globalgeopolitics.net, o globo.com

Oldie but goodie

2009-09-15T03:17:00.011+02:00

The way to do Intelligence has its styles depending on cultural backgrounds, local geographic patterns and a country's history.

The way Japan does its intelligence is different from that of England, as this later is not the same as the one practiced in Germany.

It is not new that Sweden is among top countries when it comes to Intelligence Economique, or Competitive Intelligence for the Anglo-Saxons. Finland has its place on the hall of stong CI too. Now Norway is a bit different, they do their CI too, but in silence....yet they rule behind the scenes.

Scandinavian countries have a history of battles, wars, commerce and logistic. After all, life was not easy those days, as they were never too many, had to work out their own solutions to protect themselves against nearby oppressors.
They also were great navigators, there are signs of vikings all over the coast of America, both north and south ones. Commerce was a part of their culture, once they had to prepare what they needed, transport it, and stock it for the long months of winter.

La veille - the watching - is based on ODA principle: observe, direct, act. And it has been like this since men started their battles for all different reasons. Vikings did no different.

We then start to see this intelligence heritage puzzle fitting into the big picture. But this is based on academic analysis, simple A + B reasoning with the aid of Geopolitics which leads us to plausible conclusions.

Then the confirmation of all above paragraphs comes in a form of a simple set of laws. True ones, today part of scands' ties with their past.

It is a small postcard, that has been hanging on my living room wall for over five years, souvenir of a lovely trip to Norway.

In fact I had never seen it that way. I thought it was cool, funny, perhaps clever way to tell how it was done back on those days.... But then I read it again tonight and saw it in a different way...

Those old Scandinavian warriors knew it all about intelligence! After all, they were the ones responsible for their own conquests, be it in commerce or the batte field. The observation of the world, direction for further local improvements and all the plans of action to execute the tasks at stake have always been part of their lives.

It only proved that Intelligence is, above all, "un état d'esprit". So, here its, a set of rules that explain why scand's are so good on doing Intelligence, as it has been around for well over a thousand years!

VIKING LAWS

1 - BE BRAVE AND AGGRESSIVE
Be direct
Grab all opportunities
Use varying methods of attack
Be versatile and agile
Attack one target at a time
Don't plan everything in detail
Use top quality weapons

2 - BE PREPARED
Keep weapons in good conditions
Keep in shape
Find good battle comrades
Agree on important points
Choose ONE chief

3 - BE A GOOD MERCHANT
Find out what the market needs
Don't promise what you can't keep
Don't demand overpayment
Arrange things so that you can return

4 - KEEP THE CAMP IN ORDER
Keep things tidy and organized
Arrange enjoyable activities which strengthen the group
Make sure everyone does useful work
Consult all members of the group for advice

Voilà, if we put these simple laws into today's economic perspective, we have what to work with.

Amazingly compatible. Oldie but goodie !!!
Things have indeed been the same for quite a long time!

These laws made me curious to find out if we would obtain the same by checking out the code or laws of the Samurai...

But that would be a subject for another post!

On the Menu

2009-09-09T16:38:00.014+02:00

L’entrée

This independence holiday weekend was marked as a special one for a couple of reasons.

On Saturday the greatest soccer derby in the world, Brasil x Argentina, took place in Rosario, northern Argentina. It granted the country’s presence in the South African World Cup next June. A superb performance by ‘seleção canarinho’ let Diego Maradona wordless after the game..... others say he may be jobless soon.

A 3 x 1 that confirmed this county’s supremacy in the most popular sport on earth.

The second reason was far different from the first one. France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy was in Brazil for the long weekend, to meet his peer, Lula. ‘Le président Sarkozy’ was here not only to reinforce “l’année de la France” and to celebrate Brazil’s Independence day from Portugal, the 7^th of September, but also for some lobbying. The final act of an armament deal. The largest in Brazil’s history.

Brazil is out shopping for fighter airplanes, submarines and helicopters. Apparently the French president came over to grant that his defense industry will take the order evaluated at 21 billions of reais, which makes 11,15 billion dollars, as of today’s exchange rate. It represents more than Venezuela’s and Colombia’s acquisitions together during the recent years. Two countries more militarily active than Brazil , due to their social and political situations.

The New York Times states that an American Congress study shows the USA as the greatest armament dealer, with 68,4% of 2008’s 55,2 billion dollars negotiated. A total of 37,8 billion dollars worth of closed deals throughout the world. Far behind comes Italy in second with 3,7 billions sold, then Russia in third with 3,5 billions. This gives us and idea of the market shares and figures as for the last year, to better comprehend the following paragraphs.

Le plat de Resistance

What´s on Brazil’s Lula shopping list ?

- 5 submarines (among which 1 nuclear and its fabrication technology)- deal closed

- 50 helicopters – deal closed

- 36 fighter ariplanes – letter of intentions signed

The resources for the payment of this considerable bill is Brazil´s national treasure.

The helicopter deal will only reinforce the ties of cooperation between France and Brazil, as there are two large industries in the southern hemisphere country – Eurocopter and Helibras.

As part of the aircraft purchase, it is included the possibility of technology transfer. Brazil would produce its own Rafale fighters. It would also be able to produce to sell for neighboring countries.

New element introduced during independence festivities - the purchase by the French government of 10 Embraer’s long range military transport KC-390 aircraft to be produced by in 2015.

According to the French company, Dassault, they hope to close the deal the latest in 2010. This sale alone represents between 5 and 7 billion dollars.

The boos Serge Dassault is more than happy, as this deal may save his business, in crisis, as it is good part of the French armament industry. Moreover, this fighter would come ‘nude’, which means that all the missiles and bombs will be sold separately...

According to Brazil’s defense department ‘ these new elements of technology transfer and the purchase of 10 Brazilian KC-390 military transport aircraft only added to the French proposal, demanding further analysis.’

It also states that ‘Usa’s Boeing and Sweden’s Saab may still propose their offers, which will be carefully studied’, despite the head advantage taken by France’s Dassault.

Side effects

As the military budget of Latin American countries has raised, according to Le Monde, 91% between 2003 and 2008, this deal may generate, or accelerate - as prefer some - the acquisition of military apparatus by other Latin America countries, causing a sort of regional military race, stuffing up traditional arm dealers’ pockets while putting aside local military development cooperation.

Time will tell.

Le dessert

It means the end of an era, the largest military deal in 40 years, and it was not with the USA industry! It does not represent tension between Brasilia and Washington, but a sign of Brazil’s independence concerning its military autonomy.

What for ? To show the country’s power, the only Latin American country with a global role at play. After February 2008’s Brazil – Argentina nuclear deal, this new Franco-Brazilian pact will represent a major test: either the reinforcement of local security for neighboring countries or it will show the way for Brazil’s military autonomy.

Brazil has an historical peaceful vocation, this upgrade on its defense apparatus will not represent a threat to potential enemies – if there is any - but rather a concern to protect its vast natural resources and to reinforce its global role as an emergent country.

La Cerise sur le Gâteau

These purchases are part of an axis of a major plan, which also includes stronger leadership and economical presence among BRIC countries, social developments, the role as one of the world’s major power suppliers, and preservation of natural resources.

Final goal: A seat at United Nation’s Security Council, the dream of Brazilian diplomacy.

Sources:

O Globo, BBC, Le Monde, Libération, New York Times, Ministério das Relações Exteriores – Itamaraty, Último Segundo, Deutsche Welle World, Terra magazine

Twitter at your Intelligence Services

2009-09-01T12:54:00.009+02:00

It has been a bit over two years since I started working with Apple products. It all began with my lovely Elena's desktop IMac G3 that surprised me by its performance -acceptable with some memory enhancing - despite its age. Today I have a love affair with my Mac book pro.
The mac world is different. Intuitive, straight forward, open and most of all, it is safe if compared to PC's. The cost of licenses and updates of virus protection software makes up the for the price difference, on the long run, in a Windows X Mac machine choice, both of the same level.

It is not my intent here to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each OS. But to discuss the set of services available for Mac that increases astonishingly.

My job obliges me to concentrate full-time on Windows based servers, stations, products and gadgets.
My personal life induces me to be in contact with, to follow and to seek what is new on mac world. Now and then I come accros some superb stuff. Yesterday was one of this days, when you find out a new trick, that sets you wandering. For mac users, intelligence freaks, and part-time or pro spies, here it goes: The once only windows service capable of remotely control your PC is now available to Mac. Via Twitter!

TweetMyPC, a free utility that lets you control your PC from anywhere has just been ported to Mac. The new app is called TweetMyMac and, like its elder Windows cousin, you can use TweetMyMac to send commands to your Macbook over the web from any other computer or even a mobile phone (via a text message).

How it works?

It is a matter of installing the app on your Mac and associate it with a Twitter account*. Then send a regular tweet with the command wrapped in (for example, shutdown or sleep). The app on the Mac, checking for your tweets at a given interval will perform the required action on the remote Mac computer as it acknowledges the twitter stream.

*A separated Twitter id (with “protected” updates) for sending remote commands to your Mac.

Into Practice

Using TweetMyMac you can perform all sorts of tasks on your Mac, remotely:

1. Shutdown (to shutdown your Mac immediately without saving any files) or Sleep (for putting your Mac in sleep mode).

2.Screenshot - If you want to know what applications are open on your Mac desktop, send the “screenshot” command - the picture of your desktop will again be uploaded to twitpic.

3. iSight - This is great if you want to know what’s happening in the surroundings. Send the iSight command and the app will take a picture with the built-in iSight web camera and will upload it to Twitpic.

It is important to notice tha this app is in beta and obviously it should always be running on your Mac computer for receiving commands. Due the early stage of services expect some bugs.

Applications

It is the possible evolution of this service that amazed me, specially with the camera:

Shut down or put your Mac to sleep may be very handy if for some reason you have visit at home and you are not there, for example.

But real business lies ahead, with the possibility of using custom shell commands, it is possible to work around some solutions to obtain not only pictures, but video streaming. Just a glimpse of what may become possible very shortly:

Security:Set up a group of cameras relayed to your mac to build own home security system and control it from work, at the club or while on vacation (but leave your Mac home!).

Surveillance: You place your mac strategically to: check your office when you are away, keep an eye on the babysitter at home or what your teens are up to when you are not there.

Spying: Imagine the following scenario; Very important decisions are being made in a closed door meeting in a large corporation. All the board is present to discuss the strategic plan for the next three years. Inside the room, an inoffensive Macbook sits quietly on the very next table..................

Different folks, different strokes!

2009-08-27T15:18:00.005+02:00

I had planned, imagined a total different post for this last week of August, but then something came accros and made me change my mind.

Two years abroad is quite a bit of time. Enough to set your mind into another culture, to put your life into a different perspective, and most of all, enough time to get to know this new culture, at least its basics.

France was not new to me, but the habits, everyday tinny little things that build up life as we know it were unknown. There was lots to observe and to learn on my experience.

I just loved it!

The french approach towards life is something to appretiate, for the ones with a bit of sensibility. Past history of nobles and kings, emperors and rulers, a revolution to mark the history of mankind, gave the French people a fine sense of citizenship and a taste for discussions on politics or economy. It is part of their culture.

It is always taken in a serious base, well argumented. France loves “un debat politique ou économique" once in a while mixed with some local humor – which is unique, and better appreciated after some time around......

All this to state that I was well used to the ‘hexagon’standard of discussing events on the subjects of politics and economy. Everyone has something to say, to add to the discussion. It is then up to you to gather all that has been said and make sense out of it, or even to come up with your own judgement and comment.

Then I landed in Brazil mid Augsut, a come back in the midst of a pandemic flu, when the world tries to push the economy out of a crisis.

The Brazilian way of dealing with current events is different. The disussions are taken on a faster pace compared to the French way. In Brazil the argumentation has to be shorter if you want to be listened. But unvariably the discussion ends up on a joke, on a funny tale, or on a passage that makes you laugh......and think.

Last night I went to a friend´s b-day party, and I was reintroduced to the Brazilian way of wrapping up a discussion, this time on financial crisis. I heard the following (with my free translation into English) story:

I may call it “Braking it even”, or "Simple math"

In a small coastal village in southern Brazil, during the winter, the cold weather and agitated ocean make it look like a ghost town. No one is out, locals wait for the summer season, not only for its warm weather, but also for the tourists, who are the source of everyone's income.

So, on this cold and windy winter day, a tourist walks in a small hotel. He places on the counter a 100 euro bill and asks for a room.

While the tourist sees the room, the manager takes the 100 euro bill and runs to the butcher to pay his debts. On his turn, the butcher takes the money and heads for the farmer who raises cattle and pays him what he owned.

The farmer then goes to the veterinarian to clear off all the past bills.

With the money on his pocket, the vet goes to the local night club and pays what he onwed to a prostitute (during crisis this class also works on credit).

The prostitute takes the money and goes to the hotel, where, some times, she takes her clients. Once there she pays all her bills she had left behing due the times of short cash.

At this very moment, the tourist comes bak to the front counter and asks for his money back as he decided not to stay due the terrible weather. He thanks everyone and leaves town.

No one has made a penny, but now all the people in town live without any debt. And the most important, they start to see the future with stronger confidence.

“There is no crisis when money circulates”

Voilà, maybe someone out there has heard or read this same story, or different versions of it.

But at this pedriod of my life, the environment where this story was told, and the way it was put...the whole scenario set me thinking of how wonderful it is to have cultural differences. Upon listening the story, observing others, doing my own silent intelligence, I felt like a "local outsider" observing my own peers.

MS-Yahoo, Google, Social Medias & Web Tendances

2009-08-09T01:14:00.021+02:00

The other day I had the chance to be surfing the web on my daily "veille" (i just love this French word for monitoring, watching, surveillance) almost at the same time as the announce Microsoft Yahoo alliance came out. It was a matter of minutes, so the article here at TIF Consultants was indeed one of the first ( first thousands... : ) as there was a crowd following this "scoop") out on the web.
Then I wondered: what are they up to besides ads and shares of services? Or what could they explore after this union of forces?

Time to dig about email use, Internet tendencies and the players.

Email Use

It is fact yahoo is known for its web-based email tool market share. It is also a fact that Outlook plays a major role as client email software.

This graph below shows which are the most popular email clients that people worldwide are using to read /open their emails. The stats represent email client usage of over 300 million people all over the planet, done by Campaign Monitor for a period of about six months.

Methodology:

A tracking image is embedded into Campaign Monitor email messages. The referral information is then used to determine which email client was used to open the message.
The only problem, if the person reads his emails off-line or for some reason turned off the automatic download of images (like Gmail does), or yet, uses a client with no image support (old version of blackberry phones), this message will not be counted.

But it is necessary to make two remarks:
1 - Note that the above graph represents popularity of email clients and not email services. If one uses POP or IMAP to read his Gmail messages inside Outlook, it will increase the share of Outlook and not that of Gmail.
2 - There’s little doubt that Yahoo! Mail is the most popular email service out there. Another reason for its high ranking is that the free version of Yahoo Mail doesn’t offer POP functionality! So, people use web browsers to check emails.

Google with the card up his sleeve.

Of course the Mountain View’s giant would not rest. For the end of the year, it is planned the launching of Google Waves, which is a a platform designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wiki and social networking all into one. Others say it is to merge instant com with google doc environment.

Features on Google Wave:

Wiki in Wave – Just like how wikis function, a wave can be edited by anyone.
Live Transmit – You can see your friend typing live.
Natural Language – It auto corrects your language and suggests similar sounding words (e.g. Met, Meet, Meat).
Drag & Drop File Sharing – No attachments needed. Just drag and drop your files in Google Wave and share them with your friends.
Embed your Wave – Your waves can be embedded on any website or blog.
Gadgets – Similar to Facebook applications, gadgets are applications built compatible with Google Wave.
Robots – This little bot is an automated participant on a wave. It can read, edit and share outside content to a wave. It can also create new waves, blips and add and remove participants.

Read all about it, watch explanatory video and others here.

Internet tendencies, how users make use of it

Universal McCann has released a new report on social media as of today. It seems not to be slowing down. On the contrary, it's still growing. Make yourself known on the web is a world fever: photos, blogs, micro blogs.... However, the report shows that web users are beginning to center their digital life. Where ?

On social networks like Facebook, MySpace, and Orkut, sharing their content within these sites instead of using «single focus» ones, like Blogger or Flickr.
 After four surveys of active Internet users, estimated in global audience at 625 million (or one in thirteen of people worldwide!), UM found that the usage of social networks is rising. UM questioned for this last report 22,729 active Internet users in 38 countries between November 2008 and March 2009 to come up with what is on of the largest global analysis of social media.
As you can tell by looking at the chart below, social media is and important part of users' web habits. Several activities have seen increased growth since last year, most notably those involving social networks, and image

Surprisingly, the only activity to see a dip is uploading videos to video sharing sites. Still, video watching is now seeing a high penetration rate among active Web users at 83%, a number consistent with last year. But when you look at how many people are uploading video to social networking sites, it's there that you see the growth. 33% upload videos to their social network profiles, up from 16.9% last year, as previously noted.
Blogging apparently reached a saturation point, 71% of users report reading blogs - an increase of only 1% since last year. This seems to correlate with recent findings from Forrester Research, who also reported that no increase in blog reading was reported over last year.

PEOPLE ARE WATCHING RATHER THAN READING.

Users are still sharing photos and videos and posting blog entries, they just tend to do this within a social networking site these days.
Social networks are an extremely popular destination right now. Two-thirds of active Web users have managed an on-line profile and 71.1% have visited a friend's social network page. When you look at active social net workers instead of just active Internet users, that figure is even higher: 96% of that group has visited a friend's page. Even though these figures represent an average across 38 different countries, UM says that the figure has increased in every market except Brazil and Mexico.
The U.S. is a dominant player in the social media space with 60% of active Internet users in this country managing a social network profile - a number up from 43.2% last year.
Thanks to a coinciding increase in mobile access since nearly a fifth of active internet users have mobile access today. However, speculating as to why social media usage is on the rise goes beyond what this report seems to focus on.
For more information check out UM's report here.

Now, what to expect from the all-new MS-Yahoo deal ?

If there is a way to try to overcome Google is by using their qualities.
It is obvious the supremacy on email users is the top one. What to do? Simple math!

Web trend + Market share = PROFIT

This profit in the form of better image, e-reputation, visibility and $$$

/I have a vision mode on/

Now it is the visionary TIF Consultant who speaks, with ideas to go further, to innovate. The web leaps towards image ans sound. MS-Yahoo could very well add video and audio/radio functionalities into their products.

My proposal:

A video micro blogging. If people are watching, why not share what they watch, what they see at the very moment of their lives, what they contemplate during special moments of the day? Infrastructure is available to some extent in good part of the planet. Phones with built-in cameras and acces to the web is a reality.
A sort of videotweet service would be my call had I active and decisional voice at MS-Yahoo. Maybe this would dim a bit the Mountain View web services dominance.

/I have a vision mode off/

sources : http://www.digital inspiration.com, http://www.universalmccann.com/, intelligence factory blog , http://www.readwriteweb.com, http://www.penn-olson.com

Dealing with the Web

2009-08-03T19:54:00.018+02:00

Take one -July 1988, First year of college: back then I knew beans of informatics, and so did great part of the class I had began studying with.

Every time we came across difficulties to find out more about a subject, say, "databases", we had no other way but to run to the library. There it was possible to find some books, papers, magazines. And stay there for hours selecting what we wanted! Then it was just a matter of getting on the line to make xerox copies and go back home with some material.

Now and then the librarian could try to find something extra for us elsewhere, and that could take a few days, maybe a week. If that was the case, back to the library, and repeat the process described above. And that for as many times as the librarian could have his hands on the material we suggested as the research went deeper....

At the end we could have a good list of articles, from, say, 100 to 150 initial sources.

Take two - August 2009, writing this article: I have Google! And I may use to do the same research done during my scholar experience some twenty years ago. Out in the garden, wireless, without taking a step out the security of my home, I get the astonishing amount of 97.200.000 references to the same keyword "databases", 96.300.000 if we stick to English only. Add to that all the magics of selections which allow me to see the most recent articles, images, time line for the keyword, related subjects, and so on....but we will stay simple, and work with the raw figures. Now, let us make believe I have developed a super intelligent software capable of analyzing the content of each document of my research result in just ONE SECOND. Not bad!

Take three, august 2012: My super intelligent content analyzing software finishes its task. It did a perfect job telling me what was accurate and relevant to my research. And most of all, it indicated me the reliable data to be used.

I do not know about you, but three years is a long time!

Conclusion: I have two possible solutions: Whether I develop an even better software, or control what in Information Technology is called overhead, which is, basically, the cost-benefit and the generated lack of capacity when we deal with excesses.

As I am no genius in software development, I skip the first option. But I am indeed a consultant on Intelligence Economique, who is, say, prepared to deal with this data avalanche. So let us take a look at the scenario as it is presented today.

1 - It is wise to think that great amounts of information WILL NOT bring you good learning. Even when we have reliable information (which is not always the case on the web) the misunderstandings and distortions due to non contextualizing and lack of integration - of this good information - may take you off the track.

2 - Needless to discuss that the web has made knowledge available to everyone. More recently, it has become a two-way experience. You access the information (web 1.0); and you react to it, or you publish what you want (web 2.0). Everyone can be a reader an author at the same time, on any given subject! The PhD in Rocket Propulsion will share his favorite tacos secrets, as he may give you a hint on a home-made rocket too. The clerk at the gas station will have his word to say on soccer, and give his opinion to the national coach for next year's world cup. And these two fellows may share their ideas to fight the swine flu....

It is super cool! I agree.

However, an evil side awaits the unprepared seeker for information - the good one. This two-way knowledge democratization has its drawbacks. The author of an article, or the one commenting an article should be responsible for what they write. But it is not always the case. Reasons are many: the lack of ethics, pride or complete lack of responsibility.

3 - Information comes from all over the place. The rocket scientist mentioned above may write brilliant articles which will fulfill us with the latest knowledge on the technology to propel us into space. But, a 15-old-weekend-warrior-rocket amateur MAY ALSO write about the same subject, giving imprecise, dangerous.....and irresponsible information.

4 - Knowing to distinguish one form the other is crucial. Trust is the key word here. The principles of meritocracy have to be applied. The rocket scientist has had years of study, privations, and efforts to be where he is at, and write about what HE KNOWS.

On the web, his opinion may be confused with those of the teenager, who THINKS HE KNOWS, who is a self-claimed specialist.

5 - To get get the good information today is more difficult than it was in the past.

Small example: Get a good blog on politics. Some have over 200 daily comments on a hot subject. Great participation of the readers in numbers. But quality wise, we see all kinds of grammatical faults and opinions with no statistical value whatsoever, to say the least. Sure there are good comments, but at what price to find them? As the make-believe software of the beginning of the text, it may take you long to find them, making a Pirro's wining battle.

6 - As time is money, we need the good information fast. But the ocean is way to big to catch the good fish all the time. The image of a needle lost in a haystack is long gone for the web, where its contents doubles every few 5.3 years, according to Chinese researches. So, we can imagine that the time and cost to find the relevant information increases all along.

What to do to face this issue?

1 -The Quality web site stamps are a good start. It may add some criteria to the web. By sorting out the good guys form the bad ones, we will see who is who in the pack.

2 - The raising of web users' responsibility. It is crucial to have the participation of all on this process of developing a new awareness, or cyber maturity as some prefer.

3 - Application of Intelligence methods that work with the cycle of information are absolutely necessary: sourcing, research, fetching, validation, cross referencing, analysis and diffusion - these are stepping stones to help us all. And trust me, it is a heck out of work. This has become so important that forced a new breed of professionals to be born: intelligence consultants, true information architects, dedicated to the seeking of data. Let us make cleat that this new area of professionals has nothing to do with that of the spies. These consultants are but ones with great capacity of providing the good information.

4- See what web 3.0 may brings us in terms of innovation. It is for sure able to provide us some good results on understanding and satisfying the requests of people using the web.

So, let us not be caught by the singing of one of Ulysses' sirens. For the time being, stay critical and vigilant all the time, and try to find some training on how to better explore web resources.

Umberto Eco once said that a society with excess of information may not be different from one lacking it.

He might as well be right, but on what depends on us, Intelligence Factory Consultants, we will do our best to prove him wrong.

Swine Flu

2009-08-01T00:39:00.008+02:00

Foreseeing. It is all about foreseeing.

What is ahead of Europe regarding the swine flu provoked by the H1N1 virus for this coming fall and winter can be somewhat predicted. Maybe it can be avoided, but definitely it will have to be faced. So, let us be prepared to cope with human losses and economic slowdown! And why not, develop a business that will help out others and bring you profit ?

How? By practicing "la veille" as French charmingly define -watching/surveillance. Governments do it, but in a rather social than economic way. Obviously the target is to spare human lives. But we can not forget the ones who escape this misery. Their lives go on, and so do the services to support them.

Europe will certainly face what is now being experienced by southern hemisphere countries like Argentina and Australia. These nations go through the winter now, they have the same latitude and economic level of development as to Carpathian countries as well as Greenwich time zone ones. These austral countries have been suffering economically due the presence of the virus. In Argentina the H1N1 flu epidemic that has affected at least 120,000 people in the country, more than 150 of whom have died, has led to a slowdown in economic activity. Theaters, cinemas, discos and gyms were temporarily closed, school vacations were extended and fewer people have been going out to eat.

Australia, the Asia-Pacific region's worst-hit country, has already placed an advance order for 21 million dosages - enough to immunize its entire population. But is it enough? "Having a vaccine available is not the same as having a vaccine that has been proved safe," said World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan to Britain's Guardian newspaper. Australia said its total of H1N1 flu cases had reached over 10 400, more than 10% of the WHO's global total. The country suspects H1N1 flu was the culprit in the deaths of some 20 people.

Many say a vaccine will be out soon. WHO director of vaccine research Marie-Paul Kieny, calling the pandemic "unstoppable", had said early July that a swine flu vaccine should be available as early as September. Will there be enough to everyone? How will manage the poor countries? Argentine President Cristina Fernandez suggested that developing countries should be allowed to "lift patent rights" so they can produce more vaccines to battle the A/H1N1 flu epidemic. In a speech at a regional Mercosur leaders summit in Paraguay, Fernandez said changing the status quo "does not mean disavowing the patents law," according to a report by the state news agency Telam.

Things are serious. But the press does not alarm the population of the profound problem we are in for. Maybe it does not appeal, or does not sell...

Now supposing a vaccine does come out in time, labs all over the planet work full time to produce enough doses to cover all needs, and amazing logistic will be put in place to deliver all production to where it is needed....will we have reasons to feel safe? Unconcerned and relieved?

Mankind has been fighting the cold virus for over centuries and has not come to a complete eradication because it mutates constantly....from season to season.

Regardless of the vaccine efficiency, as the virus will undoubtedly change on his trip up the northern hemisphere..it is time to watch, learn and act to prevent the worst. Because there will be losses, in large numbers.It is not necessary to be an alarmist to agree with that.

Disgrace for some, joy for others. I will never forget during the "El Ninõ " season back 1998...i have seen hundreds of homeless due the severe rainfall and ocean rage.
But it was a classic, consistent month of swell - one of best surf trips I have ever made.....
So, intelligence view on this matter shows that the H1N1 virus will certainly bring human losses, but on the other hand it may generate great business opportunities.

So, why not grab one as we help out others in the need ?

Sources: AFP, SAPA, The Guardian, news24 and newsmap.

Microsoft Yahoo, how does it sound?

2009-07-29T14:13:00.008+02:00

Today may become one of those days to make history. Business and Internet history.

Microsoft and Yahoo just announced that they will unite forces to face the giant of search engines, Google.

A successful completion of the talks marked the end of a year and a half of meetings, talks, gossips, influence and behind-the-scene calls. It all began with an unsolicited full takeover bid proposed by MS that rocked the internet world. From the summer of 2008 on, the software giant changed its approach and started pushing for a looser alliance - a combination of the search technology and search advertising systems of the two companies - to have better chance to catch up with Google.

According to Richard Waters and Joseph Menn from ft.com "The talks picked up steam late last week after the two sides reached the outlines of a deal in which Yahoo would not receive any upfront payment, as Microsoft had initially offered in the middle of last year, but the two sides would divide future search advertising revenues."

Yahoo would increase its cashflow at a time of declining revenue in its search business, for one. The other aspect: BING showed some major improvement compared to old MS search products, and this alliance would not damage Yahoo's image in setting up partnership with an inferior product than his own.

It is known that both Yahoo and Microsoft have failed to dent Google’s lead in the global search market in the past years.

Comscore, the online measurement group, said that Google increased its share of global web searches from 60 per cent last August to 69 per cent in May 2009, while Yahoo’s share fell from 11 per cent to 9 per cent in the same period. Microsoft, which launched Bing in June, has remained stable at around 3 per cent this year, lagging China’s Baidu with 9 per cent share of queries in May.

Even a combination of Microsoft and Yahoo’s search businesses would fail to overtake Google. According to Nielsen, the audience research group, Bing had 41m unique users in the US in June, compared with Yahoo’s 67m and Google’s 136m. But those are raw figures, A+B result that have little foreseeing basis for future developments of the all-new alliance, that you can read the terms at Microsoft-Yahoo press release.

As things take another dimension and speed in the internet, who knows where they will be in ten years' time, when the contract of exploitation by MS is due?

History will tell!

Sources: MS, Yahoo, financial times, comscore, choice value innovation

How Rich are we?

2009-07-17T13:58:00.013+02:00

There are several well known magazines and sites throughout the web to list the top 100, top 500 great fortunes of the planet.
These folks have dreamlike lives, where money does not count much. It is a matter of what they want, not what they can afford.

Considering that we are 7billion on sharing Gaia, have you ever thought where are you placed on an hypothetical world wealth list ?
These guys have an estimate of where you would be placed.
Type in your annual income (salary+other revenues included) and it will give you your rank among all inhabitants of the globe.
You, as I, might be surprised of our placement. We are INDEED fortunate ones if we look at the percentage that we might come to be placed at.

It sure put us to think about taxation of great fortunes, sparing with the less fortunets ones, human greed and social programs in poor areas of the world.
I have already heard a theory that if today all the world's wealth were shared equally among everyone, in 30 years' time it would come back to the same hands as it is today, due to one's capacity, competence, intelligence, business aggressiveness, or simply because some of us are gifted and take the most out of it.

But the issue here points to another facet of the question, and you may name it as you wish: to give a hand, to share, charity, subvention....
When we aid, we feel better. When we share we lift our spirits, when we lead the way in a new model of growth, we warm hearts and we make a difference!

By simply HELPING OUT the ones in the need on our way to wealthiness, we will sure put a smile on someone's face along our path. We will give a future to the hopeless, or a different life perspective to numberless children.

Our actions of sharing and the application of new models of sustainable growth may not make history books, but at least after we are gone we will be remembered by some, perhaps, a little longer.

Credits with a bow of hat to Make wealth history for the inspirational tip for this article.

Time for Innovation

2009-06-30T12:56:00.008+02:00

History shows us: hard times have pushed mankind to move forward. Looking back at the last one hundred years, the large scale use of airplanes, control of atomic energy and the man on the moon are good examples.

No matter whether they were times of wars, natural disorders or economic crisis, some good always came out of evil, just as we see it in nature.
We have the opportunity to witness now, as it unfolds before our eyes, another tough period.

So, how shall we profit it?

Simply by letting the those insights, those dreams and those great ideas out. Then it is just a matter of separating the superb ones, and hands on to work! Make money! Create jobs! Cooperate for a better society! It is time to invent and reinvent things!

This bulk of superb ideas will certainly produce some innovation. It may come out in the form of a new product, a new method, or most commonly, a new service. Remember that today's common ones, once were great innovations.

- Imagine the guy who had the idea to tie together Pizza+Motorbike/car to come up with pizza home delivery. He would be millionaire by now if he had ever registered it.

- Or the individual at a large fastfood company that added the sale of Sandwiches + hunger of mobel clients. He came up with the drive through. Both examples show the simplicity of joining two already existing services to create a brand new one.

Needless to say that we, average Joe's, are able to come up with great ideas. The matter resides in putting them into practice. For a self entreprenor or a company, these days of crisis might give you a shot, even if there are countless reasons telling you not to innovate.

We have selected ten of most common ones (and they are in great number, belive us) to be prepared for:

1. Definition of "innovation" (framed as an initiative, not a normal way of doing business).
2. No sense of urgency nor strategy.
3. Employees suffers from "initiative fatigue".
4. Senior Team is not aligned and/or CEO does not fully embrace the effort.
5. No compelling vision or reason to innovate.
6. Key players lack time to focus on innovation.
7. Innovation champions are not empowered, generating lack of trust.
8. Non-existent or fuzzy decision making processes.
9. Cost cutting or incremental improvement culture.(we stay where we are, producing more with less).
10. Employers ruled by past assumptions and old mental models.

Are we motivated yet? Do you feel that you have that super, doable, business oriented, impossible- to- fail innovating idea?

The Intelligence Factory is there to help you out to put it into practice, by making it easier the task of braking paradigms, cultural barries and low spirits.

We are able to give you a hand with: creativity, observation, perseverance, oral and written communication, analysis capacity, business hints and clues, strategic approach, business terminology, market monitoring, presentation of new ideas and sourcing.

Moreover, we may work out solutions using our knowledge on methodologies, power structures inside companies, decision making processes, the development of competances, control of changing habits and the industry in general.

So, next time you come up with that so called long shot idea, do not let it aside, to be shared with your buddies at your favorite bar.
Drop us a line and maybe we can help you make your idea a profitable, innovating one!

Photo by Felipe T. Marques at Flickr

Quo vadis Twitter ?

2009-06-23T21:13:00.013+02:00

Nombreux sont les articles et les vidéos essayant d'expliquer l’outil Twitter. Il y a également un grand nombre de rapports sur le sujet ; l'un des plus récents selon le site techcrunch affirme que "seulement 10% de tous les utilisateurs de Twitter produisent leurs propres tweets. Les 90% autres ne font que les lire".

Alors Twitter finalement c'est quoi ?

L'outil de microblogage a évolué depuis sa création en 2006. Il était à l'origine un simple lieu d'expression où vous pouviez dire aux gens « ce que vous étiez en train de faire », un texte court au nombre de caractères limité :
«A l’aéroport, vol en retard. M#*£% ! ».

En politique, c'est Barack Obama, le président des États-Unis, qui lui a permis d'évoluer vers un outil plus sérieux ; aujourd'hui Twitter est utilisé couramment chez les élus.
Avant de démontrer son "utilité" en Iran, Twitter avait déjà gagné les politiques français et brésiliens.

Au Brésil, Twitter est présent au Sénat et à la Chambre de Députés. Même le gouverneur de São Paulo, José Serra, a adhéré à l'effet de mode. Des parlementaires disent ce qu'ils « font », donnent leurs avis sur des projets de lois, se défendent d'accusations et répondent aux doutes des administrés sur cette nouvelle tribune politique.

Cet engouement brésilien pour Twitter est manifeste quand on voit le nombre d'inscrits, en témoigne le site PoliTweets , qui rassemble les "tweets" politiques. Inspiré par le son confrère américain , le PoliTweets brésilien a réunit la majorité des profils d'hommes politiques, soit 29 députés fédéraux, et 13 sénateurs. La quasi-totalité d'entre eux ont au moins une centaine de partisans (du moins des "followers", des personnes qui suivent les messages déposés).

Jusqu'à présent, l'homme politique le plus populaire est le gouverneur José Serra, avec presque 10 000 inscrits.
Mais dans la politique comme partout, les choses évoluent, Twitter change aussi au rythme de ses utilisateurs et de leurs comportements.

Comment décrire aujourd'hui cet outil qui ne correspond au final que difficilement aux concepts de réseau traditionnel, de communauté ou de flux ? Twitter n'est pas Facebook, LinkedIn ou MySpace. Vos "gazouillis" (traduction de tweets en français) ne sont pas des profils sociaux avec lesquels vous pouvez rencontrer des personnes très facilement, retrouver des amis du lycée ou du boulot.

Alors, pourquoi "tweeter" ?

Pour suivre l'information, tout simplement ; celle de vos amis, de vos concurrents, des gens intéressants ou des stars. Suivre l'actualité des gens ou des entreprises s'inscrit parfaitement dans une démarche de veille !
Pourquoi ne pas suivre les tweets des hommes d’affaires influents, des avant-gardistes, des inventeurs, des artistes ou créateurs innovants ? Rester à l'écoute de ceux qui ont des idées brillantes, ou une passion à partager ?
Suivre Lance Armstrong dans sa préparation à la veille du Tour de France 2009, c'est bien. Mais suivre les astronautes de la station ISS et les résultats de leurs expériences, c'est encore mieux!

Suivre

Si Twitter permet de suivre des communautés qui vous intéressent, en période de crise c'est surtout un outil à haut potentiel qui permet de rester à l'écoute de l'actualité des entreprises, connaitre l'évolution des marchés, identifier une tendance, et communiquer aussi.

Twitter est donc une chaîne d'information sociale, où vous pouvez obtenir des nouvelles de n'importe qui - grand ou petit. Non filtrée, directement de la source, et en temps réel. (Non filtré et non médiatisé).
C’est à vous de décider ce qui est important pour vous, et par qui vous voulez être influencé.

Bon, mais qu'y-a-t-il de fantastique dans tout ceci ?

Certes, Twitter est une chaîne d'information sociale ; mais le principal attrait réside dans le fait que c'est vous qui produisez l'information. Chacun d'entre-nous peut être LA personne intéressante à suivre, la personne influente, ceci plus facilement qu'avec un blog ou un profil Facebook.

Alors que dire... Pourquoi ne pas parler des avancés de votre petit (ou grand !) projet personnel ou professionnel, ou expliquer au monde ce que vous faites. Twitter n'étant pas Secret Story, peu importe le nombre de personnes qui vous suivent.
Il faut en profiter pour demander des astuces, des conseils à vos contacts pour résoudre un de vos problèmes. Demander à une personne directement ce qu'elle ferait ou penserait... La possibilité de répondre est aussi un élèment du "jeu", qu'il faut prendre en compte.

L'autre aspect de Twitter a prendre en compte est son caractère insMaitantané, et la non-médiatisation. Le maintenant pour tout (pour le vrai et le faux), c'est aussi, le difficilement vérifiable... Il devient tentant de se fier aux commentaires. "Je sais que"...

Enfin Twitter a bel et bien réinventé le (cyber) bouche-à-oreille, le téléphone arabe, le glanage d'information. Inutile de préciser qu'il faut l'utiliser avec des pincettes... Pour mieux connaître
la aventure de twitter cliquez ICI (en anglais) raconté par Evan Williams lui même, le CEO de Twitter.
The Intelligence Factory utilise également Twitter, bientôt vous pourrez lire l'avis du groupe sur l'actualité, des informations économiques exclusives, notre sélection d'articles - pour apporter quelques informations à votre café...

Merci à Ugo et Luen-Ji Bel Lyr-Ro pour les corrections!!!

Gaia feasts it!

2009-06-22T11:33:00.012+02:00

It was nice to see people who took time off, and stepped out of this haze of economic welfare persuit that surround us - mon through fri / 9 to 5 routine - to be part of the whole, even if it is just for a short moment.
After all, we are all travelers on this great ship called earth!
We talk of the public who flocked yesterday towards important places on the planet to celebrate summer's Solstice.
These monuments, in their various forms are actual ouvres d'art à ciel ouvert, built by long ago civilizations who comprehended, respected and feasted the sun's north-most position on our skies. Places like Stonehenge, the Pyramids and la Puerta del Sol at Machu Pichu, to name a few, were destinations, yesterday, of scientists, religious sects, and sensitive people who are tunned into Gaia.

They do not let us forget about life cycles! This year, in special, the date fell on a SUN-DAY.

Nature rules on this planet, with its marvelous, intricate, yet simple patterns. And we are to follow them. Better yet, to flow with them in order to profit to the fullest, both of ourselves and the planet.
Mankind has to understand nature's hints when things go unbalanced. It is quite simple. If we take it , we must give it back. A cycle again! It is defenitely not by over exploiting the planet's natural resources as we have done for the past century that we will be able to level off.
It is time return what we have taken, in an intelligent way. Because nature takes its time to reestablish itself.

The Intelligence Factory follows some of these events regarding man's giving it back process across the globe.

In the state of Parana, Brazil, it is located the country's largest population of Araucarias (araucaria angustifolia), native pine tree from colder mid-mountain southern climate.

The local state government has made major efforts to coordinate the protection and repopulation of this species considered in danger since the middle of the twentieth century.
Through different departements involved, in the last 8 years, 5 million of these Pinheiros, as they are locally called, have beeb replanted.
Despite the time it takes to reach maturity (up to 90 years), at the age of 30 it is already at its optimal size.

The results and statistics of all this giant task of planning, distribution, acccounting and post planting control is available at the State of Parana environment institut, IAP. Tremendous job they are doing. We bow our hats.

It will take time to return what we have taken, of course. But our kids will thank us!

Persian at Google

2009-06-20T16:44:00.008+02:00

In perfect timing, Google just added the Persian language (Farsi) to its translation tool. In the middle of a very critical after-election period in Iran, this lauching comes in handy to follow news, blogs, twits, forums, even facebook messages, with a local point of view of the facts.

It is, without a doubt, a major step towards providing information to the avage Joe who is aware of the situation in the middle east and does not want to rely only on major network articles.

The translating machine is not perfect, as any other presently on the web, but it provides good overall understanding. Google says it will keep an eye on this new service for a while, to avoid brakes and eventual slow pace.

The Mountain View company adverts that the service is available - for the moment - from English to Persian, and vice-versa - for the time being, the non English speaking individual has to pass through English first, which may cause some more degrading.

For more click here

We came to stay!

2009-06-18T19:27:00.010+02:00

First Post!

Life is beautiful, and much more beautiful knowing what IS important for you.

The Intelligence Factory Consultants can make it available everything you might need. Our answer will come out precisely and at the right time.

Be it ideas, information, contacts, communication within and without your business....we are there to serve you.

In a rush?
Apronto by The Intelligence Factory Association is the answer for your immediate need of information on any given subject. The workforce of this powerful group will get what you need in no time!

Get in touch with us. We are ready to work out your needs, in a multicultural way - if you need it. We provide services in French, Portuguese, Spanish and Mandarin.

So, you, dearest reader, expect to find here all sorts of subjects on different languages.

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