Issuu

Just finished creating a presentation on Issuu...
Waw, this was harder than I thought it would be!!

I most definitely prefer Prezi, it's so much simpler and more intuitive!
And the thing with Prezi is that you don't have to be a good document designer to use it, unlike Issuu.
With Issuu, if you want your presentation to look cool, you have to work on it for hours... Oh and possess the proper tools, which is not my case since I'm working from an old version of Windows...

Anyways this is the result:

Open publication - Free publishing - More hanoi

Prezzzzi!

I have just finished my first Prezi! It's about the Caravelle Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.

It wasn't easy at first (and still isn't perfect) but this was fun to create! and to watch!

I can't find how to embed it on this blog post though...

Oh ok, got it!

Caravelle Hotel on Prezi

My thoughts on Microsoft's vision of what the World will look like in 2019

I have just watched this video provided by Microsoft:

Here is what I think about it:

The appliances seem very attractive because of their highly interactive options and futuristic design. It looks like everything will be at everyone's fingertips just like in Sci-fi movies. I reckon they would also provide excellent tools to communicate more efficiently and raise productivity in teamwork, regardless of distance.

In the travel and hospitality industries, travellers will feel much more comfortable even in cities where they set foot for the first time. Hotel guests and their habits/requests will be well known even prior to their arrival, which represents a considerable time saver, and everything will just be a lot smoother than nowadays.

However, it is probable that the number of "real" humans that the client will meet will decrease, thus risking isolating the individuals. Indeed, the shown applications have been designed to give us ability to feel closer to one another, but they might just do the opposite by making us all the more dependant on the comfort that they provide. The customer's interaction with the staff might plainly disappear (i.e. the black recepionist really does not have much to do apart from carrying the client's luggage, since check in and requests are already done).

I thus have to ask myself where will all the employees go, once their jobs will have been replaced by machine-sounding voices and screens. In this futuristic wolrd (only supposed to be 8 years ahead from now), what will become of all the people who won't get to be engineers or business travellers (etc)?

Finally, this technology would probably end up widening the gap between the higher earners and the rest of the population who wouldn't be able to afford it, as well as between developped and under-developped countries (which would perhaps not be the same as today!).

P.S. : these Microsoft technologies seem to have, once again, been "inspired" a lot by Apple's ideas!

I was asked to try using the "Museum of me" application, which works with one's Facebook account and draws all necessary informations to build the gallery of one's life.


Here are my impressions about it:

+ "Museum of me" is beautifully designed and thoroughly thought, the transitions are very fluid and the application is very convincing in its portrayal of a 3D virtual museum. I also like the uplifting music and the additionnal characters/visitors, who oddly seemed to be extremely interested in the exhibition of my life.

- However, the pictures of my friends and I were randomly selected, and not the most relevant. The "words" which were supposed to be representative of me were also quite uninteresting (e.g. "is", "youtube"). Furthermore, I am not sure what is the use for this gadget,as it might be the most narcissistic application I have ever seen. I wouldn't want any of my life to be part of a "real life" exhibition, thus do not see the point for it to be virtual either.

 But I may not be the best critic, as I am not very fond of sharing my private life on the internet.

? Last but not least, when I subscribed to this application, it was indicated that "Museum of me" would be able to post messages and pictures on my Facebook wall, and do a lot of other things that I find a little bit too instrusive. I wonder whether the information that was extracted from my Facebook account to "Museum of me" could be re-used by marketers for unknown purposes ...