Two Croissants

This appears to be the most read post on this blog. . . I guess I should be updating it a little bit.

I’m a Ph.D. candidate in Digital Economics, studying how your decision are impacted by your relatives, i.e. social network effects.  This blog helps me draft my thoughts.

My advisor is Pr. Éric Brousseau, from Université Paris Ouest Nanterre, and he specialised on Neo-Instituional economics, i.e. the branch that focuses on why there are companies and how are they organized, transaction costs, law and economics; he specifically likes to explain how groups cluster into more formal, enforced organisations. Seeing a decade ago how internet will change all that, he has also been a leading scholar on Internet economics — the area that attracted me first.

I have been working for Orange Labs, the most research-oriented R&D departement at France Telecom. The company has been a great suport, and a source of great contacts, irreplaceble database, and amazing research — but all good things have an end, and I should be ‘one the job market’ by November.

To be honnest, I have to that say I’m a bit disappointed by how little comments are left on my blog: traffic is low, but the ratio is lower then usual. Many bloggers explain it is the best stat for success, so I have to take your silence as a stern warning. I’m not planning to be famous, but I guess the goal to make a serious blog, with occasional, longish posts and no photos is challenging, or foolish; should I be more appealing or admit that bloggin is not for me? Anyway, do not hesitate to comment; if you have another way to discuss my ideas then have me comment of other blogs, shoot.

One of my current question is: what comes next? I should be over with my dissertation soon (at leats I hope so) and I’ve been looking into business models for too long not too dream of starting projects of my own. All my friends will tell you: I’m relentless when it comes to explaining what you could do better, especially regarding IT. Presently, I would like to change the way many social services (should) earn money by challenging the idea that targetting ads are a good thing or the only option, and suggest pull-based ‘actions’, based on yours and your friends’ current activity stream. I don’t know if ISP, mobile operators, portal owners, SocNet sites would interested (some people at Orange are) or if I have to prove my insights by myself, but I’m not a coder, so I cannot make this happen by myself.

Finally, I have a dozen blog post currently drafted, that I dare not put in front of the public — not clear, not detailed enough, yet. If you believe I should post more, there is all the material that I need one-click away.