Selling a Car in a Smart Way

I’m blogging from France more precisely the Loire Valley. Among wine tastings, country side walks and castle visits I think I can do a bit of blogging.

Hugo is selling his Smart ForTwo using the social Web to his advantage.

Smart ForTwo widget

He’s using his own blog to start a campaign to sell his car. He made a simple widget that can be added to any blog. Then, users click on the widget and contact Hugo. If the buyer of the car came through one of the blogs where the widget is used then Hugo will pay 3% of the price of the car to the blog owner. The car is for sale at 7750€ which means that whoever points a buyer to Hugo will get 232.5€. It’s that simple.

I think it’s a great idea to use the blogosphere to try to sell make a personal classified. It’s very smart and it’s a win-win situation. It’s good for Hugo because he gets to sell the car and it’s good for bloggers because they have a chance to earn more money that they usually do (on average) via Google Ads.

August 16, 2007 | Tags: | 2 Comments 

À bientôt

Finally some vacations. I’ll be driving to France to visit the Loire Valley.

Chinnon
Photo by PhillipC

I’ll be heading to Angers. I’ll probably also be visiting Nantes, La Rochelle, Tours, Chiché and the beautiful area of Deux-Sèvres. All areas full of Creperies!

On the way a short-stay in Bilbao (mostly to see what’s new at the Guggenheim) and on the return another short-stay in Madrid.

Panoramio, Flickr and Technorati and Google Maps are now my tools of choice for online travel research. Using these sites I can have a good idea of what should I visit and what events will happen. On Technorati blogs mention the events that will happen and on Flickr pictures taken by locals are then included in sets that link to other interesting stuff. It’s the Long Tail of travel!

This is not an email-free vacation (Adegga is the reason). So I’ll be checking email once in a while in case you need to contact me.

August 12, 2007 | Tags: | 2 Comments 

New Wok - (Affordable) Asian Fusion Cuisine in Lisbon

Two new Asian food restaurants opened recently in Lisbon. I tried the new noodle restaurant Nood a couple of weeks ago and albeit the concept is nice, the food was not impressive. This time I tried New Wok.

Restaurant New Wok Lisbon

New Wok is different. Design wise the restaurant is filled with lots of nice details. For example, the paper over which you can eat can also be used to make an origami. It even includes instructions.

As to what really matters (the food!) Chef Leonor Manita certainly masters the delicious Asian fusion cuisine (mix of Thai, Singapore and Indian). The food is as good on flavors as on the aromas. Simply delicious.

I’ve been back 3 times. On all of them I had Gyoza as a starter. Gyosas are little thin-dough wrapped starters made with vegetables or meat (they sell both). On my first 3 visits I tried the New Wok Rice (stir-fried rice with egg and chicken - a favorite). The third time I went for the Beef Teriyaki (beef grilled in a sweet soy sauce marinade). Both dishes are mouth-watering.

The service is fast and the prices are affordable for a Friday night dinner (25 euros for 2).

Restaurant contacts
Address: Rua Capelo 24 - Lisboa
1200-087 LISBOA
Phone: (+351) 21 347 71 89
Email: info@newwok.pt
Website: http://www.newwok.pt/
Map:
New Wok Mapa

August 12, 2007 | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments 

Crowdsourcing a Football Club

Reading the newspaper today I found out about a guy named Will Brooks who created a project - MyFootballClub.co.uk - that will allow anyone to own a part of a football club and vote on every decision on it. A football club managed by the Wisdom of the Crowds!

MyfootballClub logo

How does it work ?
Anyone can become a member for £35. When the number of members reaches 50.000 (it has already) the site will start looking for a English football club to buy. The choice will be based on the list made from members votes.

Members will then be able to vote on team selection, decide which players to buy and sell and follow the takeover process from a private news forum at the website.

More information can be found at the project Website, the FAQ, the Wikipedia page and this interesting interview with the mentor of the project.

Interestingly, EA Sports (publisher of sports video games) has said that they’ll be sponsoring MyFootballClub.

What is Crowdsourcing ?

Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.

(from the crowdsourcing blog)

Crowdsourcing has been applied in a number of well-known areas. Software with Linux and Open Source, online encyclopedia Wikipedia, t-shirt communities Threadless and LaFraise and the innovative crowdsourcing marketplace Amazon Mechanical Turk. Now it has come to football.

We’ll see if in fact the Many Are Smarter Than the Few. Certainly a project to follow.

August 12, 2007 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

Ratatouille


Can’t wait to go see it.
Lovely reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.

In Ratatouille, the level of moment-by-moment craftsmanship is a wonder.

Ratatouille will make you wonder why animation needs to hide behind the mantle of ‘it’s for children, but grownups will like it, too.

It’s not just the computer animation that is vibrantly three-dimensional. It’s also the well-rounded characters… I defy you to name another animated film so overflowing with superfluous beauty.

August 10, 2007 | Tags: , , | Leave a Comment 

Slack: a book on Knowledge Workers

The last book of my summer 2007 reading list has finally arrived. While searching for books to read I found Slack.

I came across this interesting review while looking for a book link. Although I haven’t read the book here are some of its ideas:

Knowledge workers need some free time to be creative.

You can’t make employees think faster. If you try to “increase productivity” by loading them down with task after task, you actually make things worse. There are a number of reasons for this, but a main one is the high cost of context switching. It’s a popular notion that we are all becoming great multi-taskers, but it’s simply false.

When you look at the multi-project, interrupt-driven workplace we have created, you can see we’ve engineered ourselves into a recipe for frustration and limited achievement.

I have experienced a multi-project, interrupt-driven workplace and it’s definitely not good. Not on the short-term (nothing is actually done) nor on the long-term (you end up too tired).

I’ll add my thoughts when I finish reading it.

August 9, 2007 | Tags: , , | Leave a Comment 

BarCamp Portugal 2007

BarCamp Portugal 2007 is happening in less than a month (1st and 2nd September). Fred and the team are the organizers and the program (even if still short) looks very interesting.

BarCamp Portugal 2007

Lots of people have added their names to the participants list so it will be fun! At events like these the program is just a guide, talking to other people is not scheduled and is probably the best part.

Two workshops are already scheduled. A session of Halfbaked dotcom and a another one on OpenID + Microformats.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend. I was very interested in talking about my startup Adegga at this year’s BarCamp but we’re planning some news for September and since last couple of months have been so much hard working I think I deserve (more like need) a couple of days to rest. Around BarCamp I should be somewhere between France and Spain.

One last thing, congratulations (and some link love) to the first BarCamp Portugal 2007 sponsor: WaveWeb who among other things make the stock photography site Gimmestock.com.

August 9, 2007 | | 3 Comments 

How Manage Your Bookmarks Online (or How to use Del.icio.us)

Many of you probably already know how to do this. However, i’ve found much more people who still use their browser bookmarking tools. If you’re in this situation this post is for you.

The good guys at CommonCraft have published a new video on their Plain English series. Bookmarking in Plain English explains how to manage and share your bookmarks online.


The video is focused on using Del.icio.us but any other social bookmarking site like Magnolia or SAPO Tags can be used.

Once you start bookmarking online you’ll ask yourself how on earth could you manage all that information before.

August 9, 2007 | Tags: , , , , | Leave a Comment 

Amazing Interactive Mobile Campaign

Sporting is running a fantastic interactive mobile campaign.

Sporting site

Armando Alves (from DraftFCB) explains:

Through a interactive video, users can place their name and phone number to receive a call by coach Paulo Bento, with distinct scenarios according to the call feedback. With cellphones reaching a market penetration over 117% in Portugal, the viral effort is aiming to get 40000 subscriptions and appeal to a younger audience through a different media channel.

Amazing work. Surprising, sharable, addictive.

With the current information overload, people will (more and more) only notice and talk about things (like work, brands or people) that really take them through remarkable experiences.

Disclaimer: I’m a Benfica supporter (had to find some way to link to Benfica) :)

August 9, 2007 | | Leave a Comment 

Books: Summer 2007 Reading List

Reading is easier on summer time. I have more time, more patience and my mind is more available for the needed concentration and thinking. This year I’ve started by reading Malcom Gladwell’s The Tipping Point which I bought a couple of months ago but didn’t have enough time to read until now.

Last week I ordered a couple of books on Amazon and they have finally arrived. Here’s this summer reading list.

Summer 2007 books

While searching for books to read I find myself using LibraryThing and blogs more and more as my sources of information. LibraryThing has a fabulous recommendation system that makes it really easy to find more books related to the ones I have read before.

Blogs have a huge trust factor. If someone I know (or follow) reads and recommends a book (like for example here and here) I’ll definitely be more interested in exploring more. Depending on the level of trust I might not even look anywhere else.

One thing I particularly like is when there’s a blog associated with a book (like The Dip and The Long Tail). It works great has an extension of the book because it provides a way to explore related topics and a place for discussion on some of the books content.

August 2, 2007 | | 2 Comments