Jess la Salsera’s Weblog

If a few years ago, you had asked me what would be my relationship with such a technology than Internet, I probably should not have described my current use because it exceeded the limits I thought correct. At this time, I was hooked on TV but today it is often switched off and I’ve replaced the time spent behind the TV screen by hours spent behind my computer screen. I’m not someone who is blindly attracted by all it’s new and forget immediately what existed before. Besides, my favorite media remain the newspaper and the radio (I like to travel with the sound of these voices…). But from necessity, I need to be connected every day, for my work and my own pleasure. If I had the choice, I don’t think I’d spent so many time on the Web, because it often happens I surf for nothing ! But I can’t deny the importance of this medium, it’s a real help to me that allow me to satisfy my thirst for knowledge and to keep in touch with my closest friends I can’t see everyday.

I don’t know how the future will be, for me and for the Internet, I just hope brighness for both of us. But I think I’ll continue to use it as I do know, trying to enjoy the new possibilities it will offer. If I still can find there information, entertainment, communication, a way to express myself through blogs for instance, and opportunities for my work, there is no reason for me to break up with Internet. I just don’t wanna become a slave, or an addict and I’ll try to choose a job that will allow me to diversify the media. If we remain glued to something, it end up disgusting us, isn’t it ?

Nowadays, Internet has turned into an incontrovertible tool and I’m sure it will be necessary in my future work. Unless I finally decide to follow my non-secret passion for dancing and singing, but even with this option, Internet will be useful.

Internet offers a window on the world and if you want your work to be attuned to current events, to react to new tendencies and to have a projective dimension. Everything is becoming faster, easier with this technology that provide real-time information, knowledge on an endless number of subjects that allow you to keep yourself informed at each project you’ll follow. Besides, with the Web you can develop interactivity with your colleagues, by exchanging emails or using an Intranet, assure a responsive communication and even organize conference call with foreign partners. Facilitating your work and it’s efficiency, Internet is also a popular distraction mean, and my personal work experience has proved me that everyone is surfing not only for professional reasons. But if Internet helps you to finish your work more quickly, it also means it helps you to find more free time to use it as an entertainment. Clever, isn’t it ?

I’m sure now you can’t be catching out in the subject “How to earn money on the Internet ?” but it remains one important thing I didn’t talk about. You can directly reap the benefits of your activity on websites but Internet can also help you to give you an income on the long run. How ? By providing you a job. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not gonna present you a miracle solution to the tricky problem of our time, finding a job, but Internet, in this quest, can be a good ally.

Once sat behind your screen, you can go fishing for job offers. First destination: companies’ websites. Generally they post their offers into dedicated sections, like “TF1 recruits” for TF1and you get directly the post description. Second destination: dedicated websites for job offers, classified according to the sector, like Monster or Keljob. The same system exists for internship offers with Michael Page or Profil Culture. You can select offers that correspond to your formation, your experience, your geographical zone and even your availabilities. Moreover most sites offer you the possibility to create applicant profiles, with your online resume and current information about yourself. Thus, it’s easy for companies to contact you directly if they are interested in your profile. Then, if you manage to get an interview, Internet will help you to prepare you to it, providing information about the job, the company, data really important to prove your deep motivation. So, if you’re not satisfied with the ANPE service, you know what to do ! Just click !

Currently, I’m working in a company that has 65 employees. It is located in Paris in the 15^th arrondissement/ urban district in a street called Rue Maubert. Its goal is to sell children software.

The company receives a subsidy from the State to hire young interns. That is how I got my current job which is titled “Salesman“. Originally, I had the status of Marketing Manager but I switched.

We sell a range of products under the brand Youngsoft and we develop many projects related to marketing. Our posting campaign in the subway is one of the most expensive services. Our PR department also has a very large budget. We realize our own ads with our editorial staff and we edit our own user text books.

Our quarterly results for this year have all been very positive. Right now we benefit from a growing market and that is why we are making profits.

Our next goal is to sell our products in Tahiti because we think overseas customers would be interested in buying.

To sum up, thanks to our positive code of ethics and a growing niche market, a bright future is approaching.

” I disagree with what you say but I will defend to death your right to say it.”

By writing that sentence, Voltaire pronounced an essential principle for each human being: its right to speak. Nowadays, the concept seems to have been trivialized in view of all the improvements established since the Age of Enlightenment, but it would be foolish to believe it is respected everywhere. Yes, freedom of speech is recognized in international and regional human rights law. Yes, it is enshrined in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, in Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights, and in Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Yes, freedom of speech references are ancient and numerous in the human History and Humanity has never been as far in its achievement than it is today. But Voltaire also denied the fact that “everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds” and his judgement still applies to our world.

A fragile right

Too many countries around the world prevent their people from expressing themselves and stop the development of a real free press. Indeed, freedom of information is an extension of freedom of speech and the failure to respect journalists’ work is a good indicator of human rights statement. According to indexes of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) or the International Press Institute, freedom is heavily compromised in such countries as China, Cuba, Iraq, Pakistan or Russia, until assassinations of journalists and other crimes against media personnel, as threats and incarcerations. Freedom of speech is measured in any medium and is more generally understood as freedom of expression in any of them, be it orally, in writing, print, through the Internet or through art forms.

The medium of citizen empowerment

The creation of Internet was based on the idea of a common area, a public space opened to everyone. Anything that anybody would wish to say could be heard by anyone else with access to the Internet, and this worldwide community would be as large and diverse as humanity itself. The principle of freedom of speech Would be also embedded in the Internet’s robust architecture, i.e the structure of a network able to adapt itself almost instantaneously to damage or outages to individual sections. Indeed it’s quite impossible to completely block access to information, but it’s unfortunately used. In the last years, state sponsored censorship, monitoring and surveillance of the Internet have been increased, encouraging defense organisms to alert the international community, like RSF with the launch of the “Online Free Expression Day” in 2008. A widely publicised example of censorship is the “Great Firewall of China”, a system that blocks content by preventing IP addresses from being routed through. But despite all the breaches of freedom of speech we can highlight, the Web remains a great tool to express oneself.

Internet doesn’t only provide universal access to free speech, it also promotes the basic concept of freedom of speech. It opened new possibilities for exercising this right: anonymity, data havens, easiness that allow free speech by guaranteeing that material cannot be removed. A new step has been crossed with the Web 2.0 based on a double pillar: inter connectivity and interactivity of web-delivered content in a medium used as a platform by its users. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web culture communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, that are so many ways to express your point of view. By being a space created to and by users, Internet protects itself from being controlled by a single actor. Plurality of voices is born from the plurality of contributions. This Internet’s feature helps to develop tools to fight against its own censorship with open source projects, like Picidae that put forward the implementation of a decentralized server to override the screening.

A powerful megaphone

Its exponential growth in the last decade gave it the power to promote freedom of speech. Thus, as well as being the specific place to exercise your right to express yourself, Internet is also the best medium to defend it. Many sites have been built to keep the Internet open like the Center for Democracy and Technology, and creative initiatives are launched like Global Voices Online that works to develop tools, institutions and relationships to help all voices, everywhere, to be heard. The team seeks for information posted on blogs all over the world to help to know places and people other media often ignore. The impact remains minor compared with all freedom restrictions crimes committed every day but with this visibility given, it’s the speech impulse which is encouraged.

With substantial means, Human Rights associations don’t settle for opening websites to present their actions, they use the Web as a specific target in their campaigns. The involvement of RSF in this field is significant. Besides all the resources and publications concerning Internet censorship and “enemies”, users are invited to sign petitions to support journalists in danger and to download the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents that offers practical advice and techniques on how to create a blog and shows how to sidestep the censorship measures imposed by certain governments. Media downloads are also directly available like communication campaigns and banners especially designed for bloggers. RSF is active through its blog network, RSFBLOG, that allows bloggers to publish information censored in their own countries, thus opening a small door to all those oppressed voices.

Nevertheless, the most pessimistic will argue that it’s not with a blog that Cuban and Chinese people will be manage to express themselves more freely. Sure, but if alarm cries are relayed all over the world, Internet could turn into a real support network, able to form a counter balance, and to provide people weapons to fight against attacks to their rights. To raise Internet at this level, the access to new technologies must be improved in developing countries which require money and investment, and this is another story…

Here we are, last but not least !

I was surfing on Youtube last week and I hit on a report made by M6 about private lessons to learn how to dance. You are gonna tell me it’s not an Internet characteristic but in the case of Savoir Danser, the subject report, it is. There is no material school behind the website that is the first national authorized network that provides qualified teachers for any kind of dance: salsa, rock, tango, waltz, belly dance, hip-hop and even tecktonik ! Pupils choose the time and date, and the instructors conducts the lesson at home at their own pace. For those who want to become dancers but who are also too shy to move in crowded dance studios or nightclubs, it’s the perfect solution ! For those who practise dance with passion, and who have a well-recognised level, it’s an opportunity to exercise their job in good conditions, by organizing their hours according to their timetable.

So let’s have a dance !

Like companies, associations can use Internet to promote their activity and increase public awareness of their cause. The Web offers to those actors an expanded visibility screen and many have realize the relevance of designing attractive websites.

Besides communication, fund raising is favoured by the ability to inform people through emails, newsletters and updates. Donation is simplified because achieved in few clicks directly on the associations’ websites. If you go to their homepage, like for the Red Cross or the Restos du Coeur, you are directly invited to donate and transaction is ensured by security systems. It’s easy, it’s safe and it can help good actions. Besides, by generating buzz, associations can improve their recognition without spending a lot of money in ad campaigns. When money is combining with charity and generosity, we can only welcome new technology…

A new world, full of opportunities, has been opened to you with the Internet development. If you still have not climb on the bandwagon, you’re missing a lot and losing money !

By creating an e-enterprise, you can reduce your fixed costs by economizing a building and furnitures rent, by reducing taxes and wasting because all is managed by computer.

By opening an online shop, you can take advantage of e-trade by reaching an expanded audience in an expanded territory, and this every day (no need a derogation to work on Sunday), by removing middlemen and shop clerks.

By investing virtual worlds like Second Life. Many big companies, like IBM, American Apparel, Dell, Renault or Veolia, have already established themselves there to enjoy a 12 millions market users. Every day, $1.8 millions are exchanged in this platform that is an important communication vehicle for business. Indeed, this space is a laboratory for products and an opportunity to create a new kind of relationship with customers.

Now you know what to do to e-succeeding !

No offense in that, I’ll really like to have computer skills like Willow who was always able to neutralize any system to get information for the Scooby Gang. And she was not a four-eyed and uncommunicative girl ! Unfortunately, I don’t have her abilities, otherwise, I’d know how to use them to earn money.

There are many intervention fields: you can create programs, softwares, applications for social networks like Facebook, become consultant for companies and help them to buy their equipment, specialize your activity in maintenance or security on the Web (anti virus fight, protection…). With customers like me, and with working from home, you can make ends meet as a free lance and even, if your rates are satisfying, think of living upon it, especially if you have a high level. Better than my poor explanations, I’m sure you’ll find by yourselves what you can do !

Have you ever dreamed of becoming the guy who holds a scoop all media would kill for ? Maybe you’ve already been frustrated by possessing a burning information but ignoring to whom sell it. Internet seems to have resolve the problem through websites that allow you to earn money by selling your scoops.

With Citizenside or Shoot News, individuals and media professionals are putting in touch. Users can propose different kinds of documents, photos, videos or audios staging “People”, topical issues or any unusual event that could interest the audience. Your work consists in getting your mobile or your camera out, immortalize the moment and then dump your documents on line. Shoot News is only a go-between you and the buyer, but in Citizenside your payment can reach 85% of the sale price and if your scoop is worthwile, you can hit the jackpot in few clicks !