Category Archives: Business

Kickstarter projects

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Last update : October 6, 2018

Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative projects. It’s a crowdfunding platform for everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Since the launch in 2009, more than 12 million people have pledged over 2.8 Billion dollars, funding more than 118.000 creative projects. Project creators set a funding goal and a deadline. If people like a project, they can pledge money to make it happen. Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing : projects must reach their funding goals to receive any money. To date, 36% of projects have reached their funding goals. Backers are supporting projects to help them come to life, not to profit financially. Instead, project creators offer rewards to thank backers for their support.

A Kickstarter app for mobiles is available at the AppStore.

I am a backer for the following projects :

Kickstarter Account Page

Kickstarter Account Page with backed projects

Here is a list of further projects which I consider very interesting :

Links

Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing

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Last update : September 24, 2013

Crowdfunding is the application of the Crowdsourcing concept to the collection of funds through small contributions from many parties in order to finance a particular project or venture. Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.

The First AAAI Conference on Human Computation and Crowdsourcing will be held November 7-9, 2013 in Palm Springs, California, USA.

Crowdfunding is alternately called crowd financing, equity crowdfunding or crowd-sourced fundraising.

An early precursor of the crowdfunding business model was Praenumeration, a common business practice in the 18th century book trade in Germany.

Crowdfunding is not only used to fund a startup company (equity-based crowdfunding), but also to create artworks such as music, theater, dance, films, literature and technology.

Crowdfunding platforms bring together the project initiator and the crowd. They create the necessary organizational systems and conditions for resource integration among all the players to take place. There are over 450 crowdfunding platforms with fundamental differences in the services provided. A comparison of crowd funding services is available at Wikipedia.

Some examples of crowdfunding platforms are listed below :

Since soliciting investments from the general public is often illegal in most countries, unless the opportunity has been filed with an appropriate securities regulatory authority, traditional crowdfunding platforms treat funds as donations. In the U.S. the crowdfunding exemption movement has been successful in 2012 with the passage of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act or JOBS Act,  a law intended to encourage funding of small businesses by easing various securities regulations.

In the past capital for startup companies has mainly been provided by business angels (also known as angel investors), in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. An increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share research and pool their investment capital, as well as to provide advice to their portfolio companies.

Some angel networks in Luxembourg and the Greater Region are listed hereafter :

  • Luxembourg Business Angel Network (LBAN)
  • Seed4Start
  • EBAN (pan-European representative for the early stage investor community)

Here are some links to selected crowdfunding projects :

W3C : World Wide Web Consortium

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Last update : June 30, 2014

The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is an international community where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. Led by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and CEO Jeffrey Jaffe, W3C’s mission is to lead the Web to its full potential.

The W3C Team includes 85 people working from locations across the globe. W3C is hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT/CSAIL) in the United States, at the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) in Sophia-Antipolis in France, at the Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) in Japan and at the Beihang University in China.

Most W3C work revolves around the standardization of Web technologies. To accomplish this work, W3C follows processes that promote the development of high-quality standards based on the consensus of the community. The W3C is founding member of OpenStand (The Modern Paradigm for Standards), an open, collective movement to radically improve the way people around the globe develop, deploy and embrace technologies for the benefit of humanity.

W3C standards define an Open Web Platform for application development that has the unprecedented potential to enable developers to build rich interactive experiences, powered by vast data stores, that are available on any device. HTML5 will be the cornerstone for this platform, combined with other technologies including CSS, SVG, WOFF, the Semantic Web stack, XML, Javascript and a variety of APIs.

The W3C standards are grouped as follows :

eGovernment (Better Government Through Better Use of the Web) is also a topic at W3C.

A comprehensive documentation for developers about the Open Web Platform is available at the community-run source Web Platform Docs (currently in alpha version).

W3C standards are written by temporary working groups formed by W3C members and invited experts. Membership in W3C is open to all types of organizations (including commercial, educational and governmental entities) and individuals. For Luxembourg, annual membership fees vary between 1.950 and 68.000 EUR.

Currently there are about 50 working groups listed at the W3C website. There are also special interest groups (forum for the exchange of ideas) and coordination groups (to manage dependencies and facilitates communication with other groups).

W3C has chartered two permanent groups :

  • The Technical Architecture Group (TAG) documents and builds consensus around principles of Web architecture.
  • The Advisory Board (AB) provides ongoing guidance to the Team on issues of strategy, management, legal matters, process, and conflict resolution.

To meet the needs of a growing community of Web stakeholders, W3C has created Community and Business Groups. Community Groups enable anyone to socialize their ideas for the Web at the W3C for possible future standardization. Business Groups provide companies anywhere in the world with access to the expertise and community needed to develop open Web technology. New W3C Working Groups can then build mature Web standards on top of best of the experimental work, and businesses and other organizations can make the most out of W3C’s Open Web Platform in their domain of interest.

Community Groups are designed to promote innovation and to lower barriers to individual participation. Anyone may participate without fees in community groups. Currently there are about 130 community groups. I am mainly interested in the following community groups :


In the past some web communities were created outside of the W3C, with similar goals. One example is the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) which was founded in 2004 by individuals from Apple, the Mozilla Foundation and Opera Software in response to the slow development of W3C web standards and W3C’s decision to abandon HTML in favor of XML-based technologies. On March 7th, 2007, the W3C publicly announced that they are restarting an HTML specification effort. A W3C HTML working group was created and stated : “The HTML Working Group will actively pursue convergence with WHATWG, encouraging open participation within the bounds of the W3C patent policy and available resources”. (see WHATWG Blog)

D’Post huet sech een neit Gesiicht ginn

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RTL – 16.06.2013
Aus P&T gëtt ganz einfach “Post Luxembourg“. Deen neien Numm, d’Strategie an een neie Logo goufen e Samschdeg an der Rockhal virgestallt.

post1
Aus P&T, also Post et Télécommunications, ass also elo ganz einfach “Post Luxembourg” ginn. Deen neien Numm ass an der Suite vun der Strategie vun der Post, déi schonn am Abrëll virgestallt gouf, huet de Generaldirekter Claude Strasser erënnert.

post2
Et geet also drëm eng eenheetlech Mark fir de Grupp ze hunn, dofir einfach Post Luxembourg, esou de Claude Strasser.

D’Post ass ee vun de gréissten Employeuren am Land, mat haut 4.000 Beschäftegten.

Internet Organizations

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Last update : July 25, 2013

There are different Internet Organizations that play a key role in the evolution of the Internet by developing recommendations, standards, and technology, deploying infrastructure and services, and addressing other major issues.

  • World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is  the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded by Tim Berners-Lee at MIT in 1994 and currently headed by him, the consortium is made up of member organizations which maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development of standards for the world wide web.
  • The Internet Society (ISOC) is an international, non-profit organization founded in 1992 by Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn and Lyman Chapin to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy.
  • The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is the committee charged with oversight of the technical and engineering development of the Internet by the ISOC. The body was originally created originally with the name Internet Configuration Control Board during 1979, it became the Internet Advisory Board during 1984 and then the Internet Activities Board during 1986. It finally became the Internet Architecture Board, under ISOC, during 1992.
  • The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Internet Protocol-related symbols and numbers. Starting in 1988, IANA was funded by the U.S. government; ten years later the IANA function was transferred to ICANN.
  • The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), is a nonprofit private organization created in 1998, that is responsible for the coordination of the global Internet’s systems of unique identifiers and, in particular, ensuring its stable and secure operation. This work includes coordination of the Internet Protocol address spaces (IPv4 and IPv6) and assignment of address blocks to regional Internet registries.
  • The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C, ISO and IEC standards bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the Internet protocol suite. It is an open standards organization, with no formal membership or membership requirements. The first IETF meeting was in 1986.
  • The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) is a body composed of IETF chair and area directors. It provides the final technical review of Internet standards and is responsible for day-to-day management of the IETF.
  • The Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) promotes research of importance to the evolution of the Internet by creating focused, long-term research groups working on topics related to Internet protocols, applications, architecture and technology.
  • The International Electrotechnical Commission  (IEC) is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as electrotechnology. The IEC held its inaugural meeting in 1906.
  • The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded in 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial, and commercial standards.
  • The Web Science Trust (WST) is a joint effort originally started between MIT and University of Southampton to bridge and formalize the social and technical aspects of the World Wide Web.
  • The World Wide Web Foundation (Web Foundation) is an organization dedicated to the improvement and availability of the World Wide Web. The formation of the organization was announced on September 14, 2008 by Tim Berners-Lee at the Newseum (interactive museum of news and journalism) in Washington.
  • The Web Performance Optimization Foundation (WPO Foundation) (is a non-profit for web performance, with the goal to help fund open source web performance projects and public research into web performance.

Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), European Article Numbering (EAN) et GS1

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Le Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) ou code article international en français est un code identifiant toute unité commerciale (unité consommateur ou unité standard de regroupement…) de façon internationale et unique.

GTIN est un terme général utilisé pour parler de l’ensemble des structures de données pour l’identification des articles marchands (produits et services) de GS1. Le code GTIN peut être constitué de 8, 12, 13 ou 14 chiffres, et peut être construit en utilisant quatre structure numéraires, selon l’application qui en sera faite.

GS1 est un organisme mondial actif dans le domaine de la normalisation des méthodes de codage utilisées dans la chaîne logistique. Il est issu de la fusion en juin 2003 de l’European Article Numbering (EAN, organisme européen) et de l’Uniform Code Council (UCC, organisme américain). EAN avait développé le standard EAN, alors qu’UCC avait développé la norme CUP.

GS1 a deux sièges, l’un à Bruxelles (Belgique), l’autre à Lawrenceville (New Jersey, États-Unis).

Pour obtenir un code EAN au Luxembourg, il faut devenir membre de GS1 Belgium & Luxembourg. Le code pays EAM-13 pour le Luxembourg est 54.

Un générateur en-ligne de codes barre EAN-13 pour faire des tests est disponible sur le site EAN-13 Barcode Generator.

Un calculateur pour calculer le checkdigit d’un code EAN est disponible sur le site www.barcode-us.com.

source : Wikipedia

Privacy protect for domain name owners

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When buying a domain name you have to provide accurate contact information or else your domain registration could be terminated as it would be in violation of the registration agreement. This information has to be made publicly available to everyone via the public WHOIS database as required by ICANN, the international governing body for domain names. Everyday, this valuable source of accurate contact information is targeted and harvested by spammers and telemarketers resulting in unwanted and unsolicited contact.

Privacy Protection ensures that your private information is not published by replacing all your publicly visible contact details with alternate contact information. PrivacyProtect.org provides a WHOIS privacy service for domain name owners through partners. The only way to contact the real domain name owner is to use a webform.

PayPal : Express Checkout or Website Payments Standard ?

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PayPal Standard

Customers checking out with PayPal Website Payments Standard (formerly referred to as “PayPal IPN”) will complete the order in the store and once coming to the choice of the payment method, they can select PayPal . There will be a large PayPal button for them to click, they are directed to a page that allows them to log into their PayPal account or to pay by credit card without having to sign up for a PayPal account. After the payment completion, customers are returned to the store.

Website Payments Standard is the fastest way to set up online payment on a website to accept credit cards, debit cards, bank transfers, and PayPal. The integration is easy (HTML based). In the case of ZenCart, if there is any problem in PayPal’s ability to communicate to the store server,  the order will not be passed to the store.

PayPal Express

PayPal Express Checkout gives the customer two options:  They can jump over to the PayPal site to login to their account before completing checkout on the store (which allows them to select their address information there and never have to re-type their address details on the store site, thus the “express” part of the transaction) and then choosing shipping choices and discounts/coupons etc before completing the order and confirm the payment.

The other possibility is to go to the PayPal site to login to their account after making shipping/payment/coupon selections on the store site (and creating an account on the store and typing their address info on the store), much like they do with PayPal Website Payments Standard.

One important benefit is that Express Checkout does not rely entirely on the IPN communications to the store in order to release the order. Instead, it stores the order immediately when payment is completed. It doesn’t have to rely on the PayPal server to talk to the store server in order to save the order. IPN updates are still useful in case of refunds or adjustments to the order and  are reflected in the store’s order history.

The integration of PayPal Express Checkout is more complex and is based on API’s.