I am using both LinkedIn and openBC for keeping in touch and managing my small network. I could find an interesting presentation about openBC from an Optaros‘ conference about the web2.0 trends. Interesting stuff.

• openBC was founded in 2003 and is currently the foremost business networking platform in Europe and Asia with 1.2 million members.
• openBC’s innovative networking and communications technology is offered in 16 languages and operates across all industries.
• openBC is an open and secure network. The “six degrees of separation” theory is put into practice both professionally and visually here.
• openBC offers a basic and a premium membership. This business model makes openBC a profitable business networking platform.
• Member numbers have increased approx. tenfold since Jul 04
• Monthly user growth 12%
• openBC usage: Over 220 million page impressions per month
• 70% of users have visited openBC in the last 30 days
• Groups on openBC: More than 3,300 groups on openBC, over 170,000 group articles per month
• The company

• Open Business Club GmbH was founded in 2003 in Hamburg by Lars Hinrichs (HH) and Bill Liao(AI)
• In 2004 it raised a first round through swiss matching platform BrainsToVentures within Business Angels serving as “Network Angels”
• Reached opeational break-even end of 2004
• In late 2005 a second round of financing lead by Wellington Partners and the initial investors raised over 8.7 Mio CHF
• In 2006 openBC is forcing its internationalisation acquiring First Tuesday Zurich and launching JV in China and India.

Have a look at my OpenBC’s profile here and LinkedIn’s profile there.

I am playing a bit with geoportail.fr, a new service like GoogleMaps. geoportail is more limited because it just shows the French territory, which is sometimes an adavantage :-)

Indeed, geoportail has some very good representation from the … French West Indies, including St.Barths. Hehe. Let’s have a small tour: geoportail picture, and then some “real” pictures from by two travels to St.Barths.

Baie de St-Jean

Les Salines

Plage des Salines

Plage du Gouverneur

Flamands

Gustavia

World Cup 2006: Our “sooooo-old-French-players” have just won against the favorite team, Brazil.

What for a great match, after having won against Spain on Tuesday :-) What is also just crazy is that the Brazilians had just one shot on goal during the whole game.

And what for a game for Zidane :-)

[via forbes.com]

In front of France President Jacques Chirac, the French made Brazil look so ordinary – at times amateurish – that the yellow-clad Brazilians in the crowd even were whistling at their team late in the match.

[via worldsoccer.com]

Ronaldo had a couple of fierce shots that Barthez managed to deny, but overall, the attacking quartet of Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka and Adriano simply had not functioned and on the night the French, and in particular the imperious Zidane, fully deserved their win.

The favourites are out, but they can have few complaints about their exit. They had struggled to justify their status as favourites from the moment they began the tournament and the lingering suspicion that the team were not as good as their individual reputations, looks fully justified.

For France, the dream continues, and on this form, they must fancy their chances of emulating their 1998 success. Such a thought seemed unlikely two weeks ago, but one can only marvel at their current renaissance.

[via cbc.ca]

France’s victory also keeps alive the career of Zinedine Zidane, who was sensational against Brazil with his magical play in midfield. Considered one of the greatest players of his era, the midfield maestro plans to retire at the end of the World Cup.

First 2-pages article published in Switzerland (in German, hehe) from netzwoche and written by Michael Fritschi. Great stuff to our point of view! You can find the article here in pdf (the article is not available online).

Helvetia Patria E-Business Center wird zum autonomen Branchen-Provider

Der Aufbau einer Multi-Channel-Kommunikationsplattform für die sechs Ländergesellschaften der Helvetia Patria Versicherungen hat zur Gründung eines E-Business-Tochterunternehmens geführt. Dieses will als Provider die in den vergangenen Jahren entwickelte Lösung an branchenverwandte Firmen weiterverkaufen.