At the PDF09 Conference, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg comments on the 5 big challenges NYC is facing in going online. He is advocating the 311 service and launching a big App Contest.

The winner will get some funding … and a dinner with the Mayor. With a great sense of humor, Mayor Bloomberg shows that he is an able user of new technologies. Unable to attend the conference live, he did so by Skype connection … that failed in the middle, but was of great quality overall.

Atelier was very honored to receive Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, France’s Secretary of State in charge of Strategic Planning and the Development of the Digital Economy, who was in Silicon Valley to study the latest technology trends, part of a five-day fact-finding trip to San Francisco, New York, and Washington D.C.

As part of her “Tocquevillian voyage” (Dom’s words), Kosciusko-Morizet visited Silicon Valley businesses to study infrastructure and actors, as well as services and tech trends, in order to translate successful American models into the French tech ecology.

Kosciusko-Morizet visits ATELIER from Atelier BNP Paribas on Vimeo.

The Secretary of State was also interested in how e-commerce is transforming society.

She was especially interested in how exploring US e-commerce is affecting the recession, in order to bring those lessons back to battle France’s own economic difficulties.

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Here we were Sunday afternoon, the last day of the BNP Paribas Open, where Bill Gates and his wife Melinda were attending the men and women’s finals and took the time to come over to our suite to say hello in person.

In the picture above, Mr. Gates is demoing the Concierge mapping application powered by the Microsoft Virtual Earth technology. Although very easy to use, I was surprised by his agility in interacting with Surface and asked him if he had one at home. He answered that he has one in his office.

Considering his busy agenda, Mr. Gates spent a fairly large amount of time with all of us. He went through several Surface applications including the Newsreader that aggregates the news of the week from MSNBC, and the paint program. Gates actually autographed his name using Paint (picture below).

Mr. Gates appreciated the fact that L’Atelier, once again, partnered with Microsoft - this time to introduce two Microsoft Surface tables to the VIP guests of BNP Paribas and Bank of the West.

Atelier and Zipcar both believe in expanding sustainability efforts. This is why we partnered with Zipcar to offer you access to $25 membership and discounted rates!

To become a Zipcar Member on Atelier’s corporate account, take a few minutes to fill out the online application:

http://www.zipcar.com/atelier-members

To use Zipcars, you simply:

• Reserve the vehicle online
• Walk to the vehicle location
• Swipe their Zipcard over the card reader
• Drive away.

The reservation includes the cost of gas, parking, insurance and mileage.

If you are already a Zipcar member, please contact us and we will happily transfer you over to the corporate account.

We look forward to seeing you arrive at our events in your shared wheels!

Pour nos chers lecteurs français (12 percent of our audience), L’Atelier is publishing Dominique Piotet and Francis Pisani’s great introduction to Web 2.0 practices free.

“Comment le web change le monde: L’achimie des multitudes” (How the Web is Changing the World: Alchemy of the Multitudes), published by Pearson, describes the change to the participatory Internet, describing the latest web tendencies while interrogating the economic and social theories behind them.

Download available here or at www.alchimiedesmultitudes.atelier.fr

Dominique Piotet is the President and CEO of L’Atelier North America and host of a weekly radio tech watch for the French business station, Radio BFM. Francis Pisani, also based in the Bay Area, covers technology for some of Europe’s largest newspapers, including Le Monde and Spain’s el Pais. His blog Transnets is available in both French and English.

How can you not love a tech book that references Rimbaud in its title?

It is now two years that the workshop has been established in the heart of Silicon Valley to monitor the creation and advancement of new technologies and their uses. Thanks to our customers and readers of the website, success is here.

I put together a short video to summarize what the workshop has become.

I am pleased to announce the launch of Atelier’s new website.

Our teams have put forth our best efforts in creating this blog to ensure you an exceptional online experience. The time has come for our Web site to become user-friendly.

This new version is designed to make the site more efficient. You are now able to browse our hundreds of articles more effectively through categories, keywords (tag clouds), and archives.

Additionaly, our homepage includes great new features such as my updates from the micro-blogging site Twitter and my photo updates from pictures and video-sharing site Flickr.

You are also given the opportunity to interact directly with any article that you read. I encourage you to express your opinion, suggestions, and critiques at the end of any article. We value your thoughts!

Do take the time to learn more about Atelier’s business by visiting the three main sections in the main column - Consulting Services, Events, and New Media.

I look forward to receiving your feedback, and wish you a happy reading.

Mathieu Ramage, Editor

Atelier’s blog provides daily news, analysis and opinions for its clients and for leading experts in the technology and information industries, as well as for its readers.

From trends in financing and in consumer behaviors, to collaborative tools enterprises utilize on the Internet, Atelier’s writers trace the many fluctuations occurring online. Strengthened by local teams in Europe (www.atelier.fr) and in Asia (asie.atelier.fr), they have a profound understanding of the impacts Web technologies and Internet usage have across countries. This lends Atelier’s delivery of brief and in-depth articles authority.

Since 1978, Atelier has analyzed innovations in technology. By the early 1990s, it also began reporting the news on such updates. Thus, its insights and multi-pronged coverage put it at the forefront of technological change while making an impact on both the tech- and media world. Readers mainly located in the United States and in Western Europe, bearing an interest or investment in technology mainly, refer to Atelier’s blog to on a regular basis.

Reading Atelier’s Newsletter helps you stay ahead in and of the emerging technology marketplace.

__________

Media Staff

Mark Alvarez
Managing Editor

Ivory King
Senior Writer

Editorial Contributors:

Mathilde Berchon
Romain Chapron
Alice Gillet
Sergi Herrero
Matthieu Soulé

Inquiries for the web site, such as interviews, tips, press releases, advertising opportunities, etc. should be addressed to mark.alvarez@mail.atelier.net.

Atelier was at the Chinese Internet Research Conference (www.circ.asia) held in Beijing from September 21–24, 2006. The annual meeting, which brings together China’s Internet players, is a must for getting a sense of new Web trends in China.

Established leaders include Tencent based in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong. Tencent is a “company on the rise.” According to Alexa, it recently became China’s number two site, a nose ahead of Sina but still trailing Baidu. Tencent’s first success was becoming a favorite of young cybernauts, particularly with the triumph of its number-one instant messaging software QQ (that has outpaced MSN Messenger, which ranks second).

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