Agrégateur de flux

Not long after I arrived I write a post about the digital tools I was thinking about using for my studies. I thought it would be interesting to look back 8 months on and see which I found useful, which were replaced by something else, which didn’t deliver and which new ones I picked up along the way.

First I’ll look at the ones I mentioned in the original post.

1. Evernote

I’m still using it, but not as much as I thought. But it’s really useful to have a note-taking service, and I do use the widget on my desktop to clip links, or take little notes while I”m working on my laptop.

2. Flipboard

Dear me, I love this tool. Not only does it make reading social content so much more pleasurable than most interfaces, but it is a fantastic content curation tool. I’ve been using it to curate content for the company where I am working, as well as putting together magazines on several issues of  interest to me.

3. Mendeley/Zotero

I mentioned Mendeley as a reference management tool, but in the end I went with Zotero. It has a Firefox add-on so that when you download the pdf of an article, you download it directly into the service. Then you can search all articles by title, content and author, read the articles and generate references. It’s difficult to over-estimate the importance of generating references, in terms of what a time-saver it is for essays, and I have found that Google Scholar’s references just aren’t reliable.

4. Wunderlist/Trello

I do love Wunderlist, but I haven’t used it as much as I have been using Trello, and actually good old pen and paper. But as an online tool, Trello has helped me in all sorts of ways. It’s great for keeping a note of what you need to do and with the upgrade you get for inviting new people and tweeting about the serivce, you can add calendar reminders and various other useful enhancements. Trello really comes into its own for project work: we used it for our (winning!) team at start-up weekend and in our final project management class it was a great way for us to keep in touch as a team when the group was physically broken up. I’ve had a go at other management tools like Asana and Knotable, but Trello seems to have got a great balance of simple and effective.

5. Dropbox

Dropbox has remained a staple for me. It integrates into my Finder window so it’s a seamless part of my set up, and it also makes it easy to share content with others. Definitely a gold star service.

6. Scrivener

I haven’t really had call to use this yet, though it may come into its own with my research project next semester.

So those were the ones I thought I would use a lot. I was right about some, not about others. So which were the ones I hadn’t thought of that I use?

7. Google

Another set of services that in spite of myself I really couldn’t have got here without. Google Docs, Sheets and Slides have all been invaluable for the various group projects we have had to do across a number of subjects, plus presentations in Google Slides seem to avoid incompatability problems. They are not full versions of their equivalents in Office or the Mac Suite, but for collaborative working, there really isn’t anything like them.

8. GoodReader

One more to add to the ‘indispensable’ list. Goodreader is a document reader which I have on my iPad, allowing me to make notes, either free-hand or typed, highlight sections and generally read the many many articles that are part and parcel of a social science Masters. It links to Dropbox, so I can access whatever I save in there.

9. Meetup

Not really a digital tool, but something that has been pretty central to my life in Melbourne, Meetup has been a wonderful way to connect with a range of interesting events and people, from startups to music fans to my favourites, the monthly French-speaking meetup. Chouette!

South Korean Kia Light Tactical Vehicle

Interviewé dans L'Orient-Le Jour par le spécialiste de la Turquie et journaliste Jihad Naoufal, édition du 20/10/2014: "Selon Julien Théron, politologue spécialiste de la géopolitique des conflits et enseignant à l'Université de Versailles, l'attitude de la Turquie face au problème de … Lire la suite →

Participant au débat de France 24 English – Débat animé par François Picard, avec le diplomate américain William Jordan, l'universitaire turc Akin Unver et le représentant de Stop the war Jim Brann, France 24, 20/10/2014, 19h10-20h Voir le débat sur … Lire la suite →

Participant au débat de France 24 English – Débat animé par François Picard, avec le journaliste Allan Kaval, l'universitaire kurde Cengis Gunes et le conseiller turc Kadir Ustun, France 24, 20/10/2014, 19h10-20h On Sunday, the Pentagon announced weapons and medical … Lire la suite →

South Korean Kia KM1500 Special Wheeled Chassis

Participant au débat de France 24 English – Débat animé par François Picard, avec le général français Dominique Trinquand, le négociateur politique américain Ali Khedery, et l’ancienne porte-parole de la Coalition nationale syrienne Emma Suleyman, France 24, 23/09/2014, 19h10-20h Voir … Lire la suite →

Les sanctions occidentales pèsent lourdement sur l'économie russe mais elles n'affectent pas la combativité de Vladimir Poutine. Depuis le début de la crise ukrainienne, le maître du Kremlin a vu sa popularité atteindre de nouveaux records à plus de 80%... Pierre Rousselin http://blog.lefigaro.fr/geopolitique/pierre-rousselin.html

Russian LuAZ-967 Battlefield Support Vehicle

United Nations (UN) deliberations are underway towards a post-2015 agenda that unites poverty eradication and sustainable development. While negotiators are tasked to determine goals and indicators, another fundamental question is: How will progress towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs) be monitored and reviewed?
A post-2015 accountability framework is needed to document and guide how stakeholders take responsibility, learn from their efforts and adjust their behaviour towards achieving the SDGs in a transparent manner. Discussions on such a framework are still at an early stage.
Only some general elements of an accountability framework have been agreed among UN Member States. Most importantly, the framework will be voluntary, non-binding and state-led, which raises the question of how governments and other actors can be incentivised to participate. The main incentives are likely to be reputational: states can strengthen their SDG profiles and showcase “best-practices”. They could also benefit through exchanging lessons learnt. Financial support, capacity development support and technology transfer can be additional incentives, particularly for least developed countries.
Incentives, however, have to be complemented by a strong commitment and ownership at the national level. The framework should be rooted in an inclusive, bottom-up approach, in which each government determines its own level of ambition. Further, governments should be able to link their national efforts to SDG discussions at the regional and international levels in a multi-layered framework.    

Currently, a fragmented landscape of international bodies is dealing with individual elements of the proposed SDGs. For each of the 17 goals, myriad entities and platforms exist, both within and outside the UN system. All claim global coordination functions, but many continue to work in parallel. Without addressing this incoherence, the accountability framework risks becoming a loose collection of disconnected efforts. Such a patchwork approach will not suffice in supporting the realisation of an aspiring agenda.
Therefore, the post-2015 discussions offer the unique opportunity of setting up a coherent accountability framework that engages stakeholders across all platforms. Such a framework would help to avoid duplication and promote synergies. Its major benefit is to bring key stakeholders together in a few focused discussions that are more effective and legitimate than the current fragmented setup of international cooperation.
A coherent framework would feature improved monitoring and reporting as compared to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and would enable a strengthened review process. It should consist of three key components: key actors (governments, the UN system, other stakeholders), interlinkages (within UN structures and outside of them) and ambition (in design and commitments).
The international community should engage in discussions on the accountability framework without delay. Only then can the post-2015 agenda be placed on solid footing from the start.

Through the Turkish Defense Industry Executive Committee (SSIK or Savunma Sanayii ?cra Komitesi), the Turkish top procurement body (SSM or Savunma Sanayii Müste?arl???) has selected the local firm Türk Motor Sanayi ve Ticaret A? (TÜMOSAN) to design and develop diesel eng

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Through the Turkish Defense Industry Executive Committee (SSIK or Savunma Sanayii ?cra Komitesi), the Turkish top procurement body (SSM or Savunma Sanayii Müste?arl???) has selected the local firm Türk Motor Sanayi ve Ticaret A? (TÜMOSAN) to design and develop diesel eng

You may have seen that we recently released our 4 th annual Global Armoured Vehicles Market Report 2015. One of the key elements of the report is an analysis of the exclusive survey data we conduct each year with our members. This year, 205 armoured vehicle professionals from

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