Project
Goals:
This project aimed
at creating a new local dynamism in a geographically
closed environment through the training of young adults to office
automation software and communications tools (they are only proposed
seasonal jobs in connection with the tourism business (Hotels, restaurants,
tourist drivers, housekeeping for house-renting agencies, jobs in connection
with the building trade (painting, masonry, joinery, etc.) , gardening,
landscape gardening ).
A second goal was to create
a team of distant workers and to request
the local talents ( creators living part-time
or full-time on the island ) because it has attracted and still
attracts by its magnificent landscapes painters,
photographers, sound
makers and art craftsmen.
The main issue was to broadcast their talent out of the island, hence
the idea of creating a multimedia magazine, together with the distribution
of derived products, the production of this magazine ensured by the
publishing team. This business had virtually at its service the skills
of an engineer, a
graphist, a sound creator, painters,
photographers and a production team
after a former training period.
The secondary activities
were the initiation of every people (youngsters
and dynamic retreated people) to the use of current means of telecommunications
and of multimedia equipment (PCs, modems, internet
connections and library of educational CD games) through training
and creating workshops.
At stake was the creation
of a people flow in the direction Continent to
island, through the arrangement of training
programmes/stays on the island which could have been arranged
by a travel agency and could have used the local housing ressources
( Hotels, a Youth Hostel, local house-rentals), this
flow was especially interesting for the economy of the island out of
season.
This project I had
designed and cost-estimated, has failed because of the lack
of local support and understanding of stakes, and lack of money,
in spite of numerous meetings and a good amount
of will and courage.
The problem
crux laid in the maturation and understanding
of the stakes of information and telecommunication technologies and
their multi-level repercussions: either educational, social ,
cultural, economic especially in a country environment and in a more
emphasized way, in an insular environment, closed
or at least with partial and temporary openings ( like those of an oyster
or a scallop shell) where people tend, consciously
or unconsciously to preserve this closed, circular state or kind of
safe retirement behind the ramparts of the ocean. This attitude
is expressed through a strong will to protect the small local powers
and to perpetuate the economic situation by refusing or making difficult
any innovation.
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The
island economy is tightly bound to the Compagnie Morbihannaise
et Nantaise de Navigation, a shipping company which employs many islanders,
the Hospital in Le Palais ( mainly a caring centre for disabled adults
and aged people), high-standard hotels (the Goulphar Manor, the Thalassotherapy
Centre, the Cardinal Hotel, etc.) , tourist bus companies and car-renting
companies, house-renting agencies, restaurants and hotels, building
and gardening business, a public and a private college. Few fishermen
can hardly survive and seasonal workers.
To be noticed: the VAUBAN Citadel, a museum which welcomes numerous
visitors and has rooms which welcome exhibitions and seminaries (capacity
over 500 seats)
The island shelters
several wealthy people but the major investments
are turned to the repurchase of hotels, trades, building lands and the
building of houses which are made highly profitable by high seasonal
rentals, houses often rented 9 months over 12
by residents who must find for Summer temporary
housing means (either a tent or caravan) or must accept, if they
can afford it, a renting overcost for an occupation all year round.
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Second Stage: Insular Integration
Story
I had
the opportunity to experience a certain type of
integration: the integration
of a "continental fellow" wisihing to innovate within the
islanders territory ("chez les Bellilois").
My goal,
through living in Belle ile, was to live in a
pleasant and magnificent place, while using
my skills and former experience to bring about ideas and changes through
the creation of a new activity in this society: reliable and
quality encounters require time, the time to understand and accept each
other and they can be fruitful only if they happen
at the right time ( this can be called conjunction,
coincidence, etc.).They
are tightly connected to individual stories, cultural and socio-economic
context, local power ambitions which have a more or less extended scope
(either in space (a small town, a district of villages) or in time (short-term
or long-term ways of thinking, projecting).
The quality of a communication ( and its "fertility", what makes it
prosper and generate new things in terms of actions) is highly dependent
on the issuer, the receiver, the transmission channel, the message
the sending time and the "background noise",associated with the transmission
context, depending on the understanding quality and openmindedness of
the communication partners.
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As my project failed for financial reasons
and as I wished to stay live on Belle Ile, I decided to start an individual
business, through a freelance
activity providing translation, training and
teaching, software development services.
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Lessons
drawn from this insular experience :
I have acquired a
better knowledge of human relations through met people.
I have had the
opportunity to understand better the operating
modes of a micro society (at every level).
However, in the background, a "contextual
shift" was underlying, which can be explained by the meeting
of 2 spaces of knowledge and motivation which
were too far from one another: mine and the rural insular environment.
Such shifts exist inside regions but sometimes
new activities come to life, because of a strong
local will to innovate and prosper and a handful
of determined and talented men who believe in their dreams.
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Post insular story:
I gave up my Belle-ile dream though I keep strong relationships
and I am still attached to this wild and wonderful island.
I left Belle Ile by the end of 1996 for Lorient, big
harbour on the Atlantic Ocean.
Conception of a project related to international
edition and communication through video-conferencing means.
Recording of a DataBase of
"international human resources", including translators (friends,
parents and relations), researchers , artists.
The main European languages were covered.
Goal: To publish international documents, either scientific or artistic and scientific
or artistic video-conferencing or video-exhibitions according to a theme-customized
calendar .
(High-speed transmission technologies were already existing) and the
assistance of an international team of translators: such an idea was
implemented later by a French company "Genesys".
After many years spent working as a freelancer, I found the position
of Technical Translation and Documentation Manager at M.G.P Instruments
(Merlin Gerin Provence, member of Westinghouse Group) located at Lamanon,
near Salon de Provence, in the South-East of France.
I've held this position for 4 years, ensured a very heavy workload and
absorbed namely the load increase of needs in technical documentation
of one product line called "Radiation Monitors" for which
the export market was quickly and steadily increasing and the existing
documentation base before my job starting was rather scarce.
Along these years, I have developed a quality-oriented huge documentation
volume.
In June
2003 I have decided to come back to Brittany, my native land
and to think over the orientation opportunities for my career.
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Present - Wishes
In 2004 I have tried to set my career direction
towards the R&D area and especially the research area on Natural
Language Processing (NLP):
Man-Machine Communication (MMC), Vocal Recognition Techniques, Text
To Speech Techniques, Automated Parsing Techniques of written texts,
generation of knowledge templates,etc.
To reach such a goal, I have attended in the Research Master in Computer
Science at the ENSSAT, Engineering School at Lannion. This Research
Master includes teaching modules on Man-Machine Communication, Data
Mining, Machine Learning Techniques, Data Retrieval Techniques based
on Fuzzy Logic: fuzzy sets, graduality, flexible queries into Databases.
My target was to find an access door to the France Telecom R&D Centre
in Lannion.
As I haven't got any opportunity to perform a research-oriented
practitional period at France Telecom R&D and met many obstacles (related to my age and to a non typical career) through this reorientation attempt, I have taken the decision to set my
linguistic, computer and communication skills available throgh the creation of my own business in linguistic services. I definitely wish to stay live in my native land.
I would like to perform translation works in the medical research area:
Neurosciences, Brain Activity Modeling, Medical Investigation Techniques
and Instrumentation means ( 3D imagery), research work on brain pathologies, research work for finding means to prevent or
cure these pathologies or other severe ones.
(disorders of the plasticity of neural architecture (collapse
of the neurofibrillar scaffolding which supports the neural networks:
Alzheimer) - Chemical disorders, deficiency in neurotransmitters (dopaminergic
circuits): Parkinson).
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