YOUNG INNOVATIVE COMPANY

faberNovel develops and experiments on a number of innovative projects related to urban behaviors.

Common to these products and services is the notion of flow; flow of information or of people in an urban context. The objective is to deal with various issues: how to create, organize, handle, identify and release these flows. In all cases, faberNovel projects are characterized by the will of:

• introducing or adapting a new technology into an existing area (transportation, town or country planning, tourism, etc.)
• conveying innovation for faberNovel’s clients, as well as their end users, meaning city dwellers and travelers.

Several emblematic services have thus been developed by faberNovel on the Urban life theme:

• Mobitrans - First real time mobile information service for city travelers developed for Transdev (2003). The i-mode website and the three communication companies’ wap sites provide the travelers with access to information such as waiting times or traffic status of buses and tramways in four French cities, in real time and in situ.
• AlloCyclo - self-service bike renting system developed and experimented by faberNovel for the transportation operator Transdev. The genius of the service is that it resides on the user’s mobile phone from which he may identify itself and rent a bike.
• EDIM (Multi-mode Information Screen) - ilot project for the RATP (French transportation system) on the idea of changing the information screens in subway and train stations as well as in buses and passenger cars. Prototypes are tested on various sites and new technologies are put into place to obtain a better organization and presentation of this flow of information.
• Urban Mobs - Jointly conducted experiment with Orange Labs on the recovery, aggregation and representation of data collected from mobile activity. It aims at visualizing urban population’s activity through its use of mobile phone.

Business is changing. Web 2.0, social networks, blogs, mobility, collaborative work; these are fresh concepts and new tools that are shaking up well-established business rules.

faberNovel helps companies benefiting as much as possible from these new circumstances, and introducing new practices in their structures.

Numerous innovative tools have been offered to faberNovel clients in that context:

• BureauxApartager - platform of office-sharing offers. This service targets very small companies to guide them into becoming more flexible, creating strong and efficient interactions between them, exchanging and confronting ideas while sharing fixed costs.
• IMS - Idea Management System - Management technique designed to stimulate ideas within an organization. It believes in stimulating the creativity of company staff by offering them an online collaborative tool. It relies on encouraging upward innovation.
• Internal Watch Blog - creation of a blog exploring a particular market or sector. Its purpose is to publish information, foresee issues to come and most of all anticipate market trends and technology evolution.
• LiveSMS - System which purpose is to enhance interactivity during events (conferences, seminars, exhibitions, etc.).
• PariSoMa - open co-working space in San Francisco meant to encourage professional interactivity. Over 2000 square foot large, it brings comfort to the workplace and offers many kinds of amenities for all to use: conference room, Internet access, fax, kitchen and relaxation room. It may also be used as a private event venue.

Innovation reveals its full potential when used to meet people’s needs.

Our society changes (ageing population, more women in the workplace, single-parent homes, etc.) and thus requires increasingly customized services to individuals, particularly ones that can simplify or improve daily lives of families and dependent people.

At the same time, new technologies play an increasingly important part in our daily routine, work, social networking, and culture.

faberNovel is positive about one thing. These technologies must indeed support the creation of new services to people but also become a medium of integration responding to the needs of all: handicapped people, children, and the elderly.

Following this principle, faberNovel has conceived innovative solution that participate in improving daily life as well:

• BlueEyes - Mobile phone (Bluetooth) orientation help system designed for the visually handicapped in subway stations. Conceived, developed and tested for the RATP
• Move Ease - project tested in France and Germany aimed at optimizing transportation for the elderly in rural areas
• Project for the creation of a subsidiary dedicated to innovative services to the person - online and offline connection platform for services by mutual agreement.

 

faberNovel experiments on projects in which technology is used to improve daily life and entertainment.

Technological innovation changes our idea of entertainment in various ways, in particular through dematerialized contents, new-dedicated terminals and innovative forms of interactivity. In this context, it’s important to evaluate the chances for new opportunities of services while also assessing these changes’ impact on daily behaviors.

FaberNovel has methods, monitoring tools and an expertise pole dedicated to assisting companies in building strategies on the following themes: new media, community services, mobile use.

faberNovel developed many projects that meet such a double requirement of technology and daily use:

• digitick - created in 2004 by faberNovel, digitick is an electronic ticket office for web and mobile phones. E-tickets may be printed off from the web or received on the client’s mobile phone as a text message. In both cases, these e-tickets have a code bar that will be scanned at the entry of show venues. Digitick offers tickets to concerts, festivals, sportive events, theme parks and museums.
• SFR Jeunes Talents (SFR Young Talents) - SFR conceived project consisting in a web and mobile distribution platform for auto-produced artists, whether they be musicians, photographs, video directors, graphic artists or authors. This project asked for an analysis of the issues rising from community web as well as a specific technical expertise.
• Tag the Ciy - Alternate Reality Game functioning through mobile phone technologies (SMS, 2D bar-codes, Bluetooth, etc.) allowing participating players to interact with street furniture. The city evolves to the eye of the player and is transformed into an adventure track.
• QN TV - Web TV reporting news from Paris’ 2nd arrondissement showing local content created by and for the inhabitants, shopkeepers and companies of Paris’ digital area.