Smibs Inc, the Candian startup behind SmibsNet has launched the service to the public. The site offers a set of tools that resemble LinkedIn, but are supposed to be more focused on project and task management than personal connections and resumes. The public beta will also open the network’s directory up to users who are not members of Smibs, allowing them to search for members involved in specified professions (much as they would on LinkedIn).

Besides SmibsNet (which is the social networking side of the site), Smibs will be releasing applications running on its platform. Currently available is Doorbell, an app similar to Highrise that is designed to be a sales application for workers who aren’t typically involved in sales (it essentially allows smaller businesses to complete sales-oriented tasks without a dedicated staff). The service was originally annouced in June, and released a small private beta in October.

CEO Peter Urban has also given us a document that he has forwarded to a number of major VCs in an attempt to entice them to use the service (you can see it below). Judging from the responses (one VC replied “I apologize for being dense, but what is that you want?”), it is probably wise not to mimic this strategy.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

                                                   Il arrive que les meilleurs traducteurs le reconnaissent : parfois, le sens du texte qu’ils doivent rendre en français leur échappe un peu. Non le style mais l’intrigue, l’histoire, le noeud de l’affaire. C’est arrivé à Philippe Jacottet. Connaissant son admiration pour la poétesse en elle, Le Seuil lui avait commandé la traduction de Malina, le roman d’Ingeborg Bachmann que Suhrkamp Verlag venait de publier à Francfort. Mais il avait eu du mal à entrer dans le texte. Aussi décida-t-il de lui rendre visite. Elle vivait alors à Rome. C’était dans les premiers jours de septembre 1972. Lorsqu’il pénétra dans son appartement, elle était au téléphone. Le chancelier Kreisky sondait quelques personnalités sur leur réaction à l’événement dont toute la presse parlait : la prise d’otage des athlètes israéliens aux Jeux olympiques de Munich. Puis l’écrivain et le traducteur se parlèrent, du livre bien sûr, de littérature, de poésie et du reste. Mais emporté par sa timidité, il n’osa pas s’ouvrir auprès d’elle de tout ce qui lui semblait obscur. Du personnage féminin si déconcertant. Et puis il y avait tant à dire aussi sur sa liaison avec Max Frisch, sa passion pour Paul Celan qu’elle disait avoir aimé plus que sa propre vie (Herrzeit. Breifwechsel, leur correspondance intime, est actuellement dans la liste des meilleures ventes en Allemagne selon Books). Il n’osa pas tant elle lui parut poignante et désemparée. C’était à Rome, là même où elle mourut un an après, brûlée vive. Un accident survenu dans des circonstances pas totalement éclaircies, ce qui fit dire un jour à un écrivain que dans cette profession, un suicide est un accident du travail. Elle avait 47 ans.

    Pourquoi en parler aujourd’hui ? Parce que l’éditeur publie à nouveau Malina (285 pages, 21,50 euros, Seuil) mais, comme il est précisé “traduit de l’allemand par Philippe Jaccottet et Claire de Oliveira”. Il en convint lui-même après l’avoir relu de près, pour les raisons évoquées plus haut, sa version méritait d’être retouchée et certains contresens rectifiés. Aussi donna-t-il son accord sans y participer ni même relire les épreuves. Malina est le premier volume d’un cycle que Ingeborg Bachmann avait intitulé Todesarten (Genres de mort) ; les deux suivants, Franza et Requiem pour Fanny Goldmann, sont parus inachevés après sa mort (chez Actes sud). L’essentiel de son oeuvre est constitué de recueil de poèmes, de nouvelles et de pièces de théâtre pour la radio.

   C’est peu dire queMalina, dont l’exil est l’une des figures,est hanté par la mort volontaire. Elle y est omniprésente dans le jeu entre les trois personnages, la narratrice et les deux hommes qu’elle aime d’amour, Malina et Ivan, sans que cet amour se traduise pour autant en acte sexuel. Le sexe n’en est pas moins envahissant sous ses formes les plus agressives, notamment la fascination/répulsion pour le viol et l’inceste à travers des rêves kafkaïens. L’angoisse la submerge : est-on vraiment ce que l’on croit être ? Ne pas oublier le quatrième personnage, la Vienne contemporaine qui ressuscite parfois celle du chef d’oeuvre de Carol Reed Le Troisième homme; d’ailleurs, le chapitre 2 vole son titre au film. C’est d’autant plus adéquat que l’ensemble du récit emprunte souvent leur technique tant au cinéma qu’au théâtre. Ivan est un Hongrois cynique qui travaille dans une institution financière ; Malina est un historien d’art originaire de la frontière yougoslave, mystérieux, lointain et insaisissable ; et la narratrice, mon Dieu, c’est bien elle, cigarette sur cigarette, se cognant aux murs, l’auteur, qui a besoin de cette double vie, qui ne peut être où Ivan n’est pas et ne peut davantage rentrer chez elle si Malina en est absent. Elle a vécu en l’un et meurt en l’autre. “Vivre, c’est lire une page que tu as lue, ou la lire par-dessus ton épaule, la lire en ta compagnie et n’en rien oublier puisque tu n’oublies rien, toi”. La vie, c’est ce qu’on ne peut pas vivre : cette réflexion s’inscrit dans le filigrane du roman à chacune de ses pages. Son univers. Toute mort est un meurtre. Malina ne dit que ça.

   On se retrouve au café Musil, on frémit de joie en écoutant le motet Exultate Jubilate, on se demande pourquoi on ne construit pas un mur des Jubilations pour faire pendant au mur des Lamentations, on s’aime, on se quitte, on se retrouve mais quand c’est dit par une poétessede l’exigence d’Ingeborg Bachmann, même sous la forme du roman, c’est d’une intensité inégalée. La folie schizophrénique guette au détour. Observez la course d’une larme sous cette plume-là :“Une seule larme perle au coin d’un oeil, mais ne parvient pas à rouler, elle cristallise à l’air froid, ne cesse de grossir, second globe géant qui, refusant de tourner avec la terre, s’en détache et choit dans l’espace infini”.Ce qui l’étouffe, ce sont les choses que les mots recouvrent. Lorsqu’elle dit “schilling”, elle ne pense  pas à l’argent que cela désigne mais le goût froid de la pièce envahit sa bouche à en vomir. Elle a une conscience aiguë des mots qui rouillent dans son palais, de ceux qui fondent sous la lèvre et de ceux qu’elle se doit de recracher. Il y a des pages magnifiques sur ce que lire veut dire. La narratrice se dit intoxiquée de livres, rongée par ce vice, “complice d’un épanchement délirant qui s’est coagulé”. Ce qui compte à ses yeux ? “La bassesse d’un enjambement, l’assurance de la vie dans une seule phrase, et la réassurance des phrases dans la vie”.

    On referme le livre en comprenant rétroactivement la perplexité de son premier traducteur face à l’énigmatique beauté du texte. Ce que ça raconte importe peu au fond tant ce que ça dit est si puissant. C’est vertigineux en vase clos. Le lecteur aussi devient obsédé par la perspective d’être emmuré vivant. On comprend que les écrivains autrichiens, entre autres, aient été marqués par Malina,comme ils l’avaient été par la poésie d’Ingeborg Bachmann, et que Werner Schroeter l’ait porté à l’écran sur un scénario d’Elfriede Jelinek. Malina est vraiment une histoire autrichienne qui n’aurait pu être écrite dans une autre langue que l’allemand. Heureux ceux qui la découvrent dans sa musique originale.

(Photos D.R.)

p style=text-align: justify;a target=_blank href=http://storage.canalblog.com/34/07/110219/33238836.jpgimg height=225 border=0 width=300 src=http://storage.canalblog.com/34/07/110219/33238836_p.jpg alt=burdenofdreams3 style=margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px; float: left; //aBon, je sais, quot;pointuquot;, quot;nécessairequot;, ok, mais à ce point... est-ce bien utile? Attention, ce court-métrage est plus futé quil ny paraît. Au départ un pari de Herzog (apparemment coutumier du fait, vu quaprès la brûlure dun acteur sur le tournage des emNains aussi ont commencé petits/em, il avait promis de se battre avec cactus si le nain sen sortait sain et sauf - bilan, une épine à vie dans le genou du Werner qui prend la chose placidement) quil avait fait au documentariste Errol Morris sil parvenait à achever son premier film (ok Bas*ien, je mange une tong). Herzog est homme de parole et après avoir accommodé soigneusement la paire de pompe (ail, oignon, graisse de canard, sauce pimentée,... ingrédients complets sous le tag quot;recettesquot;) sattaque à son pari devant le public venu assisté à emGates of Heaven/em (excellent docu par ailleurs, qui, à partir du thème des cimetières pour animaux domestiques, montre tout le pathétique de nos chers contemporains dans notre bonne société capitaliste où les émotions seffritent...). Derrière laspect clownesque, Herzog insiste sur la nécessité de passer quot;à lactequot; lorsque lon veut réaliser un film; ce pari, certes stupide, est dune part une preuve dencouragement du cinéaste qui a toujours respecté son pote Errol. Mais le plus important pour lui, cest que dans un monde, ravagé par les talks-show et les images de pub, on finit par perdre complètement contact avec la réalité. Si un film ou un docu ne va jamais révolutionner le monder, il peut, daprès Herzog, changer sur le long terme la quot;perspectivequot;, la façon de penser du téléspectateur. Ce pari, finalement, est presque une profession de foi envers la valeur du cinéma - celui fait à partir de convictions profondes... Et pis, comme le rappelle le Werner, il a déjà survécu au KFC, une pompe (sans la semelle, précise-t-il, pince sans rire, on mange pas les os dans le poulet...) ne peut pas être pire. Cuir?nbsp; nbsp;/p

Curieusement, les choses ne sont pas modifiées 250 ans après. Les aristocrates, les riches et puissants, rejoints par les gros marchands, une grande partie du haut clergé (pour faire pendant au Christ que l'on dirait aujourd'hui de gauche ?), sont plutôt restés à droite, les professions (...)

Curieusement, les choses ne sont pas modifiées 250 ans après. Les aristocrates, les riches et puissants, rejoints par les gros marchands, une grande partie du haut clergé (pour faire pendant au Christ que l'on dirait aujourd'hui de gauche ?), sont plutôt restés à droite, les professions (...)div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/agoravox/gEOF?a=I0BeO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/agoravox/gEOF?i=I0BeO" border="0"/img/a /div

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/35029?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Man+blamed+for+Darfur+says+I+am+at+peace+with+myselfch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Sudan+%28News%29%2CHuman+rights+%28News%29%2CWar+crimes+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Simon+Tisdallc7=2008_12_04c8=1128339c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Sudanc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FSudan" width="1" height="1" //divpThe man accused by the international criminal court of planning, organising and directing an orgy of violence against civilians in Darfur that left up to 200,000 people dead and 2.5 million homeless has angrily protested his innocence, calling the allegations part of a political plot by the western powers to recolonise Sudan./ppIn an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Ahmad Muhammad Harun, Sudan's minister of state for humanitarian affairs, said he defied the ICC and the international community to do their worst and vowed never to give himself up to the tribunal./ppHarun claimed the evidence against him was concocted and unreliable. And he described the court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, as a disgrace to the legal profession who should be sacked. "My conscience is clear. I have no regrets," Harun said. "What I have done was legal, it was my responsibility, it was my duty. I am content. I am at peace with myself."/ppThe ICC has charged Harun, in his former capacity as Sudan's minister of state for the interior, with 42 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Darfur in the period from August 2003 to March 2004./ppThe eight-month period witnessed a peak in fighting between rebel and pro-government forces. The large-scale civilian casualties, gross human rights abuses and mass displacement later caused the US government to accuse Sudan's political leadership of genocide and led to UN and EU sanctions against Sudan./ppThe Darfur carnage caused international outrage that has yet to abate as the violence there continues, albeit at a reduced level. Numerous efforts to forge a lasting peace agreement during the past five years have foundered while hundreds of thousands of people remain in refugee camps. Meanwhile, human rights and advocacy groups have added their voices to calls for Harun and other alleged war criminals on both sides to be prosecuted./ppBut Sudan is not a party to the ICC. It has so far ignored UN security council demands that it cooperate with the court and surrender Harun and his co-accused, Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, an alleged Janjaweed leader also known as Ali Kushayb. /ppICC judges are currently considering a request by Moreno-Ocampo for an arrest warrant for Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity also relating to events in Darfur./ppSpeaking in his ministry's smart new offices in Khartoum, Harun said the ICC was in effect conducting a political vendetta against Sudan that had little or nothing to do with justice. /ppstrongRelaxed and confident/strong/ppThroughout the interview, Harun, a tall 43-year-old dressed in a smart charcoal suit and open-necked shirt, appeared mostly relaxed and confident. Occasionally his eyes flashed with anger as he discussed the accusations against him./pp"We believe the ICC has digressed from its main objective and become part of the international political conflict. It is another phase of international colonisation. It targets mainly the Africans. It reminds us of the 19th century when the white people were dominating here in Africa./pp"The main aim of the white people in Africa at that time, the British and the Europeans, was to disseminate their culture and their traditions. Under the flag of attractive slogans, so many things happened. Now there is a new imperial era but this time it is led by the United States and supported by the Europeans."/ppHarun, a trained lawyer from the Bargo tribe in western Sudan and a former judge, argued that UN security council resolution 1593 that referred Darfur to the ICC in 2005 was discriminatory because it exempted citizens of the US, which like Sudan is not a party to the ICC's founding treaty, from action by the court. For this reason, the ICC prosecutor was ignoring the "first principle" of equality before the law./pp"This is a discriminatory prosecution. It is also discriminatory because the ICC is targeting only African countries," Harun said. "Also, any serious investigation should begin on the ground, in theatre, in Darfur. And witnesses who are part of the problem should not be taken into consideration. They are not reliable sources."/ppSuggesting the ICC investigation was superfluous as well as politically motivated, Harun said a national investigation committee created by Bashir had examined many senior officials over their roles in Darfur. "I was one of them. I gave answers to all their questions. No action was taken. There was no evidence, so there was no reason to take action."/ppHarun added that any future move to indict Bashir, or any backroom deal in which he himself might be handed over to the ICC in return for Bashir being granted immunity, would only prove his contention that the ICC proceedings were political. In such circumstances, he said, he would never voluntarily surrender himself. And nor was he prepared to meet Moreno-Ocampo if the latter came to Khartoum./pp"The prosecutor has brought his profession into disrespect. He is not welcome in Sudan ... He should be replaced. This is what we are requesting. I add my voice to the voices of the international society because he is insulting the profession of justice and insulting African countries."/ppAsked to explain his actions in Darfur in 2003-4, Harun said he had faced an internal, essentially local conflict between Darfurian tribes that quickly transformed into a political conflict with encouragement from forces outside the province./ppRebel leaders Minni Minnawi, Abd al-Wahid Muhammad Nur, and Abdallah Abbakar initially called themselves the Darfur Liberation Movement, he said. But this later became the Sudan Liberation Movement as external actors got involved./ppThe Darfur rebellion, also fuelled by Khalil Ibrahim's opposition-backed Justice and Equality Movement, threatened the stability of the Sudanese state as a whole, for example by undermining the 2005 North-South comprehensive peace agreement which was then nearing fruition, Harun said. The government had no choice but to act./pp"The policy and tactics of the government, like any other government when things like this are happening, is to begin by mobilising./pp"We have a security reserve force - the Popular Defence Forces - to respond to those attacks, a paramilitary force. Some people call the PDF by different names, some call it militia, others are calling it Janjaweed. But it is a formal force and it works under the directions of the army."/ppUnable to match pro-government forces militarily, the rebels changed tactics and created a humanitarian crisis in Darfur to attract international attention and intervention, he said./ppstrongRebels blamed/strong/pp"They started putting pressure on civilians to move out of villages, they killed their children, women they abducted, they destroyed the infrastructure and means of people's livelihood, and caused the mass migration of people into refugee camps."/ppIn other words, he suggested, it was the rebel groups that were responsible for the civilian massacres, atrocities and mass displacements in 2003-4, not himself or the government. Sudan's government in any case disputes the UN's casualty estimates, claiming only about 10,000 people died./ppReports that he boasted in a 2003 speech that he had "the power and the authority to kill or forgive whoever in Darfur" were fabricated, Harun added. And he insisted his 2004 description of the rebels as "fish" who needed the "water" of the villages to survive (thereby allegedly justifying the destruction of villages) was a distortion of his meaning./ppPeople in Darfur knew the truth, he said, which was why he was still welcome there. "I move freely in Darfur. I have strong support. I am popular in Darfur because they know who protected them."/ppLeaning back in a well-padded armchair with a broad smile on his face, Harun said he was a religious man who had done nothing to offend against God. But he did not claim to have a close relationship with the Almighty./pp"I am not like George Bush. I do not talk to God. In Islam, we believe Muhammad was the last prophet. Since Muhammad, no one can talk to God."/ppAs for the future, he suggested relations between Sudan and the international community would deteriorate further if the ICC persisted with its present course. A total breach with the UN was not out of the question./ppHarun's openly defiant stance underlines how difficult it may be to bring justice to Darfur while avoiding an open confrontation with Sudan and, at one remove, its African Union and Arab League allies. If allowed to continue unanswered, it also threatens the credibility of the ICC./pp"We don't expect anything good from the ICC. But for every action, there will be a response," Harun said. "The ICC will do whatever they want. We will wait and see what they do. We will defend our country as best we can to the best of our ability, according to our opinions."/ph2Backstory/h2pThe stronginternational criminal court/strong was established in strong2002/strong as an independent tribunal to try individuals responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. It was designed to complement national legal systems, stepping in when a country appeared unable or unwilling to prosecute. More than 100 countries are members./ppAtrocities committed by rebel commanders in the strongDemocratic Republic of the Congo/strong and by the Lord's Resistance Army in strongUganda/strong prompted the opening of the first cases in 2004. Investigations into abuses in Sudan's strongDarfur/strong region began a year later. /ppIn February 2007, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced that Sudanese minister strongAhmad Harun/strong and Janjaweed militia leader strongAli Kushayb/strong were suspected of committing crimes against humanity. The indictment and warrant for their arrests, dated April 2007, specifically accuses Harun of targeting the ethnic African Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit tribes by employing elements of the Sudanese armed forces and Popular Defence Forces paramilitaries, and by "recruiting, arming and funding" irregular Arab militias known as strongJanjaweed/strong/ppAccording to the court, pro-government forces over which Harun exercised command launched a campaign of terror that included "murders of civilians, rapes and outrages upon the personal dignity of women and girls ... and destruction of property and pillaging of towns"./ppThe indictment claims that the campaign was of a "strongsystematic/strong strongand/strong strongwidespread/strong strongnature/strong" conducted "over an extensive period of time... in furtherance of a state or organisational policy consisting in attacking the civilian population"./ppIt goes on: "Ahmad Harun intentionally contributed to the commission of the above-mentioned crimes ... In his public speeches, Harun not only demonstrated he knew the militia/Janjaweed were attacking civilians and pillaging towns and villages but also personally encouraged the commission of such illegal acts."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/sudan"Sudan/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/humanrights"Human rights/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/warcrimes"War crimes/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/99ZPD_i__SILc-p8fgs1R8yAN7A/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/99ZPD_i__SILc-p8fgs1R8yAN7A/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

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