Urban Mobs first was presented as an art object

Aasian entrance, a screen displays some data updated continuously: number of distributed cafes, rooms occupied or email envoyés No doubt unusual data, except in Faber Novel, a small Paris company specializing in the invention of new services based on information technology. Its ability to quickly bring innovative ideas has attracted some major accounts such as Orange, SFR, SNCF, JCDecaux or RATP.

Thus, the RATP had set two years to develop to its users a first application, using the WAP protocol. Balance sheet, two years of work. For the next generation, running on the iPhone, should go faster. A partnership was established with Faber Novel that developed the application at its own expense. In exchange the company cashed revenue related to the premium version, sold 0.79 euro. And then, beyond a certain volume, revenues were shared with the RATP. Versions for the iPad and Android "smartphones" were launched last week.

"A large company as the RATP has very long cycles." Working with a fairly sharp start-up upstream still little mature technologies, we keep the page. In addition, unlike a conventional tendering system, this model enables faster and involves partner, directly interested in the success of the application. "It however absolutely keep a head of project at the sponsor", notes Patrick Vautier, Director of marketing for RATP Dev.

"This open innovation model is now accepted, even by large companies." Especially when times are essential for the success of a project. "This is particularly true in the field of digital where costs are relatively modest, with a low entry barrier and allow more experiments," explains Stéphane Distinguin, founder of Faber Novel. The application which exceeded 100,000 downloads.

Faber city is present in a number of projects aimed at the mobility in the city. It is also developing applications related to Web 2.0, in which each individual becomes a provider of information. Thus, Urban Mobs, developed with Orange, to measure the pulse of the city by mapping the movements of individuals through their mobile phone signal. Technical operator, Faber Novel also reflects on the economic model. "Urban Mobs first was presented as an art object." "But tomorrow, one can imagine that the number of demonstrators on 1 may be estimated more accurately by Orange by the police," insists Stéphane Distinguin.

Same principle in more futuristic with City Pulse: imagined by the Foundation Internet generation (FING), the concept is individual a provider of environmental information with a watch sensor measuring the ozone rate and ambient noise. "We are trying to invent a new generation of platform aggregating individual data with more institutional data", said Thierry Marcou, Director of the cities the Fing 2.0 program.

Faber Novel worked on projects with more immediate interest as Blue Eyes, a system to help poorly sighted people to move in the corridors of the Metro. The SME has imagined a system based on tags Bluetooth network, which the user moves his mobile phone and its speech synthesis software. The system has been tested successfully at the RATP and "could be used also by other travellers, for example tourists." It must find scenarios of use. "We are working with the Union of the transport of Ile-de-France", note Danièle Ganz, the RATP.

Born in 2003, Faber Novel has experienced rapid growth until 2007, with a turnover of 2.6 million in increase of 156 over the previous year. The last two years were more difficult with a turnover in slight decline to 2.5 million euros last year. The SMEs of thirty people, including the founder holds the majority of the capital, also has a dozen of interests, including Digitick, a specialist electronic ticketing SMEs.