Comments on: Le Web 3: A French farce (or is it a tragedy?) http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/ Business, Communication, Technology Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:29:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: 360 Digital Influence » Blog Archive » LeWeb3 storm in Paris http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/comment-page-1/#comment-19342 360 Digital Influence » Blog Archive » LeWeb3 storm in Paris Thu, 04 Jan 2007 16:31:37 +0000 http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/#comment-19342 [...] It could have been but it is not so. Leweb3 buzz is built on a  key booster : a non specific powerful web’s item that traditional media have been fond of for ages : CONTROVERSY. The breaking news is that the web has become one of the first players in the controversy mechanism. At the end of the first day, most attendees agreed that the most interesting part of the conference was the networking possibilities and the access to an impressive list of international speakers. Despite the absence of  significant news in the speeches, this was a perfect environment to update knowledge and share different point of views. The second day turned into a completely different mood when unexpectedly some of the spokespeople were asked to leave some space to Shimon Perez and two candidates for the French presidential election, including Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative runner who is openly supported by the organiser Loïc Le Meur. I was actually in the room, I can then recall the very discreet way in which the audience chose to react : a standing ovation for Perez,  a polite applause for the first candidate François Bayrou,  and a few whistles here and there when Sarkozy refused any interaction with the audience. Regardless of a rather calm in site attendees’ behaviour,  the real storm occured on the worldwide web : Old Fashioned Propaganda, a French Farce (or is it a tragedy ?), Le Web conference and Le Backlash, betraying 1000 attendees for political ambitions… More than 5.000 messages have been so far tracked by Technorati. And a blogger of Techcrunch UK was fired by his boss further to his note, and  recently rewrote from Loic le Meur’s point of view. A storm indeed. I would have appreciated such a storm in the real life, during the event, a live debate instead of a virtual execution. As an attendee and beyond all controversy, here are my key learnings : [...] [...] It could have been but it is not so. Leweb3 buzz is built on a  key booster : a non specific powerful web’s item that traditional media have been fond of for ages : CONTROVERSY. The breaking news is that the web has become one of the first players in the controversy mechanism. At the end of the first day, most attendees agreed that the most interesting part of the conference was the networking possibilities and the access to an impressive list of international speakers. Despite the absence of  significant news in the speeches, this was a perfect environment to update knowledge and share different point of views. The second day turned into a completely different mood when unexpectedly some of the spokespeople were asked to leave some space to Shimon Perez and two candidates for the French presidential election, including Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative runner who is openly supported by the organiser Loïc Le Meur. I was actually in the room, I can then recall the very discreet way in which the audience chose to react : a standing ovation for Perez,  a polite applause for the first candidate François Bayrou,  and a few whistles here and there when Sarkozy refused any interaction with the audience. Regardless of a rather calm in site attendees’ behaviour,  the real storm occured on the worldwide web : Old Fashioned Propaganda, a French Farce (or is it a tragedy ?), Le Web conference and Le Backlash, betraying 1000 attendees for political ambitions… More than 5.000 messages have been so far tracked by Technorati. And a blogger of Techcrunch UK was fired by his boss further to his note, and  recently rewrote from Loic le Meur’s point of view. A storm indeed. I would have appreciated such a storm in the real life, during the event, a live debate instead of a virtual execution. As an attendee and beyond all controversy, here are my key learnings : [...]

]]> By: TechCrunch dirty laundry at NevilleHobson.com http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/comment-page-1/#comment-17647 TechCrunch dirty laundry at NevilleHobson.com Thu, 21 Dec 2006 12:25:14 +0000 http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/#comment-17647 [...] Le Web 3: A French farce (or is it a tragedy?) [...] [...] Le Web 3: A French farce (or is it a tragedy?) [...]

]]> By: neville http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/comment-page-1/#comment-17246 neville Mon, 18 Dec 2006 23:10:11 +0000 http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/#comment-17246 Those are good points, Ivan. Some more days have now passed, and more opinions have been expressed, especially <a href="http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2006/12/the_end_of_blog.html" rel="nofollow">Loic's lengthy explanations/robust defence</a> yesterday. Loic says some very interesting things in his thoughtful post (as do many of the commenters) about the way in which such conferences in Europe should evolve in the future. This is beyond just being about blogs, Loic says. I agree. Yet what Le Web 3 was about in the sense of pissed off attendees was unexpected changes and unmet expectations. If you don't let people know what's happening, don't be surprised if quite a few get upset, and vocally so. Still, with Loic's post, this melodrama ought to have run its course now. Time to focus on the bigger picture Loic is holding up for attention. That may well indicate the ultimate value out of this kerfuffle. Those are good points, Ivan. Some more days have now passed, and more opinions have been expressed, especially Loic’s lengthy explanations/robust defence yesterday.

Loic says some very interesting things in his thoughtful post (as do many of the commenters) about the way in which such conferences in Europe should evolve in the future. This is beyond just being about blogs, Loic says. I agree.

Yet what Le Web 3 was about in the sense of pissed off attendees was unexpected changes and unmet expectations. If you don’t let people know what’s happening, don’t be surprised if quite a few get upset, and vocally so.

Still, with Loic’s post, this melodrama ought to have run its course now. Time to focus on the bigger picture Loic is holding up for attention. That may well indicate the ultimate value out of this kerfuffle.

]]> By: Filling the TechCrunch UK void at NevilleHobson.com http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/comment-page-1/#comment-17186 Filling the TechCrunch UK void at NevilleHobson.com Mon, 18 Dec 2006 09:42:04 +0000 http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/#comment-17186 [...] It’s nearly a week since Le Web 3 in Paris and it’s still hard to find any meaningful commentary about the event that isn’t overshadowed by talk about the political hijacking of the two-day conference. [...] [...] It’s nearly a week since Le Web 3 in Paris and it’s still hard to find any meaningful commentary about the event that isn’t overshadowed by talk about the political hijacking of the two-day conference. [...]

]]> By: Ian Fenn http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/comment-page-1/#comment-16810 Ian Fenn Thu, 14 Dec 2006 23:45:17 +0000 http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/#comment-16810 And for those that weren't networking... And for those that weren’t networking…

]]> By: Open The Dialogue http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/comment-page-1/#comment-16779 Open The Dialogue Thu, 14 Dec 2006 19:18:55 +0000 http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/#comment-16779 <strong>LOTD: December 14th...</strong> Users of social networking sites can now connect via the phone thanks to a new click-to-call app called Jaxtr. You can't actually see the phone number that you're calling but clicking a link will connect you to the cell phone...... LOTD: December 14th…

Users of social networking sites can now connect via the phone thanks to a new click-to-call app called Jaxtr. You can’t actually see the phone number that you’re calling but clicking a link will connect you to the cell phone……

]]> By: Ivan Pope http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/comment-page-1/#comment-16723 Ivan Pope Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:09:14 +0000 http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/#comment-16723 I think two entirely different events have just happened in France. It's just a pity they weren't integrated. On the one hand, a traditional conference was organised, sold and then hacked to bits on the fly. Personally, I would have no problem at all with the conference being hacked to bits, so long as it was to allow funky exciting memes to emerge. But it wasn't , or if that was the intention, it failed. The other event was a mass love-in on the networking front. And this was great and great fun and very rewarding. I'm clear on this, it was great. So we had a great event and a failed event merged into one. The problem as I see it is that the conference could have been a lot more ambitious (and a little less crowded). A lot of people seem to be accepting that, well, it's a conference, what more can you expect. But we're now used to being engaged in a conversation, not talked at. We expect a conference in this space to try harder to leverage the attention that it has gathered. This conference didn't do that - so for all the excellent networking around it, the two events remained separate. What I mean by this is that the conversations around the conference weren't inspired and driven by the conference. Which is a pity. I'm sure we can do better than this. I think two entirely different events have just happened in France. It’s just a pity they weren’t integrated. On the one hand, a traditional conference was organised, sold and then hacked to bits on the fly. Personally, I would have no problem at all with the conference being hacked to bits, so long as it was to allow funky exciting memes to emerge. But it wasn’t , or if that was the intention, it failed.
The other event was a mass love-in on the networking front. And this was great and great fun and very rewarding. I’m clear on this, it was great.
So we had a great event and a failed event merged into one. The problem as I see it is that the conference could have been a lot more ambitious (and a little less crowded). A lot of people seem to be accepting that, well, it’s a conference, what more can you expect. But we’re now used to being engaged in a conversation, not talked at. We expect a conference in this space to try harder to leverage the attention that it has gathered. This conference didn’t do that - so for all the excellent networking around it, the two events remained separate. What I mean by this is that the conversations around the conference weren’t inspired and driven by the conference. Which is a pity. I’m sure we can do better than this.

]]> By: Forward Blog » Blog Archive » Le Web 3 Controversy http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/comment-page-1/#comment-16695 Forward Blog » Blog Archive » Le Web 3 Controversy Thu, 14 Dec 2006 04:49:46 +0000 http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/#comment-16695 [...] Neville Hobson points me to a blog-storm surrounding Le Web 3, the major European blog conference. [...] [...] Neville Hobson points me to a blog-storm surrounding Le Web 3, the major European blog conference. [...]

]]> By: LeWeb3: the Babel effect | blog.forret.com http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/comment-page-1/#comment-16665 LeWeb3: the Babel effect | blog.forret.com Thu, 14 Dec 2006 01:27:41 +0000 http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/#comment-16665 [...] He felt obliged to invite the other candidates, and -my oh my- one opponent actually agreed to attend. He decided to create time for these political speeches by removing and/or compressing time from other, announced, speakers. [...] [...] He felt obliged to invite the other candidates, and -my oh my- one opponent actually agreed to attend. He decided to create time for these political speeches by removing and/or compressing time from other, announced, speakers. [...]

]]> By: Nicole Simon http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/comment-page-1/#comment-16644 Nicole Simon Wed, 13 Dec 2006 23:13:06 +0000 http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/12/13/le-web-3-a-french-farce-or-is-it-a-tragedy/#comment-16644 I do use the term tech conference in the sense that ze internet is a concept still misterious to many people and considered highly technical, computers are even that way. If you say you will have a new great and very french conference - that actually would have helped. And yes, I would have stayed home then, because I am not interested in simply french. I am interested in Europe and how to work things out in there. And as you said this is also business. If you promise X you deliver X. There are variation where you can surprise with and enhance it. All for it. I may be more experimental than you might think. But you do not take the money and make your own thing of it and expect the audience to applaude at the end. This is what artists are for. I do use the term tech conference in the sense that ze internet is a concept still misterious to many people and considered highly technical, computers are even that way.

If you say you will have a new great and very french conference - that actually would have helped. And yes, I would have stayed home then, because I am not interested in simply french. I am interested in Europe and how to work things out in there.

And as you said this is also business. If you promise X you deliver X. There are variation where you can surprise with and enhance it. All for it. I may be more experimental than you might think.

But you do not take the money and make your own thing of it and expect the audience to applaude at the end. This is what artists are for.

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