Reflections on Les Blogs 2.0

I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, when I booked to go on Les Blogs 2.0  a few weeks ago. I think I was hoping to get some reassurance that blogging was as interesting  and compelling as I think it is.  So to that extent it was a bit of a luxury.  I don't work in the nascent blogging "industry", I am not a techie or a VC, nor am I a prominent blogger. But then I am a lawyer, dealing with clients who are already being affected by the issues that blogging raises. Added to which  I don't get out much, and there's nothing like going out and meeting people to get a much clearer indication of what is really happening in the world.

In almost all respects, the two days exceeded whatever limited expectations I had. So, in no particular order these are some of my  thoughts and impressions:

1.   There is no reason why the "best" bloggers should be the best presenters. The opening "Naked Conversations" presentation by Robert Scoble (of Microsoft)  and Shel Israel started awkwardly and they were clearly unprepared. I heard that Robert had overslept and the two of them hadn't had a chance to get together and sort it out. Makes sense. Plus they were preaching to the converted. I can't imagine there were too many people in the hall who didn't have blogs. Whereas Tom Raftery told me that when Robert Scoble had talked to a conference in Cork only a week before, only five people had them.  Blogging evangelism is kinda wasted on the converted. Still, not the fault of either of them. I have followed and enjoyed the creation process of the book, chapter of which they have posted online as they went along and it will be interesting to see the sort of reception it gets. And their talk did warm up as they started to wander the room with microphones.   

2.  Rebecca MacKinnon and Ethan Zuckerman who both spoke on the Global Voices panel were really interesting and they are doing what I sense is incredibly valuable work drawing the stories out of parts of the world that do not normally get a chance to put their point across in mainstream media. Rebecca came across as fiercely intelligent (in a good way) and  passionate about what she was doing.  She told the story, which I remember reading on her blog when she first started of how she had given up her TV presenters job on CNN after they had failed to use an interview she had worked incredibly hard to get with the Japanese Prime Minister (because people wouldn't be interested) and told to dumb down her coverage of Asia. That, I think, was the last straw for her.  They both work for Global Voices which describes itself as  "an international effort to diversify the conversation taking place online by involving speakers from around the world, and developing tools, institutions and relationships to help make these voices heard."

3. I felt a bit sorry for Jeff Clavier who had clearly tried to get together the best panel he could but had clearly been let down by a few people.  Still it was interesting to hear things from different perspectives and Simon Levene of Yahoo  confessed that Yahoo were actually playing around with business ideas at the moment.

We are trying different things and seeing what sticks.

4.  Christophe Grebert  from Mon Puteaux was remarkable. He is taking on the mayor of the Parisien suburb in which he lives by blogging about the guy's flawed decisions - and he is now being taken to court. He had raised a defence fund on his blog and he was continuing to fight the mayor and the authorities.  He was the only speaker at the whole event who spoke in his native language (French in his case) and he was very clear and composed. Actually, Thomas Crampton  the Interational Herald Tribune journalist, translated very helpfully for him, and his talk was no less interesting for that.

5. I am by no means the first to mention this, but man cannot live by finger food alone. I need my food and finger food on both Monday lunchtime, Monday night, and then again on Tuesday lunchtime pushed me, and plenty of others to a metaphorical edge. That was my only real gripe of the two days.

6. All the Irish bloggers I met were really nice, which was a good job since most of them were staying in the same hotel as me and they woke me up at 3am both nights, as they clattered in. You certainly couldn't be cross with them and they know how to have a good time.

7.  Best business idea of the future went to Marc Canter (who kept me entertained all the time, not only when he was sleeping)  who suggested that there would be a great business in the future in removing all the unsavoury references, comments and photographs from the web of the future so that no one would ever be able to find out what you were really like. Much as things were twenty years ago really.  I have to confess to being pleased that there is no photographic record of any unsavoury  behaviour I might ever have undertaken in the past, a point not lost on

8. Anina, the model blogger (i.e.  she is a model and a blogger) seemed to fascinate everyone because she is both a fashion model and a geek. She was also probably one of the few people who worried so much about what they were going to wear that she went to see the boys at Diesel and get some gear.  Ethan Zuckerman who must have typed continuously throughout the two days captured the essence of the fascination:

Anina is, unsurprisingly, a major hit at the conference. Like the vast majority of tech conferences, men outnumber women here by a substantial margin, and I’m confident in saying that very few people here other than Anina have their bust and waist measurements prominently displayed on their websites.

She’s also very clearly a fashionista. Talking about the sorts of people she’s met through blogs, she remarked about a researcher who told her he was a big fan of her blog. She went on to say, “Socks and sandals… white on the inside of the sandals. Obviously you don’t read [my blog] enough.”

9. Hugh Macleod was spot on about jobs, work and the future, as reported by Ethan Zuckerman here.   I was slightly more equivocal about Ben Hammersley's admittedly entertaining speech captured - again by Ethan,  but it remains to be seen whether blogging and technology has the redemptive powers that Ben suggests.  As an aside, I see that Rebecca was not convinced either.

10. I loved the way in which everyone sat around with laptops (and with the wifi access which worked pretty well).  It's exactly what I have felt I should be able to do at any event I have ever been to, and pleased that Loic Le Meur was able to make that happen.

11. I met a load of interesting people and there were  a load more I didn't get a chance to meet.  Although there was a large American presence, all if whom were very charming,  there was a distinct European feel to the event which I really enjoyed. 

11. There was much talk about tagging (I met David Sifry of Technorati who was charming), RSS and feeds, podcasting, and videoblogging. Everyone seemed to be taking photographs and there are thousands up there on Flickr. This stuff all has such a long way to go that it's endlessly fascinating. Oh,  and it seemed that if you don't have a Mac with stickers all over it, then you shouldn't really have been allowed in

Finally, I've blogged elsewhere about the Ben and Mena spat and that will blow over. I saw a comment that there were more suits than geeks which I think was true. I didn't wear a suit and I am not sure why so many others did.  Maybe, they think this blogging lark is "work". There certainly appeared to be a number of people from marketing and conventional media and I suspect that is merely indicative of the way things are going. Apparently the sponsors for Les Blogs 2.0 were far more prominent than they were at Les Blogs, held in April this year. As Ben Hammersley said - and on this point I do agree:

This is a different world we are living in, people.

Comments

[dahowlett]

Excellent summation Mark and it was good to meet up with you (at last.)

I recorded the answers to a number of questions which I asked a number of the heavy hitters. It can be found at:
http://bazzarz.typepad.com/accman/2005/12/meet_the_people.html if you're interested.

[Tom Raftery]

" they woke me up at 3am both nights, as they clattered in. You certainly couldn't be cross with them and they know how to have a good time"
It is all lies - we were tucked into bed each night by 9pm with a warm cup of cocoa!

Seriously Mark, it was great to meet you at the conference - apologies for waking you (oops!).

By the way, if you are interested in defamation law and bloggers, you may want to listen in on an interview I did with law lecturer and Digital Rights Ireland Chair, TJ Mcintyre (http://www.tomrafteryit.net/everything-you-blog-is-false/) - he raises some very sobering issues for bloggers.

[Christophe Grébert]

"Mon Pluteaux" or "Mon Puteaux" ? :o))
Thanks !!!

[Roy]

Very good impression of the 2 days Mark, very much on par with how I experienced the conference. Too bad we didn't meet, maybe for the next round!

[Mark Lloyd]

Thanks for the comments:

@ Dennis - good to meet you too and I'll check out your podcast.

@ Tom - thanks for the link, and being woken didn't bother me one bit. In fact, it made me feel quite virtuous because I knew my head wasn't going to hurt as much as yours in the morning:-)

@Christophe - merci et je l'ai corrige (with an accent - English keyboards and all that).

@ Roy - thanks, and as you say, maybe next time.

[eva]

Excellent and thorough comments. Thanks a lot. Obviously I did not make it to Les Blogs 2.0 but am discussing it with some other Spanish bloggers. Your comments give me a very good idea on how the event went. "More suits than geeks" you said - that shows investors' interest in this new fenomenon. Do you think there'll be a bubble - again?

Best regards.

[Mark Lloyd]

Hi Eva and thanks for the comments. I have no idea whether there will be another "bubble" but I sense not. Certainly, there's a lot of interest amongst bloggers, but I am not sure how far that transmits into the real world. I note that Brad Feld (a US VC - see my blogroll for a link) was complaining yesterday that too many people had been writing about Yahoo and Del.icio.us when the real action was elsewhere. Who knows who is right? That's what makes it interesting.

[Michiel]

Well-worded summary and obviously I didn't miss much. Brrr, blogger inbreeding.

[Mark Lloyd]

Hi Michiel, I don't think it was my intention to suggest that it wasn't worth going to. But thanks for the comment, anyway.

I'm not sure that bloggers will "inbreed" anymore than any other social grouping but I think I know what you mean.

[Michiel]

I admit 'inbreeding' was a bit of a snark (I tend to do those on Monday, it’s a character flaw aggrevated by early rising and weekend boozing) but I'm sure you get the gist: bloggers attending a con about blogging (or something, at any rate it has blog in the title) with other bloggers commenting on each others blog where each blogger is analysing the blog event while it is happing. (phew) (and, apparently, rediscovering IRC in the process. Everything Old Shall Be New Again.)

Anyhow, an event where you get to meet the human(s) behind the keyboard is fun for various reasons. That's been true since the first BBS gettogether.

[Mark Lloyd]

Heh, Michiel, I think we are in agreement now. Meeting humans should not be underestimated.

[dahowlett]

Michel's comment remind me of something David Tebbutt has said: blogocircles.

[Piaras Kelly]

Sorry for waking you.

[Jeremy]

Sounds like fun! Great summary and links...thanks for sharing.