Le Web 3: Hijacking

There’s no doubt that today’s conference has been hijacked by French politics. Sessions have been compressed or bumped to accommodate the political beauty parade, and the discussions are of tangential relevance to the conference at best.

I’m in two minds about this. The blog-champion geeky part of me is irritated, frankly. I came here to learn about the cutting edge of web media, and this just a distraction. I imagine the people who paid to attend out of their own pockets, rather than their company’s, will be even more annoyed. It feels like the conference has been used to promote a political agenda of blogging’s role in French society. And, when 50% of the attendees are from overseas, that’s pretty thoughtless.

On the other hand, that’s exactly why the journalist part of my brain is excited by it. On a meta level, the fact that Lo�c has been able to attract the calibre of person here that he has is mind-blowing. Can you imagine politicians in other countries dropping by a geeky conference at very short notice? No.

There’s plenty to learn about the role that social media is playing in France. It’s a shame the conference hasn’t given us more of that.

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