Far Wise in Knowledge Management

More rethinking on Le Web 3

Even in the Dutch journals there is attention for Le Web 3. One of the comments is "I didn't come to listen to French politicians". It is striking that many people comment on the invitations of the two French politicians and I don't read about the presence of Peres in a negative sense. What Peres said was impressing, whether it is directly related to a Web 3 or not. This man has a wisdom over him I didn't want to miss. Compared to him, the presentation of Sarkozy was from a different type: he came (lots of cameras, flash lights from photo cameras announced his arrival), presented something in French and left. No time for questions. It is not the behaviour that fits in a conference or in the interactive world that is suggested by Web 3, and I think that's what annoyed many people. But it is striking that they make time for a conference like this. As I said, it is Loics party, you may like it or not. At least Loics enthusiasm is contagious, I think.

I came to Le Web 3 without large expectations.  After the first day I didn't have the feeling I heard much news. Many open doors were kicked further open (man from Nokia: "We are about people. Connecting people". Please tell me something new). The best presentation came from Hans Rosling, the animations in his presentation were really nice. He talked about the picture of the world we have in relation to health. The animations showed from 1962 to 2005 for countries in the world how the improved with health; live expectancy related to familiy size.  We cannot say one continent is doing well or not, it depends on the country and the moment in time.  Countries go through different stages of modernisation (modernisation is the solution for better health, not globalisation). It reminded me of Freakonomics, the book I was reading in the train on my way to the conference.

The second day I started even more with the thought "we'll see". At least the panel sessions were more interesting and stimulating than the first day. (Btw, both days there was a lot of business focus) David Weinberger had a nice presentation. During this day the conference room became more empty every hour. Did people leave because of the change of programme? I don't know. I didn't wait till the end, so I missed Hugh McLeod's presentation (which was planned just before lunch), but at the time I left it was not clear what was to come.

I wonder what will happen next year. Le Web 4? Will it be sold out, like this year? For me, the topic "web" it too broad, so that will be a reason not to attend. Besides that, 1000 participants is quite a lot. I didn't know any one, felt a bit lost some times. I met a few nice persons, but I think it's easier in a smaller conference to get into contact with others.

Rethinking Le Web 3

Monday 11 and Tuesday 12 December I was in Paris, attending Le Web 3. It is the follow-up of Le Blog 2, which was last year in Paris, organised again by Loic Le Meur. Loic told that he organised it in only 8 weeks time and used no marketing to get an audience. Appearently he didn't need it, because about 1000 participants found their ways to Paris. The topic of this year was broader than (just) blogs, it covered all kinds of topics related to Web 3 (whatever that may be - is it the Web of the future or does it already exist?).

I'm still thinking how to summarise the conference. As with every conference, there are a lot of things you can say, about the speakers, the things they say, the organisation, the audience, the atmosphere, the food (this is France, food is important!) and so on.

What I certainly will not forget is the (pleasant) chaos on the second day. At certain moment I had no idea what the program was, presentations were skipped or moved to a later moment. Only because some extra "very important" visitors arrived. "Sorry, you have to stop your presentation, mister Peres has arrived". Well, I would not mind ending my presentation for Shimon Peres, but for a French election candidate (like Francois Bayrou or Nicolas Sarkozy), that is a different story. What they have to do with Web 3 is a good question, of course they have an opinion about it (or, about Internet in general) - is it however an interesting opinion? This was Loics idea: he sent out an e-mail to a few candidates, telling Peres is coming, will you come as well? It is clear: it's Loic's party and he likes us to be part of it. 

A question: what is Web 3.0, or, where are developments going? It seems to be all about content. Not the static one-way content we saw in the first generation web, but user-generated text (blogs), videos (vlogs), audio (podcasts) or virtual objects (Second Life).  Whether it is offered through the computer or mobile is no issue. I don't know how different this is from Web 2.0, which I think is more aimed at communication and collaboration (and sharing, but that is the overlap with the content-focus I heard for Web 3). Hardly anybody spoke about communication and collaboration - it was all content (which surprised me).

Another striking thing: obviously users cannot pay for this content. At least, that's what I learned from the business models that were presented. Companies look for advertisers or sponsors, but the users get the content for free. My question here: why can't users pay, if there is really added value for them? Or maybe for the service that leads them to the content. Is that impossible these days?

A last remark (more to Loic): where are the female presenters? You may call me feminist, but there were a lot of women in the audience but only few on the stage.