• First, the speakers are generally more varied than in previous years. Two years, ago it was bloggers talking to bloggers; last year it was always the same people on stage. This year there is a real variety of voices.
• The venue is too large! This is too big. However, if it was smaller I wouldn’t be able to afford the ticket.
• There is a real atmosphere this year of slight panic. The startups are VERY worried but then I’m not a startup.
• Finally, there is probably half the people in the room that have found something to complain about so far. However, I think that we’ll all be back next year.

…starting now!

…it helps to swear a lot.

Morten Lund – LundXY – It’s all about luck

Does anyone know what the video was?

So Didier Lombard the CEO of Orange basically said that Paulo Coelho is a liar when he said that giving away content increased his business. 

If you can’t fight the argument; ignore reality!

UPDATE: Seriously, this was a very worrying talk. Mr Lombard is living in a very, very different world from me. It’s a strange alternate reality.

• Need to have a real soul behind the blog.
• Davos Negotiated their Wikipedia entry with the community.
• The Marketing needs to be pushed as a service not advertizing.
• Orange needs to use digital media because it’s their business.
• Don’t ask if the customer is loyal to the company but if the company is loyal to the customer.
• Moving from push, push, push to pull, pull, pull.
• The problem is the middle manager (me!). How to move from fear to love.

• Really cool introduction slide with “Hello, my name is…” badge.
• Why would people invest in an intangible good?
• Virtual good sold more on communication platforms rather than through virtual worlds and games.
• “Virtual goods are a way of capturing passion and interaction”. Huh?
• tipjoy – third party virtual goods provider as a tip payment system.
• Really small number of WoW players in the room!!!
• Seconday markets in virtual goods!
• MMMMmmmm

…there is a queue for the Gents but not the Ladies!

It’s funny, Twitter is dominated by people without Wi-fi. I’ve been online all morning without issue; odd!!!

• ruinunes: @mbites it’s very strange because @loiclemeur has said that they invested a lot in Wifi for #leweb
  less than 20 seconds ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  dailytwitter: no wifi = no blog = no flickr = broken dailytwitter = hacked off #leweb
  half a minute ago · Reply · View Tweet

   

• 
  hediger: @fiLSa wäre ich an den swisscom glasfaser medienanlass gegangen, hätte ich es dem schloter direkt sagen können. #wifi #leweb
  half a minute ago · Reply · View Tweet ·  Show Conversation

   

• 
  abarrera: RT mbites Going slightly crazy not being able to connect to Le WiFi at Le Web (except via Twitter?!) #leweb08 #leweb
  less than a minute ago · Reply · View Tweet

This is the second interview conducted by a professional (the first being Steve Gilmor); and they’ve been the best interviews so far. 

Maybe, after all the talk of citizen journalists, there is a profession called journalist that requires a certain amount of skill and practice.