gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"

les blogs update

I am writing this from an internet cafe in Paris. Les Blogs ended yesterday, and it was a huge success.

Well done, Loic and Co, for putting on such a great show.

You can read what the other attendees are saying about it here on Technorati. And you can see the photos here on Flickr.

The highlight of the show for me was Ben Hammersley's amazing speech:

8 Ideas That Will Revolutionize the 21st Century (and blogging isn't one of them).

1. Information wants to be free (vs. copyright).
2. Zero distance (vs. borders).
3. Mass amateurisation (vs.censorship).
4. More is much more. (vs. network blocking).
5. True names (vs. idendity cards & databases ).
6. Viral behaviour (vs. more network blocking).
7. Everything is personal (vs. everything is trackable).
8. Ubiquitous computing (no privacy).

What? Blogging isn't on the list?

No Silly, says Ben, blogging isn't one of them, blogging is all of them.

[NB: Oliver Thylman has a nice synopsis of the speech here.]

Anyway, he's writing a book about it, and I can't wait to read it:

Octet: The Eight Big Ideas You Need to Understand in the 21st Century

I catch the plane home this evening. Until next year!

UPDATE: A nice wee synopsis of Les Blogs from David Sifry, who I enjoyed meeting a lot.

Posted by hugh macleod at December 7, 2005 6:34 AM | TrackBack