Web 2 Ireland

Apologies for the blatant promotion of some Segala related initiatives, but I hope you find them relevant. We've finally gone live with a staff blog where I intend to post my personal opinions and technical sound bites. Although, it’s due to move home early next week. I will continue to contribute my thoughts on new technology, trends and startups here, so I’m not gone completely.

Contentlabel.org is also live (go ugly early). If anyone is interested in contributing to the creation of new codes of conduct then please get in touch. I already have a number of respected individuals on board such as: Sam Sethi, Tom Raftery, Daniel Appelquist, Ian Hayward, Paul Miller, Phil Archer, Dennis Howlett, Manoj Ranaweera, Kamrul Hassan, David Rooks, Sorcha Moore, Tarique Naseem

A code of conduct for blogs is likely to be the first. Other codes are likely to include e-commerce, direct marketing, advertising, educational and so on.

You can now download a new Firefox extension that reads Content Labels to enable search filtering based on trust.

Sam and Mike have just launched VECOSYS.COM

“Vecosys is a blog covering Web 2.0 and Mobile start-ups across Europe. It is published by Sam Sethi and Mike Butcher.”

Best of luck guys.

On the Euro front also check out thealarmclock euro – Valerie Thompson has the finger on the pulse.

Brent Hoberman had some choice words to say about Europe vs US at leweb3

“”[A] small market with little innovation that they can always acquire if they need to.”
Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Last Minute, on how American internet backers view Europe”

Brent also commented on the poor crowd at the recent web2con panel – Europe has come of age – i was also in attendance – if you took out the Europeans from the room, you would hav been left with the audio guys – such was the interest in Europe.

Check out this new event in London from the folks at Chinwag

Chinwag Live – Exploring Web 2.0, Digital Business, Online Media, Mobile & More in the Real World

Deirdre Molloy, who hails from Belfast is the event producer.

Maybe not that simple but almost….

The Google pagerank algorithm in 126 lines of python code

I made sure to include Sam's name in the title to take full advantage of his higher search rank than Britney Spears on Technorati yesterday! This is something for Web2Ireland to be proud of as news of Harrington giving Sam the boot was broken here first and then posted around the globe. Ok, so it's not as dramatic as I make it sound, but it was, by his own admission, Mr. Arrington's worst day ever, so that's something else to be proud of.

So, if you're waiting for Sam to write a post about yesterday's news, don't bother because it's yesterday's news. Or in Sam's words, today's news is tomorrow's 404. He was inspired by the 404 he got after Mike deleted his last post from TechCrunch I love it!

Anyway, as per the title, I had breakfast with Sam and Daniel Appelquist this morning (Marc Canter cancelled). Dan was one of Sam's guest writers on TC and a very good colleague of mine, not to mention an extremely well connected guy. Naturally I won't be divulging anything that was discussed over egg muffins and copious amounts of caffeine.

What I can say, is watch this space as some thought goes into the new brand identity I'll be certain to break the news here (or over at my own staff blog assuming I take it off the dev server!).

Mike Arrington redefines the meaning of “moderation” and “freedom of speech” to the blogshere.

Earlier I reported that Sam Sethi had been fired by Mike Arrington, the creator of TechCrunch. In another stab into the heart of the blogshere, Arrington deletes Sam’s last post on TechCrunch UKIRL and turns on moderation. I suppose this gives ‘Arrington’ the right to filter whatever comments he thinks are more equal than others.

I guess some comments are more equal than others, Mike?

—-

Sorry, I forgot to mention in my original post – the article that Arrington deleted was from Sam explaining how they had a disagreement and he would no longer be working for TechCrunch. It was extremely diplomatic considering he had been told that he no longer had the right to vote.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm

TechCrunch UKIRL is FIRED by Mike Arrington! Yes you’ve read it properly.

In a WORLD EXCLUSIVE, I can reveal that TechCrunch UKIRL has been fired for using its right to speak.

Sam Sethi was fired by Mike Arrington after he refused to remove the article about how Loic LeMeur's screwed up Le Web 3 with his political ambitions.

Looks like Arrington is now TOO BIG for his boots. I certainly won't be subscribing to his blog if he's more interested in keeping people happy for the sake of $$$.

Mike Arrington has now done a Tim O'Reily on it.

My motivation for writing this post is to support TechCrunch and its independent / impartial opinion piece on Le Web 3 and to highlight how Loic has probably ruined his (and Six apart's) reputation with the following retort to it:

Loic LeMeur – Sam. There is no word to qualify you and this post. You are just an asshole.

TechCrunch's opinion piece highlights the obvious, political ambitions of Loic LeMeur's (aka Six apart) during the (last?) Le Web 3 conference in Paris.

In my view, Loic has done a Gerald Ratner on it.

Doing a Ratner is a British business phrase referring to a Chief Executive or a senior person of a company who criticises the company’s products or disparages the customers, frequently with disastrous results for both the person and the company.

Sam Sethi wrote a well crafted independent and balanced article where he articulated what EVERYONE at the conference was already thinking and some were already blogging. Every person I came into contact with felt that the conference was completely ruined due to Loic's (Six apart's) political ambitions. The entire schedule for day 2 was shuffled to allow no fewer than 3 politicians to broadcast their political agendas to a mass of journalists which clearly had absolutely nothing to do with the Web!

My first response when I read Loic's retort was 'huh'? This isn't a professional response, never mind an apology for changing the conference schedule without telling anyone in advance. This will go down in history as an important milestone in the downfall of Six apart's brand reputation amongst the blogsphere.

If Loic was working for me, his ass wouldn't have touched the ground on the way out… Loic's 'personal attack' and unprofessional retort on 'Sam' is not only damaging to Six apart's brand, it's likely to be commented on more than the conference screw up itself! Doh!

My advice to Loic and Six apart is to publicly apologise for the huge screw up only then will they have a small chance to gain a little respect. They might also wish to apologise for attacking Sam for exercising his right to *blog his opinion*.

http://uk.techcrunch.com/2006/12/11/le-web3-the-good-bad-and-ugly/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doing_a_Ratner

So, I'll start with an explanation for my title. During the first day at Le Web 3 the audience was encouraged to take part in a poll. The conference attracted people from approximately 38 countries but yet, only 8 countries were represented in the question It would appear that the world is divided into 8 and Ireland isn't part of it! Perhaps it was the sponsors that were being represented subconsciously.

I must admit, this is one conference I'm sorry I didn't sponsor – I felt brainwashed watching the rotating logos throughout the entire conference. Come to think of it, the rotating sponsors' logos were probably the only technical element that worked without a hiccup. In fact, there must have been someone coordinating their timing, as the logos popped in and out of presentations as if they were Google Adwords driven by contextual sales techniques.

Live blogging was almost disabled as Tom Raftery puts it. Wi-Fi was pretty much non-existent OK, so technical problems occur. Hell, I've attended W3C meetings where Web access wasn't available. However, what really bugged me (I can't stress this enough!) was the fact that the organiser, Loic LeMeur's, didn't seem to care and in fact, looked as annoying on stage as he does (now) on his blog! He just laughed it off. Then again, why would he care, he was there for a political party broadcast to set the foundation for his own political ambitions more about this in my next post as it deserves it's own parking space!!

It's just as well I attended as an invited guest thanks to Sam Sethi from TechCrunch UKIRL, or I would have asked for 1/3 of my money back. Day 1 was 'ok'. Most of the speakers were out of touch with the audience, or at least most of the audience – they didn't tell us anything new. It was another 'back clapping' exercise talking about 'me', 'me' and 'me'.

My favourite sound bite comes from one of the VCs (name escapes me right now) – E-commerce is growing and will be particularly busy at Christmas. This guy obviously has his finger on the pulse! Ok, I know the audience included non-techie people, but I'm sure my granny would have assumed Christmas was going to be a busy period. Or am I making a silly assumption?

All that said, it was a great trip for me personally. These conferences aren't about the speakers anyway (whether I'm speaking or listening), it's more about meeting people in the hall and deepening relationships with people you already know. I've made some great contacts and connected a few people. Meeting other likeminded Irish folk was brilliant also I think we should meet up more often!

Commentary from event in the UK yesterday.

Investors are looking for audiences, not revenues from Guardian Unlimited: Organ Grinder

Quote:
“Yahoo is focused on identifying start-up companies that can create products with a large number of users with just a small amount of capital.”

Nic at Espirit has a follow up note