Joho the Blog
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« [leweb] Marko Ahtisaari || Back to Blog | DOEP (Daily Open-Ended Puzzle) (intermittent): Icelandic marketing » December 12, 2006
The conservative candidate for the presidency and Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, comes to address the conference. He talks quickly and I'm taking notes on the simultaneous translation, and not keeping up. He begins by saying the Internet is important. He focuses on the need for France to catch up in Internet as a business opportunity and culture. The government should make the France a leader in Inteornet. It should have boosted things. The miracle is that we nevertheless have people like you, Loic, were able to invest in Internet despite the lag. The lag is also cultural because we did not build the tools for the Internet. We had a difficult debate on IP rights. I was very much in favor of protecting IP because there's no creativity without protection. But law enforcement isn't the only possibility. There are win-win solutions that I wish we had spent time devising. The Internet must be one of the four or five priorities of our R&D efforts. France recently set up several global centers of excellent in IT, but France is not investing in the Internet. We are last but one in the effect of the Internet in boosting our economy in Europe. We need e-government, Internet in education, in medicine. I want to invest in free sites for the public. We're thinking of digitizing our archive. What is private must be respected but what is public must be genuinely public. I want broadband coverage. We should learn from what works in the US.("That doesn't mean there's only one culture," he quickly adds.) I plan to restore investor confidence in our country. More accountable, more transparent. Greater confidence in employees. I want France to stop being the country that enriches Switzerland, Belgium the UK, putting to the edge those who want to make money. My message is simple: We need your capital, your intelligence in France. I want us to have a major higher education reform. Our young should be in the level playing field. Universities should be viewed as tax-exempt areas. Encourage young people to take patents. Tax breaks for young people creating companies. Huge possibilities. Internet breaks down distances. It's sort of university campus on a global level. Generates intelligence. Brings people closer together and can be an instrument of emancipation. I'm thinking of China. I'm thinking of poor countries. Anyone can disseminate their movies in place of Hollywood. Anyone can be a journalist. Anyone can post his goods. A new area of freedom of expression opens. It's a means of cultural diversity. It cannot be a single culture or economy. It must derive its creativity from the multiplication of small companies that innovate. Some become monopolies that inhibit innovation, and we must not that happens. The dissemination of anti-Semitic information is not ascceptable. Not everything is permitted. I'm not afraid of the word "internet regulation." Internet makes school and education even more necessary because of the flow of knowledge that needs interpretation and assessment. Let us make the new Internet continent the continent of new liberties, that includes rather than excludes. Let us make the Internet continent of the transmission of knowledge, and not the transmission of lies. The continent of sharing of cultures, not of the leveling of values. [Wow. Does he know he's contradicting himself sentence after sentence?] You have in your hands the liberty and progress of the world. Realize you must think of what others might do who do not share your values and ethics. The liberty the Internet serves must be that of universal rights. Internet with rules. Huge responsibility on your shoulders. The new citizen of the world is aware of his responsibility and his liberty is bound by values. He leaves without any questions. And Esme Vos, who I am sitting next to, says Sarkozy speaks perfect English. I feel like i've been lectured by a guy who has no actual understanding of the Internet. I don't know about French politics, but personally, I sort of hated him. (This is not a well-grounded opinion.) [Tags: leweb3 france politics sarkozy] Posted
by D. Weinberger at December 12, 2006 09:53 AM
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Comments
very funny for a french reader to find your quick comment... I think N.Sarkozy does that effect to much people : clever, yes, fast, sure. but... but...
he definitly leaves a strange feeling of superficiality, sometimes brutality, or even risk.
too bad , for he is one of the few political personnality to really support a strong change in French mentality , which we reaaly need...
well, I will have to read and test more the guy to decide myself for the votine in may... but your opinion certainly will count (think, you will have a responsability in my vote, thus in the results of french voting !! wish my feeling toward Bush had changed somthing in US presidential elections !!!)
Posted by: sylvie | December 12, 2006 10:13 AM
Regardless what Sarkozy said or what he represents, this definitely was the wrong forum for an election campaign. Dieter Rappold has an open letter to Loic here
http://www.sierralog.com/stories/3056857/
Posted by: Christian Jung | December 12, 2006 10:46 AM
In fact I found outraging having paid 300 euro to waste my time listening to politicians.
Posted by: Olivier | December 12, 2006 11:05 AM
I agree that we do not have to pay to hear candidates, I propose that Loic refunds the participants for the time used by politicians. Let's say that 5% of the money should be reimbursed !
In fact this money should be donated to UNICEF or for a program like the 100$ PC !
Posted by: Pierre | December 12, 2006 11:16 AM
>I feel like i've been lectured by a guy who has
>no actual understanding of the Internet. I
>don't know about French politics, but
>personally, I sort of hated him. (This is
>not a well-grounded opinion.)
I don't understand why you say that you feel that you were lectured to. You were lectured lectured to. Period.
It was interesting to see how far he is from the reality of what we have heard in the last two days. Howard Dean's experiences that you so clearly described in your speech obviously hasn't reached Sarko!!!
Posted by: Richard Wilkinson | December 12, 2006 11:42 AM
hi,
actually, the conference has been litterally hijacked by politics because of the electoral period. Would have been the same, say, if the conference was about Ecology or Sustainable development. But, as we say in France, let's not throw the baby with the bath water : the conference has not been ruined by these useless interventions, in my opinion. I'm in no way supporting Loic's initiative, though I think I understand the reason he did it: this was a unique occasion to involve politices into developing the Internet (at least...in words, and that's the real issue here !)
Personnaly, I got out to have a coffee during M. Sarkozy's speech, and I thihk everyone who does not agree should have done the same, don't you ?
Posted by: Laurent Ponce | December 12, 2006 11:45 AM
hi,
actually, the conference has been litterally hijacked by politics because of the electoral period. Would have been the same, say, if the conference was about Ecology or Sustainable development. But, as we say in France, let's not throw the baby with the bath water : the conference has not been ruined by these useless interventions, in my opinion. I'm in no way supporting Loic's initiative, though I think I understand the reason he did it: this was a unique occasion to involve politices into developing the Internet (at least...in words, and that's the real issue here !)
Personnaly, I got out to have a coffee during M. Sarkozy's speech, and I thihk everyone who does not agree should have done the same, don't you ?
Posted by: Laurent Ponce | December 12, 2006 11:47 AM
sorry for the double post...
Posted by: Laurent Ponce | December 12, 2006 11:48 AM
This photo perfectly sums up the mood of the audience over the whole day http://www.flickr.com/people/andreasm/320531781/
Extract from my post about it "The really annoying thing is that none of these people have any interest in the attendees or the event. They are presenting for the camera crews standing two feet in front of them, and not the atendees sitting 20 feet behind (a large number of whom have left). We are renting them our stage space and time to further their own agenda."
more at http://www.hiphipuk.co.uk/2006/12/12/le-web-hijack/
Posted by: adam | December 12, 2006 02:01 PM
This photo perfectly sums up the mood of the audience over the whole day http://www.flickr.com/people/andreasm/320531781/
Extract from my post about it "The really annoying thing is that none of these people have any interest in the attendees or the event. They are presenting for the camera crews standing two feet in front of them, and not the atendees sitting 20 feet behind (a large number of whom have left). We are renting them our stage space and time to further their own agenda."
more at http://www.hiphipuk.co.uk/2006/12/12/le-web-hijack/
Posted by: adam | December 12, 2006 02:03 PM
This photo perfectly sums up the mood of the audience over the whole day http://www.flickr.com/people/andreasm/320531781/
Extract from my post about it "The really annoying thing is that none of these people have any interest in the attendees or the event. They are presenting for the camera crews standing two feet in front of them, and not the atendees sitting 20 feet behind (a large number of whom have left). We are renting them our stage space and time to further their own agenda."
more at http://www.hiphipuk.co.uk/2006/12/12/le-web-hijack/
Posted by: adam | December 12, 2006 02:04 PM
ooops weak wifi. sorry.
Posted by: adam | December 12, 2006 02:07 PM
I heard wifi was not great. I had planned to go but when I saw the agenda I thought - not enough for business and a big mistake going politico. Seems I might have been right. The French blogs are all over Loic for this. Which is a shame as I know Loic personally and he's a decent person. I'll give him full marks for experimentation.
Posted by: Dennis Howlett | December 12, 2006 06:17 PM
Hi David,
It was a disaster! I really liked your speech though! Very inspiring, thanks.
Posted by: Patrick | December 13, 2006 08:08 AM
I really hope that this is a fake comment on TechCrunch! If not...... oops! (scroll down to see the fun)
http://extension.fleck.com/?sh=56b8aad47c305f9d3f6b5b97bb79a594284129b5
Posted by: Patrick | December 13, 2006 08:46 AM
Each politician mentioned the importance of education, Sarkozy in particular. Yet, if you walk into a French school these days there are virtually no computer devices in classrooms other than computing classes and when they are used it's for Word Processing, not publishing students' work or using blogs to build up writing with ongoing feedback, for example.
The defense offered for Sarkozy is that he's not the Education Minister but, as France's No. 2 at the moment and a potential president, could he not have leaned some pressure onto the ed dept in these past few years?
That point just made me think most of what he had to say was nothing more than rhetoric, a cheap shot if you will. Quite clearly a guy who just doesn't get it.
Posted by: Ewan McIntosh | December 17, 2006 10:36 AM
Contre le PATRIDIOTISME Francais et contre la Deutsche Leitkultur.
Restons Européen .
Posted by: unionsbuerger.de | March 26, 2007 06:29 AM