Loïc Le Meur blog

I promise @1938media, we will make your 2008 Seesmic prediction true

Hum, I should make a list of your seesmic wish list again to make sure but yeah, we have heard your suggestions and working on them ! As far as banning the french again is concerned, let's say you will be wrong on this one :) Happy to new year to you Loren and I have to officially thank you for so much interest in Seesmic, feeling stupid again for having overreacted to your humor, now I start to get it. You know, those french... The good news is they always surrender.

"Seesmic, Hear Me, Touch Me, Feel Me"

Thanks Kara Swisher for your post about Seesmictoday in All Things Digital. I loved the "Le Meur’s French accent grows on you" part, now you have completely convinced me not to try to have my french accent disappear (which was my original plan). Kara thinks that Loren Feldman's interaction with Seesmic is "just the kind of thing that would probably make Seesmic the very lively place it needs to be". Actually, I start to like Loren and his videos, the initial feeling of "being under attack" is gone.

Seesmic is like going to the pub together

@GoldieKatsu has shared great thoughts about the trivia we find on Twitter and Seesmic, she says it is like if we were going to the pub together, we would just be "us". Trivial is the nature of life.

Caught in my cowboy shirt demoing faster than my shadow

Thanks, @scottwitter

LoicLeMeur at VON 2007 from scottwitter on Vimeo.

"10 ways I learned to use Twitter in 2007"

A good post by Dan York about how and why we use Twitter.

Some fresh videos from Whistler

I very much enjoy skiing in Whistler, Canada. The snow is fresh and light, we don't have much sun but still loving it. Here are a few videos from today, the "peak to creek" slope is 5000 feet / 1600 m elevation difference, a great one ! I also took a short video in front of the Longhorn Ranch because @scobleizer asked me to, it is where the Windows code name comes from !

and the Longhorn Ranch shot for @scobleizer

Seesmic in the 2008 hits websites of the Guardian !!!

Wew, that Seesmic review is a Christmas gift ! Thank you Bobbie Johnson to consider that Seesmic will be a hit website in 2008 even though we are still building it. The other sites are Etsy.com, Twitter, Dopplr and Moshimonsters. For sure, this is extremely motivating for us and the tech team has actually just pushed a new version today (yeah, on Christmas, so what ?) to celebrate. Your following/followers should be fixed now even though we still have a few things to solve on the avatar pictures still. I browsed @scobleizer followers for example, he already has hundreds. Tons happening in Seesmic these days, @Obstructionist notes for example that "on Seesmic, I've gotten @scobleizer to dance and @chrisbrogan (goy) to sing Chanukkah song" :)

update, Lisa has the full page Guardian scan.

What should advertising look like in Seesmic (if and when there is advertising) ?

Exciting conversation in Seesmic about advertising. I don't think we will have advertising soon though.

Lisa Sounio on Scoble show in BMW shuttle to LeWeb3

Cool interview and Paris tour ! Looks like LeWeb3 speakers enjoyed the BMW drives...

The best Seesmix episode ever I think

I think it's the coolest one ever, you can also check all the other seesmix episodes

Seesmic day 56: Michael Arrington and not looking good

LeWeb3 videos are up !

Thanks VPOD for uploading all the videos (some still to be uploaded in the next days), all LeWeb3 2007 videos online.

update: here is an itunes feed

Seesmic day 55: following the followers

Seesmic day 54

Member of the frozen peas group

learn more

17 000 posts with Seesmic in Twitter

wew

Seesmic is not just a video chat room

@documentally writes a great Seesmic review, a quote:

"I realized this wasn't just a chatroom I was looking at. These were multi dimensional people not too dissimilar to me and I was getting to know them in a face to face kind of way. In a far more personal manor than on any other social network. The international timezones crossed have tested my ability to survive on only a few hours sleep as i have been facinated with the threads and conversations spanning the globe."

New apologies, this time to @jemimakiss for posting a video

This week must be my apology week. This time it is Jemima Kiss of the Guardian who did not like that I said the (unofficial) Girls of LeWeb3 video (won't link again to it) of Chauffeurdebuzz was cool (removed the post) because it is garbage, embarrassing and more than a little creepy.

I understand, sorry did not see it that way I must be too french sometimes. I am easy these days. I want to apologize for anything you might not like or have liked, just name it and I will apologize. I only want to send love for Christmas (and sometimes receive some too but that's not compulsory).

Lots happened in Seesmic yesterday

You can follow the Seesmix daily on YouTube and itunes (search Seesmix in the itunes directory).

Apologies 1938 media

Deleted my post, deleted my tweets.

You won, and I do not want to fight (never wanted btw). Keep doing your great videos, they are very cool, I will learn your sense of humor.

LeWeb3 history, 2007 wrap-up and future

Business Week: A French Twist in Silicon Valley

Thanks Jennifer L. Schenker for your story and Seesmic review in Business Week, A French Twist in Silicon Valley, who liked the way we publish in the open everyday about Seesmic in Loic.tv.

Preparing Davos 2008

Davos 2008 will be my 8th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in a row (thanks for inviting me!), I was invited as a Young Global Leader, then launched their World Economic Forum blog in April 2004 and been helping them since then, Matthias Luefkens has also been helping us so much with LeWeb3 as a panelist. I have been podcasting tens of entries in the last years in video and audio.

This year is the first time there will be so many bloggers invited, I do not know exactly how many, but I know that both Michael Arrington and Robert Scoble are joining which is great news. The World Economic Forum has been very good inviting Web 2.0 speakers every year (for example they had Mark Zuckerberg speak last year before there was so much buzz around Facebook) but very few bloggers actually went but it's changing and it's good (Dave and Joi Ito went years ago, Arianna Huffington last year with Jeff Jarvis...).

As every year, the World Economic Forum puts lots of efforts spreading the amazing content discussed during the week on the web on its site and also using web2.0 tools. Highlights of this year are the Davos Conversation page where I will be contributing with other bloggers and media and more original the YouTube Davos Question ("What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?"), look for many Seesmic posts too, and I will get questions from Seesmic to the participants. The World Economic Forum also started twittering.

The World Economic Forum also hosts an Open Forum that everybody can join. This year I will be the moderator of a session on Virtual Worlds with Reid Hoffman, Philip Rosedale, and Joseph Weizenbaum. Here are a few questions we will cover and te context. " Tools such as Second Life are new ways of extending life to the virtual space, for example, allowing us to attend Wimbledon while standing next to one of the players or living out our social desires anonymously without restraints or risk of sanctions. More and more people are turning to virtual reality to establish who they are, what they know, who they interact with and how. This will influence how society is structured in the future and how real or fictive this virtuality will be."

-In the context of the virtual worlds we are creating, what is the difference between fiction and reality?
-with the ease of access to these virtual worlds, how do different generations react?
-How does this world of immediate access, limitless social skills and unrestrained behaviour influence our moral framework?
-should the focus be on the technological or human side of progress?

I will also moderate a session within the World Economic Forum summit (private but we will probably make it available online in one way or another): Add a Friend: Accept or Decline
While the hype around life in virtual worlds has somewhat subsided, they still hold the promise of what might come next in terms of interfaces and new networking tools. Is Second Life, like the other social networking sites that appeared before Facebook, ahead of its time? How can virtual worlds be used beyond socializing as a tool for content creation, testing new concepts, and relationship and brand building?
· Danah Boyd**, Researcher
· George F. Colony**, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive
Officer, Forrester Research, USA
· Mitchell Kapor**, President, Kapor Enterprises, USA
· Fernando Madeira*, Chief Executive Officer, Terra Latin America,
Brazil; Young Global Leader
· Donald Tapscott*, Chief Executive Officer, New Paradigm Learning
Corporation, Canada

Preparing LeWeb3 2008, feedback from 2007

Photo Joi Ito. looking at the stage with Geraldine, both of us stressed, Joi was saying "Loic you do not have to smile as I take the picture"

It is a tradition every year, here are some notes in a bullet point format of the feedback I have read from hundreds of blog posts and ideas to make it even better next year. Geraldine is likely to go fulltime on managing the conference, given the scale of the event. Please keep sending us feedback in comments on this post or on your blogs. We are delighted you liked LeWeb3 so much this year and will start preparing 2008 very soon. Thank you all partners, speakers, team and participants for making this edition a success.

Joi Ito

"Le Web 3 was the best conference of its kind I attended this year. Great venue, great team and awesome speakers. Loic, Geraldine and team, super job. Thanks! Interestingly, my favorite talks were the two non-web people: Hans Rosling and Philippe Starck."

Robert Scoble

"LeWeb was a remarkable conference. Why? Because Loic took a far more participatory stance this year. Not to mention he spent 125,000 Euros on the wifi (which still didn’t work that great) and had power plugs under every seat that I was at. Every part of the experience was top-rate and positions LeWeb as the most important industry conference. Period. One little secret? Loic’s wife did much of the heavy lifting behind the scenes. Cathy Brooks planned the content and I couldn’t see how to improve it."

photo Sacha QS

Tom Raftery

"Loic, the conference’s organiser obviously took all of the criticisms of last year’s conference on board and delivered a fantastic conference this time out. The talks were great, the venue was perfect, the food was delicious, and the networking opportunities were tremendous."

David Lenehan at Read/WriteWeb

"Loic and Geraldine have turned LeWeb3 into a really great conference, possibly the best web conference of the year."

Henrik Ahlen:

"The LeWeb3 was one of the most professionally produced conference I have attended in several ways. The video projection was the best I have seen and the audio was top notch with very engaging musical intros. I also liked the scheduel with lots of time for networking in the coffe and lunch breaks. The lunch offering was a totally staggering buffet of french gourmet cuisine at it best."

Jeremie Berrebi (french)

"Absolument fabuleux…des conférences d’un niveau telle que je ne préférais ne pas y assister (j’ai assisté à celles de Philippe Starck et de Joi Ito). Je veux les écouter tranquillement chez moi pendant les prochaines semaines et les étudier tranquillement."

Laurent Gloaguen (french)

"Un grand merci à Loïc pour l’organisation du LeWeb3, une sorte de “Davos de l’industrie Web 2”. Il est exceptionnel qu’une manifestation de cette envergure se tienne en France et nous ne pouvons qu’en être reconnaissant à l’égard de Loïc le Meur. Cette 4e édition fut une réussite presque totale, sans les erreurs de 2006. Encore bravo Loïc (et Géraldine, logisticienne en chef de la manifestation)."

Laurent Vermot-Gauchy (french)

"Cette année Le Web3 aura été pour moi l'année du networking fertile. Le grand bain bouillonnant des professionnels du web. Certains s'y ressourcent, d'autres améliorent leur façon de nager, d'autres y trouvent des partenaires pour aller plus loin, d'autres viennent simplement prendre la température de l'eau, mais une chose est certaine, c'est de là que le point de vue sur le secteur est à regarder."

Robin Wauters "LeWeb3 was Fantastique"

"In general, the conference was just awesome, especially considering the magnitude of the whole thing (almost 2 000 participants signed present)."

Gary Stewart "Tres elegant"

"But if you do go to a conference, it’s nice to feel welcomed, as if you are a VIP guest. And that’s what Le Web excels at. [...] it was definitely a very cool event. The coolest, most elegant tech event around by far."

Very cool videos
French news TV LCI (french)
From Radon agency
France 24 TV (in english)
RAI TV (in Italian)
Girls of LeWeb3

what we succeeded
-communities (press, VCs, entrepreneurs, bloggers)
-1800 participants from 40 countries
-plugs behind every seat
-300 journalists and tons of press
-great food !
-audio, video
-live stream thanks to vpod.tv that was viewed by nearly 20 000 people (and also remotely blogged, best blogging from Bruno Giussani)
-seating, cloak room
-extend the reach with Jun Cohen and Matthias Luefkens
-the networking space in 3 rooms
-key voices (and friends) of Silicon Valley in the room (Michael Arrington, Dave Winer, Om Malik, Robert Scoble, Jason Calacanis...)
-key partners support (Google, Ads-Click, 3i, QSphere, Six Apart, TechCrunch, steek, Nokia, Microsoft, cafe.com, zong, Orange, netvibes, shopping.com, ekaabo, goojet, nomao, wengo, cocomment, BT, IBM, Sun, TF1, Europe 1, Le Figaro.fr, Business Wire, LCI, vpod.tv, L'Avion, Amiando, NetEco, Wikio, Intruders, mykinda.....)

-the cosy home like athmosphere in the upstairs networking room (that included a bed)

-the startup room (kudos to Thomas Crampton and the judges) and tons of startup launches at LeWeb3 including Dopplr who had all his members converging to Paris, other startups launched new features such as Mahalo and Netvibes

-special thanks as always for Jeff Clavier and Ouriel Ohayon who helped us organizing the workshop program and more

-the program was generally of good quality (kudos to Cathy Brooks)

-move all the speakers in BMW cars with drivers ! BMW and Bert, you rocked
-ticketing with Amiando (thanks again all Amiando team !)
-all the pictures taken by our official photographer (take any you like for any use) and by all the participants (more than 8000 !)
-tons of press with 300+ journalists, a press book will come shortly, in the meantime you can read google news english and google news french.

what we failed
-David Weinberger got bumped as speaker (see David's post and my comments to understand why, I will make sure this never happens again). I really regret it and happy David and I talked and are still friends after this.
-failed wifi but with a 120K EUR investment and about 6 full time Swisscom team dedicated on it we tried really hard...

what we could have done much better
-the last afternoon and the closing
-the awards presentation
-calling on the community for non profit initiatives where we can help (who are they in the World, decide the ones we should help, define how and report on the progress)
-let people who add significantly to the community for free and explain why, if possible decide in group with the community
-avoid typos in the speaker program
-list the side events, everything happening
-session descriptions matching the content

ideas to make it better next year

-how to involve more communities (politics, arts, culture, design, )

-more women on stage and in the room (tell me how !) and there were some who got noticed like Marion
-script everything happening on stage, add video and sound effects, minute per minute
-small rooms for brands and startups to pitch their products
-translation cabines in french and several other languages, videos subtitled
-David Guetta or Joachim Garraud at the party
-tables in the front with wires for press / key bloggers
-end the conference better and earlier probably, for example let 500 students in the last afternoon
-speaker management (keeping the time, presentations in advance, welcome and follow them, speaker room, photo guide of speakers and judges, bios)
-organize local leweb3 small gatherings around the World to get feedback ahead of the conference
-better following of everything happening online, reference how to follow LeWeb3 online
-video transmission coming from all the rooms
-project more the room on stage
-video transitions between sessions and effects
-names of each speakers as subtitle
-sponsor brands in video
-training rooms on topics (create a community, )
-bridge the conferences to bridge the World
-zones per Country / Region to showcase the best of each in entrepreneurship, web, etc
-take the startup competition Worldwide
-create a video show competition
-have a program committee and team
-partnership with a WW airline while maintaining I hope L'Avion
-better gift bag
-gather a semi public wiki all the testimonials from previous years
-community tool
-integrate better email to keep in touch
-involve the brands
-chose the dates outside of a VC conference happening at the same time for 2 years in a row
-(urgent) announce the date of the conference in 2008 as soon as possible
-invite more tech leaders, actually for the first time sit and wonder who we would really like to have
-invite the brands, the advertisers and give help them integrate in the community (ask the help of people you know are in contact with the brands such as ads click etc)
-involve more sponsors (seagate, Club-Internet, Xing, MySpace, L'Oreal etc)
-more women
-free
-VIP tour
-what is LeWeb video for Mahalo

speakers/topics I would dream to have next year (dreams are free and possible, realizing them is something else)
-Richard Branson
-Al Gore
-Bill Clinton (yeah, I know he is hundreds of thousands of $ a speech)
-space, the pilot of virgin galactic, the former silicon valley entrepreneur who launches rockets
-more on environment (Tom Raftery was the only session)
-slow food a session with the best french chefs in the World
-"it is not fuck the brands" how to integrate brands better
-music bands during the evening (les concerts a emporter to help ?)

best moments (from tons of best moments)

-Yossi Vardi's speach on how pigeons and snails are faster than DSL

-Starck and the amazon book reader design

-Jacob Share's DIGGs Live

-the Marc Canter panel

-Scoble learning that him leaving PodTech was disclosed by Arrington
-the closing dinner when everybody gave us a round of applause

My dreams
-we can change the World, and soon we will see more and more the impact of LeWeb3, will add more non profit mission sessions
-make it entirely free for students, unemployed and people who contribute significantly (I will need more sponsors...)

SEE YOU ALL NEXT YEAR !

Best video about LeWeb3 so far

David Dworsky won the TechCrunch tickets for LeWeb in the comments because of the video they had done of Sime and they did the best LeWeb3 video I have seen so far congrats !

Le Web 3 - 2007 from David Dworsky on Vimeo.

LCI (our French CNN) has a full report about LeWeb3

Thanks, Cedric Ingrand, for this awesome TV programme about LeWeb3.

Shot by Jacques Witt of SIPA press

Last week professional photographer Jacques Witt of SIPA Press, one of the best known photo agency shot me in San Francisco. Jacques let me share the photos on the web and use them on my blog as long as it is not for commercial use. I think they are fantastic ! The entire set is here.

Seesmic days 51 and 52

With all the LeWeb3 traveling I forgot to blog the last two Seesmic day videos. Will be back in the show on Monday.

Scoble's new business card by Hugh MacLeod (and LeWeb3 comments)

@dotben holding @scobleizer's business card made by @gapingvoid guess why I love it ? oh and Robert thank you so much for your comments about LeWeb3:

"LeWeb was a remarkable conference. Why? Because Loic took a far more participatory stance this year. [...] Every part of the experience was top-rate and positions LeWeb as the most important industry conference. Period. [...] One little secret? Loic’s wife did much of the heavy lifting behind the scenes. Cathy Brooks planned the content and I couldn’t see how to improve it. The bar LeWeb sets for other conferences is quite heavy. [...] I wish every conference were like LeWeb."

LeWeb3 team behind the scene

You have been amazing. Period. And you are not all on the picture but 70 people worked day and night to make it happen. Thank you all of you.

.

Joi Ito about LeWeb3

Joi thank you so much for your comments and taking some of your precious time to join us and speak:

"Le Web 3 was the best conference of its kind I attended this year. Great venue, great team and awesome speakers."

Seesmic day 49: LeWeb3 - first day

LeWeb3 live stream

http://www.espacetv.com/events/web3/live/videos1.asp?id=100#

LeWeb3 official Wiki by Tom Raftery

To follow events and parties etc, here is the official wiki launched by speaker and friend Tom Raftery @tomraftery on twitter

http://leweb3events.pbwiki.com/, password to change the wiki is leweb3 thanks Tom

@newmediajim posting on seesmic from the White House !!!

Looking for success stories from previous editions of LeWeb3

I am looking for stories from leweb3 impact on entrepreneurs, startups etc that I will quote on stage this year, here is what I have up to now, you have been many more to tell me other stories, please comment or email blog AT loiclemeur.com to refresh my memory with your stories thanks !

-entrepreneurs who got the idea at LeWeb3: Dailymotion
-startups who have raised funds: Netvibes found his first business angels years ago, Zlio found Lukasz Gadowski as investor
-startups launched (Wixi)
-deals done & partnerships
-entrepreneurs who sold their company from LeWeb3: LaFraise met Spreadshirt first at LeWeb3
-there was a wedding between an Austrian and a Canadian friend from the first editions, unfortunately forgot their names

Now more than 1700 participants, you can still regiter to join us until LeWeb3 opens

This year you can register to the conference until the very last moment, please use this link to join us then print the ticket Amiando will provide you and join us in Paris !

LeWeb3 2007 important last minute details

LeWeb3 on Tuesday dec 11th & Wednesday dec 12th

LeWeb3 2007 is the largest ever with about 2000 participants this year ! Here are some last minute details.

Please register early on tuesday between 7h15 and 8h AM !

With nearly 2000 participants and despite our efforts to have enough people welcoming you on tuesday, please plan to arrive as of 7h15 AM so that we can make sure we can start the conference on time (and we will !).

The conference address again is LeWeb3, les Docks, 50 avenue du president Wilson, Saint Denis (porte de la Chapelle). Google map.

Please do not forget to print your LeWeb3 ticket from Amiando. We will have coffee and croissants to welcome you so early!
Follow this link for all the details to get to the conference center.

Netvibes and Shopping.com party on wednesday as of 10PM: we have booked for you one of the coolest night club in Paris, La Scala at 188bis rue de Rivoli 75001 Paris.

LeWeb3 every day, all year long with Seesmic
Share your thoughts about LeWeb3 and stay in touch with the LeWeb3 community. Seesmic is my last video conversation company and I started it to keep in touch with you all so I could not help but offer you to try it and stay in touch with LeWeb3 participants so here is a one time invite code you can use to create an account (we're still alpha !).

Go to http://www.seesmic.com, select the "I have an invitation code option" and enter the code XXXXXXXX, see you there.

Of course we support all social Software @LeWeb3, please use leweb307 as a tag for this year !

Twitter: follow my own twitter for live updates http://www.twitter.com/loiclemeur (you can direct message me I get them on my mobile phone) and the brand new leweb3 twitter page http://twitter.com/leweb3 (which I must confess I may use less than mine being used to it)

The Facebook group

Here is an agregated feed with LeWeb3 participants feeds from Amiando and Grazr (add your feed on the Amiando page if you haven't)
There were 5000 pictures posted on Flickr last year, let's see if you beat that number this year !

I would like to thank all our partners again, who make this huge edition of LeWeb3 possible: Google, Ads-Click, 3i, QSphere, Six Apart, TechCrunch, Seesmic, steek, Nokia Nseries, Microsoft, cafe.com, zong, Orange, Netvibes, Shopping.com, ekaabo, goojet, nomao, wengo, cocomment, BT, IBM, Sun, TF1, Europe1, Le Figaro.fr, Business Wire, LCI.fr, vpod.tv, L'Avion, amiando, NetEco...

...and thank you all for joining us this year !

see you in Paris,

best
Loic and Geraldine

Seesmic day 47: let me introduce you Ben Metcalfe (dotBen)

Robert Scoble sponsored by Saturn Astra in Facebook ?

Robert, this sounds weird... have you really joined this car's fan club or is it advertising or what ?

Seesmic day 46: magic threats.

I know... Thank you Vinvin.

Launching a startup better than sex

homepage and most popular of del.icio.us today, ahead of exercise and sex :)

Seesmic day 45: Sing

Who should I pick for the business class / LeWeb3 ticket ?

Hey friends, below the tweets I received for the contest.... Difficult to pick... can you help ?

update:
@ledretch convinced me I should really pick someone who would never have the means to come in any case
let's narrow down the criteria. a girl who would never have the means to come and who would +really+ like to. A student maybe
obviously in or nearby New York or who could make it there as the flight is from NY

update: picked the winner,

@aliciamk who qualified as a student with no means to go to the conference, girl because we do not have enough, following me on twitter and blog for years (thanks!), and who committed to video blog her trip to share with everybody. Thanks to everybody who participated and followed. It was a real tough choice. Sorry if you have not won.

alexmr I'm in college and work at a startup (modmylife.com). Want to learn lots so I can excel in the field. Plus, I love to meet fellow techies! 18 minutes ago reply

dclayman give to mathias and lock in the 2000E charitable donation. if trustworthy, you're golden. watch ted conf videos for donor ideas. warmly, - d 41 minutes ago reply

fixc allez, encore 1 ptit msg pour que je gagne! Learn network o leweb3, revoir ma cop papa maman. la classe pr 1 founder fauché ;-) about 1 hour ago reply

TedC LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 LeWeb3 Please! about 2 hours ago reply

TedC Skip TedC on the TechCrunch ticket giveaway. If I don't get the plane ticket and pass, I can't go anyway. Pick me for Twitter give away :D about 4 hours ago reply

ryanspahn It would be amazing for Sleep.FM to meet it's French users, we have generated a nice buzz in France via last Wednesdays pcinpact.com article about 4 hours ago reply

mortensax hope you pick CPH/ about 4 hours ago reply

mrufo so..."m." N°69 (no joke) at TechCrunch... trying to win this ticket. ;-) Thks! about 4 hours ago reply

natachaqs Isabelle Juppé (livre / la femme digitale) Web 3 ?? about 5 hours ago reply

Chris Nuttall writes about my 10 rules to launch a startup and Seesmic in today's Financial Times

Thank you Chris Nuttall for your article in the Financial Times "Share ideas to the maximum" and also another Seesmic review, "Seesmic change from blogger's latest start-up" I am just amazed !

Seesmic day 44: visiting Twitter

Seesmic day 43: new format, 1 question a day, France and the Winnies

Loic and Vinvin start to answer 1 question a day. The first question is "When will Seesmic open in France?" One Seesmic video a day. Todays by Documentaly. What is not working in seesmic and how is it being fixed? Vinvin at the Winnies. You can also subscribe to our daily show on itunes.

LeWeb3 passed 1200 participants and a free business class ticket + free LeWeb3 ticket to one of my twitter follower

I am amazed that we just passed 1200 participants this year. Check our program, workshop program and startup competition. You can still join us but be fast before we shift to our last minute pricing on wednesday night (dec 5th), 1250 EUR before tax.

To celebrate, I will offer a free L'Avion business-class ticket (L'Avion is a sponsor, a business class only airline from New-York to Paris) and a free ticket to LeWeb3 (more than $4000 value) to one of my twitter follower.

Please direct message (only) me on my twitter in less than 140 characters why you should win that plane and participation ticket to LeWeb3, make sure also you can take the (non flexible, non changeable) flight on December 9th New-York to Paris, LeWeb3 on Dec 11th and 12th and return ticket Paris NY on December 13th all in business class ! You will only have to find a hotel, and there are plenty of choices in Paris. Please do not try to win it to sell it on Ebay as we will need one name to give to L'Avion and that should be the name of the winner.

You can participate until thursday evening (the 6th) San Francisco time (PST), only by twitter direct message, thanks.

update: I will follow anybody adding me on Twitter, if you already follow me and I don't, unfollow me and follow me again I will add you when notified. Thanks.

The idea does not count only execution matters: 10 rules to launch a startup today

I have 10 rules to launch a startup these days that I am writing as bullet points for a Financial Times story, I explained them briefly in video at the last Google Zeitgeist Europe too, will detail this post later.

1- do not wait for a revolutionary idea, the idea of your life will never happen, just focus on a simple exciting empty space you see and execute as fast as possible
2- share your idea as much as possible, the more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.
3- build a community around you through blogging and social software
4- listen to your community, answer questions and build your product with their feedback, involve bloggers as early as possible and get their feedback, if negative, adapt your product permanently
5- gather a great team with a very different skill set than yours, look for people who are better than you without being afraid of it
6- be the first to recognize a problem or a mistake you have made. Never hide it behind the carpet. Address the issue in public, learn and correct it.
7- do not spend time on market research, but launch as early as possible in alpha or beta versions. Keep improving the product in the open.
8- do not focus on a large spreadsheet business plan, you are so sure it is not going to happen anyway
9- do not plan huge marketing, growing with your community loving the product is much more powerful
10- do not focus on getting rich or selling your company, focus on your users, money is a consequence of success, can't be a goal

Singapore Government is so cool, need to get them on Seesmic

@cervus pointed me to the below YouTube video of the Media Development Authority of the Singapore Government advising me to contact them and try to get them on Seesmic. Makes total sense would love it and if anybody knows someone there (of if the mda reads me who knows one day with the social software magic...) would love to partner and grow Seesmic in Singapore...

This is really cool, I wish the French Government would also use video like this and push new media as something strategic. Will tell a few friends there !

Seesmic day 42 - Seesmic developer community