December 7, 2005
lots of snowballs
Send to Kindle
Here are some of the thoughts I’ve had about Les Blogs in the last few days, in no particular order:
1. Nice to meet Tara Hunt in person finally. Ditto with Shel Israel. P.S. Have you bought Shel’s new book yet?
2. I was very impressed with David Sifry. Passion and lucidity; an unbeatable combo. [QUOTE:] “The web is a conversation stream. Hyperlinks are not a link between documents, but a form of social gesture.“
3. Rebecca and Ethan. You guys rock.
4. Two nights ago I ended up in a Cuban Bar with a trio of Irish bloggers. Paris plus Celts plus rum equals Big Fun. Nice metting Tom, Ed and Piaras.
5. One thing you notice in Paris is how, unlike London, the street people don’t seem to be junkies. And they’re generally a lot older. And there are A LOT of them.
6. People often complain about how few bloggers are women. A perfectly valid point, however nothing is stopping the chicks from blogging. Hell, if a fashion model can do it…
7. Frequent topic of conversation from French entrepreneurs: (A) How utterly fucked France is economically and (B) How they can’t wait to emigrate.
8. Frequent conversation topic: Les Blogs has far too many suits, Reboot has far too many people with dumb shoes. Classic suits vs. geeks scenario. Both need the other, but can never get used to the fact etc.
9. Sunday night a whole group of bloggers went out and basically took over a restaurant for about 4 hours. Food and drink galore. Microsoft picked up the tab.
10. I like Maryam Scoble a whole lot. She’s got what I would call an infectious personality. Looking forward to seeing her and Robert in London this weekend, at the Geek dinner.
11. Marc Canter caught napping. Iconic.
12. The accusation that bloggers are nothing more than a bunch of saddo pyjama-clad losers is getting old. (A) A lot of bloggers I know do interesting things, often for millions of dollars. (B) The people who like to call them “losers”- what the hell are they doing that is so frickin’ interesting? Besides holding down a hack-ass cube job at Hearst, Time Warner or WPP, I mean.
13. Loic Le Meur, the organiser of Les Blogs, seemed a lot less stressed out than at Les Blogs 1.0 back in April.
14. One of the nice things about these blog meetups is getting to see Heiko again. Besides that, he took a lot of great photos over the 2 days.
15. That differences between blogging and podcasting are artificial.
16. Hooked up with Sigurd. Am off to visit him in France soon after Christmas. We have two new projects we’re working on.
17. Though I have disagreed quite stongly with Ben Metcalfe and Dennis Howlett in the past, I must say I found their company over the weekend delightful.
18. Ben Hammersley, a long-time Savile Row customer, mentioned to me that he might shortly become an English Cut customer. No worries if it never happens, but it’s nice to be considered in these matters.
19. Sadly, I missed this one, but everybody was talking about it when I arrived late for Day Two: Years from now, people will be saying to Mena Trott, “Oh, you’re the gal who called Ben Metcalfe an asshole.” The fact that she said this during her “Why can’t we be nicer to people” speech wasn’t lost on her mostly European audience. Personally, I thought this was probably no big deal. Just a normal case of a West Coast Yank and a Brit not getting each other. Happens a lot.
20. Kudos to Suw for having me on her panel.
21. People told me more than once how I’m not posting enough new cartoons anymore. I agree. That being said, I’ve drawn over 5,000 of the buggers in the last few years, and I’m enjoying taking a wee break from it. I’ll get back on it once I can be bothered buying a new scanner etc.
22. An event where everyone is smarter than you is far more fun than an event where everyone is dumber than you [You have so gotta read this gem from 2003].
23. Funny comparing the state of the blogosphere between now and Les Blogs 1.0. in early 2005. Back then the buzz was, “It looks like we were right after all”. This time it was more, “OK, so now what?“
24. One line I said during my panel discussion that I kept hearing repeated after by others was: “Real People don’t scale.” So far I’ve come up with about 20 ways of explaining what I meant by that.
25. Great to run into Alex again.
26. One tiresome theme that keeps popping up: “What is the future of blogs?” Dumb question. Nobody knows. And anyway, if we knew where it was going, we’d already be there by now. The reality is, there’s twenty million of us (or whatever stat you prefer). People will continue to try things. Some things will work, some things won’t, and we’ll adjust our radar accordingly. Snowballs. Lots of snowballs. Exactly.
"Hugh's Daily Cartoon" Newsletter.
A new cartoon sent out every weekday morning to your inbox [RSS version here.].
A wee chuckle to start your day off right etc.
Other Useful Links
Send to KindleAbout Hugh. Hugh’s Book. Twitter. Facebook. Cartoon Archive.
Hugh’s Artist’s Statement: “Remember Who You Are”
Blogs update
Blogs update
Blogs update
Blogs update
Blogs update
Blogs update
Re: #6 — I think these “people” are just wrong; there are a lot of women bloggers out there, they’re just maybe not bloggging about the same things you do. For instance, it looks like most food bloggers are women. Maybe women blog more as a hobby than as part of their work (not true of me), or as a way of jump-starting careers that will turn hobbies/passions into work (definitely true of me). But we are out there.
Les Blogs revisited
I attended Les Blogs 2.0, probably Europe
There are over 100 women bloggers on the Artful Quilters Web Ring! And there are blogrings devoted to embellishers, knitters (probably spinners and weavers too…). As Georgia says, they’re blogging about hobbies, art, stuff like that. Maybe less about current events, politics…?
RE: #21 — I have a scanner I don’t use that I’d be happy to just *send* to you Hugh, if it weren’t such a piece of crap. Maybe one of your readers, noting that you have mentioned this problem several times in the past, will just go to Amazon or somewhere and get you one for Xmas. I’d do it, but I’m broke this month.
What I want for Xmas? Someone BUY HUGH A SCANNER! Thanks.
Thanks Hugh!
Hey Hugh,
Enjoyed meeting you also — painfully paid for it with a headache the next day though!
Les Blogs was great — nice to see so many influential people at a Euro-conference.
i need more calm
Meeting Hugh McLeod — a revelation
Meeting Hugh McLeod in Paris was much more fun than I anticipated. For those that don’t know, Hugh is the anarchic, sometimes barking but ultimately entertaining chap who has developed novel marketing ideas for wine, bespoke tailoring and car rental. A…
I intercepted Loic
As this is about and around Paris, just a quick thank you, the wine crossed the channel before you, but sorry we could not meet to share a glass!
Referring to bloggers not being losers — “A lot of bloggers I know do interesting things, often for millions of dollars.“
*shudder*, not a good way of placing value on bloggers
Millions of dollars does not make someone a ‘non-loser’.
Being ‘good’/of ‘quality’ makes someone a non-loser, not monetary worth.
#6, #12 for the record, i am a pyjama-clad female blogger. i think i am both advancing and setting the movement back.
“Millions of dollars” is not my only non-loser criteria, Tom
RE #24: Any chance you’ll be willing to share some of those 20 explanations on what you mean by Real People Don’t Scale? I have a guess on what you’re saying, but would like to hear more…
#17 — I even got a HM original outta it — great to meet — when/if you’re in Javea, Spain next, I can show you some great watering holes and the odd bottle of great vino. And it’s cheap enough for me to buy the rounds
The GapingVoid on Business Models
I met and hung out with a ton of cool people during my trip to Paris, and one of them was Hugh MacLeod from GapingVoid fame. We had crossed each other’s path at Les Blogs 2.0 a number of times, and had a chance to chat for a while at Fon’s Martin Vars…
Female blogger her saying THANK YOU for the fabulous custom drawing you did of me as a VC monster taking out others’ flesh.
Great to meet you at the dinner at Place des Vosges on Tuesday night, and I hope our paths cross again soon! Kind regards, Sachi
Re# 12
Look, Most of the bloggers are losers ” to be fair “..I meant there are better alternatives i guess.
Yes There are few successful bloggers who can be successful in other things (ex: Hugh Macleod )..it looks like fishing.
Les Blogs 2.0 — Resumen
Se me había quedado en el tintero digital hacer un resumen de Les Blogs 2.0. Con unos días de por medio, me doy cuenta de lo mucho que van cambiando las cosas y de lo rápido que lo hacen. Hugh…
Les Blogs 2.0 — Resumen
Se me había quedado en el tintero digital hacer un resumen de Les Blogs 2.0. Con unos días de por medio, me doy cuenta de lo mucho que van cambiando las cosas y de lo rápido que lo hacen.…
I enjoyed Lesblogs, more for the networking with people who are passionate about something and conversations with people who are able to see communication/broadcasting in a wider context than just pure blogs.
I wonder what will happen if any of the providers goes down permanently — we just assume that our posts are going to be in cyberspace for ever.
“Real people don’t scale.“
You should see my F5 elbow
Oh, no, Hugh, it wasn’t my panel. It was your panel, and you guys were great. Quite a few people said aftewards that it was one of the best sessions of the conference, and it wouldn’t have been that if I’d been up there whittering on all by myself.