This post from Hugh is a balanced sensible view of the conference, that many are saying was taken over by politics.

Stowe has some the nitty gritty here.

First of all you are in France, so get over it …. have you forgotten that France wanted to create a French only internet, to create a French competitor to Google, etc etc.  You have to love/ hate the French, and its all perfectly ok.  Ces’t la vie.  This is the country that opted out of NATO.  But they have character, and I will still seek France out, not avoid it.

So, read Hugh’s post, and I am certainly looking forward to LIFT in February.  I know how hard Laurent is working, and talking to people one by one to make his vision happen.  Its not easy, and if things are not quite the way thought it should be, then its time to re-think.  Its not a perfect world, and the final results will be the amalgam of what happens, not what “you” think should happen. 

Final point:  there is only one person responsible for a conferences success – take a look in the mirror – YOU!  If you can attend a conference with 1,000 people as were at le web 3, and not come away with something positive – well, its time to re-consider why you are attending anything.

Strategy is an ugly process, and there will be hiccups along the way.  The things that happened at Le Web 3 are part of that.

If you haven’t signed up for LIFT there is still some space.

I (Hugh) was hanging out with Laurent Haug, who also has a very fine conference in Geneva every February, called LIFT. Commenting on the negative reaction Les Web was getting in the blogosphere, Laurent remarked, “I don’t think some people quite understand JUST HOW DAMN HARD it is to put on a show like this, even a much smaller one than this. I concur”.

Source: gapingvoid: “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards”: le web 3

PS… I must add something.  Le Web 3 thing is totally out of control with people losing their job over it.  I have no view of the participants in this dialogue but a conference, and blog comment, is not reason to go this far.  The emotion level is out of control here.  I presume something between sixapart, and Techcrunch is going on, but whatever … perhaps it wasn’t adequately defined in advance?  Welcome to the world of business I say.