Month: December 2006

Orange provided the WiFi coverage at the LeWeb conference and turned what should have been a triumph into a mess. With more than 600 of the participants fighting for bandwidth, the network infrastructure was always going to be challenged. Based on the frustration expressed by some, I bet the folks at Orange wish they’d never agreed to provide WiFi coverage to LeWeb. Still, it’s better than WiFi access I see back in Australia. I’ve trued the Telstra PCMCIA card and gave up on that. Then I switched to the Optus PCMCIA card and it’s no better. In a world where we’re more and more needing to be always on wireless access has to be addressed – it’s a business requirement if Australian businesses are to remain competitive.

Nicolas Sarkozy, a conservative candidate for the presidency and Minister for the Interior addressed LeWeb this afternoon. While I’m not sure about his politics, his comments about the Internet and the need for France, and any country for that matter, to foster online innovation made sense. He called for easier access, better tools, better education and government support for R&D.

What was important about Sarkozy and other politicians coming the LeWeb today is their understanding of the importance of the blogosphere and the risk to countries which do not innovate.

Back in Australia I am reminded of the debate about who pays for faster broadband and the lack of government support for web 2.0 and related start ups. All Australian Governments ought to be eliminating barriers to online access, they ought to be aggressively funding startup Web 2.0 innovators and they ought to foster a culture of genuine intellectual property development. This is the next natural resource and our Governments, State and federal, seem to engage in all buy lip service.

IP in Web 2.0 and beyond businesses could be our next export and we’re not even having a national public conversation about it. Not seriously. In Australia we need faster, better and cheaper access. We need to foster innovation. We need better tax breaks for this innovation. And, we need politicians who understand the flat earth, open and people driven of the Internet.

Here is Paris we’ve heard from two presidential candidates today who consider the matter so serious that they come and speak to 1,000 bloggers from 37 countries. That says something beyond the fact that there is an election next year. These two had passion and a grasp of what is happening online. They engaged beyond platitudes.

All that said, others were not happy that politicians got time at the conference. Dieter Rappold has some views worth reading as does Tom Morris and Tom Raftery and plenty of others. Do a Google search and you’ll see the blogosphere alight in anger at what many label as the conference being hijacked by the politicians.

3LOVES, our free online dating site has attracted 500 profiles in two weeks since beta launch. 3LOVES is one of four social media offerings which are part of the Find It online classifieds and directory we are launching in partnership with newsagents.

One other surprise today looking at how newspapers and magazines are sold in Paris is the lack of rules. Here’s a foreign newspaper stand at one of the Presse kiosks – it’s easy to browse. The local dailies are close to the counter with the full cover viewable. Back in Australia we have all sorts of rules – how close to the front of the shop, the type of stand to use, the amount of space to give etc. Sometimes these rules get in the way of our customers. Here, with newspapers especially, it’s about easy access.

Here are some random retail-related observations from a day wandering around Paris.

Pharmacies are everywhere and well branded.

Starbucks is almost non-existent.

McDonalds is almost non-existent.

I don’t think the French send greeting cards – I could not find one card shop and I sure covered some ground.

Stationery is also hard to find – I saw two bookshops with reasonable ranges.

Shops are closed on Sunday. So much for us thinking the world will come to an end of we don’t open on Sundays.

I am noticing that imported magazines with a Christmas themed issue sell better at this time of the year. Ben Kay, our Retail Manager is driving this by grouping all such magazines together. As a result overseas craft and home entertaining magazines are generating above average sales. I hope this doesn’t mean our rest of the year supply is increased.

A colleague newsagent recently purchased a gift pack of Cocky Circle children’s books at the local Australia Post outlet. The pack contained five books and a library bag. Newsagents used to sell these – they were very successful – until Murdoch Books withdrew them from sale in newsagencies three or four years ago.

Murdoch Books advised my colleague that Cocky Circle children’s books are printed and packaged for Australia Post as a special supply and that there was no plans to reprint any of the titles to sell to anyone else.

My question is – how is this permitted under the Postal Act?