24 May, 2011

Sarko's Internet show - e-G8 Paris Summit

At least Sarko (French President Nicolas Sarkozy, just in case you don't know) learnt his lesson after his earlier foray into international Internet events. His presence at Web 3 in December 2006, when he was a presidential candidate, did not go down at all well. Most of the audience just didn't know what he was there for! This time, he staged his own event, paid for by industrialists - with whom he has good relations. It does rather remind one of the wealthy amateur singer who hired a concert hall to show off her talents. This time, Sarko's speech was at least relevant. And he even took a small handful of questions - admittedly rather tame ones which gave him the opportunity to expound some more. Perhaps that was why press accreditation did not allow entry into the inaugural speech. But as has been widely pointed out, Sarko's actions related to the Internet since he came to power have not been uncontroversial.

The programme for the rest of the event looks very interesting. It's played out in video on www.eg8forum.com