SXSW12 Panel Picker Voting is open now – please help us out with a vote and a comment for “What Social Media Managers need to know but don’t“ – thanks!

After our very successful session “Outsourcing Social Media Professionally Without Selling Your Soul” in this years SXSW, it seemed only logical to submit a similar yet enhanced proposal for next year (judging by the amount of people showing up after three nights of party, on Monday morning, 9:30 am after Daylight Saving Time and the interaction we got from the attendees – I call that very successful).

Kate Buck and I want to pick up the feedback and questions we got to make another session for SXSW 2012.  As always, the sessions have to go through the advisory board and all, but a huge part of SXSW is the so called panel picker: You as the possible attendee vote on the sessions you want to see. If you could spend a moment glancing through this and give feedback to make it more appealing, I would very much appreciate it. :)

Image by Mike Rohde

Long, long time ago, before Berlin even knew it wanted to be hip again, I fell in love with the city. Of course Berlin always was a special city, but in the recent years (even months) it has become a hub for tech and startups.

Lots of articles (see some below) describe the new hotness of Berlin and part of that has to do with Berlin being really cheap and the amount of international visitors / expats. One of my interview partners (Igor Schwarzmann) summed it up: “getting speakers for our Cognitive Cities conference was easy – you just told them it would be in Berlin”. And while it may be hard to get funding in Germany / Europe, who cares? Get your funding some place else and then come to Berlin.

A friend once described being an artist to me as “that thing inside you which wants to come out no matter if you like it or not”.  I don’t consider myself to be an artist, but that pretty much sums up a feeling I have about Berlin. So I decided to make a series of interviews with people from Berlin; how they got there, why they live there, why they find the city attractive, what inspires them and how they see the world.

Yes, these will be audio  but fret not, I will provide you with show notes and links to their projects and social networks, so you can connect with them. And I hope you will fall in love with the city as much as I have!

Have suggestions for interview partner?

I already finished some interviews and am currently in post processing (will start posting next week): Joel Dullroy from Deskwanted, Joel Kaczmarek from Gründerszene, Igor Schwarzmann from Thirdwave, Matthäus Krzykowski from Xyologic, Oliver Beste from Founderslink. The people from Soundcloud are hard to get but already on the list. ;)

I have some ideas of who I want to talk to next, but if you know somebody interesting, let me know in the comments or forward this link. I am specifically looking in the tech / startup sector, but also maybe some design sprinkles.

To get you started in looking at Berlin

Two blogs started writing about the tech scene in Berlin and yes they are in English. A word play on Silicon Valley, the blog Silicon Allee also holds meetups (@siliconallee Facebook). Also dealing with startups is Techberlin (@techberlin Facebook).

Spiegel: Berlin on the Road to Becoming a Start-Up Mecca

Berlin may soon become the place to be for tech entrepreneurs. Berlin may soon become the place to be for tech entrepreneurs. Berlin is home to an ever increasing number of innovative new technology start-up companies — to the point that even Silicon Valley venture capitalists are taking notice. With a new focus on the country, many companies are beginning to innovate rather than simply clone successful American ideas.

Memeburn: Berlin is the hot new city for internet start-ups -

“It’s a big enough city that whatever you’re interested in you can dive into.” Germany’s reunified capital is now one of the most visited cities in Europe and its inner courtyards teem with artists exploring music or creating installations. “A lot of people are attracted by Berlin, Berlin itself is a start-up,” said Alexander Ljung. “It’s growing fast, it’s fairly chaotic. Nobody knows exactly where it’s going but it’s going in the right direction.”

CNBC: Berlin’s new techno beat

“… that are helping to make Berlin such a paradise for start-ups: a cosmopolitan array of young, multilingual skilled workers, swathes of cheap, attractive, post-industrial office space, supportive public agencies, a good infrastructure and growing interest from foreign venture capital.”

Techcrunch: London Is Gonna Be Pissed, But We Prefer Berlin for Startups

“Ecosystem-wise, Berlin has some things going for it that most Western European capitals lack. For starters, it’s cheap to work and live there. Culturally and historically, Berlin is a more natural gateway between Europe’s mature Western economies and the surging talent in Eastern Europe. And Berlin has a surging creative class, largely made up of transplants. It’s become the place where misfits in Europe– people who want to be artists and creators, people who don’t fit in rigid social structures of cities like London– flock to do what they want.”

How Berlin Became the Coolest City on the Planet

In fact, Berlin is cheap — that’s part of the appeal. Soaring real estate prices have driven the starving artists out of downtown Paris, London and New York. But Berlin, with no real industry to speak of, has only the artists to rely on. Here, coolness is an economic survival strategy. As Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit puts it, coining the city’s unofficial motto, “Berlin is poor — but sexy.”

“Berlin has made culture its primary industry,” Berlin festival boss Dieter Kosslick says. “Music, film, art, fashion — that’s been the driving force, the creative industries. It’s an extremely culture-rich, extremely international city.” Caterer K.P. Kofler is more blunt: “Berlin is everything Germany is not: spontaneous, exciting, open and cosmopolitan.”

TC guest post: The upsides and downsides to starting up in Berlin

Two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German capital is vibrant with tourists, artists, and entrepreneurs. The city is home to over 200 startups, more than in Munich, Hamburg and Cologne combined. Berlin’s leadership in this domain is perhaps unexpected – it has hardly ever been an economic centre in Europe or even Germany. [...] “For people who are basically looking for a big career and a lot of money, Berlin is not the right place. But if you are motivated by other things, like creating and learning, Berlin is perfect”

Photo credit: 8.23 you make me smile by dabboj, on Flickr

Going through the Google plus list of circles I find myself asking one question over and over again and I believe others ask this too:

Do I recognize your name?
Do I recognize your photo?
Who are you again?

Are you ‘recognizable’ enough to be added to circles, now that we become more and more connected?  Yes, normal people only have a handful of friends and this question is not relevant to them. But I bet in the very soon future that number will grow, even for those ‘normal’ people.  Our attention span may be able to manage Dunbar’s number of connections, but we have moved far beyond this with social networking – we stay in touch with people much longer than we did previously and connect deeper with strangers. That was not really planned by nature when it designed our memory banks.

Add to this that brands and companies are getting into the mix, people go explore their hobbies and interests and next you know they add 100 “friends” to have a better chance at social games.  They will figure out that having more choice is not a bad thing. Which is when the question comes up again:

Are you satisfied just to be part of the crowd and watch others perform or is it relevant to you to be ‘more’  - whatever that implies, being the rockstar, the artist who wants to show off his work, the collector, the curator, the what else …? 

This was sparked through a conversation with a friend who I wish would ‘publish’ more. I’d like to read what he has to say. But as much as he might have to offer, for him to move beyond the “my friends will read me” sphere, it has to be  ’better. faster. stronger.’ (sorry just in my head phones).  Interesting people are just a click away.

Being part of the audience is neither a bad thing nor that everybody aspires to be ‘more’. Seems like we need new terms and ideas about this. Who are we? What do we want to become and how much of our souls are we willing to sell?

The old model of “I rockstar. You audience” cannot work. I think we need to adapt from situation to situation and technology should help manage this. We have so many data points to enter into the system but as long as the only choice we have is putting people in circle for sending and reading …

That is not enough. The machines should be more clever by now.
Can somebody please start working on that? Thanks.

Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, known for TheNextWeb.com, TwitterCounter.com, has started a site name SocialStatistics.com where top users on Google plus are listed.

I – and most people in the industry I know of – see such a list and add themselves right away. It is like basic promotion / marketing etc., you don’t even think about it. We don’t care about where we are on the list – we do, but only to a certain degree – and use it more for the data point. There will always be people who cry “but it is not a popularity contest” and they are right. But that is not what I am talking about.

Boris has added an interesting sidebar:

This lead me to ping my circles with a call to action “girls add yourself“. It does not surprise me that the number is that low. And I bet if I go through my list of contacts, I can tell you exactly who would register for this site and which would complain at a later time that they are not included.

The 10% are not a real number, I expect there to be roughly 30% females at least in my circles and there is an unusual amount of 2nd and 3rd wave people in my circles with the usual suspects still missing. I attribute that to Google’s current invite setup.

Nonetheless, the people I find on Boris top list are 100% the usual suspects. Currently the service tracks nearly 12K users and you can bet, that these are the usual suspects as well. And they reap the benefits of things like this (you can click through to the site to see the articles linked):

(btw: Reading the last sentence you should realize why I encourage you to click on that link instead of linking the articles right here. You should also understand why I write half of the article about that blog list below but still use Google plus in the title.)

In a totally different circumstance I came across the domain http://www.blogsbywomen.org and was not surprised to find the numbers below. On a total of 3.025 blogs submitted only 2,5% can be generously considered to be tech [Games (16), Technology (33), Science (9), Internet & Computers (19)].

It is by no means a complete list and they do take a submission fee of $5 now for the work, but that is not the point. If you look at the number of women interested right now in Google plus and the list below, you do have an impression on why women always seem to be late adopter. If tech / entrepreneurship etc. would be a person, the answer would be “They are just not that into you.”

Part of why there are so few women in tech is not that there are so few women in tech. There are so few women in tech visible. Because they do not participate in the the ‘dick contests’ the guys are throwing and frown on this. They don’t like to compare themselves and stay away from it.

That is absolutely fine if you are that way. But then stop complaining to others when they understand how the game is played.  If you want to be in the picture, stop being a cheerleader on the sideline and start playing in the game.

Now go over and add yourself to Boris list. :)

As with any major event nowadays, the list of attendees and speakers twittering and sharing pictures from the event is big and it is a bit hard to add people during the event so I like to put together twitter lists with a bit of the available information.You can find the bios of their twitter accounts below. Usually I do only list english speaking accounts but I thought this time, what the heck. ;)

The lists are based on the two lists put together by  @DLDWomen:

• DLDwomen Conference 11 speakers
• DLDwomen Conference 11 participants and speakers

You can follow the lists directly from your twitter account and many applications allow to filter on just a list – this comes in handy. If you rather like a normal search, then this is the right thing for you: Twitter search for dldwomen OR dldwoman (the latter just in case)

And us three will be live blogging from DLD Women:

Nicole Simon – twitter – web
Romy Mlinzk – twitter – web
Valerie – twitter

We will greatly appreciate if you do a lot of twittering from the event as it will make our live much easier ;)  I asked my dear colleagues to tell a bit about them, and this is what they answered:

Valerie currently shares her time between Vienna and Berlin. She is writing her master thesis on digital branding at UdK Berlin and HS St.Gallen.Valerie is very enthusiastic about branding in the digital world. She works at Saffron Brand Consultants on the launch of an Austrian telecom brand. She is inspired by modern art, snowboarding and socializing (in the real and virtual world). Due to winning the Green-Card she wants to switch sides of the Atlantic very soon!

Romy is a Social Media Manager and Consultant at the German communication agency achtung! at Hamburg. She is never offline and really enjoys to discover new things through the internet. After studying Chemistry she decided to turn her passion into a job. For her work-life-balance she loves to listen to good music, going to concerts and making

Sounds like I am in good company ;)

Speakers

Idit Harel Caperton
Ed-Tech-Innovator. SocialEntrepreneur. Founder MaMaMedia.com::WorldWideWorkshop.org TelAviv/Harvard/MIT-MediaLab. http://www.Globaloria.org::Invent.Build.Share.
twitter – web – NYC

Participants who twitter

medina abdelkader
Abstraction is a kind of decadence.
twitter – web – Hamilton, Ontario

The Positive Glass Pearl Principle (TPGPP) works because you can easily offer something to your target group which they desire / want / need. This something does not cost you retail but internal costs or you have connections the others don’t, and so on. To understand the full meaning, we need to look at the negative version of the principle.

The Negative Glass Pearl Principle

Photo by mollycakes

The principle is mostly known in stories around people in the new world giving away their riches like gold for something shiny without value to the giver. If the first group would understand the real value of their goods, they would not trade it for trinkets. Surprisingly enough, though people know about this from their history class, they do not understand the same thing happens online.

I first used this metaphor when writing an article about Qype, the German Yelp, where they ask the user to fill in rich information for peanuts and in return get Gold. The answer from them was like most services do in this case “but you get the recognition and we always show your information with it, so it is attributed!!” Which already back then was bogus, because it would appear on Google as “review from Qype” and not review from Nicole on Qype. I am fine with that at the core, because the benefit I want is not recognition but a usable database to help make my life easier. But please don’t treat me as stupid.

Customers / users are getting more acquainted with the idea of the worth of what they are providing, thus making it harder for companies to ripe the benefits without rewards. Good companies do reward the users adequate if they want to stay in business, bad companies are in danger to get flack for doing so.

The Positive Glass Pearl Principle

The better application of the principle is something I use with clients constantly. As they are looking to tap into the riches of their customers being online, they run into the problem of how to reward them properly for doing what my clients want them to do. By old experience, they believe “reward” to be expensive.

For example they want users to become (and stay) a fan on a Facebook page, participate in a contest to answer a question of the client, or much simpler than that: retweet or like something which clearly is using me, the customer, as a influencer to my friends without paying me for doing your advertisement. This equation does not work and even if you give away an iPhone or an ipad, it will only get you freeloaders and not what you really want and need in the long run.

When they look at what to do in social media an alike, I always ask them: What is a glass pearl to you but is gold to the other side? Very often they have something, without realizing it, to which the other side has only limited access to and thus is willing to do something for it.

Just a few examples, mainly from working with clients:

• One customer had a niche TV channel they partnered with – to organize a kind of show where contestants could be on TV for 15 minutes would have been very easy for them (glass pearl) but for the other side difficult to achieve yet highly desirable (gold).
• Second example would be a media organization with good ties to celebs. For them to organize a meeting with such a celeb or just a meet and greet is not totally easy, yet easy enough. Imagine your target group is teenage girls and you have backstage passes to Justin Bieber.
• Another customer rents apartments for students which are highly sought after. In brainstorming we came up with the idea of having ‘gold’ as ‘get a jump start in the application process’ or just ‘free rent for a month’.
• I have suggested to clients to think a bit broader.  For example, tickets to certain conferences are in high demand. At Blogger most visitors have a hard time funding the trip because they are no businesses, so offering the expenses paid / the ticket / the nice hotel is something desirable
• Help out with your professional infrastructure: Events like Barcamps need rooms and it helps to have food prepared. If your company has a professional kitchen, it is easy to run that on a weekend but hard for organizers to get running for just one event.

If you look closely at it, it costs near to nothing for the company or organization but is highly desirable for the other side. In creating these glass pearls, they also allow their customer to feel good about helping you. They understand it is a glass pearl to you and understand the value of gold, but still want it and everybody is happy.

Do you have other examples where this principle could work? Please share them!

A small little pop up got my attention today:

In the last months (well make that the last year in the US, but there is a rest of the world) we have been seeing a rise of Facebook with what I like to call “normal people”. Not only the moms and dads or the kids, but everyone. (You can call it mainstream, but as I never consider myself to be an earlier adopter, I prefer “normal people” as the ones which for most of my live have called me and my interests “weird”.)

And if you would ask them “do you use Social Media?” like surveys often do, they would deny categorically – because they don’t know what our name for this it. But they do use it. I recently was in a restaurant / café which has been open for 4 days and it already have 300 likes and 50 check-ins.

But the problem with such places is that a) users have to find them from the phone and b) there has to be some additional information like a photo etc. to make it ‘nice’. Now, this will be done by the users. Have a look at Berlin Central Station:

If you click on edit – a principle know kinda from that Wikipedia – you get this:

When sombody enters the geo information, next time I visit a place my mobile phone knows where to place me on the map. You would wish that the owners of the place would fill in the needed information, but they are slow to do so. Users on the other hand will. Maybe not always, but once in a while – more than enough if you have that kind of user base. By enriching the data, combined with the access of demographic data, likes, interests and more it is possible to build a profile of users which should be a privacy nightmare to everyone if you think about it.

For the platform it is a win. No need to buy these data to make the service more useful and the chance to sell more services around this? Awesome. Now Facebook not only has the information where you are but due to the Social Graph can connect the information with your friends and so much more.

Great! But is Facebook responsible enough?

Getting users to add data points like this, using any content the users upload for their own purposes for free and being able to sell it, a user base in the hundreds of millions and people willing to add all their personal information to allow targeted advertisement? No wonder this company is valued so high. Sadly, it is also the Glass Pearl Principle in action, currently on the negative side.

With power comes responsibility and so far there is a bit of a problem. From my – as friends like to say ‘schizophrenic – European point of view on privacy Facebook is on a very slippery slope of how to use data, especially when they come to countries outside the US which actually have data protection laws.

• There is already a lawsuit against Facebook because of the implication of the like button and privacy, , see for example “Facebook’s Top Lawsuits Target User Privacy“.
• Or for example giving away information like phone number and home address to third party’s for free just because a user somewhere clicked yes?
  see f.e.: Facebook Grants Developers Access To Home Addresses … Trouble Waiting To Happen? and Facebook Phone app shares all your phone numbers
• The evil friend finder, aggressively promoted especially to new users, uploads all your contact information into their systemo. Every time a normal person connects with their mail data, chances are other information are in there as well (phone number, address of work and home, birthday etc.) without friends knowing about the upload or even consenting to it.  See “Guardian: Is your private phone number on Facebook? Probably. And so are your friends’” and “Facebook Agrees to Change Friend Finder in Response to German Privacy Complaint” for more.If you used the friend finder in the past, you can use the remover here.

I believe Facebook needs to be very careful in the future how to handle it well enough. The mantra of Google to do no evil has a reason: it is good business.

Could somebody get Facebook a decent targeting team?

With power does not only comes responsibility to use data well, but also a responsibility it is common sense to behave professionally – and so far the advertisement on Facebook sucks.

I have been watching advertisement for some time now, talked to other users and advertisers. Users complained to me not only about irrelevant advertisement but also that feedback is not used, as I can confirm by personal experience. It may be that somebody pays a lot to have this add here, but most people hate irrelevant advertisement and are open to interesting advertisement.

Personal example: While I may be *cough* over the magic 4, I would like a button “no baby stuff please nor ‘trying to get a kid??’” and also no wrinkles and such ads. I clicked repeatedly on “uninteresting” as well as “misleading” and saw no change. I would happily click on advertisement if it was more targeted. Login in once in Denmark served me for two weeks with danish advertisement, though I never chose anything else than German or English as my user interface. That is unprofessional for any modern advertisement system. Back to the topic: They know so much about your movements, your interests etc, that companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon would have a field day and target me with useful advertisement.

Facebook on the other hand is the talented kid in the room which does not know yet how to use their talents. It is kinda okay but by no stretch of imagination at the point where it could be. Now imagine a professional partner like say Microsoft to make use of that data. Btw did you know that Microsoft does allow targeting based on demographics like Facebook does, in certain markets? Their problem is simple: Through MSN Messenger and a like they have a lot of data but in no way comparable to the riches Facebook has at their fingertips. And Google is like most other networks far far behind in getting those data, another reason why it made sense for Microsoft to invest in Facebook, just to hold off Google a bit.

How the social graph changes search

When I say the advertisement sucks, I am more referring to the fact it could be way better. What really is unusable is Facebook search. In all cases it is better to go to a real search engine, look for what you want and just add Facebook to it – the results are so superior it is not even funny. Better put: The Facebook results are so bad – I have constantly the question from fan page owners “It is gone!!” – no it is just not findable anymore for you.

But imagine, somebody who actually understands search would work with the riches Facebook has to offer … and use the social graph and the way advertisement can be done on their engine? For example the German market is strongly in Google’s hand, search wise. But what if Microsoft suddenly can use the Social Graph to enhance these results?

In case you’ve never seen the options when creating an advertisement:

You can basically say things like “only display ads to people from 20-25, female, living 80 miles from New York and are not yet connected to this” or – and that is even the worse one – only display ads to friends of users already connected with me the advertiser. So next time you do say “I like” on a brand, imagine your name being beneath any advertisement this person thinks of saying “(your name) likes this.”

Imagine this in combination with search results.

Positive or negative? We decide

As consumers and customers, even just as people we need to learn more about what companies are doing with our data and how they are using it, and we do need more control over it. Not to be negative on all, I am rather thrilled by the options even I as a blogger can get out of this, but there needs to be check and balance. For example, why not allow me a setting “this page can only use your name as endorsement for the page itself / third party / etc.”. If you educate well and you do no evil, most customers probably will help you. And you need to provide more for me than just glass pearls.  :)

It probably has to do with this “Has CityVille reached its peak? Falling numbers say yes” and this one “Zynga’s Reported $7-$10 Billion Valuation Surpasses That Of EA“

Even if you don’t usually play, it is worth looking at this kind of company and behavior in combination on how Facebook works to see a glimpse of the real power of social networks and what I call “normal people” as well as the dangers which successful games bring for Facebook’s power of the friends network.

Me playing or I love to finally see brand advertisement

As some will know, I have recently taken up playing Cityville. I never got into games like this, but it seems with the combination of your real friends, online and casual gaming this is working for me. And if you tell me “but it is just a waste of time!” let me disagree with you: Since starting to play CV I finally get the advertisement experience on Facebook others probably have had for a while. Up until now I would see nearly nothing, but as a women in my age bracket who started playing a game like that?

*Boom* I now got all the advertisement I need for my slides on how to work with Facebook and Social Media in general. Which is not what they bargained for, but that is another story.

How they usually try to get you to invite friends

Cityville, like most of the games, relies on you having a plot of land where you can work and play. It only is fun if you have neighbors and if you share everything onto your feed. Which is considered by many as spamming (I agree) but the game is not just playable and even more important not as fun as if you can use your friends and the news feed.

Having looked into some of the other games, at least Zynga offers me some choice in how to deal with these invites for quests and gifts etc.: mail all friends or just game friends.

There used to be the option (probably for quicker getting friends in) active Zynga players (assuming they are more likely to try this out which is true) and Farmville friends. That kinda works out okay. Most people learn very quickly that you do not spam your non playing friends and Facebook has banned all the gaming stuff into a separate tab from the news feed.

How Facebook got rid of most of the postings but probably fears the “add me threads”

If you play these games, you want to use all the sharing options for advancement in the game and game fun. Which is exactly why most non players have blocked those apps: it is annoying as hell. Even I as the player don’t want to spam my profile with it but at the same time want to use the game as it is meant to be. In essence, we need a gaming tab for our Facebook profile to deal with that. I for example have to force myself not to post these because I do want my profile to be ‘nice’ to read.

It also poses threats for Facebook in a way that complete strangers accept friend request not because they know them – but just because they need them in the game. Suddenly active friends (the ones with a lot of likes because of our behavior) are not at all friends.  For example it is absolutely common to click like on one of those game entries to say “thank you” or comment on it if the rewards are out. Take into account how Facebook tries to calculate the Edge Rank and News Feed Optimization and you might see where the challenge for Facebook is.

How Zynga is trying now

Being banned out of the news feed, they try to get your more to send your friends invites. I think around Christmas they tried a “adopt a puppy” trick, where you could invite your friends for a bonus, but that was just something you could dismiss because it has no relevant in game value.

The latest in this is the so called Visitor Center which requires you to invite 4 not playing friends. Inviting neighbors has been seen before: if you do not have x neighbors to invite as staff of your community building then you cannot finish it. The hard difference now is: it has to be a ‘fresh player’ and this time it is something people would want to have.

Difference to the invite above at least is stated clearly that you are sending to non playing friends:

To be fair, you do not need to spam your friends – it is not a necessary quest or you could spend 7 dollars. Probably Zynga will be happy about that too. Just …

People are really unhappy

People are really not happy about as you can see here in the official forum. Within hours of posting the “what do you think of it” I pretty much see 70 pages of people not liking it and that is just the one single forum. If you look closer, it is not really so much about having to invite 4 friends (and make that work) but the way it is pushed onto the players.

Over 70 pages is btw the amount of allowed posting because as it seems I am not the only one who ran into their ‘house rules’

Amazing: Within nearly a minute my first posting got deleted by the moderators, as well as my second posting. I can agree on them having house rules on what they accept there and what not but I have to ask myself, if they delete so quickly and there are already over 70 pages in unhappy comments, how much more did they delete?

Even with only being online for probably 2-3 minutes I get friend request from somebody who said they got deleted too and several other comments indicate similar treatment.

I loved the reason for the second delete, number 5 from the list of forum rules

“You may NOT start a thread or post complaining that your post was removed.”

(the rest is also worth a look). As in “don’t let anybody know that we actually work the forums to have them the way we want”.

The beauty of the Net

As I said, I understand where these kind of TOS etc. come from and why they are in place. And of course why they want to ‘encourage’ users to get others into the game. But there are different ways to do so – and one thing companies should have learned: If you push, people will just find another way to deal with it, even the non savy ones.

And here is always more than one place to voice the opinion.

Btw anyone not playing CV and in need for a non playing gamer in their game? Friend me. Happy to barter.  ;o)

I went through the list of participants for Leweb 2010 as available by the 3rd of December and sifted through them to find all the twitter accounts, which are nearly completly in English. Accounts with no tweets or protected accounts are not listed in here. For practical reasons I went for the categories of Europe, North America and Rest of the world.

In total I found 456 entries for  this list, 291 from Europe and 165 from the rest of the world. The english speaking countries of course have a huge chunk of this, but that is why I did it by country. ;) No, it is not perfect but a good start for your getting in touch with Europe. See at the bottom for information about adding / removing people.

And thanks to  Meral Akin-Hecke you can now quickly browse through the list on twitter! Just follow the link to http://twitter.com/kigo/leweb-tweets-english/members and see which Tweeps you are not yet following!

Europe

Austria (4)

• Albert Ortig – @roomle_com – Roomle.com
• Christian Bartosik – @zebramusik – Casinos Austria AG
• Philipp Gamper – @philipp_gamper – Swarovski
• Tamás Locher – @tamaslocher – Garmz

Belgium (10)

• Aude Helleputte – @Keystone – BE
• Carmelo Zaccone – @carmelo – AWT.BE
• Danny Devriendt – @dannydevriendt – Porter Novelli
• Hans De Keulenaer – @hdkeulenaer – European Copper Institute
• Jonas Marien – @jonasmarien – King Foo
• Lars Bredsten – @lbredsten – Inter IKEA Systems S.A.
• Marta Majewska – @princess_misia – Porter Novelli
• Peter Vander Auwera – @petervan – Swift
• Quentin Nickmans – @quentinnickmans – Quinvest
• Robin Wauters – @robinwauters – TechCrunch

Switzerland (18)

• Alexis Dufresne – @faveeo – Inovae
• Christine Perey – @shopalive – ShopAlive SA
• Cyril Lamblard – @cyrillamblard – Nespresso
• deborah kornfilt – @deborahkornfilt – TED
• Denis Harscoat – @harscoat – Quantter
• Elâ Borschberg – @solarimpulse – Solar Impulse
• Farrukh Moriani – @moriani – CorporateWatch Pakistan
• Francois Bochatay – @fbochatay – sobees
• Franz Hoffman – @fontself – Fontself
• Jonas Vonlanthen – @jvonlanthen – Liip
• Marcus Anzengruber – @marcusanz – Campanja
• Nicole Cunningham Zaghia – @cncx – Www.Nicolecunningham.Ch
• Ozgur Aksakal – @oaksakal – odaktech
• Rahaf Harfoush – @rahafharfoush – World Economic Forum
• René Maeder – @renemaeder – Scout24 Schweiz AG
• Sebastien Flury – @SebastienFlury – Creapole SA
• Stéphane Doutriaux – @sdoutriaux – Poken
• William BONUTTO – @williambonutto – Nespresso

Czechoslovakia (1)

• Dragan Varagic – @draganvaragic – P2 Internet

Czech Republic (6)

• Cedric Maloux – @cedricmaloux – Geewa
• Daniel Taylor – @dobrodruh – CloudSource
• Jan Rezab – @janrezab – Facebakers
• Ondrej Bartos – @obartos – Credo Ventures
• Pavel Curda – @pavelcurda – Lupa.cz
• Zdenek Cendra – @bijk_com – Bijk.com

Germany (26)

• Andreas Bodczek – @sponsorpay – SponsorPay
• Anna Hogrebe – @whatser – Sogeo
• Anne Pascual – @AnnePascual – IDEO
• Anton Bollen – @antonbollen – Techsmith
• Barbara Hueppe – @bhueppe – Mozilla
• Benjamin Rohé – @benjaminr – make a startup . com
• Bjoern Taubert – @7grad – Intel Gmbh
• Christian Richter – @computerrock – Computerrock.Net
• Harald Mueller – @momogermany – MobileMonday
• Henning Lange – @henninglange – Adcloud Gmbh
• Jan Borgstädt – @bdmifund – Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments
• Kai Bolik – @kaibolik – Gameduell
• Kerstin Monzel – @develop4appupeu – Intel Gmbh
• Kjell Fischer – @KjellFischer – apprupt
• Marc Strigel – @paynovation – Paypal
• Marco Kaiser – @marco – Seesmic
• Marcus Hauer – @mhauer – IDEO
• Martin Meyer-Gossner – @thestrategyweb – IDG Global Solutions – The Strategy Web
• Muhammad Naseem – @AliShaheen – Coeus Solutions GmbH
• Nicole Simon – @nicolesimon – Cruel To Be Kind
• Ralf Rottmann – @24z – GrandCentrix GmbH
• Rupert Schaefer – @rupertrup – Result
• Ryan Jones – @RyanMacJones – Procter & Gamble
• Sarik Weber – @Sarik – Hanse Ventures Bsj Gmbh
• Stefan Englet – @held_der_nation – Intel
• Stefan Tirtey – @toetoe – Dought Hanson Technology

Denmark (6)

• Alex Farcet – @bootcampdk – Startupbootcamp
• Anders Ibsen – @champ101 – Andco Boost
• Arne Winther – @arnewinther – Ge.Tt
• Jacob Aqraou – @Aqraou – eBay Classifieds Group
• Nicolas Charbonnier – @Charbax – ARMdevices.net
• Tobias Baunbæk – @gettsharing – Ge.tt

Spain (5)

• Adrian Hilti – @busuu – busuu.com
• FRAN CARDELLS – @fcardells – HEC Paris
• Guillaume Balas – @guillaumebalas – 3scale
• Lizzie Hancock – @L1ZZ1E – Research In Motion
• Steven Willmott – @njyx – 3scale

Finland (8)

• Andrea Vascellari – @vascellari – itive.net
• Anna Bessonova – @BessonovaAnna – ArcticStartup
• Arabella David – @darabella – Nokia
• Charlotta Liukas – @charlottaliukas – Aalto Entrepreneurship Society
• Hasse Eriksson – @Hasse_Eriksson – Mediacity, Åbo Akademi
• Lari Haataja – @lhaataja – Aalto Entrepreneurship Society
• Marko Ahtisaari – @moia – Nokia
• Mikko Kuusi – @mikikuusi – Aalto Entrepreneurship Society

France (55)

• Alain Caffi – @ventech_vc – Ventech
• Alex Toulemonde – @alextoul – The Hockey Community
• Alexandre Saint Martin – @nelkosan – Allmyapps
• Alexis Bonte – @alexisbonte – eRepublik
• Antoine de Possesse – @adepossesse – Orange
• Antoine Menet – @amenet – Redcats
• Aurore Labed – @Yakaz – Yakaz
• Baptiste Houlbrèque – @BaptisteH – Student
• Benjamin Laugel – @SN_studio – Soleil Noir
• Benoit Cazenave – @benoitcazenave – Efs
• Benoit Martin – @popcarte – Popcarte
• Bruno Leveque – @Bruno42 – Prestashop Sa
• Cedric Ingrand – @cedric – LCI/TF1
• Chipper Boulas – @chipper_b – Boulas Ventures
• Cyril Renaud – @cyrilrenaud – The American Business School, Paris
• Dan Serfaty – @dserfaty – Viadeo
• Denis Brulé – @dfbrule – Moodstocks
• Emmanuel Léonard – @campusgroups – CampusGroups.com
• Francois Le Palec – @flepalec – Self Employed
• Francois Tison – @360CP – 360 Capital Partners
• Frédéric de Villamil – @fdevillamil – t37.net
• Frederic Gaillard – @fgail – Axance
• Guillaume BELFIORE – @GuillaumeB – Clubic.com | M6 Web
• Guillaume Decugis – @gdecugis – Goojet
• Helen Massy-Beresford – @hmassyberesford – Reuters
• Isabelle Modry – @GreenIvory_en – GreenIvory
• Jean-Christophe Capelli – @JCCapelli – FriendsClear
• Jennifer Schenker – @jennschenker – Informilo
• Jerome Derozard – @cybronics – Cybronics
• Jonathan Koskas – @JonKoskas – Minics.com (2K Electronics SAS)
• Julia Pshenichnaya – @yuliya_ps – Insead
• Julien Bertheas – @jbertheas – Accenture
• Julien Lequertier – @jlequertier – Simplethic
• Khalid Arif – @khalidarif – Netvibes
• Lao Watson-Smith – @laowsmith – SARL Azure Online
• Laubie Raphaelle – @raphaellelaubie – Pagesmed
• Laurent Feral-Pierssens – @lfp – Silentale
• Laurent FLOURET – @lflouret – sanofi-aventis
• Laurent Haug – @laurenthaug – Lift
• Ludovic Galabru – @ludovic – Scrumers
• Mairi McCallum – @mairimack – Miyowa
• Marc Brandsma – @tedesign – Chausson Finance
• Mathias Herberts – @herberts – Crédit Mutuel Arkéa
• Minter Dial – @mdial – The Myndset Company
• morgan hermand – @morgan_hw – VisitorsCafe
• Olivier Cahane – @oliviercahane – Ocp Finance
• Paul Rouget – @paulrouget – Mozilla
• Romain Lacombe – @rlacombe – MEEDDM
• Samuel Goujon – @samuelgoujon – Ubs
• Stéphane Le Viet – @work4labs – Work4 Labs
• Stijn Jacobs – @stijnjacobs – Sportlabgroup
• Sylvie Krstulovic – @krustul – Sofrecom
• Tamara Corasaniti – @tamarandom – Capgemini
• Tariq KRIM – @tariqkrim – Jolicloud
• Thibaut Courouble – @tibc – Nixint

Greece (4)

• Antonios Fiorakis – @afiorakis – Biggerbrand.Com / Triptych
• Dimitris Zotos – @dimitriszotos – Mozaik
• Nikos Anagnostou – @nikan – Scicada
• Vasileios Vryniotis – @webseoanalytics – WebSEOAnalytics.com

Ireland (17)

• Aiden Callaly – @acallaly – Mxsweep
• Colm Lyon – @realexpayments – Realex Payments
• Conor O’Neill – @conoro – Loudervoice
• Daire Hickey – @hidaire – Founders
• Ed Grant – @MXSweepCEO – MXSweep
• Fergus Burns – @feedhenry – FeedHenry
• Ian Rice – @ricei – Cauwill Technologies
• John Peavoy – @johnpeavoy – www.web2ireland.org
• Niall Dawson – @workydev – Worky.Com
• Paddy Cosgrave – @paddycosgrave – Founders
• Peter Coppinger – @petercoppinger – Teamwork Project Manager
• Philip Meagher – @gruupylove – Gruupy.Com
• Ray Nolan – @workyworks – Worky.com
• Ray Walsh – @rwalsh – Enterprise Ireland
• Rob Martin – @rob11n – Miximo
• Ronan Skehill – @skehillr – Cauwill Technologies
• Sam Kidd – @samkidd – Teamworkpm

Israel (4)

• Ayelet Noff – @blonde20 – Blonde 2.0
• Gilli Cegla – @gillic – Novawind Ltd.
• Guy Ronen – @gronen – Tippers
• Sol Tzvi – @soltzvi – Genieo

Italy (5)

• Christian Racca – @pendolare – Politecnico Di Torino
• Fabio Bronzini – @spockwap – INFOMEDIA Edizioni Coop. – Italy
• Gianfranco Chicco – @ConfBasics – Conference Basics
• Marco Palladino – @thefosk – Mashape, Inc.
• Stefano Bernardi – @stefanobernardi – dPixel Venture Capital

Netherlands (8)

• Ammy Vogtlander – @ammy – Elsevier
• Jonathan Marks – @jonathanmarks – NPOX – Critical Distance
• Khuram Hussain – @khuramhussain – Inbox2
• Lisanne Keir – @lisannevos – KGS
• Michiel Verberg – @michielverberg – Sogeo
• Monique Van Dusseldorp – @dusseldorp – Van Dusseldorp
• Roland Rott – @rolandrott – Exact
• Waseem Sadiq – @waseemsadiq – Inbox2

Norway (6)

• Henrik Jørgensen – @HENRIKJORGENSEN – Mindshare Norway
• Mona Hovland Jakobsen – @monsen64 – Telenor Gbdr
• Oystein Wika – @oystein_wika – Norwegian Center For Learning Resources
• Oyvind Solstad – @oyvind – Carat
• Tom Christian Gotschalksen – @tcg1301 – Telenor Group
• Tor Grønsund – @tor – EasyPeasy

Poland (2)

• Chris Kwacz – @Absence2K – Allegro Goup
• Krzysztof “Chris” Kowalczyk – @kkowalcz – UBIK Business Consulting / HardGamma Ventures

Romania (3)

• Cosmin Negrescu – @seomonitor – SEO monitor
• Mihai Cosmin Rotaru – @mihairotaru – Squeeqly
• Raluca Georgescu – @ralucageorgescu – Wembrio

Russian Federation (1)

• Danil Kozyatnikov – @Danilka – aksilon

Sweden (10)

• Annika Lidne – @annika – Disruptive Media
• Erik Wachtmeister – @erikww – Best of all Worlds AB
• Frederic Laziou – @fredericlaziou – Opera Capital Partners
• Frida Roberts – @fridaroberts – Swedish Institute
• Johan Englund – @englundfamily – Industrifonden (Swedish Industrial Fund)
• Mattias Swenson – @mattiasswenson – Swedish Startups
• Mattias Tyrberg – @Tyrberg – Saplo
• Niclas Reimertz – @niclasreimertz – eviware
• Pär Jörgen Pärson – @pjparson – Northzone Ventures
• Per Karlberg – @perkarlberg – Rege League

Slovenia (3)

• Miha Stanovnik – @mstanovnik – Sportifiq
• Roq Xever – @rxever – Sportifiq
• Sayanee Basu – @sweska – Challenge Future

Slovakia (1)

• Szabolcs Gáborjáni-Szabó – @szgaborjani – Slovak Telekom

United Kingdom (88)

• Aaron Franco – @ngrinderjp – Startup Digest
• Adam Baker – @adambaker74 – Blottr.Com
• Adam Bird – @adambird – Esendex
• Adam Tinworth – @adders – One Man & His Blog
• Aléna Dundas – @alenadundas – Techcrunch Eu
• Amy O’Connor – @entropay – Ixaris Systems Ltd.
• Andrew Brackin – @AndrewBrackin – Reward.io
• Andrew Pearce – @asapearce – Ommven Limited
• Andrew Spooner – @andspo – Microsoft
• Azeem Azhar – @azeem – PeerIndex
• Ben Rooney – @benjrooney – The Wall Street Journal, Europe
• Benjamin Wallace – @BangWallace – Google
• Bindi Karia – @bindik – Microsoft UK
• Brent Hoberman – @brenthoberman – Mydeco
• Cate Sevilla – @cupcate – BitchBuzz.com
• Chris Alexander – @chris_alexander – Kodhus
• Christian Hernandez – @christianhern – Facebook
• Claire Lee – @Claire0h – Microsoft Corporation
• Colette Ballou – @coletteballou – Ballou Pr
• Daniel Lewington – @schlemmsy – Apsmart
• David Meinertz – @thedave7 – DrThom
• Dean Fankhauser – @dean – Nuji
• Dean Whitbread – @deekdeekster – Small Pictures
• Dharmash Mistry – @dharmash – Balderton Capital
• Fabio Zammit – @fzammit – Fabio Zammit Ltd
• Fred Lardieg – @fredlardieg – Vodafone Ventures
• Gabriel Ortiz – @nothingGrinder – The Startup Digest
• Gregory Carter – @gregorycarter – Betfair
• Hermione Way – @hermioneway – Techfluff.Tv
• Iain Buchanan – @ibwan – BitchBuzz
• Jamie Riddell – @jamieriddell – Jamieirddell
• Jane Treadwell-Hoye – @JaneTHoye – LexisNexis
• jon bradford – @jd – springboard
• JP Rangaswami – @jobsworth – BT
• Julien Petit – @cabmehome – CabMeHome
• Julien Reynolds – @JPRDragon – Baillie Gifford & Co.
• Katy Turner – @KatyT – Eden Ventures UK Ltd
• Khash Sajadi – @khash – Sentimnt
• Laurent Duchateau – @lmduchateau – Bluemetis Ltd
• Lee Arthur – @leearthuruk – Dow Joness
• Lloyd Davis – @lloyddavis – Centre for Creative Collaboration
• Luke Murphy – @lurkmoophy – 33 Digital
• Marc Barrot – @marcbarrot – Evectors
• Marcell Kiss-Toth – @marcellk – /
• Mat Clayton – @matclayton – Mixcloud
• Max Polyakov – @maxpolyakov – Easydate plc
• Max Robbins – @maxrobbins – Aicache
• Mel Kirk – @melkirk – Randommel
• Mel Young – @melyoung53 – Homeless World Cup
• Michel Cassius – @mcassius – Gekko
• Mike Butcher – @mikebutcher – TechCrunch
• Milo Yiannopoulos – @Nero – Telegraph.co.uk
• Monty Munford – @montymunford – The Daily Telegraph/TechCrunch
• Nancy Williams – @tigertwo – Tiger Two Ltd
• Neil Mcintosh – @nmcintosh – The Wall Street Journal Online
• Neil Stanley – @natter_com – Natter Ltd
• Nic Brisbourne – @brisbourne – DFJ Esprit
• Nick Halstead – @nickhalstead – Mediasift Ltd
• Nicolas Brusson – @nbrusson – Amadeus Capital Partners
• Olivier Grenier – @oli170 – Orange / France Telecom
• Patrick Johnston – @patjohnston – Student
• Peter Crosby – @petercrosby – Viadeo
• Philipp Moehring – @pmoehring – Seedcamp
• Rachel Clarke – @rachelclarke – Momentum
• Richard Alberg – @richardalberg – MyWorkSearch Ltd
• Richard George – @richardageorge – Linkedin
• Richard Titus – @rxdxt – Octavian Ventures
• Roberto Bonanzinga – @bonanzinga – Balderton Capital
• Robyn Scott – @robynscott – OneLeap
• Sanyu Kiruluta – @blackberrydev – Blackberry
• Sergei Golubev – @sgolubev – UX Devigner Ltd
• Simon Cross – @sicross – Facebook
• Simon Grice – @simongrice – ideas.org
• Simon Summerscales – @Summerscales – Famille Summerbelle Ltd
• Sitar Teli – @sitar – Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures
• Stephanie Bouchet – @rougefrog – Rougefrog
• Stephen O’Reilly – @steoreilly – Mobile Roadie
• Stevan Litobac – @stevanl – Sl
• Stuart Dredge – @stuartdredge – Mobile Entertainment
• Suhail Uddin – @ixaris – Ixaris Systems Ltd
• Thai Tran – @thait – T-Squared Labs
• Tina Yang – @tinayang – Nokia
• Tony Joseph – @tonyj100 – Dow Jones
• Vanessa Mcdonald – @vanessamcd – Ballou Pr
• Vincent Camara – @VincentC – Intruders Productions
• Vincent Thome – @thomevincent – Nuji
• Wendy Tan-White – @wendytanwhite – Moonfruit
• Yoel Flohr – @Yoel – Shine Group

North America

Canada (14)

• Alistair Croll – @acroll – Bitcurrent
• Diane Bourque – @dianebourque – Web Specialist
• Garnaud Emmanuelle – @idead – IdeAd
• Jake Levant – @fring – Fring
• John Stokes – @iamjohnstokes – Real Ventures
• Kevin Morris – @kmorr – Kevin Morris
• Peter Diedrich – @PeterNeediumHQ – Praized Media Inc.
• Philippe Fekete – @pfek – Qc média
• Philippe Martin – @PhilippeMartin – La Fabrique de Blogs
• Philippe Moreau – @philmoreau – Qc média
• Ralph Baddour – @myBADmusic – Jamba
• Shaun Walker – @sbwalker – Dotnetnuke Corporation
• Sylvain Carle – @afrognthevalley – Praized Media
• Tara Hunt – @missrogue – Shwowp, Inc.

United States (139)

• Alex De Carvalho – @alexdc – University Of Miami
• Alex Pachikov – @alexpach – Evernote
• Alexia Tsotsis – @alexia – Techcrunch
• Alfonso Olvera – @FonzOlvera – University Of Houston
• Amy Sorokas – @asorokas – Microsoft
• Andrew Sinkov – @sinkov – Evernote
• Angela Zaeh – @angelazaeh – Facebook
• Aurelia Ammour – @aureliaammour – IVENTURES CONSULTING
• Bernard Desarnauts – @bdesarnauts – Glam Media
• Betsy Weber – @betsyweber – Techsmith
• Bill Sanders – @technacea – Roebling Strauss, Inc.
• Brad Berens – @bradberens – dmg :: events
• Brian Hoskins – @bthoskins – Microsoft
• Brian Solis – @briansolis – Digital Analyst, Sociologist and Futurist
• Chris Chiappone – @chiappone – Isidorey
• Christine Tsai – @christine_tsai – 500 Startups
• Christophe Daligault – @dalijet – Fotopedia
• Clint Nelsen – @clintnelsen – Startup Weekned
• Dan Caffee – @dancaffee – Neutron Interactive
• Daryll McDade – @daryllmc – THE Microsoft Corporation
• Dave Mcclure – @davemcclure – Startup Investor
• Dave Morin – @Path – US
• David Grunwald – @David – GTS
• David Hornik – @davidhornik – August Capital
• David Soloff – @metamx – Metamarkets
• Denise Hulce – @dmhulce – SendGrid
• Dennis Crowley – @dens – Foursquare
• Dmitry Stavisky – @dstavisky – Evernote
• Edwin Lap – @webdesignmyths – MERCL
• Epirot Ludvik Nekaj – @LAdvertising – Ludvik + Partners
• Eric Felland – @efelland – Northwestern University
• Eric Ly – @ericly – Presdo Inc.
• Eric Schwartzman – @ontherecord – On the Record…Online
• Eric Schwartzman – @ericschwartzman – On the Record…Online
• Erin Berard – @ekberard – Ventoux Consultants
• Faith Merino – @faithmerino – Vator.tv
• Freddy Mini – @freddymini – Netvibes
• Frederic Lardinois – @FredericL – ReadWriteWeb
• Gabe Rivera – @gaberivera – Techmeme
• Gary Vaynerchuck – @garyvee – Wine Library TV
• Gavin Warrener – @gavinw – Microsoft
• Greg Biggers – @bigs – Genomera
• Houda Berrada – @IMFNews – International Monetary Fund
• Howard Lindzon – @HOWARDLINDZON – Stocktwits.com & Social Leverage
• Idarose Sylvester – @idarose – Silicon Valley Link
• Irene Koehler – @IreneKoehler – Almost Savvy
• Isaac Saldana – @isaldana – SendGrid
• Jack D. Hidary – @jackhidary – SmartTransportation.org
• Jacob Mullins – @jacob – Microsoft BizSpark
• James Nichols – @CATALYSTAJIM – Dmg:Events
• James Siminoff – @jamiesiminoff – Phonetag
• Jared Goralnick – @technotheory – Awayfind.Com
• Jason Gegere – @gegere – Htmlgraphic
• Jason Goldman – @goldman – Twitter
• Jason Jacobs – @jjacobs22 – RunKeeper
• Jason Rosenthal – @jasonprosenthal – Ning
• Jeff Clavier – @jeffclavier – SoftTech VC
• Jeff Hansen – @jeffhan – Microsoft
• Jeff Israely – @jeffisraely – Time/Worldcrunch
• Jeremiah Owyang – @jowyang – Altimeter Group
• Jeremy Le Van – @jeremylv – Seesmic, Inc.
• Jessica Verrilli – @jess – Twitter
• John Ham – @johnham – Ustream
• Joseph Essas – @jessas – eHarmony
• Joy De Vera – @jdevera – International Monetary Fund
• Julia Lam – @JuliaLam – Facebook
• Karen Daitch – @Daitchy – K-Squared
• Kevin Rose – @KEVINROSE – Digg
• Kris Tuttle – @heuristocrat – Research 2.0 / GigaOM
• Leo Laporte – @LEOLAPORTE – Speaker & Broadcaster
• Loic Le Meur – @loic – Seesmic
• Ludovic Ulrich – @ludoulrich – Microsoft – BizSpark
• Luke Newman – @LukeNewman2 – Microsoft
• Lynn Fox – @foxycar – Ustream
• Lynn Le – @lynnleonthego – University of Portland
• Madlen Nicolaus – @madleeeen – Kodak
• Marc Maniez – @marcmaniez – Twitter
• Marissa Mayer – @marissamayer – Google
• Mathieu Nouzareth – @mnouz – FreshPlanet
• Matt Mullenweg – @PHOTOMATT – Automattic WordPress.com
• Melissa Middleton – @RueJNSQ – JeNeSeQua
• Mg Siegler – @parislemon – Techcrunch
• Michael Arrington – @ARRINGTON – TechCrunch
• Michael Schneider – @msfd – Mobile Roadie
• Mikael Hed – @RovioMobile – Rovio
• Mike Germano – @mikegermano – Carrot Creative
• Mike Jones – @mjones – MySpace
• Mike Maney – @the_spinmd – Alcatel-Lucent
• Mike Sigal – @msigal – Guidewire Group
• Mindy Hull – @mmhull – Mercury Global Partners
• Mitchell Baker – @mitchellbaker – Mozilla Foundation
• Morgan Denis – @morgandenis – LeWeb
• Moti kahana – @rent2buy – rent2buy
• Nasser Batley – @nbatley – Batley Capital
• Nicolas Occhiminuti – @twittmewellnic – UCLA Anderson
• Nicole Stutzman – @nikkistutz – Dallas Museum of Art
• Nikesh Arora – @nikesharora – Google
• Oliver Starr – @OWStarr – Pearltrees
• Oren Michels – @orenmichels – Mashery
• Osama Bedier – @obedier – Paypal
• Pascal Lorne – @pascallorne – Miyowa
• Patrick Chanezon – @chanezon – Google
• Paul Papadimitriou – @papadimitriou – Constellation Research
• Paul Sterling – @paulsterling – Umbraco
• Pete Cashmore – @mashable – Mashable
• Peter Biddle – @PNBlive – Intel Corporation
• Phil Libin – @plibin – Evernote
• R. Josh Quarles – @nosilver – Green Robe Industries
• Raluca Musaloiu-Elefteri – @ralucam – Meraki, Inc.
• Razmig Hovaghimian – @viikii – ViKi
• Renee Blodgett – @magicsauce – We Blog the World & Magic Sauce Media
• Robby Ingebretsen – @ingebretsen – Pixel Lab
• Robert Laing – @robert_laing – myGengo
• Robert Scoble – @scobleizer – American Blogger, Technical Evangelist and Author
• Ryan Block – @ryan – Emeritus gdgt & Engadget
• Salim Ismail – @salimismail – Singularity University
• Sarah Lane – @sarahlane – Twit.Tv
• Sean Garrett – @sg – Twitter
• Seth Stolbun – @sethstolbun – SL Stolbun
• Slave Jovanovski – @slavejovanovski – Google Inc
• Stephane Delbecque – @sdelbecque – Footbalistic.com
• Steve Apfelberg – @sapfelbe – Yammer
• Steven Comfort – @stevenc – Fwix
• Susan Kang Nam – @pinkolivefamily – Pink Olive Inc.
• Tanguy Peers – @tanguypeers – eBay Inc
• Ted Forbes – @tedforbes – Tedforbes.Com
• Terrence Danial – @terryontech – JobSquared.com
• Thomas Robbins – @trobbins – Kentico Software
• Toni Schneider – @tonidotorg – Automattic, WordPress.com
• Tony Conrad – @tonysphere – True Ventures
• Travis Kalanick – @konatbone – Entrepreneur and Investor
• Trevor Cornwell – @trevorcornwell – appbackr
• Veronica Belmont – @veronica – Tekzilla
• Vitaliy Rizhkov – @ryjkoff – Idooble Inc.
• Vivian Norris – @vigilantevnm – Huffington Post & Vigilante VNM Productions
• Vivienne Walt – @vivwalt – TIME Magazine
• YACINE BAROUDI – @FASTAKE – FASTAKE
• Ym Ousley – @Signature9 – Signature9
• Zachary Bogue – @zackbogue – Founders Den

Rest of the World

Australia (2)

• Kate Carruthers – @kcarruthers – Digbiz
• Matt Barrie – @freelancer – Freelancer.com

Brazil (1)

• Paulo Henrique Campos Filho – @phcf – Stefanini IT Solutions

China P.Rep. (2)

• Benjamin Joffe – @benjaminjoffe – +8* | Plus Eight Star
• Thomas Crampton – @thomascrampton – 360 Digital Influence

Jordan (2)

• Nina Mufleh – @ninamufleh – Modern Media, LTD
• Zafer Younis – @zaferyounis – Modern Media, LTD

Japan (1)

• Steven Nagata – @stevenagata – Longfeld Consulting Services

Fr. Polynesia (1)

• Terupe Salmon – @TerupeSalmon – Startup

Singapore (3)

• Chinmay Pendharkar – @ntt – Tech65.org
• Erwan Mace – @bitsmedia – Bitsmedia Pte Ltd
• Johan Stael Von Holstein – @Johanstael – MyCube

If I missed somebody who is also attending Leweb 2010, please add yourself to the comments but note that you should only add yourself if you do tweet nearly completly in English. Also the other way around – if somebody is in here who does not belong, please note as well, so I can take them out. Please note that while in Paris I will not be able to edit this list.

It is only a few more days until Leweb and the weekend is a good time to start thinking about networking and how to use the time in Paris. The program looks impressive but as usual, Leweb and other conferences of this size are best used for networking and connecting with like minded or interesting people.

First things first: Networking is a real skill and there are people out there, who are not only are really good at it, they are also charming and exciting to talk to and with. Meet Colette Ballou (@coletteballou), who’s article “Hold on – who are you again? Networking tips in time for Le Web” is not just good for Leweb but for every other conference.  Go over there, print it out and put it in the folder with stuff to read on the plane.  She describes mostly on site stuff, mine is a little bit more about what you should do before.

Let’s get started with the conference tool number one: Twitter.

Get on with twitter and look at the searches

• Don’t have a twitter account yet? Get one or you will hate yourself because you missed out on all the real fun and more importantly on all relevant information. It is okay just to have one for this event and then stop it again. It is also the quickest way to post photos from the event.
• Learn how to use the search: Visit search.twitter.com and enter the term “Leweb OR leweb10“. This is where all the information will be in real-time or to be more precise already is. Not Facebook, not the web: conference communication is on twitter.
• I have not tested this, but if you use the Twitter app with your Facebook profile, it should automatically connect you with all the people in your FB who are also on twitter. Easier version: Use the participants list and click on their twitter profiles and follow them just for this.
• Private messages can only be sent to people you are connected on both sides, but most people I know do have a so called Vanity search setup (take a look at mine). If you know the name of a person, use their name with an @ in front and they will see it. If in doubt, use their full name, people usually have that included in their search.
• If you are really lost, now is the time to find somebody you know and bribe them to show you the few things you really need to know about twitter. This should take about 5-10  minutes.

Prepare your mobile devices

• If your social network of choice allows downloading your contact information, now would be the time to sync it. Don’t forget to add your mobile phone number with country code!
• Make bookmarks for relevant sites.
  When at Leweb, you do not have the time or Wi-Fi access to surf as you usually do. Quick solution: Visit all sites you find relevant and then mail yourself this link list. Access this from the mobile phone one by one and make a bookmark.
• Install all relevant software on your mobile devices and test in your home network, if Twitter, Facebook and co work. During the event, this software will help you save data transfer. Yes, you could use the mobile websites but these apps are much better and usually they can reuse lists and searches you have setup before on the desktop tools or website. This could be a good time to test out the mobile versions of Seesmic, the company of Loic Le Meur. It is also a good test if you have all passwords with you.
• Test to upload a photo to your sharing site of choice. Tip: Use twitter and the build in feature to send to sites like Twitpic.
• Setup your mobiles for offline use. Let’s not kid ourselves: This is a conference, where each attendee is at least going to have one gadget with them with Wi-Fi, probably more. It is always a struggle to connect on these events and usually it does not work when you need it.
  

Examples of information you should be downloading

• email addresses + phone numbers of people you want to meet
• screenshots of maps with all relevant locations
• the program and the participants list
• addresses of venues of the parties, including the trip information going there
• reservations for hotels / flights
• given the current weather information you might also want to add information from the airline you are using
• [what did I forget? please add in the comments]

This is best done into a simple text file which you also can print out in smaller print to take with you. I prefer the file based Dropbox for this:  It syncs with your hard drive and has mobile apps for most platforms. I like to save my information to a special travel folder then sync it from there to the different devices I use. F.e. Goodreader for the iPad does connect to Dropbox.

For screenshots I have been using Snagit for years, its profile feature is worth the price alone. My travel profile saves all screenshots automatically to my travel folder. This way I can go crazy on the screenshots and know they all will be saved where I need them. I not only use it for images but also screenshots of text I want to remember. If you don’t want to pay right now, think about testing out Jing, the little free brother of Snagit. My friend Betsy Weber (@betsyweber) is the evangelist for Techsmith and also at Leweb; she has lots of experiences and connections in Europe not just for screen casting.

Decide how to spend your time

Look through the program and decide, which slots you really cannot live without. Everything else is optional and the time can be used in a more productive manner. This includes the parties: In theory it sounds like a great ideas. But as Leweb is such a huge event, chances are that most of them will be overcrowded and loud. Spend your time with others and don’t be shy to ask others if they want to go dinner some place. If in doubt: Go to bed early and rather use that additional two hours in the morning at breakfast to meet people (and this is coming from somebody who loathes events starting this early). Back to the event.

Leweb offers a unique choice of attendees from all over Europe (yes, and the world) and should be used as such. Decide what you are interested in for yourself and let others help you find counterparts in other European countries. You don’t want exchange with other Europeans? Think again: Even if you do not want to connect, you could learn a lot from them and apply what they do locally in your country. Trust me, it’s worth it.

Start with the official blogger list and move on to the participants list. Don’t forget the workshops, startup presentation plus demo booth and the sponsors. Put some time aside to go through the exhibition hall because even if you are not interested in the products; do not forget that the people there might be able to connect you with others you are highly interested in. As the vendors who is there and if they can connect with somebody. A good start is to look again at the participants list or choose the live version on Amiando where you also can search.

Which leads us to the most important tool of the event: Presdo Match. I have collected some tips on how to “Part 1: Prepare your Presdo Match profile for #Leweb” in the next article.