cruel to be kind

Blogger Edition - LeWeb 2008 interview

Nicole Simon — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 08:20:00 -0800

[Back to the overview of all LeWeb08 interviews]

This is a combined edition of some of the bloggers attending through the Blogger Programm. It is the last entry for my preconf podcast interviews and I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. :)

Enjoy the talks with:

Erno Hannink - @ernohannink
Andrea Vascellari - @vascellari
Peter Bihr - @thewavingcat
Tom Morris - @tommorris - Thanks for the Plato ;)

Download MP3 (42 min, 39 MB)

Additional links

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listening to the blogger edition http://tinyurl.com/ctbk096 leweb interview

If you have a favourite quote to add to the shownotes, please leave a comment (or tweet and include ctbk096) with it
You can find a list of all of my interviews for Leweb using this link.
Follow what others are saying using the tag "leweb or leweb08" on Twitter.
Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings to geht all episodes or you only will get one episode per day!

Linda Avey - LeWeb 2008 interview

Nicole Simon — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 06:47:00 -0800

[Back to the overview of all LeWeb08 interviews]

Linda Avey is the Co-Founder of 23andMe, a company which enables people to access and understand their own personal genetic information. Basically they are using the curiosity of a human being to find out more about themselves, but want to help them at the same time. As they describe it:

23andMe, Inc. is the leading personal genetics company dedicated to helping individuals understand their own genetic information through DNA analysis technologies and web-based interactive tools.

We talk about

what kind of information you get back and how to use it
how many samples they have in their database and how they use it
privacy and security of the data
what they hope to track / research and share with others
from anchestry up to "how much does coffee work on me?"

Download MP3 (23 min, 21.5 MB)

The website has some great slideshows of the results, for example:

Additional links

Want to spread the love? Why not tweet (click on link to tweet)

listening to http://tr.im/ctbk095 with @ leweb interview

If you have a favourite quote to add to the shownotes, please leave a comment (or tweet and include ctbk095) with it
You can find a list of all of my interviews for Leweb using this link.
Follow what others are saying using the tag "leweb or leweb08" on Twitter.
Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings to geht all episodes or you only will get one episode per day!

Ewan Spence - LeWeb 2008 interview

Nicole Simon — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 06:09:00 -0800

[Back to the overview of all LeWeb08 interviews]

Ewan Spence (Blog / @ewanspence) describes himself as 'someone who walks the internet like Caine from Kung-Fu with broadband.' In real life his versatility in a number of spaces, including mobile technology, social media, podcasting and entrepreneurship allows him to comment from experience on many of the issues that pervade Le Web and the growing digital world. You may also remember him as one half of a memorable light-sabre fight at a previous Le Web. This year, he is speaking on a panel on Mobile Social Networks thanks to both his involvement in stealth start-up Wubud, and leading smartphone news site All About Symbian.

In this podcast, we chat about the changes happening in the mobile world and how social networking is coming to mobiles, the efforts of mobile manufacturers and networking companies to attract customers, with an emphasis on application development. Can the fractured nature of smartphones really replicate the PC development ecosystem?

the mobile computing a d PDA world of the 1990s growing into the modern smartphone world.
modern social networks and how they have interfaced with personal handsets and the advantages that offers (such as location based profiling).
the strengths of mobile, commerce, music, pictures, video, and the availability of a web browser wherever you are.
the commoditisation of the handset, and the financial effects this can have on manufacturers and networks.
the territorial factors that determine the best handsets for a country.
the three areas that affect purchasing decisions; coverage, technology and service cost.
why the Apple iPhone is not the game-changing platform that it first appears to be ? Steve Jobs backed away from something truly revolutionary.
why the mobile phone is the most personal device in history, and why personalisation is important.
the problems of developing for these platforms, and why Apple are winning in this area.
and what he expects and looks forward to from Le Web.

Download MP3 (38 min, 36 MB)

Additional links

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listening to http://tinyurl.com/ctbk094 with @ewanspence leweb interview

If you have a favourite quote to add to the shownotes, please leave a comment (or tweet and include ctbk094) with it
You can find a list of all of my interviews for Leweb using this link.
Follow what others are saying using the tag "leweb or leweb08" on Twitter.
Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings to geht all episodes or you only will get one episode per day!

Klaas Kersting - LeWeb 2008 interview

Nicole Simon — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 05:29:00 -0800

[Back to the overview of all LeWeb08 interviews]

Klaas Kersting is the CEO and Co-Founder of Gameforge:

Gameforge is the largest independent supplier of browser- and client-based MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games) worldwide. The company offers more than 12 games in over 50 languages. More than 65 million players have already registered for Gameforge games, and more than 13 million people actively play the company?s online titles.

We talk about

role playing and strategy seem to be targeted to a male audience
why the Asian market is so far ahead
differences of the markets - Europe / Asia / North America
the relevance of language barriers and why you have to know the market
should game development go browser / mobile / desktop?
Mobile gaming is the next big thing since 10 years ... Our mobile strategy is: waiting.
chances of what can be done mobile for gaming
why gaming is a huge and perfect market to be in right now
how did they start, failed in the English market and then expanded to 50 languages
why the US companies have a profit-limiting view on the world
the mess of international payments on the net

Download MP3 (29 min, 27 MB)

Additional links

Want to spread the love? Why not tweet (click on link to tweet)

listening to http://tr.im/ctbk093 with Klaas Kersting (Gameforge) leweb interview

If you have a favourite quote to add to the shownotes, please leave a comment (or tweet and include ctbk093) with it
You can find a list of all of my interviews for Leweb using this link.
Follow what others are saying using the tag "leweb or leweb08" on Twitter.
Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings to geht all episodes or you only will get one episode per day!

Robin Good - LeWeb 2008 interview

Nicole Simon — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 04:04:00 -0800

[Back to the overview of all LeWeb08 interviews]

Robin Good (blog / @robingood) is the Chief Editor for Master New Media.

We talk about the Love to explore, to learn and love to expand you knowledge.
(sorry no more shownotes currently but it is a nice interview trust me ;) )

Download MP3 (29 min, 27.3 MB)

Additional links

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listening to http://tr.im/ctbk092 with @RobinGood leweb interview

If you have a favourite quote to add to the shownotes, please leave a comment (or tweet and include ctbk092) with it
You can find a list of all of my interviews for Leweb using this link.
Follow what others are saying using the tag "leweb or leweb08" on Twitter.
Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings to geht all episodes or you only will get one episode per day!

David Recordon - LeWeb 2008 interview

Nicole Simon — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 09:44:00 -0800

[Back to the overview of all LeWeb08 interviews]

David Recordon (Website / Blog / @daveman692) is the Open Platforms Tech Lead for Six Apart. We talk about

about how the web has come a long way from being pockets of information to where applications become social and work from there
OpenID adoption + and why Facebook connect may not be your best bet
the adaption of open technologies like OpenID / OAuth and alike in general and in companies like Six Apart
how large companies are shiping these with their products, f.e. AOL mapquest launched using openid
importance of local language and adoption and how that is built into the DNA of SixApart
what kind of conversations he would love to have in Paris

Download MP3 (18:22 min, 17.2 MB)

Additional links

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listening to http://tr.im/ctbk091 with @daveman692 leweb interview

If you have a favourite quote to add to the shownotes, please leave a comment (or tweet and include ctbk091) with it
You can find a list of all of my interviews for Leweb using this link.
Follow what others are saying using the tag "leweb or leweb08" on Twitter.
Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings to geht all episodes or you only will get one episode per day!

Helen Fisher - LeWeb 2008 interview

Nicole Simon — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 05:57:00 -0800

[Back to the overview of all LeWeb08 interviews]

Doctor Helen Fisher is a biological anthropology professor at Rutgers University, major researcher in the field of romantic interpersonal attraction, considered as the world's leading expert in the topic of love, is involved of creation in the dating websites chemistry.com and match.com and the author of four books. Most famously for Leweb though she is the inspiration for this years theme: Love. As she says in the interview

Love is a very powerful drive. People live for it, they kill for it and they die for it.

We talk about

The different kinds of love that exist and about the brain systems that are involved with them
Her brain scanning experiments and the notion, that love is a primitive drive, not an emotion
The sophisticated structures of attachment
Studies she has conducted and some results of them
The concept of marriage and why it is not a natural law
The non existing cultural differences when it comes to feelings involved with love
How the fact, that she is an identical twin, created her interest for the love subject
How genes determinate behavior
The rules of nature that make people fall in love with a specific person
About the four different basic types of character and the genes and chemicals that define them
The types of Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy, Gordon Brown, John McCain, Bill Clinton and Nicolas Sarkozy
How Helen stumbled into Mother Nature's kitchen and found the recipe for love
How these different kinds of personality influence history and the course of the world, shown on the examples of Yeltsin and Gandhi
How the four types were expressed in archaic times and how they types evolved to organize group life
The types most bloggers belong to

Download MP3 (32 min, 29.3 MB)

Her books:

Also thanks to Markus Roder for pointing out that Helen also did Ted:

Additional links

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listening to Helen Fisher about LOVE http://tr.im/ctbk090 #leweb #interview

If you have a favourite quote to add to the shownotes, please leave a comment (or tweet and include ctbk090) with it
You can find a list of all of my interviews for Leweb using this link.
Follow what others are saying using the tag "leweb or leweb08" on Twitter.
Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings to geht all episodes or you only will get one episode per day!

Itay Talgam - LeWeb 2008 interview

Nicole Simon — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:23:00 -0800

[Back to the overview of all LeWeb08 interviews]

As a conductor Itay Talgam gets many people (who are creative in their own individual aspects) to work coherent together and make music - the similarities to business and technology are striking. Understanding such an 'outside' topic like music and conducting orchestras might give you some new insight and ideas.

We talk about:

what is a conductor doing in internet conference (because the love for music is everywhere)
how a conductor connects with his players and audiences
why music brings people together and is so very emotional - music is a shared experience yet is a private thing
anything organized in time could be music / music a visual process
technology is a way to broaden the way how we experience the world, for example how you can make music from the electronic information coming from a GPS satellite, feel a movement in space to transform into music
creativity through collaboration: a conductor is working with 100 people, the music played by somebody else - how without to limit induividual creatvity still harness all energy to get a coherent interpretation
why he would like to see some 'spiritual' discussion take place

Download MP3 (27:40 min, 16 MB)

Additional links

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listening to http://tr.im/ctbk089 with @ leweb interview

If you have a favourite quote to add to the shownotes, please leave a comment (or tweet and include ctbk089) with it
You can find a list of all of my interviews for Leweb using this link.
Follow what others are saying using the tag "leweb or leweb08" on Twitter.
Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings or you only will get one episode per day!

Fred Wilson - LeWeb 2008 interview

Nicole Simon — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:31:00 -0800

[Back to the overview of all LeWeb08 interviews]

Fred Wilson is an early stage venture capitalist and co-founder of Union Square Ventures, twitters under @fredwilson and blogs on avc.com about web technologies, finance and venture capital.

We talk about

why he is interested in the ways the web changes the business world and how internet companies can - while America is facing the downturn - grow and actually take market shares from existing businesses
why he has, despite of the down turn, an optimistic outlook for web-based companies and will invest aggressively
his fields of investment and the restructuring of the media industries
characteristics of the kind of businesses he is interested in
why the area of finance is in great need of being reinvented
I think the time has come to change the way that consumer finance business works and make it work better for the consumer and be more transparent for the consumer
why consumers should start to manage their finances on their own and how the web could help here
why he started to invest in European companies and why it is difficult to finance projects based in Asia
in which areas of (web) technology Europe is ahead of the States and more innovative
why European entrepreneurs should rather take a global approach when doing business and some advantages of European entrepreneurs over their American counterparts

Download MP3 (22:30 min, 13.2 MB)

Additional links

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listening to http://tr.im/ctbk088 with @fredwilson leweb interview

If you have a favourite quote to add to the shownotes, please leave a comment (or tweet and include ctbk088) with it
You can find a list of all of my interviews for Leweb using this link.
Follow what others are saying using the tag "leweb or leweb08" on Twitter.
Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings or you only will get one episode per day!

Joi Ito - LeWeb 2008 interview

Nicole Simon — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:40:00 -0800

[Back to the overview of all LeWeb08 interviews]

Joi Ito is an Early stage investor in consumer internet companies, CEO of Creative Commons and on several boards of NGOs. We talk about

The usage of desktop PCs, laptops and mobiles in Japan as means to connect to the internet and why the size of Japanese homes has an impact on these patterns
Why the way the Americans access the Internet is actually quite weird and how the structure of society shapes online habits
Why from a user perspective mobiles have a lot of advantages over laptops
Why the Japanese focus on consoles for playing video games reduces their flexibility in accessing the internet
Why the technology gap between older and young generations can probably not be gapped and why companies nevertheless must bridge these gaps at least inside their organizations
The fundamental difference of how the younger generation deals with modern technologies
Why the approach of the young generation to media changes their personality
The productiveness and creativeness of users nowadays and why things became slightly better compared to former times
The evolution and evolvement of the Creative Commons project (wiki link)
How people like you and me can contribute to the cause of creative commons

Infos about him taken from his signature:

CC Newsletter - A Shared Culture Video
CC Network main page - Help Build the Commons

My Blog - My Photos -
Facebook Profile - LinkedIn Profile - Twitter

Download MP3 (23 min, 21.5 MB)

Additional links

Want to spread the love? Why not tweet (click on link to tweet)

listening to http://tr.im/ctbk087 with @joi leweb interview

If you have a favourite quote to add to the shownotes, please leave a comment (or tweet and include ctbk087) with it
You can find a list of all of my interviews for Leweb using this link.
Follow what others are saying using the tag "leweb or leweb08" on Twitter.
Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings or you only will get one episode per day!

David Weinberger - LeWeb 2008 interview

Nicole Simon — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:17:00 -0800

[Back to the overview of all LeWeb08 interviews]

David Weinberger clearly is one of my favourite interview guests as he always has something interesting to talk about. We touch his current involvment, politics on getting Obama elected and the role of Twitter.

[shownotes to follow]

More information about him: Wikipedia / Webseite / Blog Twitter: @dweinberger

Download MP3 (32 min, 30 MB)

Additional links

Want to spread the love? Why not tweet (click on link to tweet) listening to http://tr.im/ctbk086 with @dweinberger leweb interview

If you have a favourite quote to add to the shownotes, please leave a comment (or tweet and include ctbk086) with it
You can find a list of all of my interviews for Leweb using this link.
Follow what others are saying using the tag "leweb or leweb08" on Twitter.
Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings or you only will get one episode per day!

Brian Cox - LeWeb 2008 interview

Nicole Simon — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:45:00 -0800

[Back to the overview of all LeWeb08 interviews]

Brian Cox is one of the interviews I was really looking forward to doing - and that was even before I realized that he was keyboarder of one of my favorite songs from the 90s. ;) He is genuinely excited about his job and having seen him at Lift last year explaining the universe you cannot help but be intrigued about what is behind all that.

how he got Tony Blair elected with his band named D:Ream (Things can only get better)
what he works on (and for the rest of his physicist stuff I suggest you have a look at his Wikipedia page)
how the world works and the forces of nature
why the rumors about a black hole where nonsense when starting the particle accelerator at cern
but what science fiction instead can teach us
speaks excitingly about this experiment which can put some light to big bang theory
things that it helps to understand who we are where, we came from and where we are going
his appearances on his TV and radio programs, like to explain science in a simple way and why that is a good thing
underlines the importance of science and how the commoner should be aware of science - it is usually payed by tax payers so they should be able to understand it
most of the liberties which we are used to now came from science - the Web for example was invented at CERN
it's not fault of knowledge that it is used in a wrong way

Science is above all else is a reaction to the human condition. The universe is wonderful, confusing interesting and scary at the same time - and you react to that. [...] Leweb themes is an emotional theme, and there is a profoundly emotional reaction to the universe if you see it through the eyes of science. ... Love your universe.

Download MP3 (24:30 min, 14.4 MB)

Additional links

Want to spread the love? Why not tweet (click on link to tweet)
listening to http://tr.im/ctbk085 with Brian Cox leweb interview

If you have a favourite quote to add to the shownotes, please leave a comment (or tweet and include ctbk085)
You can find a list of all of my interviews for Leweb using this link.
Follow what others are saying using the tag "leweb or leweb08" on Twitter.
Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings or you only will get one episode per day!

Loic Le Meur - LeWeb 2008 interview

Nicole Simon — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:16:00 -0800

[Back to the overview of all LeWeb08 interviews]

Somehow every single one of these interview series has some problems - in this case the problem of retrieving the interview from my recorder. But now it is there and the pre conference podcasts for Leweb can start!

The first interview for Leweb 2008 is with Loic Le Meur himself. He tells us a bit about what to expect next week in Paris in regard of programme but also with the surrounding events.

(If you like to help: What was especially interesting in this interview you'd want others to see? Leave a comment or twitter with ctbk084 for me to find it and add it to this posting.)

The site: http://www.lewebparis.com/
Connect with him: @loiclemeur or on his blog: Blog

Download MP3 ( min, MB)

Additional links

If you have a favourite quote to add to the shownotes, please leave a comment (or tweet and include ctbk084) with it
You can find a list of all of my interviews for Leweb using this link.
Follow what others are saying using the tag "leweb or leweb08" on Twitter.
Link for the podcast feed - if you subscribe in itunes, be careful to adapt the settings or you only will get one episode per day!

Leweb 08 preconference podcast - Inteview overview

Nicole Simon — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:58:00 -0800

December is when Europe (and several batches of people from the US) travels to Paris to enjoy the food and the wine, because it is Leweb time. All of Europe? Nope. But the relevant part. ;)

As such it is a great pleasure for me to do again a pre conference podcast with some of the speakers. I will finish the uploads by sunday so you should have enough time to listen to all of them.

Short link for Tweeting: http://tr.im/leweb08interviews
Subscribe to the feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/crueltobekind

Caution Itunes user! Make sure to set the podcasts to "get all episodes" or you only will get one episode per day!

Overview of the LeWeb08 Interviews

Tip: Each interview has the image seen on the right with a link back to this overview.

Interview with Loic Le Meur
About Leweb itself, this years topic and some news about the conference

Interview with Brian Cox
Brian teaches us how to love the universe and has the unique capability to make science fun and exciting.

Interview with David Weinberger
about "When the scarcity goes away, so does the primacy of information and the old idea of leadership."

Interview with Joi Ito
about Japan, Creative Commons and entrepreneurs

Interview with Fred Wilson
another VC talk with a special focus on european entrepreneurs

Interview with Itay Talgam
a conductor from Israel compares music with love with technology

Interview with Helen Fisher
meet the women responsible for the theme of this years leweb - and why even romance and the feeling of attachement is not what you might think it is

Interview with David Recordon
open technologies are good, and big companies do implement them

Interview with Robin Good
about how you can love what you do and still be successful

Interview with Klaas Kerstin
gaming is a huge business and you can survive as a european company quite easily, as gameforge proves

Interview with Ewan Spence
about mobile and why the iphone and apple was not a game changer

Interview with Linda Avey
analyze your DNA with 23andme and find out about your anchestry - and why coffee might not work for you as much as you though

Interview with several bloggers
as part of the blogging programm several bloggers helped share their insight about leweb and even some comparison of love and plato ;)

I would very much appreciate it ;) if you help your fellow Leweb guests help discover these interviews before they start of for Paris. Each and every one of the interviews has a kind of "tweet this" with preset text about that specific interview in the bottom similar to this one:

Want to spread the love? Why not tweet (click on link to tweet)

listening to pre leweb08 interviews http://tr.im/leweb08interviews #leweb