A tale of two Le Web's

I can't make Le Web this year, but there are multiple opportunities to listen in - there is a Twitterstream, Liveblogging and a Videostream. Of the 3, the Videostream is the most interesting - but not for the reason you think (ie moving colour pictures). No - you see, as well as the video and audio, there is a backchannel running alongside it - and the commentary there is everything the commentary on stage ( and surprisingly also on the Twitterstream ) is not - funny, irreverent, snarky - and informed. (See on image below)



The parallel Twitterstream was far more po-faced, almost worshipful - either the PR flacks were out in force or everyone was nervous of saying what they thought. Or they really thought everything was perfect in that most perfect of conferences - but I don't think so - the anonymous backchannel was busy pricking the presumptuous, highlighting incongruities, going off on tangents, having a good moan etc.

I loved it. It totally enriched the experience - text commentary is the Future of Video

And for the social media gurus, here's the kicker - these people were not my "friends", they were anonymous commenters - no relationship necessary, no scraping of my profile possible - and they were being honest and amusing, great company really! (I suppose there is a barrier to entry due to the content under discussion, but still....)

Update - this article by Paul Carr is exactly the sort of tone that was going down in IM