Winging back from Paris, with a hint of LesBlogs

I only got to attend the last couple of sessions, but you could feel a lot of the energy in that room. See Hugh’s roundup for a better view into who attended and what happened. My few comments about LesBlogs and the trip overall:

-Flying west (Copenhagen to Seattle direct) in the late afternoon is fascinating – you literally chase the setting sun, and catch it for the most part. I’ve had a beautiful view of the sunset for the past 6 hours or so. [updated - I wrote this last week, while on the plane. Got home and wasn't inspired to finish it up and post until now...]

-SAS has two cameras for your seatback screen – nose (what the cockpit sees) and down. The nose camera on tackoff and landing is an entirely new way to experience flying.

-On Paris: I love the energy of that city. Nighttime on a weeknight and the city streets are packed everywhere you go with foot traffic. This was only my 2nd time there, but even though I had no time for sightseeing it just reinforced my desire to go back.

-On Paris #2: Why can’t Seattle develop ANYTHING close to the RER/Metro transit system of Paris? The only time I even had to take a cab was when I discovered the Metro isn’t open at 4am (that was a looong night).

-On LesBlogs: I saw Ben Hammersley’s presentation – there’s something about a man in a skirt posting a slide saying “we’re lucky bastards” that kind of sums up the tone of a conference like this. :-) In truth, a great presentation however I felt he strayed a bit too far in the “fight the power” rhetoric during Q&A, with references to guns, stabbing, beheading of kings, and all. An audience member brought up a much more effective alternative analogy about making the “revolution” so appealing and enticing that the powers-that-be can’t wait to join in.

-On LesBlogs #2: Having attending Gnomedex 2005 this summer, the two conferences seemed largely similar. A huge hat tip to LesBlogs for the international flavor – of the 350 in attendance, i understand only about 40 were from the US, which is a very nice change of pace.

-On Global Voices: I briefly met Rebecca and Ethan during some post-event drinks, and displayed my startling ignorance by not knowing a thing about this wonderful initiative. Very much a “n00b” moment on my part. Sigh.