Dear Dieter,

I could not agree more with you and actually made a quick post about that earlier today. We all like some flexibility in conferences to be able to include valuable contributions that actually add value, but we don't like becoming the instruments of propaganda. I was furious today because there were a few topics I would have loved to see covered better and which are extremely interesting (like for instance the impact of the web on television and traditional media). Generally speaking I found moderation of panels extremely unsatisfactory at this conference and what saved the whole thing is the quality of a number of contributions like Hans Rosling's, NIklas Zenström's and Shimon Peres this morning.

However sad the highjacking of the conference is, and I do understand your anger, I also think it would be quite nice to apply the definition Shimon Peres gave about democracy: "it's the right to be different, the right to make mistakes and the obligation to correct them". Perhaps Loic Le Meur will find a way to correct his mistakes and I will not judge him nor his expertise. Time will tell. Somehow we were all able to gather thanks to somethign he must have done right. I have myself made mistakes in life and decided to stop judging and start looking at people's weaknesses as though they were my very own... It's also perhaps a way to make our common path on this planet a bit better and far less ego-driven. In fact, today we all saw a great example of a total ego trip in M. Sarkozy's speech and dismissive way of leaving the conference without taking our questions... To be sure, blogs will buzz a lot about what happened today.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts and anger and I hope we can find a way to convert the nergy of anger into the creation of something better.

Yours,

alex