At the same time technology tends to inexorably invade our daily lives, there seems to be another trend among citizens and organizations who seek to go back to more natural and simple things.

Our society is like that, we seem to compensate (the fear of?) progress by turning to more basic, living and tangible things, sometimes for the better, sometimes in a slightly ridiculous way.

So as we prepare for RFID and 3D worlds, products of local farms and traditional values have never been that hot. The latest ghost from the past to resurface? Donkeys, replacing waste trucks in a small Sicilian town.

This is quite fascinating, how old processes or ideas can get re-embedded in today’s society. “Once a sign of poverty in southern Italy, the humble working donkey has now become a vision of things to come”. Interesting turn of events. So what’s next? Pigeons delivering emails to save some electricity? Unemployed actors to replace avatars?

Reuters: Donkeys replace waste trucks in green Sicily town
KARE 11 (video): Italian town finds unique way to go green

This just in: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to make historic joint appearance at the fifth annual ‘D: All Things Digital’ conference.

That was the goal I had set for LIFT (as I told to Le Temps earlier this year), put both of these guys on stage for an hour to discuss the revolution they started. I guess I will have to find another goal now, Dalai Lama and Bill Clinton?

Anyway, don’t even try to register for D5, it’s sold out (and the price was a hefty 4’000$).

Before I start uploading the conference videos, here is the wonderful animation that was projected behind the scene during the breaks and before the talks.

It was of course made by Bread and butter, who even released a making of (which has been scobleized!).

Have a look at the amazing pictures David and Benoit took at LIFT.

These are some of the most beautiful portraits I have ever seen. Lovely.

I have finally managed to book a few days away from work and from my computer. I don’t remember a day without checking my email since September last year (that’s the bad side of organizing a 550+ persons event), and my Gmail inbox indicates 5800+ conversations since that date.

I desperately need some sleep and a bit of time to collect my thoughts and digest the schizophrenic experience LIFT has been. Schizophrenic because, at times, I was feeling like I was going through four lives at the same time. That’s what saying hi to 500 people in a day does for you.

Anyway, I am off to Barcelona, getting a car there to go down the coast towards Valencia. I will answer your email next week, and keep the phone calls for emergency only please. See you next week!

Je parlerai sur le thème “Web 2.0 : bulle ou développement durable ?” le 7 mars 2007 � Paris, dans le cadre de la conférence AdTech.

Cette événement va réunir pas mal de grands noms, et il semble qu’en tant que speaker j’ai 5 invitations gratuites donc faites moi savoir si vous souhaitez venir, je pourrai peut-être faire quelque-chose pour vous qui sait ;-)

Florence Devouard is the chairwoman of Wikimedia, the foundation behind Wikipedia. She speaks on “Wikipedia: a social innovation ?”

During the Q&A session, Florence made a call for action: Wikipedia needs your contributions, act now!

La couverture francophone est presque meilleure que celle en anglais… A voir absolument, les notes de Nathalie Duplain Michel et le blog de la FING.

It’s fascinating to see the Wikipedia story going around the world:

這真是一連串的誤會啊…

有一個參� LIFT07 conference 的 blogger 在聽一� �座談會的時候做了 live blogging，記錄了 Wikimedia Foundation 主席 Florence Devouard 講的一句話，他寫的是 At this point, Wikipedia has the financial ressources to run its servers for about 3 to 4 months；NetworkWorld � �導了這件事，slashdot 也跟進；台灣這邊的話，IXblog 也做了轉述 (他的中介來源是從 901am，不過原始資料相同)。

不過在不久之後，當初座談的主持人發現網路上流傳著奇怪的訊息，於是他就回去檢視了一下自己的紀錄，發現完全不是這麼回事 XD 此事經 Scobleizer 的轉述後出現在這裡；接著我又回去一開始的那篇文� 處看看，發現他已經貼出了道歉聲明… 看來事情從� �到尾就是一點點小誤會然後被不斷擴大引申� 成了大風暴 :Q

Los falsos rumores de cierre de la Wikipedia

Hace unos días que lleva repitiéndose en la blogocosa, que la wikipedia cerraría por falta de fondos. Todo comenzó a partir de una entrevista de Laurent Haug a Florence Devouard, pero resulta que sus palabras fueron sacadas de contexto y aprovechadas para generar un FUD de algunos que sistemáticamente la critican y que ahora está claro que no han leído la entrevista antes de escribir (y ahora están todos corrigiendo sus apuntes).

Wikipedia Akan Tutup dalam 3 Bulan?

Beberapa hari belakangan ini banyak beredar berita yang cukup menggemparkan tentang sekaratnya Wikipedia, sebuah situs online ensiklopedia gratis yang terpopuler saat ini. Kesimpangsiurannya berawal ketika Chairwoman dari Wikimedia Foundation, Florence Devouard, memaparkan kondisi keuangan Wikimedia pada acara LIFT Conference. Pernyataan Devouard memang sedikit “abu-abu” sehingga berpotensi menimbulkan persepsi yang bermacam-macam. Berikut ini kutipan transcript wawancara yang menimbulkan banyak rumor tersebut.

I already pointed to it but it’s worth another link: Bruno has the truth about that whole story.

Thanks for a good laugh Henriette :-)