It's all happening in France
In February, I wrote about what some French newspapers are doing with blogs - Le Monde with its reader blogs and Libération with its journalists' blogs.
Last month, there was news that VNU France launched a consumer blog portal, following its launch of blogs for its journalists across Europe. Tech publisher 01Net also launched a blog portal.
So it's no surprise to hear news from Loic Le Meur of yet more blog services launched by organizations in France - Cadres OnLine, one of the main human resources portals in France, has just launched jobs blogs; and youth radio station Europe 2 relaunched its blog platform.
All of these organizations offer their blog services on TypePad, the hosted blog service from Six Apart (of which Loic is the Exec VP in Europe - Shel and I interviewed Loic in February for The Hobson & Holtz Report podcast.).
France isn't actually the country that would naturally spring to mind when you think about technology innovation and early adoption. The UK, Sweden and perhaps Germany would more readily be the countries I'd think of. Yet France seems to be much more at the leading edge in embracing new media channels like blogs. And that reflects the refreshing can-do attitude of many business people there, one that I've definitely encountered in my own experience in recent months.
For instance, look at how many senior executives in France are members of the CEO Bloggers Club - over 40. Then look at the CEO Blogs List on the New PR Wiki that includes 35 senior business executives in France who are bloggers - the single largest country group after the US.
It looks like the heart of the European business blogosphere is firmly in France. Another non-surprise, then, when you look at what's also happening in Paris on 25 April - the one-day Les Blogs conference with 223 confirmed participants (so far), of which about half are from France.
Yes, it's all happening in France at the moment.
In Italy we have Libero Blog recently launched by the mobile operator Wind. It aggregates posts form the Italian blogosphere, and serves as a window for their (free?) blogging service.
http://liberoblog.libero.it/
http://digiland.libero.it/blog/
Posted by: ludo | 05 April 2005 at 21:37
Thanks for that, Ludo. And I'm sure there are good examples elsewhere around continental Europe. Indeed, here in The Netherands, there are some very interesting things going on.
Yet all I really hear about these days is what's happening in France. No doubt we'll hear lots more at Les Blogs on the 25th.
Posted by: Neville Hobson | 05 April 2005 at 21:52
Thanks Neville, looks like my english trackback failed:
http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2005/04/its_all_happeni.html
Posted by: Loic | 05 April 2005 at 22:47
If you understand French, you should have a look at some of our Weapons of Mass Collaboration :
http://influenceurs.net aka Pop'Advertising
http://demandeurs.net aka Pop'Marketing
Tell me what you think.
Posted by: Stephane Lee | 06 April 2005 at 08:22
Thanks, Stephane. Je comprends français... un peu! (Soy mejor con español.)
I actually discovered the two sites you mention a week or so ago. I see you'll also be at Les Blogs on the 25th, so I hope we get a chance to chat as I'd love to know more about those two sites and how your concepts work.
Posted by: Neville Hobson | 06 April 2005 at 09:45
Sure, it'll be a pleasure to talk about that on the 25th.
See you there then.
Posted by: Stephane Lee | 06 April 2005 at 10:30
And it would be great if London could be an option for the future - ryan air is flying there directly from my city ;))
Posted by: Nicole Simon | 06 April 2005 at 14:25