It was a big Monday for the SMCH gang! After a morning of croissants and coffee, we hit the road (sans Scoble who would spend the afternoon kickin’ it in Paris with Michael Arrington & Gabe Rivera)and met up with Patrice Lamothe, CEO of Pearltrees, for an exquisite seafood lunch and a stroll through Montmarte. (Video of that conversation to be posted later.)

From there we split up, with Chris and Kristie heading for the Eiffel Tower while Dana Oshiro and I headed underground to traverse Paris by Metro back to the Club House. After a few hours we four regrouped at La Cantine.

We were to have dinner near the Club House with Colette Ballou of Ballou PR. As the La Cantine cocktail party drew to a close, in whooshed the fabulous Colette – there to escort us by Metro back to our neighborhood. American born, Parisian-infused Colette is one of the truly effervescent people I know. On top of that she runs what I believe is one of the best PR firms on this side of the pond.

She’d graciously found a dinner spot, La Petite Chaise, that was literally yards away from our apartment’s front door. Besides location, the cuisine was divine. Colette proceeded to tell us that it also had a slightly scandalous history.

At one time, the neighborhood in which we sat had been largely fields and woods, dotted with mansions and lodges that were used by the gentry for hunting … and for trysts with their mistresses. Thus the phrase “hunting” had an amusing double entendre. Mike Sigal, co-founder of Guidewire Group, joined us for dinner. Much laughter and copious amounts of food later, we returned to the Club House for the first of our daily, live stream broadcasts. Sadly, something got borked with the stream so there’s no archive – which is a real shame because the conversation was saucy and fun, thoughtful and provocative.

Much of our discussion centered around the evolution of the real-time web and the impact it has had – both good and bad – on the way in which content is gathered and consumed. We also talked about the nature of accuracy and how in the rush to be first, more often than not the real-time web results in many factual gaffes, which range from humorous to potentially dangerous.

It was a lively debate and portends well for the chock-full schedule we have ahead this week.

So that you don’t miss a beat, here’s the schedule of our streaming activities from this week’s LeWeb fun at La Social Media Club House. In between we’ll be stuffing the Tweetstream, Flickr and any number of other platforms with news, interviews and perspectives.

We welcome questions for the guests as well as suggestions or recommendations on topics and themes to cover.

STREAMING SCHEDULE FROM LA SOCIAL MEDIA CLUB HOUSE
NOTE THAT ALL TIMES ARE GMT +1 (AKA PARIS TIME) and each of the following items has a direct link to the location at which you can find the stream.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009
9:30am – 10:30am: Fabrice Epelboin – Editor, ReadWriteWeb/France

4:00pm – 5:00pm: SOCIAL MEDIA HOUR with guests: Osama Bedier, PayPal; Gary Shainberg, British Telecom (BT); Chris Sacca, former Googler turned investor; and some special surprises.
To catch the live stream, click on this link for BlogTalkRadio.
If you miss the live show, the archive will be on the Social Media Hour blog here.

12:00am – 12:30am: Daily Dish – A 30-minute, live video stream on the Social Media Club’s Justin.TV channel in which we talk about what we did and what we think.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009
12:00am – 12:30am Daily Dish – A 30-minute, live video stream on the Social Media Club’s Justin.TV channel in which we talk about what we did and what we think.

Thursday, December 10, 2009
12:30am – 1:00am Daily Dish – A 30-minute, live video stream on the Social Media Club’s Justin.TV channel in which we talk about what we did and what we think.

This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here Commentary

The guests joining Cathy on this episode will include: PayPal’s Osama Bedier (and possibly Naveed Anwar too); British Telecom’s Gary Shainberg; former Googler turned investor Chris Sacca some of the Club House posse and possibly some other surprises! Join us for this very special show and NOTE THE SPECIAL BROADCAST TIME of 7:00am Pacific/10:00am Eastern … which is 4:00pm in Paris.

After the show is broadcast, a player with the archived episode will be placed here. If you wish to join us LIVE, please tune in at BlogTalkRadio by following this link.

This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here Audio

In addition to most of my housemates, I’ll be joined by several of LeWeb’s speakers including: PayPal’s Osama Bedier; British Telecom’s JP Rangaswami and Gary Shainberg; former Googler turned investor Chris Sacca and possibly some other surprises! (To check out the bios of my guests, you can visit the Social Media Hour blog.)

Join us LIVE for this very special show and NOTE THE SPECIAL BROADCAST TIME of 7:00am Pacific/10:00am Eastern, which is 4:00pm in Paris.

To listen to the show live, just click here.

This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here Audio

As each technological innovation enters our sphere, we become ever so quickly accustomed to whatever feature, functionality or convenience it proffers. This isn’t exactly revolutionary comment, and as detailed by Louis CK on the Conan O’Brien show, when considered through a lens not muddied by bits and bytes, it’s pretty humorous.

That didn’t stop me from issuing a rather hefty harumph when I boarded the first of my two flights to Paris Saturday morning to make my way to Paris for LeWeb and found out there not only weren’t power outlets at the seats, they had no Wi-Fi.

Like I said, harumph.

Two rows away Robert Scoble (one of the compatriots with whom I’ll be camping out at the Social Media Club House this week), gave an almost Gallic shrug and pulled out his Kindle.

Having been spoiled by so many a Wi-Fi connected flights of late, I felt my frustration rise. Several of the key “to do’s” on my flight list for the SFO to Dulles leg of the trip required a ‘Net connection.

Taking a breath, the wash of indignation transformed quickly, as I began to think about things I’d actually be able to do on this flight.

Without being hit by the rat-a-tat-tat of my usual social media Gatling gun, maybe I could get some things done. “But Cathy,” I can hear you say. “You work with social media all the time and always seem to manage … what are you talking about?”

It’s a valid question, and this is where I make a confession. I’m not great at multi-tasking. It’s not that I can’t do quite a few things at once, because I can, but when it comes to activities that require a bit more brain power, like writing, I need to put on blinders because the truth is, I distract easily.

It hasn’t always been that way … and I blame the technology.

The persistent flow from the real-time web fire hose with which I steep myself daily serves as the perfect set of distractions. After all, how can I possibly turn away from Twitter or Facebook? I might miss something. Much like little kids who struggle against heavy eyelids, insisting to their parents that they’re not tired, that they want to stay up for the party for fear of missing something, I sometimes think we digitally saturated sorts forget that sometimes unplugging is a good thing.

Okay so it’s not exactly as though someone is holding a gun to my head making making me consume all this content in such an incessant fashion. Nor is mass consumption really a new thing for me. I’ve always had a voracious appetite for information. I even had my own reading group in first grade because I just devoured books more quickly than anyone else. Even that speed, however, can’t begin to compare with the sheer magnitude of information that I, like so many others, gulp down every day. Frankly it’s not about the speed, nor is it really about the volume, for me it just feels as though there used to be more time to digest and discuss things, that my consumption used to be more thoughtful or at least a bit more thought filled.

So as I made my way across the Atlantic, having consumed several magazines, a few chapters of a book, watched a few movies and chatted a bit with an ever-so-nice lawyer sitting across the aisle, I thought about the week that is to come.

I’m terribly excited about the grand adventures in store for me and the wonderful housemates at La Social Media Club House. With less than 24 hours on the ground, already we’ve wandered around Paris, done some shopping and had a splendid home-cooked meal with our buddies from PayPal. You can check out Robert’s Flickr stream for the latest (I’ve posted a few below for your enjoyment!)

Mostly, though, I’m looking forward to what I hope to be a truly blended experience – analog meeting digital – and taking the time to savor each bit.

(Photos below courtesy of Robert Scoble)

Me, Chris Heuer, Kristie Wells & Dana Oshiro enjoying the beautiful Christmas decor at Gallerie Lafayette

Exhausted & bleary-eyed at Charles de Gaulle waiting for luggage

Artsy shot of me, Chris, Kristie & Dana as a Metro train whooshes in

I think this one says it all (a series of them were in a store window we passed on our Sunday stroll)

This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here Commentary