Davos Newbies

Davos heating up

I received a flurry of emails from the World Economic Forum yesterday. One intriguingly promises a “world-class cultural event” on Thursday night. Usually, I’d take this with a grain of salt. But this event is to be produced by Quincy Jones (who incidentally produced Peggy Lee, who died this week), unquestionably the greatest-ever music producer. Quincy has been a Davos regular for a while, but the cost of bringing any significant artists to the Swiss mountains has always meant he has not exercised his skill in the Kongresszentrum.

More odd was an email encouraging me (and presumably a thousand others) to “help communicate the Forum’s message”. We’re encouraged to write “editorials” on our own concerns, and related to the themes of the Forum’s Annual Meeting. To help us, a list of the Media Fellows this year is attached. The six pages of Media Fellows is the kind of information the Forum would once have been keen to conceal. There are 10 people from Time, 11 people from the FT, five from Fortune and eight from CNN, registered as participants.

In my journalism days, I think I would have cringed at the thought of an onslaught from Davos participants keen to write “editorials”.  

Personal technology woes

I had personal experience last night of how poorly some major technology companies use the Web. I have a new mobile phone, a nifty Ericsson that will (when that day arrives) allow me to use GPRS networks. But last night it wouldn’t connect to a network. Instead, it gave me the message: “No access”.

The user’s guide does not explain this message. Nor does the Ericsson site. The site does offer a so-called Solution Finder. Its clever, Flash-based design doesn’t work.

I wondered, however, whether my problem was a network one, rather than a fault with the phone. So I went to the Vodafone site, to see if there were network problems. There is a well-signposted link for What’s New. Nothing about network problems.

Imagine my surprise this morning when the radio news informed me that Vodafone had resolved a computer fault that downed its network. It’s staggering to me that they didn’t think this was newsworthy on their site.

Addendum: A plus point for Sony Ericsson Mobile. I’ve just received an email in answer to my emailed complaint last night. It provides a detailed answer to the “no access” message with a clearly written solution. There is intelligence out there after all (even if they haven’t a clue about the Web).

The French exception

For most countries, a globally successful corporation is a matter of pride. Not, it seems, in France. Vivendi Universal, the media corporation forged by J6M (Jean-Marie Messier, moi-même maître du monde), is under government attack.

The highest administrative court has been asked by the French government to rule on whether the group’s number of non-European (read: US) shareholders could put it in breach of legislation. Vivendi owns 49% of Canal Plus, a French television chain which is also a major producer of French films. French legislation is designed to “protect” its creative industries.

As Messier has pointed out, his company is probably doing as much as anyone for French creativity. But he didn’t help his case when he moved his personal residence to New York and declared, “The Franco-French cultural exception is dead.”