MediaVidea

Who's tired? Davos or the bloggers covering Davos?

Piers Fawkes says that the 'uber bloggers' such as Jeff Jarvis, John Battelle and others have failed to bring some pizzaz to a once otherwise flourishing, 'mutual back slapping & scratching' talk shop for the rich, powerful and famous.

He goes on to suggest that the organizers would rather have brought in people who rake up some kind of storm - otherwise, there is too much talking about the usual things, too much head nods by the oyal readerships.

Piers has suggested names like Manolo, Ze Frank (he is popping up everywhere this January) among others.

Some suggestions:

In its present format, and in a world full of information-savvy online writers, gigs like Davos are old style and ineffective in being able to raise the level of conversation.

1. Davos Organizers would have set up a Poptech/TED like web site, and inviting bloggers to send in ideas and opinions on a variety of issues, including that good old lady: How to change/save the world.

Something like Edge.org. Add in a Digg-like system for ideas submitted by readers and bloggers.

2. Ask hard questions: Africa, Web 3.0, Open mobile phones, inequality, excessive executive pay, climate change and india; Is Vista relevant? Will the $100 laptop work? Future of the open source movement; the hegemony of Google and Microsoft, state of U.S. economy and effects of a slowing U.S. economy.

I am amazed that in its brief history, Davos has failed to ask hard, probing questions of its guests. It has become more of a congratulatory, press releasey, 'Did you see my new Jet?' kind of snow party.

3. Bring in the snarkists: Nick Douglas from Valleywag, and Nicholas Carr.
4. Get some subject matter experts. Bring in Graham Hill from Treehugger.
5. Get Gina Trapani of Lifehacker blog to run workshops on net usage for CEOs. Check out this article at NyTimes about an overheard conversation between a Fortune 50 CEO and his PR guy on how to talk like a CEO. (link via Paul Kedrosky)

posted by Pramit Singh @ 4:32 PM