I was invited to the e-G8 by the French President Sarkozy a couple weeks ago. I wrote two article about the event that were published at ReadWriteWeb.
What Will e-G8 Create: Solutions or More Cynicism?
…The e-G8 Summit precedes this years G8 Summit in Deauville on May 26 and 27. The purpose of the e-G8 is to inform the G8 leaders by gathering the world’s top Internet and digital leaders in advance of the bigger event. Given the closed-door nature of the event and its relationship to the G8 Summit it’s somewhat unsurprising that rumors about the nature of the meeting have been flying.
The e-G8 has the potential to be an important event and it is attracting a who’s who in technology and government. The attendee list boasts heads of state as well as prominent media and technology figures like Rupert Murdoch, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Eric Schmidt of Google, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook; are all expected to attend.
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e-g8: "The Future of the Internet Wasn’t invited"
…The draft statement from the e-G8 Forum to the G8 Summit appears to have been authored in advance of the completion of the e-G8. Throughout the event, statements discussed on stage would be flashed as summary bullets. These statements often ran counter to the opinions and statements of many in attendance and were more a reflection of the views of large telcos and media conglomerates.
This left the small, but very vocal faction of Internet entrepreneurs, academicians and bloggers scratching their head. It was within this group that I found the most substantive conversations taking place. These discussions often had divergent opinions and views from those being represented on stage. It was this vocal minority that were actively pushing the message of an open Internet at every opportunity.
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It was quite an event. I hope you’ll read, tweet, and like my two articles.
Aaron Fulkerson 