The Les Blogs conference is well underway, with lots of blogging, photo sharing and coverage already. There is also a large contingent of traditional journalists here as well, so there will presumably be coverage in the mainstream French media.

My presentation, which miraculously took the precise length of the train journey to Paris to write, was an attempt to offer some practical steps for companies wanting to put into practice the ideas they hear in Les Blogs. It had a typically catchy title: Some simple steps towards a social software infrastructure for internal communications (1.5Mb PDF).

The French Sénat is a wonderful backdrop for conversations about self-representation (liberté), open and democratic commmunications (egalité) and social networking (fraternité). Over a micro-lunch, I asked everybody I talked to why France is taking the lead in European blogging, and nobody really knows for sure, but regardless of that it is certainly refreshing!

There were also some very interesting and in-depth conversations about the practical challenges of deploying social software within organisations, and I am sure some of these will continue.