Hello, A very short word to say that yesterday I attended a convention in Paris, organised by the UMP (http://www.u-m-p-paris.org/article.php3?id_article=454). UMP is the first (as far as I know) political party in France, leader being Mr Sarkozy, current minister of interior in France and a leading candidate for the future presidential elections. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarkozy The convention was focused on education and research (http://www.u-m-p-paris.org/article.php3?id_article=454) I was speaking in a panel along with french internet entrepreneurs, the idea of the panel not being to "inform" people, but rather to tell them about what we were expecting/hoping from this party (and likely, ahum, well, possibly, from the next government...). After a short introduction to Wikipedia, with proper figures ("4,4 millions of french electors are visiting Wikipedia every month" - I could see every one bending to write down the scary fact that 1/10 french electors was a Wikipedia user), I insisted on two facts. First is the DADVSI law (which was supported by UMP - making them the real bad guys for free software supporters) - please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DADVSI with this relevant bit "The law was highly controversial within France for it could significantly hamper free software, and also may significantly restrict the right to make copies of copyrighted works for private use. Second was to talk about the fact USA releases information in Public Domain, versus our government (and more generally the EU, or most public organisations) under classical cp. I mentionned as examples * most pictures of french politicians on wp being from the US governement (not the french gvt) * Spatial research images from the NASA rather than ESA * Etc The whole convention was *extremely* interesting (which actually amazed me, because it is rather unusual to attend a convention and be interested all along). I was in particular amazed at how understandable people were (very little political talk), how specific and how ready to state what was not working. It was very refreshing... In terms of audience, well, I'd say a quite decent part of it was parliament members and current or ancient ministers. Others being typically presidents of universities etc... In short, powerful people. I was very glad to finally meet Loic Lemeur, probably the famous blogger in France, and who I read occasionnally but never had the opportunity to meet. Also the creator of several internet success. I was invited to later talk privately to the person in charge of ict et al from the office of Mr Sarkozy. I'll try to take care of that in november. Guys, I hope you all feel the power of what we are building. This is HUGE. Ant