The thing about Internet conferences—of which I have been to many, hundreds perhaps, most recently last week’s eG8 conference in Paris—is that most people there feel bad about themselves, that a club exists to which they can never quite get into, that they are not quite math-y enough, or virtual enough, or social enough, or, ultimately, rich enough. The Internet, rather than being a leveled experience, is an intensely hierarchical one. All Internet conferences are about sizing up who has the most power.

The conference in Paris, hosted by French President Sarkozy and organized by Publicis chairman Maurice Levy, and meant to serve as a prelude to the formal G8 meeting in Deauville, likely came about because the French president felt outside the critical center of Internet status and power, and sensed the advantage of placing himself in the middle of it.

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