ComDays07 / Moritz Leuenberger: Minister-blogger

(Running notes from the 6th Communication Days conference in Bienne, Switzerland)

After a short intro by the conference's host (and head of the Swiss Federal Communication Commission) Marc Furrer, the Swiss Telecommunication minister Moritz Leuenberger (he's also an active blogger) gives the opening keynote (after shuffling around with his microphone).
New forms of communication are changing the established media landscape but they don't replace them. He refers to his blogging experience as a tool for cross-fertilization: "I've just written a book using the blog as a tool to push my thinking further" (the book is in German, he says that it's been "provoked by bloggers and professors"). New forms of communication have a significant impact in that they speed up time. Leuenberger, who's a politician-philosopher, quotes Franz Kafka's "thirsty ghosts" and Heinrich Heine's "electrical beam enchanting people across continents" (Heine was talking about love, but it sounds like a description of SMS texting).
Two weeks ago I was at the UN general assembly in NY, says Leuenberger, speaking late morning. Considering the time difference between NY and Switzerland, it was too late for the Swiss TV newscasts, so they broadcast a summary of what I haven't yet said, commenting the reactions of people to a speech I had not yet given. Not long ago the Swiss evening news were a monopoly media and my contribution at the UN would have been aired the next day, with more research and better comments I assume. Now there is a race against time. We're going from scarcity to overabundant of channels and information. But consumer can only absorb so much information. As  writer Robert Walser said, "There is no freedom that doesn't create new limits": the new limits are about how to figure out what's important and what's not, what's authoritative and what's not, what's signal and what's noise.

Asked by moderator Christine Maier about his blog, Leuenberger says that he is finding the experience inspiring an the reactions from readers often surprising. Here is how my friend cartoonist Chappatte looked at Leuenberger's blogging a few months ago:

European Commissioner Viviane Reding (she's in charge of informations society and media) is then on video from Brussels. A few points from her speech:

• The average European watches TV for 222 minutes a day; the average Swiss for 148 minutes.
• There is an increasing disregard of the rights of online consumers across many European countries.
• Online content is playing a key role in increasing EU competitiveness.
• 2008 is gonna be a decisive year for the introduction of mobile television in Europe.

(Others blogging from the conference: the ComDays blog in German, Mathieu Janin in French).