Last Saturday saw the first meeting of bloggers from Nice and the Côte d’Azur region. We are pleased to reconnect with the person who made this meeting possible, Vincent Jourdan.
Blogs are an ever-evolving phenomenon, and both the city of Nice and the Côte d’Azur have a full spectrum that makes the regional web one of the most blog-intensive in the area.
So Vincent, how are blogs doing in our region?
Nice Première: So Vincent, how did Blogs en Stock go?
Vincent Jourdan: Quite well! The day showed the current interest in these new forms of communication. It also showed that bloggers have things to say, to show, and to share with each other. That was our first objective.
The second was to explore the blogs of Nice and the region. The outcome is also positive with nearly 40 blogs gathered on the event’s blog: https://blogsenstock.hautetfort.com/, 14 interviews conducted, and networking among some of the participants. Creating connections is one of the reasons for our association, Independent Gaze.
I take this opportunity of this first question in the form of a review to thank the team from the association relay with whom we set up the day and the bloggers who participated.
NP: How did this blog-filled day go?
VJ: The morning was dedicated to a training session that was attended by about twenty people. The afternoon was organized around three round tables: one to present the blogs and their authors, a second about copyrights, a clearly sensitive subject, with an intervention by Cedric Manara, a law professor specialized in this field. We also presented the free licenses, the Creative Commons (https://fr.creativecommons.org/). Finally, we discussed, albeit not as long as we would have liked, the issue of freedom of expression on blogs. Perhaps the most important were the more free moments of exchange around a glass or a screen.
NP: Any other days (or evenings) in the works?
VJ: The first activity of Independent Gaze is linked to cinema and video. On March 2 at Volume, rue Defly, we are offering an evening with film screenings and a concert starting at 7:30 p.m. Later, we will participate, as we do every year, in the Nice short film festival organized by the Héliotrope association, with a regional program. It will be in April. To keep up with our activities, it is best to regularly check our… blog: https://regardindependant.hautetfort.com/
NP: To you, what is a Blog?
VJ: A means of expression, a space of freedom, a new way to express oneself using all the resources of multimedia: writing, sound, image, video. Basically, they are notes that one publishes on the Internet spontaneously and that allow for reader comments. It’s both very simple and rich in possibilities. Very lively.
NP: What independent view do you have of the Azuréan blogs?
VJ: The ones we have discovered meet these criteria. They are varied. You have politicians, graphic designers, an embroiderer, columnists, cartoonists, musicians, the bishop of Nice, cinephiles, fans of US rap, associations, American expatriates, committed citizens… I suppose that’s a sample of the inhabitants of the region. It’s also another way to discover who we are and where we live.
NP: What websites and blogs do you regularly visit?
VJ: I spend a lot of time on them, so I see many. For those from Azur, I refer you to the blog en stock (I don’t want to make anyone jealous). Otherwise, I passionately follow several cinephile blogs:
Imposture (https://imposture.canalblog.com/)
Flickhead (https://flickhead.blogspot.com/)
Pierrot (https://drorlof.over-blog.com/)
Sugar (https://sugarland.canalblog.com/)
and the blog of cartoonist Manu Larcenet:
https://tempsperdu.over-blog.org/
NP: What is missing from the Nice web scene?
VJ: Not much, it seems to me. Things are even quite lively lately. It appears that the people of Nice have appropriated this means of expression quite well. When you know the scarcity of all kinds of information available in traditional formats (newspapers, television), it’s rather good news.
NP: What do you think of the City of Nice’s portal, www.nice.fr?
VJ: Truth be told, I hardly ever go there. It’s functional but nothing more. One could imagine more movement, animation, blogs, video. Why not a local TV channel streaming?
NP: And finally, a wish for this new year 2006?
VJ: It’s done, but I won’t tell you what it is, it’s too personal.
