» Origin of the Webbie
Earlier this year we were approached by TED to donate Rhodia notebooks for their famous gift bag. At our request, Clairefontaine Rhodia, our parent company in France, arranged for 800 Webbies to be shipped to TEDGlobal 2010 at Oxford University. Since then, we’ve heard from a number of participants on how much they enjoy using their Webbie. 
TED began in 1984 as a gathering place for innovators and leaders in the fields of Technology, Entertainment and Design. TED encompasses a global community of individuals who believe in the “power of Ideas Worth Spreading.” Webnotebooks are certainly a good repository for bright ideas from creative minds.
With each Webbie was a note from Mr. Guillaume Nusse, president of Clairefontaine Rhodia. It read: “I hope you will enjoy using your Rhodia Webbie (Webnotebook). You might wonder where we came up with the Webnotebook name? My son was bugging me for a computer ‘notebook’ and so I told him: You want a notebook! I’ll give you a webnotebook! I put our best Clairefontaine paper, a 90g smooth ivory, inside the famous Rhodia covers. And the rest is history.”
Add to that the two other snippets behind the name we’re aware of: the “Web” in “Webnotebook” means the interconnectedness of ideas that can be found from surfing the Web, as well as infinity of those connections.
The name “Webbie” originated from Stephanie, who manages Rhodia Drive and its Facebook page. We were pleased to see France is now following her example and calling them, “Webbies,” too.
Thanks to ConferenceBasics.com for the photo.
Comments
I LOVE watching the TED videos! They know a great product when the see one, don’t they?
I had always wondered at the name, thanks for the information!
Now I just need to go order a new one…
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