A quick re-cap of how we got here: you may remember [...]]]> Anybody got a pen? Someone should mark this in the calendar as the day I agreed with Michael Arrington. Though he approaches it with his usual deft touch (‘Mice nuts,’ anyone?), he hits the nail squarely on the head regarding online privacy.

A quick re-cap of how we got here: you may remember Facebook changing its privacy settings a few weeks back. Tech geeks were horrified and began deleting their accounts, while your non-techie friends likely posted something in all caps in their status, then moved on. Over the past weekend, Arrington had a quickie Q&A with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the ensuing headline – Privacy is Dead! – raised everyone’s hackles all over again. This morning, Arrington called us all Luddites for caring. And a good morning to *you* too!

I met with a company a few days ago that deals in data and one of the execs said something I had to scribble down immediately. “Why should your privacy fetish impinge on my need for data usefulness? There is a very real danger here of the tyranny of the minority.” Privacy fetish – I love it.

Arrington raises a very salient point in his post: if you’re a participant in the 21st-century modern world, your privacy has already been compromised past the point of hope. Unless you’re living off the grid in a mud hut – in which case you’re not reading this – ‘they’ know everything about you. So any personal campaigns you’re waging to protect your Facebook quiz results are, well, something of a fetish. Further, as the data exec points out, some very real benefits lie in the exploitation of said data. All the screaming we’re doing about making Google work better and ending the glut of information that’s thrown at us? Not going to be solved without using our personal data.

Now let me beat you to the punch: won’t someone please think of the children? Yes, there is a separate raft of concerns when it comes to kids online. But if you’re under any illusions that ‘they’ know less about your kids simply because they’re small – well you’re wrong about that too.

I realize that it’s out of character for me to say, essentially, “They’ve already won. Just give in.” But I’m afraid that’s the case here. While I’m not advocating you start taking naked pictures of yourself and using them as profile pics, I am saying that if you want to participate in technology as it stands today, you have to let go of a few illusions. And key among them is that you’re currently in control of your online data.

–Someone broke the Interwebs yesterday morning, with a denial-of-service attack hitting Twitter, Facebook, Google, and LiveJournal. Twitter was the hardest hit (or the worst prepared), with the service going completely offline for a couple of hours. [And as of this writing, the site was down [...]]]> News from the Social Media Vortex

–Someone broke the Interwebs yesterday morning, with a denial-of-service attack hitting Twitter, Facebook, Google, and LiveJournal. Twitter was the hardest hit (or the worst prepared), with the service going completely offline for a couple of hours. [And as of this writing, the site was down again this morning.] As expected, the universe folded in on itself as people tweeted about Twitter being down once Twitter was back up. Then John Hughes died and everyone shifted to Long Duck Dong.

–The other big story this week is so inside-baseball that you may fall asleep mid-paragraph. Robert Scoble “unfollowed” 106,000 people on Twitter. This proved to be a revelation for him – it cuts down on the noise! – which in turn engendered much discussion among people who monitor their audience with frightening acuity. Louis Gray parried with, “Wait, don’t do that!” saying:

“…to massively prune my list would introduce more problems, real and emotional, than it would present solutions.”

I think it’s safe to say that if Twitter ever causes emotional problems for you, it’s time to take a vacation.

–And though I’d love to ignore King Arrington for a week, the fact that he’s now battling the British judicial system is, well… I’m only human. He’s been found guilty of libel against Sam Sethi, charged with:

“a sustained campaign of character assassination against the Claimant… including threats to murder a business associate; of being psychotic; pathological; threatening; despicable; disreputable; deceitful; and a cheat.”

He should make that his Twitter bio. Anyway, Arrington says No Lawsuits Please; I’m Not British, which I’m sure will be a convincing argument to the UK courts.

Phew. Isn’t August supposed to be quiet? Let’s get to the fun stuff.

Apps on the Radar

–I so wish more developers were taking advantage of the iPhone’s push technology. The AP News app does a decent job but annoyingly doesn’t direct you to the related story. So I’m happy to hear that Breaking News Online is taking a stab at news alerts. I’ll be giving it a whirl this week to see if it’s worth two bucks.

–Livestation has released an app for streaming live television to your iPhone. The selection is pretty thin right now but is sure to expand in the coming months.

Pitch of the Week

–If you’re a recipient of product pitches, add yourself to Jonathan Hirshon’s email distro.  The head of Horizon PR never fails to entertain and I find myself reading every one of his pitches, if only to reward his ingenuity. So in place of Tweet of the Week, I give you his intro to a pitch for Scenios:

A bonny Thursday to you, as the heat and humidity outside threaten to climb to levels unseen since my last Finnish Sauna experience (with an equal chance of cardiac lethality, I might add).  The economic climate is equally wilting,.…”

Now that’s a segue.

News from the Social Media Vortex

–Chris Anderson, editor of Wired, briefly became the most annoying person in the technosphere this week (and that’s saying something) after an interview with Der Spiegel was published. Here’s how the conversation began:

SPIEGEL: Mr. Anderson, [...]]]> The news this week needs no introduction. See for yourself.

News from the Social Media Vortex

–Chris Anderson, editor of Wired, briefly became the most annoying person in the technosphere this week (and that’s saying something) after an interview with Der Spiegel was published. Here’s how the conversation began:

SPIEGEL: Mr. Anderson, let’s talk about the future of journalism.

Anderson: This is going to be a very annoying interview. I don’t use the word journalism.

He then went on to say that the words ‘newspaper,’ ‘media,’ and ‘news’ are all so-last-century. As long as we’re talking about 20th-century words that have no meaning, can we extend the same logic to 20th-century tech publications? Just wondering.

–BlogHer held its annual conference last week and much of the ensuing coverage focused on the swag mania that took hold of some attendees. One power-mad blogger threatened to inflict libel on a marketer if he didn’t come through with a pair of Crocs. To thee I say, aim higher, self-righteous blogger! I’d have at least gone for a pair of Nikes.

–Steve Rubel gave praise to Kara Swisher’s blog, saying that she raises the game for bloggers by… using pictures. That can’t be right. Oh wait, here we go: “she uses clever headlines and imagery in her posts – often tied to movies.” There you have it, folks: ironic usage of film stills is the secret to good blogging.

–And it wouldn’t be a week in tech without a proclamation from King Arrington. The iPhone is no more! In a blog post redolent with the fumes of stone tablets (I’m really hoping you get that reference), Arrington declared that he “quit” his iPhone because it doesn’t use Google Voice or something. I don’t know. Are we really supposed to care about this? I changed my brand of soap recently; do I need to inform you with a blog post?

Apps on the Radar

–Not so much an app as an “It’s all over people!” proclamation, beware of one-character SMS messages on any GSM phone, not just iPhones. Two researchers were kind enough to demonstrate the hack yesterday, so if you get a weird text, turn your phone off posthaste. No one seems to know when you can turn it back on though so… good luck with that.

–Since you can’t use your iPhone anymore – either because it’s been hacked or Arrington told you not to – go Mad Men Yourself. The music will make it all better.

Tweet Twitterer of the Week

–Rather than one tweet this week, I give you possibly the best Twitter bio ever, from Mark Dykeman: “Too boring to follow. Extremely unlikely to buy, convert, or click on your link. Negative. Smarm intolerant. Eats puppies, kittens, and babies.”

News from the Social Media Vortex

-Twitter possibly raised [...]]]> Lots o’ links saved up this week. Let’s see if I can adequately sort through them without boring you. No Vortex next week, as Chris and I are headed to London and Dublin for the next round of Innovate!Europe workshops. Pip pip.

News from the Social Media Vortex

-Twitter possibly raised another round of funding, on a rumored $250 million valuation. Here’s the question you should ask yourself: if Twitter started charging $20 a month to use it, would you pay it? If not, would you truly miss it? Be honest. Duncan Riley’s assessment is so apt, I may just make it the motto of this weekly review: “Until the very end, the citizens of Pompeii continued their decadent lives, until being buried for eternity.”

-Here’s a fun one. A conservative take on Wikipedia, called Conservapedia, has been taken down after Wonkette revealed a not-so-veiled hit list of Democratic senators on the site.

-The Boy Genius Report posted a spot-on list of things to hate about the iPhone. I would like to add the awful Google Voice Search to that list, which translated “Who directed A Fish Called Wanda” into “bass fish called wanda.” Not helpful.

-And I suppose we have to mention the kerfuffle of the week. Michael Arrington was spat upon in Munich and Jason Calacanis immediately responded with a call for an industry-wide group hug. I’ll simply posit that civility and manners in the technosphere should be an everyday fact of life, not a one-day occurrence when spittle is hurled.

Apps on the Radar

-Sarah Perez pointed me to RepairPal, an incredibly helpful iPhone app that uses GPS to deliver roadside assistance, auto repair estimates, and a repair shop directory.

-Hangman Cheat – if anyone can beat this thing, you are my linguistic hero.

-Not so much an app as a new feature, you can now submit news items to Techmeme via Twitter. Good idea in theory but I pity the soul who’ll have to wade through all the PR tips and self-promoting bloggers. (God knows I’ll be promoting myself shamelessly.)

DEMO trends – where the innovation lies with DEMO 09 applicants

-rich media publishing integrated with key back-office tools

-more location-aware mobile couponing – really getting a lot of traction this year

-highly personalized semantic networks

Tweet of the Week

-I swear I’m not kissing butt here. Chris Shipley’s tweet from the DLD Munich conference made me guffaw – and wish I was there: “At #DLD: ‘moving to an era of bio spare parts’ – Philippe Poullety. After visit to beer garden last night, I await the spare liver.”

Ephemera

-In the This Should Help You Sleep at Night department, a New Zealand man bought a used MP3 player filled with US military data, including personal details of US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. The worst sentence: “He says he will hand it over to the US Defense Department should it ever ask.” Um, let’s go ahead and ask, shall we?

As I was growing up, my mother instructed me that, when I got angry or frustrated, to count to ten before saying anything.  Quite honestly, I’ve counted to ten ten-times over.  I’ve bitten my tongue and clenched my teeth and I’ve really tried to let [...]]]> One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.

As I was growing up, my mother instructed me that, when I got angry or frustrated, to count to ten before saying anything.  Quite honestly, I’ve counted to ten ten-times over.  I’ve bitten my tongue and clenched my teeth and I’ve really tried to let it go.

And now, I just can’t help myself any longer.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve read too many blog posts (notice how we don’t call them “stories” any more?) filled with invective, passed-along assumptions, and outright misinformation that I can’t help but to call into question the standard of “reporting” going on in the echo-chamber we call the blogosphere.

When in a twitter I bemoaned the lack of original reporting (only one reporter (cnet) and exactly zero bloggers writing this week about this silly DEMO v TechCrunch episode actually contacted me), the infamous blogger Robert Scoble suggested that if I’d blog my opinion, he’d link to it.  Does that mean that a perspective only exists or matters if it’s expressed in a blog post?  Or that Robert’s just moving too fast to do any investigation outside his narrow medium?

Scoble’s not the only guy living in the rarefied air of the echo-chamber.  Sarah Lacy, who works for the much-respected Businessweek.com, conducted a five-minute video interview with TC50′s Mike Arrington and Jason Calacanis, during which the two leveled the usual slander.  Did Lacy fire one tough question at the two?  Did this journalist call me or the DEMO organization to get a response to serious accusations?  Um, the answer to that would be “no.”

In fact, a few weeks ago, when Mike Arrington wrote an assumption-based and error-filled story that demanded an apology from the DEMO organization for a comment that was clearly not made by or on behalf of anyone at DEMO, Lacy picked up the story and wrote with righteous indignation that slander was the highest insult that could be leveled against a journalist.   Did she call me or DEMO before posting her story?  Again no.

Let me be clear: plagiarism is not the worst offense of a journalist; its root cause is:  Laziness, shoddy reporting, and arrogance.

In a post last week, Scoble tried to make a case for the “new school” as more hip, effective, and informative than the “old school.”  When misinformation is propagated out of laziness and inconsideration, that’s hardly informative.  It’s not “new school;” it’s No School.

Robert Scoble took the time – it must have taken at least 30 minutes to click through to each of the 72 sites – to visit the Web sites of DEMOfall’s demonstrating companies.  Here’s what he had to say:

I just visited every one of these companies. Boy do they almost all suck (at least their Web sites and if their sites suck, I can’t believe their products are going to do much better).

Now this is the same guy who, earlier in the same piece said that if I “really cared about the startups” I would have taken the time to put links in a post about them.  Okay, our bad, in the rush to publish the list of DEMOfall companies, we posted the URLs of the companies, but didn’t link them.  But seriously, if I cared about startups, I’d be sure there were links in my stories for the convenience of Robert and other bloggers?   This from the guy who cared enough about startups to spend maybe 30 seconds looking at a pre-release Web site before declaring that the company and its products “suck.”  Now there’s critical thinking and thoughtful review.

Listen, I’m not just picking on Scoble or Lacy.  This shoot-from-the-lip blogging has been going on far too long.  And maybe I can’t really blame guys like Scoble who now stoop to the lowest and simplest form of “criticism”  in an effort to attract legions of followers.  Those of us who care about civilized discourse and critical thinking carry the burden if we don’t stand up to the bully tactics. If we engage in invective as sport and don’t demand even the slightest semblance of balance, then maybe we get what we deserve: a pack of school yard bullies who believe theirs is the definitive voice in the “conversation.”

They’re better than that.  We’re all better than that. Let’s start acting like it.

Good morning, all. How’s everyone out there in peaceful-happy-go-lucky-tech-land? Everyone good? Anyone received a death threat recently? Oh that’s right. We have! Well, I supposed it’s good to be noticed. What is that old saying? If you’re not pissing people off, you’re not [...]]]> WE INTERRUPT OUR NORMALLY MEASURED INDUSTRY ANALYSIS . . .

Good morning, all. How’s everyone out there in peaceful-happy-go-lucky-tech-land? Everyone good? Anyone received a death threat recently? Oh that’s right. We have! Well, I supposed it’s good to be noticed. What is that old saying? If you’re not pissing people off, you’re not doing things right? By that logic, we must be running a hell of a show.

I’m not entirely sure who whizzed in Mike Arrington’s Wheaties but someone at DEMO/Guidewire Group apparently did. From what I hear, we’re in good company; the list of people Arrington doesn’t like is approaching impressive proportions. If I have any advice for folks in the tech industry, entrepreneurs and media alike, it’s to watch your back. Friendly competition is obviously not in Mike’s vocabulary; either you succumb to his will or… DIE!

Calm down, Mike. We’re just talking about tech conferences here. No one’s waging a war against terrorism. We aren’t two points on the Axis of Evil. What we are trying to do – or at least should be – is foster a healthy environment in which startups can grow. And, yes, we’re both in business so we want to make a little profit, too.

Before I go any further, let me be very clear on a few points that have been tossed about in comments without much consideration, or demand for clarity or truth, for that matter:

The DEMO conferences are NOT pay-for-play and that assertion is insulting to every company that’s launched at a DEMO in the past 19 years. As someone who’s relatively new to the screening process (I started helping Chris with the interviews two years ago), I assure you that I would never have attached my name to a process that was anything but integrity-rich.

TC50 can embrace a “free” business model if they like, they can even call it a “merit-based” system, but until they donate all those demo pit and attendee fees to charity, they’re in this game for profit, just as surely is DEMO. To position TC, as so many comments seem to do, as philanthropic is just absurd.

Let’s ask the obvious question here: Where are all those $18k DEMO demonstrator fees going?

They pay for a top-notch production that is unmatched in the conference industry. They pay for media support from some of the best professionals in the business. They pay for a rich media hosting environment that insures that every 6-minute demonstration can reach a world-wide 24/7/365 audience. They go to creating an environment that allows entrepreneurs to be heroes in the spotlight, if only for the 3-days of the event. And let’s be frank, DEMO with all its platinum production values has outlasted virtually every major tech conference. There’s a reason for that, and it isn’t because Chris and the execs at IDG are lining their pockets with filthy lucre. As Chris pointed out in her post, that money goes to extensive coaching on every level, and yep, some of it is profit. Shocking isn’t it: aiming for profit in the business world?

I’ve been advised against this post by PR mavens, and Chris – who is far nicer than I – may blow a gasket here, but I’m saying it: I’m tired of dancing around an ego that everyone seems to agree is over-inflated. Michael Arrington needs to get over himself and realize that the tech industry was thriving long before he came on the scene and will continue to long after he’s gone. Arrington would do well to adopt an attitude of respect and professionalism toward the startups he claims to promote. And the community at large would be wise to demand it of him. . . and of every blogger, journalist, and analyst (ourselves included) covering this great industry.

WE NOW RESUME OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING.

Until this morning, what I’m about to share have been private ponderings reserved for conversation with colleagues. Then I read the most [...]]]> Let me just start by saying that I realize I’m wading into shark-infested waters, dangerous territory no matter how I try to spin these next few paragraphs. But wade I must.

Until this morning, what I’m about to share have been private ponderings reserved for conversation with colleagues. Then I read the most ironic post by Michael Arrington. In it, he berates gossip site Valleywag for its coverage of the underbelly of Silicon Valley and the Web 2.0 movement.

Before I go further, I state for the record:

• I respect Michael for what he has created at TechCrunch. I may go about the business of reporting and analyzing the technology business in a manner very different from him, but there is no doubt that he has created a successful franchise.
• Valleywag leaves me conflicted. I like Owen Thomas, and even though he’s reported things I wish he hadn’t, he’s always been fair to me. Still, I’ve never thought Silicon Valley needed a gossip rag, an opinion I’ve held since The San Jose Mercury News carried the gossip column by my friend Chris Nolan in the 90s.

Then, came a post this morning. In his hyperbolic way, Arrington skewers Valleywag for its salacious coverage of Jimmy Wales’ breakup with his girlfriend Rachel Marsden. The irony comes in his conclusion:

There’s a market for this kind of content, obviously. And nothing can stop it except significant changes to our libel and defamation laws. That isn’t something I support. But the valley was a much nicer place to live and work before the days of Valleywag.

And, one might argue, TechCrunch and dozens of other blogs that stoop to a level of discourse that is undignified, disrespectful, and anything but social.

For much of the last year I’ve been struggling privately with a collection of essays about the nature of reporting, journalism, commentary, criticism, and opinion that is the blogosphere. Collected under the title of this post, this unpublished commentary is tied together by a simple idea: that social media, as it is largely practiced, has become entirely anti-social.

Thousands of innocuous blogs are little more than self-absorbed chatter of people we’ll never meet and wouldn’t want to. Their lives are important to them and to a cadre of friends and family, yet by blogging about themselves they presume an audience and a stature that far exceeds their reach. They may not be creating a broader social experience by sharing intimate details of their daily diet or by writing posts rather than visiting with friends, but these people feel good, even great, about their blogs, and that’s all that matters.

And then there are the blogs that assume (the operative word) a greater importance. Their writers are convinced by fact or fantasy that their world views matter to the greater populace. And so they opine. But with relatively rare exception, opinion alone doesn’t drive the traffic and blog ratings with which one lays claim to standing in the blog community. The problem, though, is that constructive opinion is difficult. Destructive criticism is easy. So, in order to post early and often, these people spew venom about all manner of things. And their most anti-social behavior attracts readers like onlookers to a traffic accident. Sadly, blog traffic and vitriol track each other.

Now, these aren’t popular opinions. I’ve had many a long debate with Naked Conversations author Shel Israel about the absence of civil discourse in the blogosphere, and largely, we agree to disagree. He contends that the blogosphere is one big, congenial conversation where the occasional jackass is tolerated, perhaps even admired, for the “success” of his or her blog. I contend that many of the most vocal bloggers and blog media companies have failed to assume the responsibility and transparency that comes with the leadership they have gained. That the blogosphere is in desperate need of the responsibility that comes with authority (or at least authority rankings).

And don’t get me wrong. There are many, many wonderful blogs providing a heightened discourse that is additive to the global conversation. ReadWriteWeb, WebWorker Daily, and Redeye VC offer smart, considered coverage of social media, the tech industry, and the startup ecosystem. Confessions of a Pioneer Woman is wonderful read and a refreshing break from all things tech. These stand among many intelligent, thoughtful, respectful, and provocative blogs.

The keywords: intelligent, thoughtful, provocative, respectful.
I’ve covered the information technology industry in a variety of capacities for nearly 25 years. I have read and written thousands of stories about product, companies, and people. Some of those pieces have been critical – very critical – but, I believe, never disrespectful and never personal.

And then along comes “social media” and the discourse gets nasty. Why stop at a reasonable critique of a business plan or a product when you can belittle the entrepreneur? Why just disagree with someone when you can name call?

When did technology analysis become personal? Why investigate and report when you can just opine? Why provide reasoned analysis when you can simply dump on any idea you didn’t think of? How is “stupid” an analysis of a product or idea? When did it become okay to call the subject of a story an asshole? Is it that bloggers write “posts” rather than “stories” that they need not adhere to some level of social decorum?

If serious bloggers want to be taken seriously, it’s time they grow up. It’s time they treat their writing as well as their subjects with dignity.