The Non Denial Denial
LOL.
Within just a few hours of my last post, the term "Social Software" is now playing center stage in the blogosphere's latest flame fests: It's Orlowski vs. O'Reilly in the Showdown at ETCon! Woohoo! Flame-Fight! Flame-Fight!
Tim seems shocked (shocked, I say, SHOCKED!) to learn that a "journo" at The Reg has posted rumor and inuendo in its fine online publication. (My GOD! Who knew?) He expresses his dismay and disappointment in this "blog" post where he commits the worst sin of journalistic sins, the "non denial denial." For those of you have haven't actually seen All the President's Men 40 times like yours truly, it basically means that Tim attacked the source and credibility of the story rather than the truthfulness of it. I have no idea if what Andrew said is true or not, but the fact is that Tim doesn't seem to either (and the fact that he's not sternly denying it, points to its kernel of truth rather than the opposite).
Since Andrew has been good to me and Mobitopia with press in The Reg, I'll wade in on his side on this one. He's not going to get many friends in Blogland since Tim is deservedly quite popular and Etcon is FILLED to the brim with top-tier bloggers, so I might as well give him some support (he's going to need it). First, from what I read, Andrew attacked Shirky, not Tim. He wrote nothing but almost flowing and loving words for Tim who "added to the greater common good immeasurably." So I'm not sure why Tim's boxers are in a bunch over this one.
Perhaps Tim is actually defending against the bland content of the conference rather than accusations of Andrew? As I expressed a few days ago, the conference content is quite devoid of any Mobile technologies except for Rheingold's speech. If there is ANYTHING that's emerging this year its mobile tech - and I'm not talking about WiFi which as we expressed here, is just Ethernet without cables, not the life changing force that is pervasive mobile connectivy.
Anyways, I don't think Tim should worry too much about flames in The Reg ("integrity, yeah, we've heard of it...") since that's why we all like The Reg in the first place. He should worry about the bloggers taking over his conferences and making sure all voices are heard. Just my 2 cents from my living room on the other end of the Earth from all this.
:-)
-Russ