AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
I knew something would eventually come along to tip me over the edge and get me blogging again. Had a ton of things going on in the last n months, but that's no real excuse, I know...
Anyway, that legend in his own lunchtime, John C. Dvorak, has finally done it. In a very strange and frankly rather shrill piece at the PC Magazine site, Dvorak tears into both The Cluetrain Manifesto and the whole blogging phenomenon.
Starting from “This 1999 keeper is a book that tells us how the Internet changes everything and tops that statement with every other cliché we've become sick of over the past few years...” he goes on to characterise the authors as cultists likely to respond to any criticism with “you don’t get it”, saying:
“Werner Erhard of EST (the über-cult of the 1970's) used to use this phrase over and over. Tell Erhard that something makes no sense. "You don't get it." Tell him that something is self-contradictory. "You don't get it." Tell him that something is just plain stupid. "You don't get it." This is the level of debate you can expect when cult thinking is present. But, of course, "I don't get it."
Problem.
John C. Dvorak is, by all accounts, one of the most influential and venerable columnists and opinion shapers in the technology universe. His credentials would certainly seem to indicate that he should have a reasonable idea of what he’s talking about.
And yet, he “doesn’t get” The Cluetrain or the Blogging phenom. What’s going on here?
Thanks be to Google, yet again, for helping me dig up the answer.
You see – the core premise of The Cluetrain Manifesto is, as Dvorak states, that the Internet has indeed changed everything. Everything. The subject is marketing and markets in general, but the catalyst for Cluetrain’s 95 theses is certainly the Internet.
Viz: “6. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.”
To which, btw, the august Mr. Dvorak’s insightful rebuttal is: “Oh? Like what? IM's? Crummy e-mail? Spam?”
Er...how about eBay? Or Usenet? Or being able to keep in touch with friends and family all round the world, share photos and stories, for practically zero cost? Or meeting and engaging in stimulating, remarkable discussions with people I’d never have known existed without the Internet? (Unless, of course, I’d gotten into the habit of releasing hundreds of helium balloons every day, with snarky comments attached, hoping to meet like-minded souls in far flung lands...) Or eGM? Or Amazon? Or Covisint?
Enough.
It seems Mr. Dvorak doesn’t “get” Cluetrain and doesn’t “get” Blogging because, as the evidence attests, he doesn’t “get” the Internet. Never has and, I’d guess, never will.
Evidence: here he is, in fine form, in his syndicated column “Ask Dvorak” back in '93 as the 'Net was dawning.
Shifting position only slightly as the momentum builds in '94.
OK, it’s a cheap shot, I know – quoting such ancient material. But remember: Dvorak’s the guy who held out for years saying OS/2 would win the battle for the desktop as it was “fundamentally better”. The same guy who also predicted the death of the GUI and once famously bitched about the fact that there was no equivalent for DEL *.* on MacOS. Er, right.
But...striving for at least a veneer of balance, here's some rather more recent sage words from Dvorak Sensei on the nature, value and purpose of the Internet.
Ah yes. It's all about mullets after all.
About time Ziff Davis thought about boiling this one down for glue, perhaps...
I knew something would eventually come along to tip me over the edge and get me blogging again. Had a ton of things going on in the last n months, but that's no real excuse, I know...
Anyway, that legend in his own lunchtime, John C. Dvorak, has finally done it. In a very strange and frankly rather shrill piece at the PC Magazine site, Dvorak tears into both The Cluetrain Manifesto and the whole blogging phenomenon.
Starting from “This 1999 keeper is a book that tells us how the Internet changes everything and tops that statement with every other cliché we've become sick of over the past few years...” he goes on to characterise the authors as cultists likely to respond to any criticism with “you don’t get it”, saying:
“Werner Erhard of EST (the über-cult of the 1970's) used to use this phrase over and over. Tell Erhard that something makes no sense. "You don't get it." Tell him that something is self-contradictory. "You don't get it." Tell him that something is just plain stupid. "You don't get it." This is the level of debate you can expect when cult thinking is present. But, of course, "I don't get it."
Problem.
John C. Dvorak is, by all accounts, one of the most influential and venerable columnists and opinion shapers in the technology universe. His credentials would certainly seem to indicate that he should have a reasonable idea of what he’s talking about.
And yet, he “doesn’t get” The Cluetrain or the Blogging phenom. What’s going on here?
Thanks be to Google, yet again, for helping me dig up the answer.
You see – the core premise of The Cluetrain Manifesto is, as Dvorak states, that the Internet has indeed changed everything. Everything. The subject is marketing and markets in general, but the catalyst for Cluetrain’s 95 theses is certainly the Internet.
Viz: “6. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.”
To which, btw, the august Mr. Dvorak’s insightful rebuttal is: “Oh? Like what? IM's? Crummy e-mail? Spam?”
Er...how about eBay? Or Usenet? Or being able to keep in touch with friends and family all round the world, share photos and stories, for practically zero cost? Or meeting and engaging in stimulating, remarkable discussions with people I’d never have known existed without the Internet? (Unless, of course, I’d gotten into the habit of releasing hundreds of helium balloons every day, with snarky comments attached, hoping to meet like-minded souls in far flung lands...) Or eGM? Or Amazon? Or Covisint?
Enough.
It seems Mr. Dvorak doesn’t “get” Cluetrain and doesn’t “get” Blogging because, as the evidence attests, he doesn’t “get” the Internet. Never has and, I’d guess, never will.
Evidence: here he is, in fine form, in his syndicated column “Ask Dvorak” back in '93 as the 'Net was dawning.
Shifting position only slightly as the momentum builds in '94.
OK, it’s a cheap shot, I know – quoting such ancient material. But remember: Dvorak’s the guy who held out for years saying OS/2 would win the battle for the desktop as it was “fundamentally better”. The same guy who also predicted the death of the GUI and once famously bitched about the fact that there was no equivalent for DEL *.* on MacOS. Er, right.
But...striving for at least a veneer of balance, here's some rather more recent sage words from Dvorak Sensei on the nature, value and purpose of the Internet.
Ah yes. It's all about mullets after all.
About time Ziff Davis thought about boiling this one down for glue, perhaps...
