Dave Winer going on ten years of blogging…
Just on Dave’s Scripting News site, which is probably the only site I read as a tech journalist that I still read as a prole.
It just seems amazing to me that he is a polarizing figure to some (many?). I mean, sure he’s opinionated, thinks there is a right way and a wrong way to do something, but that’s because he’s run his own companies. Who wants a CEO that gets mired in nuance and grey areas?
I was writing about blogging, XML, RSS and such right when he was doing things, so to me, he was definitely on the scene and leading the pack.
It reminds me of Christoher Columbus and, most especially an essay about him written by Teller (of Penn & Teller fame). In it he talks about all of the things that Columbus did, and the times in which, he did them. But most important to me, and where I see the Dave Winer connection is in the end:
Today “enlightened” history teachers pooh-pooh Columbus’s role because he was a European. They point out that Incas and Aztecs and Cherokees and Cheyennes had lived in America for centuries before 1492; they credit the Viking oaf Leif Erikson, for stumbling upon a piece of North America, running away, and doing nothing with his “discovery.”
Such teachers misunderstand what the word “discover” means. There is a difference between blundering onto something, and discovering its nature, grasping its order and significance. Farmers in ancient fields had experienced mass and momentum. But we don’t say they discovered Newtonian physics. To discover is not merely to encounter, but to comprehend and reveal, to apprehend something new and true and deliver it to the world.
I’m not saying Dave is the Columbus of the Web or anything, but as far as being a champion of technology and comprehending it, that part I can definitely see. But so much of the blogosphere wants to give the spotlight to the Leif Ericksons.
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:04 am
[...] Posted in Scripting News at 9:04 am by Dave Winer Jeff Walsh: “Who wants a CEO that gets mired in nuance and grey areas?” [...]
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:27 am
[...] Jeff Walsh: “Who wants a CEO that gets mired in nuance and grey areas?” [...]
January 23rd, 2007 at 3:36 pm
No one is denying Dave’s contributions but to be “amazed that he is polarizing” is plain idiotic.
January 23rd, 2007 at 4:42 pm
So if I go to a country who knows nothing about blogging, I can then claim to have “discovered” it.
Sounds like a plan.
Dave Winer is the man, but not too sure about your analogy.
I think Columbus was looking for something else and “stumbled” here too.
January 23rd, 2007 at 4:47 pm
It’s always the anon ones…
As viewing his website is optional, I *am* always surprised when people self-select to go somewhere they disagree with on a regular basis, and to try and alter his viewpoint, when it is on the points that never seem to change.
As no one’s quite sure who said (some say Ben Franklin, others Einstein): “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
January 23rd, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Mikael, not at all. America was only discovered once, given the definition of “discover” Teller uses.
People had websites that, in retrospect, were blogs. But as far as grasping their promise, rallying behind their underlying technology, being an all-around cheerleader, and building the community and excitement that I feel is responsible for a lot of what is still going on today, I say Dave discovered blogging.
Whether Columbus was looking for something else is irrelevant.
December 15th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce