The Web 2.0 Civil War
by
on June 27, 2008,
Shel vs. Loren (and puppet). TechCrunch50 vs. DEMO. Mike Arrington vs. Pete Cashmore (and, well, pretty much everyone). We've all seen the constant battle of words in the blogosphere, but the real question is why these altercations come up at all.
In the world of Web 2.0, attention is everything. Getting attention and maintaining an audience are crucial to any type of success for a company, and the struggle for eyeballs has continued to escalate as a result. It's no longer enough to introduce and support a great product; instead, you have to be heard in a very crowded space when even quality products are often overlooked in favor of noisier ones. One very easy way to get that notice is to take on a big name and, if you can't bring it down, at least cause enough grief to get a response.
A perfect example of gaining that notoriety would be Loren Feldman. While he got a great deal of negative attention with his offensive-to-most Technigga video, Feldman still wasn't a name most in the blogosphere were familiar with. Then he set his sights on industry veteran Shel Israel and the rest was history. Israel took to complaining about it loud and long to anyone who would listen. Feldman stepped up his game. Feldman parlayed his newfound fame into a gig with CNET. Israel has his name-as-domain owned by Feldman. And the rest of us are left with a bad taste in our mouths.
A similar scenario can be seen in the TechCrunch50 attacks on DEMO. TechCrunch50 founders Mike Arrington and Jason Calacanis have spent a lot of time (and bandwidth) in promoting their start-up launch event by disparaging DEMO and scheduling their event at the same time as DEMO. Carla Thompson and Chris Shipley of DEMO feel compelled to respond to the attacks, and another blogosphere battle is born.
While Hollywood may believe that there's no such thing as bad publicity, when it comes to the impression that this sort of online bickering leaves with observers, no one wins. My daughter is a huge Hannah Montana fan, and in one of the episodes, Miley, the lead character, learns the lesson imparted by her father: "When you lie down with dogs, you end up with fleas." The reluctance in the blogosphere to take the high road and ignore the detractors gives in to the upstart and gives more credence to their attacks. The upstart gets the desired result, and the defender almost invariably loses fans.
Companies (and individuals) cannot succeed unless there is competition. History repeats time and time again, but the end result is almost always the same: without competition, a person or company loses the edge. Competition leads to innovation. Lack of competition leads to a slowdown of innovation, leaving room for a new upstart to come in and introduce something new and exciting, leaving the established player trying to catch up in a space it once ruled. Rather than engage in the war of words, it's more productive to continue to innovate. The audience will appreciate it, as much as we like a good trainwreck.
Full disclosure: I also write for the IDG publication The Industry Standard. IDG is also the parent company for DEMO.
Image by ernop used via Creative Commons license.
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Michael Fidler 
Well written post, Cyndy, and I wholeheartedly agree. In some tech circles, the concept of competition has degenerated to schoolyard bullying in recent years. It’s no longer enough to innovate alongside others in a sector; you must personally insult and destroy as well - a practice made much easier by the instant communication now available to us. Chris has pleaded many times for a return to civility in the blogosphere, and occasionally I’ll feel the wind shift a little in that direction. But I fear we’ve reached a point of no return when the method of discourse now involves puppetry.
You left a few (hundred) out. The whole thing is sickening and ridiculous with one or 2 exceptions. Lose the egos and grow up. If you ignore it, it may go away. Nothing to gain and way too much to lose. End quote?
Can’t remember if comments on your blog are replicated on FF, so here’s my two cents: Well written post, Cyndy, and I wholeheartedly agree. In some tech circles, the concept of competition has degenerated to schoolyard bullying in recent years. It’s no longer enough to innovate alongside others in a sector; you must personally insult and destroy as well - a practice made much easier by the instant communication now available to us. Chris has pleaded many times for a return to civility in the blogosphere, and occasionally I’ll feel the wind shift a little in that direction. But I fear we’ve reached a point of no return when the method of discourse now involves puppetry.
Charlie, if I put them ALL in there, it would have gone well over 1000 words, and no one would read it.
FVB > Puppet Drama: Take it to the Fight Club…
The never ending drama around puppets is just amplifying what I always suspected about the social media elites……
Good point
Perhaps the greatest irony in all of this drama is that this is supposed to be “social media” yet the most prominent participants seem to lack “social skills.”
Notwithstanding the fact that I personally believe “social media” is more aptly named “anti-social media,” it’s worth pointing out that in the real world, the most “social” (and “popular”) people are those who don’t needlessly pick fights and look to spark drama.
This begs the question: if the most prominent personalities in “social media” don’t seem to be very “social,” what does that say about “social media”?
On an unrelated note, as George Carlin humorously reminded us: there’s no such thing as a “civil” war.