Comments on: Sarah Lacy takes on Gnomedex

Months after her infamous South by Southwest interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the tech journalist faces another geek conference audience.

[drewolanoffd]

That's actually not what happened with Robert. I poked him and suggested he go speak to him one on one basis since this presentation was in the style of a blog. Robert was being referred to as some higher power, and to show that he's just a normal guy, he came up to talk personally.

[douglasdooley]

although i have her book in my bag, and can't seem to get out of Chapter 1, as Web 2.0 crud bores me compared with enterprise software, is there any longer any doubt that Sarah Lacy runs the industry...

she made Zuck look like the little punk-kid that he is, i will not forget him pouting about the questions she was asking, like he was above it all, what a worthless business-child, though i'm signed in to Facebook as i type...

with this performance, I hope sarah writes a new book ab/ something worthy of her talents and insights...

[Geoff Livingston]

That's an interesting accounting, Drew. It was with respect that I mentioned Scoble, but it was with oversensitivity that he answered. He and I actually had a long discussion afterwards as he misinterpreted my words as being personal.

As to my points, moreon that tomorrow. But Lacy's performance demonstrated several weaknesses, and an over reliance on a journalism career that's over. Further, her topic was dated, and demonstrated a lack of actual social media experience. It was the usual Valley A-List schmooze, and none of us were interested.

[egockel70]

@Geoff,

"It was the usual Valley A-List schmooze, and none of us were interested."

then why were you there? Make a statement and don't attend.

[ddmcd]

Interesting that no mention is made here of the fact that there was also plenty of Twitter traffic going on during Lacy's presentation, Livingston being a key contributor.

The silly Scoble-Livingston celebrity encounter story is another reason why blogging is starting to look to some people like another co-opted branch of PR. That's too bad.

[Daniel Terdiman]

I made a subtle reference to the online traffic, but decided against delving into that because I wanted to focus on what was being said out loud. But it's a good point, especially in the context of what happened at SXSW.

[ddmcd]

Interesting that no mention is made here of the fact that there was also plenty of Twitter traffic going on during Lacy's presentation, Livingston being a key contributor.

The silly Scoble-Livingston celebrity encounter story is another reason why blogging is starting to look to some people like another co-opted branch of PR. That's too bad.

[merylteri]

No different than MSM, we do love a good fight. This seems to be much ado about nothing. Whatever one thinks of Sarah Lacy, she did a bang up job introducing a topic that is turned out to be both interesting & surprisingly controversial. I think the POVs expressed are worth pondering. Many seem to agree that blogging is a tool that can be used in many ways. Let's each try to go beyond who is *right* and who is *wrong*,and see how the ideas & suggestions can be used to further our purposes for business, for social welfare , for personal expression-- or whatever.

[Daniel Terdiman]

Interesting. Thanks for pointing this out. However, from my vantage point, Scoble looked upset and there's no doubt that by the time he walked away, he was definitely upset.

Still, it's hard to interpret these things in the moment, as they unfold so quickly.

[Geoff Livingston]

@egockel70 As a business owner, I do not attend events for sheer joy. I do not have enough time for that. I was there to conduct business on behalf of my client, network, and hold three new business meetings.

In between, I attended sessions, and stated my differing view, both on Twitter and in person. As someone who shelled out well over $2000 in travel, room, board and registration expenses, I feel like that's my right.

@ddmcd I don't see myself as a celeb. Comparing me to Scoble as a celebrity encounter is like comparing Manny Ramirez to a double A player. Same game, but not the same thing.

[Jeff Putz]

Am I the only one who thinks that the same two dozen people who talk about this stuff are living for attention, and ultimately are becoming exactly the mainstream media they say they're replacing?

[The_Decider]

What do you expect from a room full of people who make their living under the most pretentious, meaningless word around?

Intelligent discourse?

[Mr. Dee]

What kinda good stuff does Pirillo write? Its the Gnome Forums with its multiple contributors. Chris Pirillo discuss the most irrelevant topics in blogsphere and he simply knows when to hitch on to a popular topic and scratch it till its worthless. Mac vs. PC, Leopard vs. Vista. But he doesn't offer any technical acumen when it comes to the topics, nothing of use to the reader or listener.

[kegill]

Even the cNet article misses a key point: "blogger" is a meaningless phrase, as it rests solely on the technology. A person on LiveJournal writing for her friends is a "blogger" -- so are my students who use Wordpress to complete university assignments. So is a journalist -- citizen or paid -- who uses a blogging platform for publishing.

"Blogger" is a so-what term.

Much of the conversation Saturday morning revolved around "journalism" -- although no one seemed to want to use the word, including Sarah (except when she was talking about herself as a "tech journalist"). There were questions about ethics (that word wasn't used, either) and the advertising/editorial tension that's always going to be present when writing is accompanied by money.

NONE of these issues are new. Well, they aren't new to "journalism" ... paid or citizen ... although they certainly sounded new to "technical journalists."

The lead journalist ( blogger) for the West Seattle Blog sent me a tweet pointing to the June Media Giraffe Project as an example of a recent conference where these issues were discussed and called by their name.

The fact is that everyone is NOT motivated by money (see Wikipedia) ... that "bloggers" who want to be journalists who are paid are going to have to exercise ethical judgment (dealing with PR, for example) or else they'll lose their readers and their PR sponsors ... and that it's long past time to stop talking about the blog-space as though it's a homogeneous whole. It's not. Neither is your library. Or your cable (or satellite) TV line up. Or, come to think of it, YouTube.

[penmachine.com]

It's actually a pity this story is the high-profile one of the conference, because while it was fine, it was the most average of the whole event.

I think the reason the room got testy is that, the previous day, Gnomedex saw some genuinely inspirational, important, and different stuff (and would again later this day). The whole "oh woe the blogosphere" subject in the discussion Lacy led was what we felt Gnomedex 2008 had managed to get away from, until this point. That argument, in some form, had already happened in previous years, where it had soured some sessions. It was worn out.

And especially after a talk about raising funds for Cambodian orphans, and before another about exploring Mars, angst about trying to monetize blogs seemed not only tired, but almost obscenely parochial. For man of us, THAT was the issue.

Can we see some more stories about what else happened at Gnomedex 8? Almost all of it was better.