Tim O’Reilly is probably the only man in the known universe who’s actually making money off of Open Source, and that’s because he publishes all the books that tell how to use the motley stuff, which is actually pretty smart entrepreneuring. This week, he’s holding his annual snake-oil rite, the Emerging Technology Conference in Santa Clara. One of the panels is on warblogging, and predictably, there are no actual warbloggers involved.
Why am I not surprised? After all, the conference is priced at rock-bottom levels, with a ticket to the exhibits and the panels going for a measly $1600.00. For that, you can’t really expect to hear experts on any subject more meaningful than the latest open source Personal Information Manager, or maybe Dildonics. It’s your money.
Heh. And I happen to know for a fact that you gave them some names of real warbloggers. No, they never got in touch with me. And hell, I even party with Doc Searls.
Frankly, it’s even worse because not only are none of these people warbloggers, but most (all?) of them are decidedly anti-war folks. This would be like hosting a panel on anti-war blogs and only inviting Steven Denbeste and the Little Green Footballs dude.