December 14, 2006
TCUK farrago exposes national divisions shocker
It's a shame to see that Techcrunch UK has gone into meltdown. Shel Israel sums it up at Naked Conversations. The most dismal consequence of all this though is the parochialism and xenophobia that has subsequently been exposed:
Loic Lemeur wrongly assumed that conference attendees would not object to Le Web 3 morphing into a platform for French pre-election chest-beating (with keynotes delivered in French, natch);
The attendees (rightly IMHO) reacted with overwhelming negativity, broadly criticing the politicization of what was otherwise a potentially interesting tech conference (as an employee of a French telco, this does not surpise me - nor should it anyone else; there have been numerous precedents for French state intervention in the French tech sector, and vice versa.) Some accused Lemur of attempting to push his own domestic political ambitions, while others implied (again, correctly IMHO) that France is behind the curve in terms of understanding, adopting and incubating the emerging wave of new internet models;
Michael Arrington, in shutting down TCUK, was accused of many things: US imperialism, xenophobia, heavy-handedness, croneyism, hypocrisy. A distinct us-and-them tone has emerged from the fall-out: the US guys don't bother to attend European events, they don't appreciate what's going on outside Silicon Valley; the Brits lack profesionalism, they don't see the importance of protecting a valuable brand...
It's all a storm in a teacup really. But it's interesting to see how the parties involved have exhibited somewhat cliched national characteristics: arrogance (France), isolationism (US), cynicism (UK). Or maybe it's just my cliche-riddled mindset. Whatever. I'm sure everyone will kiss and make up (although I doubt Arrington will be able to show his face in the UK for a while.) In the meantime, I hope Techcrunch UK continues in some sort of incarnation - on the whole it's coverage was good, and it succeeded in creating a positive buzz amongst the nascent startup community in the UK.
June 22, 2006
The Great Seduction
I've not previously come across an article that equates Web 2.0 with Marxism, but this one does. It's arguments are erudite and persuasive. But as the author points out, the Law of Unintended Consequences ensures that anything in the world, including the Net, can be utilised in ways not anticipated or advocated by its creators (this inherent vulnerability of things also protects against rampant technological determinism.) In other words, Web 2.0 may exhibit traces of Marxist philosophy, but Web 3.0+ may not. Ironically, it could be argued that Marxism itself was vulnerable to the Law of Unintended Consequences, through its evolution into Leninism and its practical application by Stalin in the Soviet Union. The extent to which Stalinism became a corrupted analogue of Marxism is illustrated here; this example of denunciation letters is itslef an exhibit in the Museum of Unintended Consequences at California State University.
I highly recommend Andrew Keen's blog for its intellectual insights into emerging technologies.
October 06, 2005
It's about time
Matt brought this one to my attention:
"Rave parties or festivals lasting up to four days and involving as many as 500 people able to drink round the clock will be allowed without the public having any right to object under the new Licensing Act, it emerged yesterday."
Good news for Moor Music and, er.... anyone else who wants to organise a 96-hour long piss up.
February 11, 2004
The second superpower
While I am generally inclined to criticize the airless self-congratulatory atmosphere of the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (for that is where I am this week), there are plenty of very interesting streams of thought emerging. One of these is the notion that there may be two superpowers after all – the US and world opinion. This is a pretty idealistic assertion, but it is certainly true that, in some cases, the public are no longer an inert audience. They are organising and coalescing around Net technologies such as blogs and wikis, which have given them a voice. Destinations like Moveon.org and Meetup.com enable distributed, organised advocacy which, some day, may be influencial enough to be able to score a significant victory against institutionalised American interests.