Doc Searls comes to Technorati’s defense regarding several posts based on the original Tom Foremski piece on SVW about the alleged blatant selling of Technorati to corporate America on a recent panel.
Doc has some good points about data based on other data and repurposing content. In it he talks about how all of us, me included, based our posts on the original content in the SVW piece as if it were fact. Doc pointed to my original post, which Jeremy Wright then picked up and the list goes on. I understand where Doc is coming from and why he’s coming to David Sifry’s defense but my points are still valid… whether or not Technorati actually, not only allegedly, pitched it’s service to the listeners of a recent panel. Jeremy’s points are valid as well.
I personally know Tom Foremski and would not have based my piece on his story if I didn’t know him as an actual journalist. Tom would not put up data if it weren’t true, no matter how exciting it might be. Regardless, Technorati has issues it needs to deal with or it’s going to face continued scrutiny on it’s performance issues and lack of completeness. David Sifry and team have made a ton of progress in recent months regarding the user interface and features and have squashed a ton of bugs on the way… but if the performance doesn’t get fixed then it’s going to be a major issue.
Secondly, I know Doc Searls understands the wolfpack mentality and how the bad part of bloggers is that we can be like a wolfpack and tear apart anything in our path if we’re all attacking it at the same time. However, this wolfpack mentality must be dealt with in a much lower form than applying standards to bloggers and coming up with an ubersolution. Marketing must learn how to use the wolfpack to cut a trail through the snow on cold winter days if they’re campaigns are to survive in this day and age. Additionally, wolves only go in the direction of the food source, and if the wolves smell weakness they’ll circle until it’s time to move in for the kill. I’m not saying this is good or bad but it’s something that can’t be ignored.
Links:
Department of Connections
Doc Searls Calls Me Out
Technorati Goes All Corporate On Us?
The selling of the Blogosphere
Jason Dowdell is a technology entrepreneur and operates the Marketing Shift blog.
