This is how open conversations happen in the blogosphere.

I make unsubstantiated claims and accusations, ranting and raving (I don’t drink alcohol - this is actually how I am in real life) demanding attention like some spoiled brat - pouting over being yelled at, misunderstood or the worst - ignored.

And some come back and defend themselves.

Kara was the object of my wrath and she’s come back in eloquent, above-it-all, style deflecting the negative and turning the energy into a positive swing on her conference. I’m saying this - as TechCrunch40 approaches and I can’t for the life of me - figure out why people wanna go to an event which has folks who PAY to be on stage.

Jason Calacanis is apparently coaching these folks in their presentations - so I’m sure the thing will take on an almost Gladiatorial feel as these startups throw themselves into the ring to be judged by the likes of Marc Andressen or Dave Winer. Lordy lordy lordy - keep me away from all that!

Kara carefully navigated her way through my post - pointing out that AllThingsD is open, and that anyone can attend it and that all the videos of the event are posted - so anyone can find out what happened. Coolio!

She conveniently didn’t bring up the issues of insider politics, only asking the right questions and shrinking away from many of the controversial subjects of our day; as the Feds attack Net Neutrality, Adam Bosworth leaves Google, Facebooks apps are running amuck and the Second Life Metanomics conference will pretend like people really care about Second Life. Getting at the REAL story is often ugly, not polite or even savory - but it almost never happens.

The trick in tech journalism is learning how to read the tea leaves and see who’s standing behind the curtain - pulling the levers.

The fact that Kara actually liked my question I yelled out says we’re on the same side and I really don’t mind getting yelled at. So I apologize to Kara for using her good name and cred as a means of creating a post to get my point across.

But it worked.

Kara represents a number of metaphors - all lining up - defining where media, entrepreneurism and chutzpah converge. Her history, attitude, conference and cred all speak of mainstream tech journalism, while her politics and attitude are refreshing and timely. She’s known as one of the smartest cookies around and her video camera - stick-it-in-your-face approach keeps it real.

SIDE NOTE: Kara and her partner Megan were in the same Lamaze class as me and Lisa.

So here I am crafting a response and something tells me folks will read this.

Kara asks: “contact me when I should be covering something” - so now that I’ve got your attention - please check out:

“Bringing Social to Software” - the next step beyond just APIs = social media operating system stratas, turning normal software into social software. What we’re doing is “Isolating components of social networking as web services”.

“Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web” - something Joseph Smarr and I created, with support from Robert Scoble and Michael Arrington - going through a rewrite now - but we’re on the right track

“The Chess Game of Social Networking” - and the unfolding, constantly changing landscape of open standards and inter-connecting these networks together. That’s why we did the DataSharingSummit. It was fun and worth while.

“Open Standards for Social Networking” - that’s my meme and why we did the…….

“Open letter to Ning” - where I urge them to support OpenID and other open standards (and they ARE!) - so it worked! They even have a way of Exporting an entire network! Now we just gotta make sure that they Import an entire network as well. Its just as important to spit as to suck.

“Facebook is a DLA” (digital lifestyle aggregator) - so I coined this phrase and it seems to stick. It means Portals 2.0, but without the cookie cutter attitude - based upon integration, aggregation and customization - using open standards to inter-connect…. well you get the drift.

and don’t forget to check out Cyama, GTChannel, LetsCricket and PeopleAggregator. and our company site.

When the “big” (read: legitimate) clients ship - I’ll let yah know. Those gigs will show off many of the principles I’ve been expounding. But without shipping code it’s all just hot air. Right?

So until then, I sit on the hill like a Happy Buddha, arms reaching out - smiling.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 10:37 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.