The 2005 Wired Rave Awards were not all that interesting or insightful but in the honorable mentions for the technology award (to Mark Fletcher for the overrated BlogLines) I noticed Adam Curry listed for iPodder. Which made me think that Dave Winer has gone sort of silent on Adam since he posted an entry stating that the two would not be starting a podcasting-ish based business together. Though he did take Wired to task last week for giving the award nomination to Curry instead of him, and that’s probably why reading the awards article brough this to mind.
Some people will say this is Dave whining yet again but–and I’m far from his biggest fan–this seems to be a legitimate complaint. Four years ago, when Dave was still running UserLand, they did deliver a lot of innovation in this space. Since he left after having heart problems a couple of years ago that’s changed but when earned give the man his due. At least the recent NYT article on podcasting credited them together but credits Winer only as “an early Web log writer,” which is just stupid. You’d think someone skilled enough to get a byline in the New York Times Technology section would know better.
Where am I going with this? Not sure. I was thinking initially about the ephemeral nature of friendships and partnerships, then about the continuing inability of even “with it” mainstream media to get facts straight, then about reputation and spin in the web age. In the end, of course, there are no answers, just observations.
BillSaysThis 