I realize I’m coming across as a frightened purist, afraid that eveything will blow up if not ‘kept clean’. I’m not — and I’m not afraid. But a lot of things pisses me off — and a lot of things makes me wonder.

What I’m saying is: I don’t care how little effect something will have in the end. But if it’s bullshit, it’s bullshit — and should be avoided at all costs. If you sign up for something, make sure there are some well-communicated values in there. If you see hot air, call people on it.

I don’t eat shit, no matter how small the amount.

Having said that. I don’t think we should be too nervous about it. It always happens. Someone always takes away what we’ve been doing and makes a lot more noise that we did. There will always be people who don’t quite “get it” — who get all the attention. It’s unfair in a way — sure, but it ‘s the way things are.

Sometimes it gets at me. I doubt myself and the things I’m doing. I see that only 1% of people I meet really get this. I see that almost noone actually DO it.
At Reboot 8 there was a workshop on diversity. I claimed that we — at the workshop and at Reboot — were all the same, and that there was no real diversity.
That was NOT the common understanding. But it is the truth!
We are all the same. And we discuss small narrow issues of definition.
The real impact of what we do — will show in 5–10 years time.
And we don’t know what it will actually be. Although we have some clues.…..

When I talk about new language / old language, what I mean is that, while I agree that the less new language we use in these areas the better, when old language doesn’t cut it (and sometimes it doesn’t), we should just try harder — otherwise we risk losing people. The desktop metaphor, for instance, might have made it easier for people to get the idea about what tasks are being done, but that doesn’t mean someone couldn’t have come up with something better, where you didn’t have to accept trashcans on your table… Just as I continue to meet people that feel their knowledge of community practice all of a sudden is worthless because everyone is talking about social software. It’s a fine line.

The funny thing is, that while definately talking to ‘the industry’, what I’m trying to do is to get this group of people to stop insisting that their customers are lost if they don’t buy into the concept of ‘beta’, ‘social software’ etc. They are not — and people tellimg them they are should take a hard think — there’s a good chance they are making everything more difficult for everyone.

(I’ll look into the feed issue — thanks for the heads up)