A friend of mine who’ll go unnamed, but he isn’t involved in the Demo conference, just came up to me in the hall here at Demo and said “it’s pretty sleazy that you supported Mike Arrington given that Sam Sethi affair at Le Web.”
For the record, I didn’t know about this conference until Mike told me at lunch today. Also, it did seem fairly tactless to announce a competitive conference at Demo, given what had gone on between Mike and Sam — if Mike had advised me, I would have asked him to wait until after Demo was over to announce this new conference. Here’s Mike’s own words: “This is driven entirely from Sam’s ethical lapse in trashing a competitor while simultaneously promoting his own events.”
Scobleizer 
Man we bloggers should get a soap opera … As the blogosphere turns … Days of my blog …
I’ve been reading J&M being compared to Steve Jobs with the iPhone announcement during CES.
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Man we bloggers should get a soap opera … As the blogosphere turns … Days of my blog …
I’ve been reading J&M being compared to Steve Jobs with the iPhone announcement during CES.
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didn’t arrington launch your book at his house? didn’t he support you last week when you were getting hit by everyone else? nice way to show support. all he did was announce a conference.
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didn’t arrington launch your book at his house? didn’t he support you last week when you were getting hit by everyone else? nice way to show support. all he did was announce a conference.
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man, earlier @3pm scoble would be honored
and now @6pm “it seemed fairly tactless”
set’s a new record for half-life to flip-flop
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man, earlier @3pm scoble would be honored
and now @6pm “it seemed fairly tactless”
set’s a new record for half-life to flip-flop
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Seriously Robert … I don’t know how you put up with all this stuff – my though | ignore it.
All I can add is that we appreciate our blog for your (Roberts) opinions. The soap opera stuff (well said Tris) is for the rest.
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Seriously Robert … I don’t know how you put up with all this stuff – my though | ignore it.
All I can add is that we appreciate our blog for your (Roberts) opinions. The soap opera stuff (well said Tris) is for the rest.
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Paul: I’m still honored to be invited to be an advisor to TechCrunch’s party. But, my friend did have a point that I thought was worth saying publicly. And I told Mike this to his face in the hall tonight.
I used to run conferences and if someone announced a new conference that competed with mine while running around the hall inside mine, I’d be pissed.
Part of having a conversation online about marketplaces and such is getting everything out on the table so we can discuss it openly and move on.
Mike made a big deal about his employee announcing an event while at a competitive conference. That deserves to be discussed and I needed to explain that I was uncomfortable with that.
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Paul: I’m still honored to be invited to be an advisor to TechCrunch’s party. But, my friend did have a point that I thought was worth saying publicly. And I told Mike this to his face in the hall tonight.
I used to run conferences and if someone announced a new conference that competed with mine while running around the hall inside mine, I’d be pissed.
Part of having a conversation online about marketplaces and such is getting everything out on the table so we can discuss it openly and move on.
Mike made a big deal about his employee announcing an event while at a competitive conference. That deserves to be discussed and I needed to explain that I was uncomfortable with that.
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Yawn!
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Yawn!
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Robert, when we spoke it was before I saw this post. I think you misunderstand the Sethi situation and I think you misunderstand my position on Demo. I’ve spent the evening writing up the top 10 or so startups I saw here, which isn’t exactly saying it’s worthless. As someone who was so recently judged, I find it odd that you judge me so harshly, without knowing the facts. I hope that after the next time we talk you’ll understand how this is a completely different situation.
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Robert, when we spoke it was before I saw this post. I think you misunderstand the Sethi situation and I think you misunderstand my position on Demo. I’ve spent the evening writing up the top 10 or so startups I saw here, which isn’t exactly saying it’s worthless. As someone who was so recently judged, I find it odd that you judge me so harshly, without knowing the facts. I hope that after the next time we talk you’ll understand how this is a completely different situation.
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Oh good god, people, get a life. You all have so damn much, and all you do is spend all of your time whining and bitching–at each other, about what you want to buy, about where you want to be invited, who likes you, who doesn’t.
There’s a word, dignity. Try it some time.
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Oh good god, people, get a life. You all have so damn much, and all you do is spend all of your time whining and bitching–at each other, about what you want to buy, about where you want to be invited, who likes you, who doesn’t.
There’s a word, dignity. Try it some time.
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This is super-great 😀 having two conferences –
one is for those brilliant startups that are relatively more financed …
One is for those brilliant startups that have very little capitol …
But, Brilliance is Brillance
Web 2.0 is about information sharing – politics is for those traditional, old business models
Most of these Start-ups are also offering optional FREE version of their services – so everyone benefits by knowing about them.
Lets take the politics OUT of Web 2.0
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This is super-great 😀 having two conferences –
one is for those brilliant startups that are relatively more financed …
One is for those brilliant startups that have very little capitol …
But, Brilliance is Brillance
Web 2.0 is about information sharing – politics is for those traditional, old business models
Most of these Start-ups are also offering optional FREE version of their services – so everyone benefits by knowing about them.
Lets take the politics OUT of Web 2.0
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SV has its ‘politics’ and ‘drama’ as anywhere else. But lets put aside differences and look at the big picture here…these conferences are about the entrepreneurs and finding SV’s newest talent.
It’s not about x guy trying to outdo y guy or disrespecting him in anyway…it’s really not about x and y guys at all.
*’You’re so vain’ song pops into her head*
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SV has its ‘politics’ and ‘drama’ as anywhere else. But lets put aside differences and look at the big picture here…these conferences are about the entrepreneurs and finding SV’s newest talent.
It’s not about x guy trying to outdo y guy or disrespecting him in anyway…it’s really not about x and y guys at all.
*’You’re so vain’ song pops into her head*
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Here’s Mike, launching a competing event while at DEMO. You judge whether this is trashing a competitor while launching your own event:
“Many tech conferences today allow startups to pitch … although there is almost always a hefty fee involved that ranges from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. DEMO, where I am currently, is probably the quintessential example of this model. The entire conference is paid startup demos. There are way too many to digest—60—and it is a well known secret that if you are willing to pay the $15,000+ fee, your startup will really need to suck to be turned down … I’m not sure the startups or attendees attending get much out of it other than a great networking event. There are too many startups for press to give even passing coverage to many of them, and attendees are lost in a sea of pitches that all begin to blur together … there is a serious conflict of interest at the conference level … Attendees don’t know if they’re really seeing the best startups, or just the best startups that are willing to pay the exorbitant participation fee. A few (or a lot of) duds always make their way in.”
Here’s Mike on firing Sam Sethi: ““This is driven entirely from Sam’s ethical lapse in trashing a competitor while simultaneously promoting his own events.”
Sheesh.
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Here’s Mike, launching a competing event while at DEMO. You judge whether this is trashing a competitor while launching your own event:
“Many tech conferences today allow startups to pitch … although there is almost always a hefty fee involved that ranges from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. DEMO, where I am currently, is probably the quintessential example of this model. The entire conference is paid startup demos. There are way too many to digest—60—and it is a well known secret that if you are willing to pay the $15,000+ fee, your startup will really need to suck to be turned down … I’m not sure the startups or attendees attending get much out of it other than a great networking event. There are too many startups for press to give even passing coverage to many of them, and attendees are lost in a sea of pitches that all begin to blur together … there is a serious conflict of interest at the conference level … Attendees don’t know if they’re really seeing the best startups, or just the best startups that are willing to pay the exorbitant participation fee. A few (or a lot of) duds always make their way in.”
Here’s Mike on firing Sam Sethi: ““This is driven entirely from Sam’s ethical lapse in trashing a competitor while simultaneously promoting his own events.”
Sheesh.
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wooooo…out come the claws Scoble. Dare one say: CAT FIGHT! 🙂
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wooooo…out come the claws Scoble. Dare one say: CAT FIGHT! 🙂
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Robert, I made the same comment as Ivan above when I saw the post on Techcrunch. It’s astonishing to read Mike’s comment above “you’ll understand how this is a completely different situation.” Does he mean because he’s not close friends with the Demo organisers, then its ok to operate in this manner? He certainly appears to be both trashing a competitor whilst promoting his own event.
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Robert, I made the same comment as Ivan above when I saw the post on Techcrunch. It’s astonishing to read Mike’s comment above “you’ll understand how this is a completely different situation.” Does he mean because he’s not close friends with the Demo organisers, then its ok to operate in this manner? He certainly appears to be both trashing a competitor whilst promoting his own event.
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Are the Hotest new start ups the ones who pay the most?
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Are the Hotest new start ups the ones who pay the most?
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@ 13: John…I don’t REALLY think that Michael will have posted something he would likely be able to tell Robert himself! Note how whoever DID write it didn’t link to anything.
@ 14: Paul…no, but the point is that money is the currency of credibility at the moment – if you have the money to get to this stage: either someone is already funding you because THEY think it is a good idea or you are so confident that it IS a good idea, that you will gladly fund it yourself.
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@ 13: John…I don’t REALLY think that Michael will have posted something he would likely be able to tell Robert himself! Note how whoever DID write it didn’t link to anything.
@ 14: Paul…no, but the point is that money is the currency of credibility at the moment – if you have the money to get to this stage: either someone is already funding you because THEY think it is a good idea or you are so confident that it IS a good idea, that you will gladly fund it yourself.
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One thing I do not get from ‘traditional’ journalism is the constant bickering of who said what and who’s linked to whom. I guess you have to filter that stuff on your own. I appreciate scobleizer for its links to cool stuff I would otherwise not have discovered, but quite frankly when I read a heading about ‘who said what’ I might was well go back to PC.com or other. I really would rather not see how the sausage is made, thank you. Keep up the other good work.
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One thing I do not get from ‘traditional’ journalism is the constant bickering of who said what and who’s linked to whom. I guess you have to filter that stuff on your own. I appreciate scobleizer for its links to cool stuff I would otherwise not have discovered, but quite frankly when I read a heading about ‘who said what’ I might was well go back to PC.com or other. I really would rather not see how the sausage is made, thank you. Keep up the other good work.
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At some point, you all are just going to link to yourselves and your audience will be yourself. The worst attention is not attention at all, eh? Talk radio went through this as well. I stopped listening to radio and use my iPod now.
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At some point, you all are just going to link to yourselves and your audience will be yourself. The worst attention is not attention at all, eh? Talk radio went through this as well. I stopped listening to radio and use my iPod now.
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What Shelley wrote. I am getting tired of all the tits and tats on the blogosphere. On second thought, I am not tired of tits yet. Just drop the tats, please.
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What Shelley wrote. I am getting tired of all the tits and tats on the blogosphere. On second thought, I am not tired of tits yet. Just drop the tats, please.
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Somehow it feels nicer when Paris Hilton does it 🙂
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Somehow it feels nicer when Paris Hilton does it 🙂
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I think that bloggers, because of the openness of this medium, are often too quick to make EVERYthing public. Private conversations are not inherently a bad thing and are often preferable and called for, seems to me.
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I think that bloggers, because of the openness of this medium, are often too quick to make EVERYthing public. Private conversations are not inherently a bad thing and are often preferable and called for, seems to me.
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“if Mike had advised me, I would have asked him to”
I think you mean, “if Mike had asked me for advice”.
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“if Mike had advised me, I would have asked him to”
I think you mean, “if Mike had asked me for advice”.
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Right. Translation — I wasn’t really on the advisory board until the conference was already announced so the advisory board is probably not going to really drive the direction of the conference but just be there to pick cool companies.
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Right. Translation — I wasn’t really on the advisory board until the conference was already announced so the advisory board is probably not going to really drive the direction of the conference but just be there to pick cool companies.
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“Ethical Lapse” – look who’s saying. Mike – of all the things, ethical lapse sounds so funny when you say it :=) we all know why you fired him.
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“Ethical Lapse” – look who’s saying. Mike – of all the things, ethical lapse sounds so funny when you say it :=) we all know why you fired him.
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Fuck, scoble. Not only are you a loser but you look up to losers as well. Mike? Sam? Seesh! Fuckin’ clowns the whole lot of them – praying to be acquired by a newspaper.
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Fuck, scoble. Not only are you a loser but you look up to losers as well. Mike? Sam? Seesh! Fuckin’ clowns the whole lot of them – praying to be acquired by a newspaper.
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very thanks for article!
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