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About the author

A picture named daveTiny.jpgDave Winer, 56, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and editor of the Scripting News weblog. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

"Dave was in a hurry. He had big ideas." -- Harvard.

"Dave Winer is one of the most important figures in the evolution of online media." -- Nieman Journalism Lab.

10 inventors of Internet technologies you may not have heard of. -- Royal Pingdom.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

8/2/11: Who I Am.

Contact me

scriptingnews1mail at gmail dot com.

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My bike

People are always asking about my bike.

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Here's a picture.

Calendar

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Nov   Jan

Warning!

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FYI: You're soaking in it. :-)


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Dave Winer's weblog, started in April 1997, bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Walking the bridges Permalink.

I walked across the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges today with the new camera and new eyes.

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This is also a test of a new Scripting News feature for JSON hackers.

I expect to write it up tomorrow. :-)

Buchheit on why Google will never catch Facebook Permalink.

Great piece of interviewing by Ryan Tate.

Glad to see him speaking so frankly, publicly.

"As for social, I expect that Google will find greater success with their self-driving car and moon landing initiatives."

Washington Square Park Photo-op Permalink.

I needed to do a test post, so here's a picture I took yesterday.

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Just some people having their pictures taken in front of the monument that's the centerpiece of the park. :-)

Assange's rape charges (grabbing the third rail) Permalink.

A picture named hippieVan.gifOn Twitter I see random messages making broad statements about men re the rape charges against Julian Assange. I think we're going into dangerous territory, and there's a good chance we're being manipulated, and before it goes too far, I want to try to moderate it, and talk about what we know and what we don't know.

1. As far as I know there aren't any charges against Julian Assange, in Sweden or elsewhere.

2. What I've read in the Guardian about the charges sound to me like he might not be a very nice person. But where I come from, that is not a crime -- nor is it in Sweden, which seems like a fair country.

3. Rape is awful. But I think it's almost as awful to falsely accuse someone of rape, because that's going to radically change an innocent person's life, for the worse. And it's so easy to do, it's one person's word against another's.

4. Some people use these issues as a way of saying sexist things about men. General statements that indict a whole gender, or a big chunk of one (like "men in tech," for example). I'm sure they don't think every man is guilty, and if you stop them and say that, they claim that isn't what they're saying. But if you simply flip the genders, and make broad sweeping negative statements about women, I guess they wouldn't have any trouble seeing the sexism.

5. I agree with and support feminism. The line I won't cross is condemning men in the cause of feminism. Nor would I support it the other way. If you want to speak up for your gender, or my gender -- great! But not if you're going to go negative on the other guys.

6. One rule I try to remember: We create each other. My mother was a woman. So was yours. Your father was a man. Mine too. We learned their values, like it or not. I am who I am not solely because I am a man, but also because I am my mother's son, and my grandmothers' grandson. And the student of all the women teachers I had (most of them were women). And I am also the product of every relationship I've had. It's a big mixed bag of genders that form whole people. If you want to find the cause of something, it's never as simple as one gender doing it to the other.

7. Let's be smart. What do you think the chances are that the charges against Assange, coming in the middle of a political shitstorm, from a country whose Prime Minister is closely tied to the US government, are exactly what they seem to be? Suppose it were men making charges against a woman, in similar circumstances? Would your bullshit detector be a little more alarmed? It shouldn't be, if you're not being sexist.

8. Let's seek balance. I'm not going to stand up and say the charges are bullshit. But I'm not going to say they're not. In the US, the country I come from, the standard is "innocent until proven guilty." It doesn't say "except if you're a man charged with rape." I like that standard a lot. Why don't we stay there until there's a verdict?

9. One more thing. This all should be kept separate from the work that WikiLeaks is doing. Please.

I closed comments for this thread. I know I'm touching grabbing the third rail. If you have something to say about this, put it on your blog or tweet it or tell a friend. I look for charged issues like this one to explore, because these are the places where the greatest growth is available.



© Copyright 1997-2011 Dave Winer. Last build: 12/12/2011; 1:35:51 PM. "It's even worse than it appears."

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