On Friday I wrote a piece about how the press uses VCs as the gatekeepers of tech. This piece in Friday's NY Times is a perfect illustration.

Sure some of the great new stuff comes from startups, but almost all of it sells us out to the government and big tech. But hot startups are news, and the press should cover them. But they should also cover hot new non-VC technologies that compete with the siloizing services of the VCs. Examples: BitTorrent, scripting, Napster, the web, Wikipedia, RSS, XMPP, MIDI, MP3, podcasting, BitCoin, blogging, Linux, encryption. These can't be bought out by Google, and (we hope) aren't owned by the government because they tend not to be centralized, like the services that the VCs launch.

Open technologies deserve coverage by the tech press. They are news. They create new activities for users of all kinds of computers. Sometimes they come to break down the monopolies of the current crop of big tech companies.

PS: I just made up the list of open technologies that made a difference off the top of my head. If there are any you think should be added to the list, please post a comment below. Thanks.