Scripting News: Business Week misquote

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Business Week misquote

I know you're not supposed to object when a big print pub like Business Week quotes you, but they got it wrong, even when they quoted me verbatim from the web. I didn't think it was possible, but here it is.

Here's the article, and here's the quote.

I do not believe "one factor spurring the growth of unconferences is their ability to tap the smarts of the people who usually sit mute in the audience."

Yet they say I believe that.

I don't know if they believe it. Or if it's just some short-hand, or empty throwaway words that fill up all Business Week articles.

Truth be told, most things they call unconferences are not, imho, unconferences, and don't address the question I said they should address. If you determine the schedule ad hoc, but still put speakers in front of a silent group of people, you haven't changed very much, imho. If that's spurring growth, then it's not a good kind of growth.

Further, I don't think the kind of unconferences I like are actually growing. I know I'm not supposed to say that, but I like to stay grounded in the truth. When I say something is growing, I want that to mean something. So I don't say something is growing when I don't believe it is.

See below, on The Scientific Method, as it applies to journalism.

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:46 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. 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.

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.

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Apr Jun