Comments on: Blogging Your Convictions

By: ia

ia — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 14:00:42 +0000

Ah, when I wrote something about the iPhone, I still thought that more people would swoon over it simply because it looks so slick. Anyway.

By: Thanks be to Steve for locking us in » Mathew Ingram: mathewingram.com/work

Thanks be to Steve for locking us in » Mathew Ingram: mathewingram.com/work — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 19:40:43 +0000

[...] As I mentioned in my comment to Nick — and to Scott Karp, who sang a similar tune in a guest post at The Blog Herald — this kind of attitude makes it sound like Mr. Carr is more than happy to take whatever the great man gives him, all because Steve is such a visionary and totally, like, a genius. How could we question the decisions of a genius? We should be grateful he gives us the benefit of his creative vision at all (here’s a list of all the things the iPhone can’t do). [...]

By: rexblog.com: Rex Hammock’s weblog » Blog Archive » Is Apple the antithesis of the Web 2.0 ethos or is Steve Jobs just an asshole?

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 23:58:08 +0000

[...] Scott Karp references an article by someone I make a practice of not reading or linking to* (so I haven’t read or linked to the referred to article) and uses Steve Jobs as an example of someone who creates great products because he doesn’t adhere to the “Web 2.0 ethos” (which can mean anything to anybody, but usually has something to do with collaboration or ‘user-generated-content’). [...]

By: ted

ted — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:25:50 +0000

Wow, incredible stones– you like the iPhone? Really going out on a limb there.

By: BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » A meritocracy

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » A meritocracy — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 17:55:55 +0000

[...] Good piece by Scott Karp at Blog Herald on merit, a concept too many people misinterpret on the internet. Just because it’s open and anyone can contribute, that doesn’t mean that all contributions are equal. Merit rises. And you decide what has merit for you. Taking a lesson from Steve Jobs go-his-own-way style, Scott says: Think about all of the most successful bloggers — they don’t blog by consensus. They don’t try to please anybody — in fact, they routinely piss people off. They see the world, and they call it like they see it. They are sometimes wrong, and the best of them apologize or correct themselves when they are. But then they plow right ahead writing about how they see the world. [...]

By: Timothy Singleton

Timothy Singleton — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 20:29:52 +0000

While I may instinctively rear my short hairs at Jobs locking down the iPhone to only one carrier – I would have bought three if I could have them unlocked – he gets away with what he does because in general he offers a superior product as well as clearly understanding that a computer needs to be a beautiful thing. No one understands the aesthetics of a desktop, laptop, or peripherals than Apple, I think. The PowerMac tower, the iPod, and OSX are superior products and he charges the hell out of people for them.

Many are willing to pay.

Trouble is I need an unlocked phone more than I need the iPhone so I sadly will miss out on this one.

By: Michael Turro

Michael Turro — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 16:31:07 +0000

Scott…
Have you ever considered the possibility that we are seeing these mind blowing singular visions reach the market BECAUSE of “web 2.0″ ideals? Without the development of new technologies that amplify the amount of feedback and then efficiently filter it for quality perhaps we’d all still be popping CDs into bulky, ugly, devices.

By: Scott Karp

Scott Karp — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 14:49:23 +0000

Mathew, of course Jobs hits the other guardrail — Nick’s point is that, despite the drawbacks of that extreme (like not being able to change the battery), there may be more value created, at least as to ideas and innovation.

And if you read the comments on my posts, they are filled with instances where I conceded points to others. I’ll even concede to you the point that it’s not a binary choice ;)

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 04:54:48 +0000

Mat — that has to be the longest comment you have ever written. ;)

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 04:36:48 +0000

I take your point about the blogging part, Scott. Conviction makes for a great read, even if it turns out to be wrong — although I would hope you’d be man enough to admit the wrong part if someone called you on it.

But as I commented on Nick’s post, it’s easy to take the anti-Web 2.0 comparison too far — like trying to make it seem as though preventing people from changing the battery in an iPod is a positive instead of a negative. That just makes it sound as though Nick doesn’t mind being dominated by Steve because he’s so darn visionary. It borders on the pathological.

Nick also has a “Digg” link after his posts — so presumably he thinks Web 2.0 interactivity is fine if it helps him get more traffic and make money from his ads, but when it comes to design or anything else, people should just stick to being “users.”

I don’t think anyone (except maybe Nick) is saying that Web 2.0 has to be a binary choice between user-generated chaos and the kind of benevolent totalitarianism of Steve Jobs. Collaboration takes many forms, not all of which are useful in every case.