sendmail.net: Meet the Press Jan 9, 2000, 16 :15 UTC (8 Talkback[s]) (2344 reads) (Other stories by mark durham)
"At its worst, the star-crossed relationship
between the open source community and the
tech press inhabits a zone between telenovela
and sibling rivalry, complete with spiteful feuds,
pointless frictions, and stupid misunderstandings.
It doesn't help that everyone involved is, in Lou
Reed's timeless phrase, growing up in public -
often in more ways than one. Like any comedy
of errors, this one generates its share of ironic
laughs. It would probably be even funnier if it
weren't so annoying to live through, and if the
stakes weren't so high."
"But it is, and they are. So, on the premise that
things don't have to be this way (there are,
after all, one or two clueful journalists out
there), a group of open source power hitters and
free software aficionados gathered in a room at
the Bazaar a couple of weeks ago to discuss
Linux advocacy and strategies for dealing with
the press. Led by Slashdot's Robin Miller (aka
roblimo) and including such front-line advocates
as Bruce Perens and Eric Raymond, the
discussion was candid and fruitful, though it did
give some tricky issues short shrift."
"A disproportionate share of the discussion
involved the nature of that beloved but peculiar
animal, Slashdot, and its de facto status as
"speaker to journalists." While Russ Mitchell of
Wide Open News noted that "any reporter who
takes something on a mailing list as gospel isn't a
very good reporter," Eric Raymond countered
that "Wired [News] people do it all the time."
Raymond sees Slashdot's irrepressibly
crackeresque tone as a liability for open source
advocates trying to bring the suits on board...."
