“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….“