I’ve been noticing a lot of trash-talking in the blogosphere lately about “posers” in the tech industry. You know, people who aren’t programmers or designers that claim to know something about technology. I was reminded of this by a comment on Veronica Belmont’s blog post I referred to in my last entry. I saw more of this kind of thinking in the comments on John Dvorak’s apology post to Violet Blue for his dismissive comments about her in an episode of This Week in Tech. And I just want to say this: When did we become so high school? Posers? Are you serious? It saddens me that we’ve resorted to such bickering within our own industry.
When I think about when I first started working in the web, I remember it being a much friendlier place. It was a kinder, gentler internet. And with SXSW right around the corner, I recall my first SXSW two years ago when I was welcomed into the scene with open arms. I learned so much and made so many new friends. I left Austin filled with optimism about the potential of the web and how we were all going to work together to build it. It was like I had finally found my place – and my people. Many of them were programmers.
When I attended my first SXSW, I was working at Participant Productions as the Director of Internet Outreach.
Let me back up for a second. If you don’t know, Participant Productions is Jeff Skoll’s film company with a mission to affect social change through media. When I was first hired at Participant, I was the third employee and I came on as an assistant. I had been blogging for a while and was becoming increasingly involved in the growing movement of participatory media, particularly for social change. Three months later, after a bit of research and brainstorming, I was promoted to lead the company’s interactive department. Our goal was to create online campaigns associated with each Participant film to give viewers an opportunity to engage with the issue more deeply and to take action. We started slowly, launching a very small campaign (offline now) for an even smaller film called Arna’s Children. It was a pilot project and we learned quickly. Hell, the whole space was moving quickly. Soon, we hired a whole team of really smart people to take our social action campaigns to the next level. This included the brilliant Meredith Blake who quickly became a friend and a mentor to me. And we began the process of planning our own online community where film fans and activists could discuss our films and work directly with nonprofit organizations to take action.
And this is when I headed to SXSW for the first time. I had already been involved in online community for some time but to see everyone in one place and to put faces to names and to drink in (literally) the excitement as the industry regained its footing was a real life-changing experience for me. I met the best and brightest of the web – the people who were making it happen. I met and became instant best friends with Lane Becker and went on to work with him and Adaptive Path to build Participate.net. Everyone seemed so optimistic and eager to build a better internet – one that connects and empowers people and is accessible to all.
I know those conversations are still happening but lately, it seems as though they are being drowned out by gossip and bad-mouthing. People are so caught up in the bubblicious start-up land of San Francisco that they’re not paying attention to what (I thought) this whole web 2.0 thing was supposed to be all about.
The internet is not about start-ups. It’s not about who can build the best web app or widget. It’s about people. It’s about connecting people and giving them the tools to express themselves and to make a difference. The web is no longer just a playground for geeks. Now, everyone is invited to play. And to work. Writers, filmmakers, marketers, politicians, activists, strategists, analysts — everyone is getting in on the action. One by one, they’re changing the face of the internet. And the internet is changing everything. Isn’t this what we said we wanted two years ago?
The internet is cultural and political revolution. You can’t create a revolution with just programmers and designers. I think you just might need a little help from the rest of us.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
It appears that everything in life gets soured by kindergarten behavior. I guess that’s who we are as a society and that’s sad.
Hmm, where do I begin commenting on this post? I’m in quite a mood tonight, so this could get ugly…
First of all, in my opinion everyone is just as full of shit in this industry as any other. We all act like it’s this revolution — and it is, for NOW — but there’s just as much talking behind backs, seeing who has the biggest dick, and unfounded bragging about nothing. The phonies, the overly-ambitious, the liars, the connivers — they are all here lying in the grass like the snakes they are. The self-promoters are already out in force. Just check Twitter, for Christ’s sakes. (By the way, have you all seen lonelyjesus15?)
All you have to do is look at the Yahoo videoblogging group message board from a year or two ago. Everyone and their mother ragged on any show that attempted to make money. Now half of those assholes are trying to figure out ways to get paid for making videos. Finally. Like there was EVER anything wrong with it.
The pretension boggles the mind.
Anyway, I’m probably just a bitter son of a bitch from my travels in mainstream Hollyweird (I think being fired from a movie in the Hollywood Reporter qualifies). And before that, having been through Web 1.0 as a developer with a startup that went public, this feels remarkably similar. In those days, everyone knew each other, everyone supporter each other, it was a big fuckin’ family.
Then the bucks rolled in and the knives got sharpened, baby. The same thing will happen here. Maybe not for a year or two, but it will happen, and we will all look back on these times with rose-colored glasses. Then some of us will hop into phat rides for a weekend in Palm Springs with a shit-eating grin.
Am I in a mood, or what?
(P.S. I only mean about half of this.)
And that is why you, Micki Krimmel, are not a poser.
I remember the first time I met you was at Participant, for that oncamera interview, and I was really inspired the company and what you were doing — and continue doing.
Sometimes you just have to shut it off for a while, ya know? I’m actually doing that tonight – maybe tomorrow too.
There are always going to be people pointing fingers, and screaming poser and other stupid crap.
The web IS everybody. i think more poets are needed, honestly.
It’s 3am so I will keep this brief. The web biz is not the tech biz. It’s the content biz. I think roles like yours have a lot more to do with content and, like you said, the people that the web connects than they have to do with the technology. The reason that the web is changing the world is that the technology behind it is becoming more and more invisible.
I think the real problem is that folks seem to have the idea that workingo on the web is the same thing as working in tech. It’s the difference between building the printing press and managing the editorial staff. For example, I personally would not consider a paid video blogger to be in the ‘tech industry’ but rather in the business of content. I suspect a lot of the bitterness comes from technologists/engineers who feel strongly about their roles seeing the general public conflate the relatively broad concept of ‘internet industry professional’ with the fairly narrow concept of ‘technologist or engineer’. The tool-makers feel their glory is being stolen by the tool-users, and I can understand the reaction. I don’t agree with it, as glory isn’t scarce, but I get it.
also, death to poseurs, violet blue is a porn chick, and true metal forever \m/
We’ve always been in it for the money. That’s why we use Revver. Now that we are getting rich, we haven’t changed at all. We still talk to little people all the time.
Hugs,
B/CC
P.S. We didn’t understand web 2.0 so much when we started out, but think there will always be a place for a hippies (meant in a good way) in technology. Firefox, Linux, etc. It’s really amazing what does get created and shared for free.
I must have missed some of the recent negativity you all are reacting to. It bums me to see three of the nicest people I know feeling the slings and arrows tonight. I’ve gotten some thrown my way of late, too, but it’s people like you who keep me going.
Like Steve, I’ve gone through all of this once before. I’ve been through the dot-com bubble, been tossed around Hollywood, too, and I know a lot of people who made plenty of money, and got plenty of press, and it’s not an endgame that makes people happy. Doing what you love makes you happy. And I’m all for the parts of the interweb that let people do that. I love seeing Zadi posting her poetry, Micki talking about her encaustics, and not caring what anyone thinks. I loved my first time at SXSW, for the same reasons. When I go this year, I’m going to just relax, and try to only spend time with people who are interested in meeting and learning from other people.
Anyone with an inflated sense of importance or an ego-driven mad hustle of self-promotion, I’m currently avoiding like the plague. Let’s have some fun, and keep looking for ways to help as many other people as we can do the same…
I don’t think all hope is lost. Even just recently I’ve met several people (or started talking to them online) who obviously still have a huge love and enthusiasm for this community. And speaking of community, every single one will have some people who just don’t get it, or who are in it for the wrong reasons. What can you do? That’s how the world is. But if you keep doing things with enthusiasm, it’ll always be contagious. OK, enough soapbox… it’s too early for me.
the daniel, I see your distinction. But you and I have now worked at the same company two jobs in a row. Do we work in different industries? I guess part of my point here is that the tech industry and the content industry are merging. Everyone has a role to play and I’d venture to guess that they’re equally important and take as much skill.
Just to support Micki’s points a little more directly, I’ve been making my livelihood on the net for over twelve years, and it’s never been just about programmers and designers. The people who got me into the web in the early nineties were artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers I was working with. Some of us became designers and programmers out of necessity, but you better believe that didn’t last long. As soon as we could afford to, we’d hired people to design and program. And without people (like me) who made the choice to mortgage their lives and take out personal loans to keep the salaries coming when times got hard — well, that’s a whole other story.
The internet wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without the risktakers, the thinkers, the networkers, the activists and everyone else who jumped in back then. It’s the same now. Only so much better, since the design tools, the programming tools are open sourced and available to anyone. You don’t have to know anything about design or programming anymore to launch something that can be meaningful to people. The people making the internets good like Micki are my heroes. Programmers and designers out there, y’all better recognize.
Great post, and excellent comments. I left the world of wireless technology, where my company was doing what might be considered some bleeding edge tech. And you know what? My job was completely uninteresting. I was part of a machine. I was a cog.
Enter Internet-enabled media. Social media. New media. Whatever. Content, as TheDaniel has said.
I find these fascinating people and meet with them every day. I connect with passionate, energized folks who are trying new things, expanding their creative minds, and reaching out to touch more and more people. Some of what we’re “discovering” is so lo-fi and low-tech compared to the entertainment industry’s standards. Most of the new tech we use, we’re users coming up with our methods.
Posers? I used to use that word back in high school when I thought Metallica and Megadeth were *way* cooler than Guns and Roses. But uh, that was high school.
Seems like a fun fight for others to have. I’m over here hanging out with my own personal rockstars (like having crepes with you in LA).
Kickass post and great comments! – Chris…
1) you cannot put a price on creative vision and knowledge of community
2) just because it is built, doesn’t mean people will come use it. this isn’t the field of dreams.
3) not only do the folks at pluggd appreciate the work i do, but they respect and value it.
Just re-read my own comment and those that followed.
I should clarify that I have met an awful lot of wonderful people in the past couple of years. People that I consider to be genuinely good human beings, people who genuinely care about community, and people who want to make a change in the world.
I am trying to soak up this time for all it’s worth. Business and money change things — we’ve seen some of that paraded out in public for everyone to see already.
I just hope that for once this revolution is also genuine. I’ve been hurt by revolutions before. *sniff* Do you hear me HIP-HOP? *sob*
while I agree that the tool/content disctinction is an important one (and one that people keep stumbling over when wroking with or commenting on electonic music as well, but for different reasons), I think it is a little arrogant to assume that the “technology is becoming more invisible.” That is also only half the equation. Content providers are themselves becoming more tech-savvy as well and many of them actually do multiple things which blur those distinct lines even more (violet blue’s mechanical work with SRL for instance). Go back to “just because it is built, doesn’t mean people will come use it” and start over. Do not collect $200.
Great post. There’s a part of me that says, “who the f*&k cares about the gossip and bad-mouthing.” Specifically, who the f*&k cares about what geezers like Dvorak have to say? (Granted I wasn’t on the receiving end of the whole TWiT incident. Plus, I’m a huge fan of Violet Blue, so I think those boys are dicks anyway
.)
Isn’t the real value of this hallowed technology we’re talking about the fact that for the first time all this cool stuff is accessible (and transparent) to all who want it? The playing field is levelling more quickly than ever before.
What does this mean? Probably more than ever before you can be judged on merit. Sure, not everyone’s going to be great at creating content (come on, most of the crap out there will suck), but it’s out there and will be judged by people who care (or don’t care for that matter). I think that’s pretty cool!
Call me a poser or whatever you want, but you know what? I’m able to tell my stories in a way that was impossible (or at least really difficult) a few years ago. That’s KILLER!
As far as elitist geeks go, think about who’s buying what you’re building. It’s not other elitist geeks, cos they’re building their own s*$t and it’s way better than yours. Think about IT!
Yes, I believe in the betterment of man-kind, but I also believe that it must be grounded in the real world too. That’s the REAL challenge for geeks isn’t it? Give the world what you’ve built so they can use it then go on and build something else that they didn’t have already. If you’re really all that you’d always be a step ahead of us posers wouldn’t you?
Anyway, great post, Micki! Keep going!
Hmm, am I a poser?
wow. thanks for posting this. it actually occured to me last night at s.i. how i’m completely intimidated about going to sxsw. i looked around at all these people, at all my friends, all these designers, performers, visual creators, event producers, and i thought about how on earth i’d ended up one of them? i don’t do any of that. and it dawned on me then that i am also not a programmer, nor a designer, nor do i even technically work in the online industry. so why on earth am i going to sxsw? like….how the hell do i explain what i’m doing there?
it makes perfect sense to me what i’m doing among the circus, now. and it actually makes perfect sense to me what i’m going to sxsw for…i’ve just never really articulated it. i feel like maybe the answer has a lot to do with what you’re talking about, so i should probably try.
i work with a team of people, with a company, in an “industry” where our end-creations are all about connecting people. it is about giving people meaningful, powerful experiences and enabling all kinds of interactions. (and i do mean…ALL kinds). it is now even becoming a channel for affecting change as well. this has been the evolution of event creation as i have seen it. this is what the do lab does.
the motivations that would fuel a passion for connecting people are the same wether or not the means of that connection are virtual or not. i completely understand this motivation. it’s the shit that gets me excited! it’s the shit that’s getting me to brave a conference for an industry that i’m not a member of (…yet, i guess) just to meet and learn from other people who understand this same motivation.
i can’t imagine there could be “posing” for such a motivation. either you’re compusively fascinated by the prospect of creating “experiences” for people and letting them “connect” through those experiences…..or…..you know….you write code and push pixels. (am i allowed to say that?)
the “revolution” of connecting people isn’t the sole property of the internet (check out oprah), but what is revolutionary about the internet is that it can give the connection that people have always sought, and continue to seek, a new….dimension. not that this is any kind of newsflash, but perhaps it’s useful to keep it all in perspective. the internet is a part of a continuum. a part that expands others exponentially, but it is not independent of them.
or, at least…..that’s my uniformed, outsider’s take on all this.
the other part i wanted to say is that all scenes are pretty much exactly the same. whether they call themselves a scene, a community, or an industry. and they all resemble high school. they all have shittalkin and namecalling in their own terms. (just imagine what the “poser” backlash is in a scene that’s highly driven by aesthetics and performance). there are always going to be people who are willing to step outside the mold, not just willing…eager, excited, with an inherent desire to push things forward. visionary enough to say, fuck the mold, i’ve got a better idea.
in an industry and a community and a scene that thrives on innovation, i’d think it’s the people who are trying to keep the mold the same who are the ones posing.
~j