Giving users the shaft

Dave Winer is posting the terms for his upcoming OPML product. It is summed up with this part of the statement "you assume all risk, and I assume none". In 1998 Winer wrote about the BOGU philosophy at Microsoft.

One of the things I used to admire about Microsoft is a philosophy called BOGU, which stood for Bend Over and Grease Up. It was a reminder that they would take it up the butt for the bigger prize.

Now, however, the shoe is on the other foot. History shows Winer expects other companies to BOGU when it is to his benefit. When instead it is his product and his company the customer (what other companies consider their users but Winer doesn't) is supposed to BOGU. So let's see how this will play out. Winer will release something that is a pretty interesting idea. He'll screw the users and somebody else will re-invent it with the users in mind and get traction in the market. Then Winer will whine about how he's been screwed.

Don't believe it? It pays to look at the history:

• Userland Frontier - Winer's company Userland (which he ran at the time) first makes their product available for free. Builds a large user base, gets contributions from many developers for free and then slaps them with thousands of dollars in licensing fees if they want to continue to access their data.


• Then there is the Weblogs.com story. Winer pulled the plug and did so in the most contentious way possible.

The moral of the story is that you'd better take Dave Winer at his word and assume that he'll do everything possible to wipe your data out when it least suits you. All with some sort of explanation about how necessary the change is.

When the company fucks up

Dave Winer aptly describes why the customer is always right.

Too bad he didn't know this when his company told all its customers, many of whom had been enthusiastic supporters to bend over and take one up the rear. The arrogance of the company in slapping its legions of supporters with a tax of a thousand dollars a year destroyed a community overnight. Years later he'd give back the part that was taken away, minus some community developments, but nobody would care since they'd been reamed.

The pattern is the same time after time. Winer supports openness unless it gives people a chance to comment on his work. Funny that he's never bashed mashups which do the same kind of "content modification" with other people's creative works but somehow doesn't deserve the same protection.

Call the help line?

Dear Dave,

When you don't get the CD's that should have been with your computer you usually call the help line. Maybe your bosom buddy Scooble can get them for you if you forgot who you got your computer from. While we're at it you know there is a better option out there that does everything you need faster, better and cheaper but then you couldn't continue spreading FUD.

Not Dave

It's iTunes Stupid

Dave Winer: "Last time I visited CNN, I pitched them on podcasting, but they balked. I don't know how they came around to doing it, but I like what they're doing. It's straightforward, just the radio news broadcast, five minutes, updated frequently. Useful."


Hmmm.... what could it be... certainly not the thousands of people who have legitimized podcasting with iTunes. Oh yeah... don't look now but ABC is podcasting too. But what the hell do they know.

Dave Winer's Big head

In a post Dave Winer calls out the Associated Press for not having an online archive. He calls them hypocrites for an article that points out future employers may look at blog postings and goes on to note that there is not an AP archive. If he were a stickler for facts (and he's not one to let a fact or two ruin a good story no matter how absurd) he'd note that there are plenty of archives available of the AP and most other newspapers. What is true is that they aren't available to Winer for free. Waaahhhhhh. Poor Dave. What an idiot.

I'm the first to say I like companies that put archives online and hate the absurd fees charged by the likes of West and Lexis Nexus. These super-accumulators of data have such a lock on the archives that they charge whatever they like. While we're at it is there anybody in the room that believes TurnItIn.com isn't compiling an archive of every AP story? Of course they too keep it under an expensive lock and key.

Credit where credit is due?

Brent Simmons has a post where he clearly says he's not claiming credit for Dave's OPML editor. What is clear, however, is that Simmons wrote some of the early code that is included. So in Winer's twisted theory it means Simmons should be getting the credit from the media. However, now Winer seems to have a new set of rules.