NetworkWorld bids me adieu

Ever since I was little, I've had a hard time playing in the sandbox with the other kids. Most often it's the fact that I say the things that everyone else thinks that leads to my demise. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The NetworkWorld folks are really bent out of shape about my rant last week on their Enterprise All-Stars feature (here). So bent out of shape that they don't want to work with me anymore. Seriously. I'm not kidding. They have bid me adieu.

They are pretty upset that I said nice things about how Network Computing does case studies. Well they do. What am I supposed to lie or not highlight where I think it is done right because I write for their competition?

They were also chagrined that I didn't just go to them with my feedback, as opposed to publishing it on my blog. They never did understand where my loyalties lie. First and foremost, my job is to help you (my readers) to wade through all the crap. And there is a lot of crap out there. Just telling NWW about it wouldn't have provided any value for you. You would have wasted time reading the article and that was a bad answer in my book.

And the best part of it is that John Dix, the editor in chief, had the gall to say "he's not above taking criticism." Really. I made the point that I'm an "equal opportunity offender," and I've called out his competition for doing shoddy work as well. He didn't like that too much either.

Did I expect that my little tirade would cost me the column? Of course not. But I'm cool with it, this is a great story and very "me." How else would I go out, but swinging? I suspect I'll get a lot more mileage with this story than I ever would have gotten by continuing to write for them.

The bigger topic is how the media world is changing and folks like NetworkWorld seem more like dinosaurs than ever. It's all about community now and user-generated content. It's about opinions coming in from all over the place because anyone with a web browser can be a publisher now.

What it's not about is trying to control the message. Or stifling commentary. That doesn't work anymore.

Think about this. In less than two years, TechCrunch has built the reach of a NetworkWorld. They need to figure out how to monetize it as effectively as old media, but to be clear Pandora's box has been opened. Media 2.0 is not only the new new thing, it's going to be the ONLY thing in a few years. Those old media companies that can't adapt... well they are going to be used for oil in a couple thousand years.