Comments on: Why I Got Upset over Dave’s Mobile Web Discovery

By: Hey Dave, what happened to Yomoblog.com? » TinyScreenfuls.com

Hey Dave, what happened to Yomoblog.com? » TinyScreenfuls.com — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 22:41:43 +0000

[...] Last year, Dave Winer got interested in reading and writing blogs from mobile devices after he got a Blackberry. He created and launched a mobile blogging tool called Yomoblog.com. It [...]

By: Danny

Danny — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 06:59:24 +0000

Ryan, many of the mobile site versions that have been around for years are very similar to Dave’s new thing. I was reading reverse-chrono news posts on my Palm about 6 years ago. The differences are that this is a hack off RSS, rather than providing more web-friendly mobile-styled HTML, and that Dave is involved.

I notice Dave didn’t correct your misattribution. RSS and blogs didn’t originate off scripting.com, certain other individuals were also involved in podcasting. OPML is all Dave’s though.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 23:12:52 +0000

Dave, he’s a nut for his ‘Berry, so I’ll keep trying …

By: Dave Winer

Dave Winer — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 21:36:29 +0000

Ryan, they’d get it if they used it.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 18:03:10 +0000

This is an interesting discussion.

I think it’s interesting that many of the ideas that originated off scripting.com seemed like “so what” at first, at least to people (often including me) who didn’t get it at the time.

Blogs: “So what. It’s just like Geocities with a particular template.”

RSS: “It’s just like HTML without all the ads and blink tags.”

Podcasting: “Automatic MP3 downloading? There are about a million existing options for that!”

OPML: “You’re just serializing an outline! How is that interesting?”

I tried to show someone at a big media company the new mobile newsriver stuff. His reaction was that they already had that, a mobile section on their site.

I’m not even quite sure yet how Dave’s new thing is different from the mobile site versions that have been around for years. I don’t know what to tell my friend at the big media company. But I’ve learned from experience that it’s probably worthwhile to wait and figure it out ;->

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 17:37:14 +0000

This is all kinda like when Al Gore “invented” the internet, huh? Funny, I don’t remember seeing uncle Al crowded around an X terminal wondering and scratching our heads about this new fangled “world wide web browser” and what it was going to do that gopher didn’t.

“N.I.H.” is alive and well in Dave land only he’s been good at repackaging other peoples ideas and prior work as his own. Very al-gore like method of getting around NIH indeed.

As a number of people have remarked, if Dave would spend time and effort acknowledging the prior work of others rather than his constant focus on me me me, its unlikely that people would react as badly to his brainwaves. Its all in the packaging and selling.

Instead of “here’s xyzriver.com and I thunk it up all by myself isn’t it (and me) wonderful” why not “where’s xyzriver.com – I got tired of the presentation format typically available and repackaged some ideas that have been lying around the web for almost a decade, and by the way aa, bb, and cc are doing similar work. you should check them out too”.

too much to ask, I bet.

By: World News » Blog Archive » “So Much Better” People are still saying I’m a bad

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 17:25:39 +0000

[...] If you want to understand why honest people get upset when one of my ideas clicks, read Josh Bancroft’s post on the subject. I think his comment is very honest and fair, and it’s what I think is behind what many other people are saying. Josh wishes he was achieving the kind of success I seem to effortlessly achieve, but it only looks effortless, it’s actually a lot of work. Do a search on Scripting for river of news to see how long I’ve been beating this drum. Also do some checking to see how long I’ve been trying to gain traction with a mobile version of this weblog and those created with my software. But that said, I think I understand where Josh is coming from, and believe it or not, I often feel the same way, about many of the things I have tried to promote, only to have someone else capitalize on it. I try to find the silver lining where I can, but it is indeed frustrating. You can also find that frustration in the archive of this blog. [...]

By: Dave Winer

Dave Winer — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 16:36:15 +0000

Kevin, that’s the way we should compete, with the user’s interest at heart. Whatever makes them richer and happier is likely to make us richer and happier too.

By: Stanley Krute

Stanley Krute — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 16:35:20 +0000

Dave makes shmootz happen.

That makes some people unhappy.

Scoop Nisker said it all:

“If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own”

– stan

By: Kevin Cawley

Kevin Cawley — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 16:33:22 +0000

I hear what you all are saying and I too had similar feelings at first…

I have been developing mobile applications for over 6 years, many involving content (web included) distribution and rendering on mobile devices, and this “discovery” and subsequent noise felt.. well… unwarranted.

But, I have to say I think the attention to mobility is good for us all! I say more power to Dave and I hope he does some great things (even though this product is somewhat a competitor to mine at newsgator).

This is a good thing for mobility and market penetration…

-kevin