The name's not the point
Phil Windley has a nicely stated retort to Dave Winer's comments about the hyping of social software:
...when I heard the term "social software" used as a way to categorize blogs, wikis, email, mailing lists, groupware, and what have you, I saw it for what it is. Its not some crass marketing gimmick, although it will certainly be used for that. Rather its the best way we have for helping an industry come to grips with trends that are unmistakable. We give it a name and start having conferences, writing articles, and arguing about it in blogs. :-) This gives people who haven't paid any attention yet a major clue that there's something worth looking at here.
It will be quite easy for the Social Software Alliance to breed hype -- that's also true of almost any gathering of people talking about anything, especially themselves. Harvard, where Dave reposes these days, for example, is a product and source of hype, because it concentrates a bunch of smart people near the banks of the Charles River and promotes their value to the world. I, for one, will be fighting the hyping and trying to keep the discussion focused on the pragmatics of communication.
Marc Canter adds his two cents about the whole thing, which about making more of the many pieces available today. / Green card / for Marc.
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at April 25, 2003 11:44 AM | TrackBack