The Duality of This Whole thing
I am venturing into scary territory here. I am considering saying something slightly negative about a web superstar. I have a feeling that she has a quick look at the old Google about her name in the course of the day, and I do not think that this blog will rate very high up there, but one never knows.
This all started a few weeks ago, when on twitter I got a link to a presentation by Miss Tara Hunt. I rolled my eyes, and sighed. Another presentation about this or that, put up somewhere, and the whole world would look. The thing is, the presentations that I tend to see on twitter, they are not about ANYTHING. They are literally about presentations. Marketing talk about more marketing talk. It never fails to amaze me. I have never met more people interested in doing the business of marketing, than on twitter.
The presentation is amazing. I could care less about marketing this or that, and Tara has a vision, and the ability to write and put together narrative in a way that even I am willing to sit and listen. Or in this case watch silent slide across a screen. 197 of them I think. Tara has had the chance to work for Timbuk2, one of my lifelong devotion brands, and as such I immediately love her work even more, cool enough for Timbuk2 cool enough for me.
And more than that, and not to minimize this, she is a pretty girl who can write like no tomorrow. Her voice on the internet is amazing, and I am glad to read it from time to time. I think she has a book in the works about the Whuffie, which might be about Star Wars, but one can never know.
That being said, I recently have found Julia Allison. I wish I could tell you how, and I tend to think it was at one of the two Rev3 parties I have had the chance to go to. I am sure that someone brought it up. So I did the requisite Google work, and found the website. Where I found this video. I was absolutely in love, totally smitten, head over heels.
Lip Dub: Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing from Julia Allison on Vimeo.
But recently, I have had reservations. I have started to see this class of internet superstars through a different set of glasses. A bit crueler maybe, but never the less, I have sort of decided that people like Tara and Julia might just be at opposite ends of a spectrum that I do not understand one bit.
It brings us to once again, the cool factor of twitter, and how we view ourselves. I have had people tell me that the measure of a real twitter superstar is someone that has more followers, then the number of people that they are following. That this proves, objectively, that people are more interested in what this person has to say. That this person is of merit.
I think of someone like Scoble. A real writer. I think. A dad, a husband, a good dude. Met him once, but no big whoop. He has like 8000000000 followers. I think the tsunami comes from people who have been there all along. Plurk has even sort of pointed that Scoble is responsible for the first wave of sign ups. But, from what I can tell, Scoble started this out by being a dude in the know. He broke stories. Was a good writer, and people liked him.
But now we have an entire class of people who it is there job to talk about the people who are doing the thing. For example Leo LaPorte. An old time radio guy who got his TechTv chops, and now has an entire podcast network at his beck and call. And honestly, I am not sure what Leo does.
This brings us to Julia Allison. The wikipedia thing says she is an author, and columnist, and the like. I honestly have done the nexis searches, and went to Us Magazine, and found nothing with her name on it. So I am unsure. But she is famous, and apparently so famous that her quitting this or that is worthy of this dude putting something on youtube.
So I guess that brings me to the essential question. What is valid anymore? What is actual work, and what is discussion and what is pretend? I create content for a living, on a specific issue. A lifes work if you will. I do not understand the nature of those who comment to comment. The role of the twitter genius who is a celebrity in his or her own right, not based on anything other than there talking loud about something.
When did we need a Valleywag? What is the point of discussing that?
Why not celebrate the amazing work of the dudes who code things, in some way other than a tabloid affair?
Where is the Web 2.0 Walt Whitman? Where is the San Fran Ralph Ellison? Do we not have a culture of folks who think that writing fiction is worth while? Where is your voice in this?
Who pick up the hammers and nails?