August 16th, 2006
Web 2.0 cold shower: Mike vs. Nick
Rather than stoop to respond to Nick Carr’s weekend, gratuitous frontal attack, “Cold Treats,” Mike Arrington has taken his version of the high road by choosing to match Carr’s current treatise on the hypocritical inegalities of the blogosphere, "The Great Unread," with an Arrington style treatise: “Is Nick Carr the new Robin Hood, or just an Asshole?”
Unfortunately for Arrington, however, his headline has more bite than his argument touting a democratic blogosphere.
In his classic minimalist style, Arrington says of Carr: “he’s wrong.”
How does Arrington backup his matching of wits against Carr? A recounting of the Digg effect:
Many tools have been created to even the playing field. Digg is the most important one. With Digg, a group of 20 people, bloggers or not, are far more powerful than any single blogger. Those 20 people can (and do) get the content of their choice in front of tens of thousands of people. Blog search engines, TechMeme and other services further the democratization of the blogosphere.
Citing Digg as a symbol of a democratic Web 2.0 almost seems quaint at this juncture.
Not only do the 20 Digg elite wield link love power of a far greater magnitude than A List bloggers, they squash the voices of the masses of digger “peasants.”
Carr and Arrington, in fact, share a reverence for the Digg effect.
Arrington is one of Digg’s most ardent groupies (see "Digg 3.0, Who needs The New York Times?") and Carr shamelessy solicits Diggs for each and every one of his posts.
UPDATE: Web 2.0 short sellers: Arrington, Calacanis
FOR DETAILS SEE: “Digg at risk: ‘Social A Listers’ poached by Netscape” and
“Web 2.0: Top five social risks list” and
“Web 2.0 pay for play: payola, or transparency?”and
“Digg vs. Netscape, Kevin vs. Jason, Web 2.0 vs. commercial Internet”
