In Vino Veritas: The Emperor Has No Disclosure
August 9th, 2007 by Bullshit Mancuso
Considering how many times Dave Winer has called out others for their lack of disclosure, it’s interesting that he’s said absolutely nothing about Stormhoek, the no-name South African wine that A-list buddy Hugh MacLeod has been giving bloggers for years in the hopes they’ll write about it.
Business 2.0 names Winer and BFF Robert Scoble as two of the bloggers subjected to MacLeod’s wine-and-dine:
Recipients didn’t have to mention the wine, but many of them did; nearly 100 bloggers posted related items or comments in just six months. MacLeod then used his blog to organize more than 100 “geek dinners” in Britain, France, Spain, and the United States — gatherings of tech workers and influential bloggers who were plied with Stormhoek wine. A recent dinner in San Francisco, for instance, attracted local technorati like former Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble (Scobleizer) and RSS pioneer Dave Winer (Scripting News).
Another pal, Michael Arrington, “first discovered how good Stormhoek wine is at a party I threw at my house a couple of months ago. Stormhoek donated 10 cases of their wine for the event, and people loved it.”
Bottles of blogola work much better than PayPerPost, which Arrington once compared to selling your soul. Stormhoek sales grew 500 percent and MacLeod spent only $40,000.
August 9th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Never discount the value of the “old boy’s network”. What amazes me about Winer in this regard is the arrogance he has towards people who could help him move “ideas” (i.e. formats and architectures) forward.
He has created (or exposed) relationship meltdowns with many influential “thought leaders”: Tim O’Reilly and Sam Ruby in particular.
As a result: “the cheese stands alone”.
Conversely, never discount the news value of exposing the “old boy” connections and hinting at the devious nature hidden beneath simple acts of appreciation and respect.
10 cases if free quality wine is generous. Arrington’s whole approach to business is based upon monetizing relationships… intimate disclosures and access. He’s a lot like the traditional career reporter in that regard.
Free stuff still works to drive revenue.. “there’s a PO in every pork chop.” Google has built an awsome buffet based upon “free services: all you can eat”. It works if you can sell the casual relationships to people seeking access to a mass audience.
I have never explicitly given Google a penny… and neither has most of their audience.
“News at 11: Mass Manipulator: Google research targets total mind control in the global economy.”
August 9th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Now we know why winer’s been going on and on about blogger dinners. Nobody would go to a dinner and face the dismal prospect of hanging out with winer unless there was lots of free booze.
August 13th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
ugh, winer is thoroughly repulsive. what a transparent whore. i can’t wait for the day when his arrogance leads to his undoing.