Let's keep this nerdfight short and sweet — no, make that bitter: New York-based blogger/consultant Allen Stern thinks New York-based videogame designer Charles Forman is jejune and uninteresting. Forman thinks Stern is fat. In a predictably deleted comment on Silicon Alley Insider, Forman rails at Stern for complaining about his frequent appearances at the New York Tech Meetup. Here's Forman's counterpoint:
"If we want NYC to kick ass in the world's tech community, we have to stop favoring a few 'friends' and let everyone get time on stage." CenterNetworks founder/writer/editor Allen Stern doesn't just complain about inbreeding in New York's Web 2.0 scene, he documents it by listing the companies that presented at last night's NY Tech Meetup, and speculating on their potential conflicts of interest. Jeez, Allen, wait'll you find out I used to be on the secret MacArthur committee. Here's what we're group-thinking out here in our Valley chatroom:We sure do love to watch New Yorkers catfight on Twitter. But if you literally "let everyone get time on stage" you won't have a punk-rock utopia, you'll have a boring parade of bad ideas and worse PowerPoint. Think TechCrunch50 expanded to TechCrunch52,157 and you get the idea. Still, we sense it coming: Look for CenterNetworks' own startup event in early 2009. (Photo by Brian Solis)
God bless Allen Stern of CenterNetworks. The blogger has given us a gift: something to call Jason Calacanis other than "egomaniac." Now, Stern thinks that being a "community CEO" is a bad idea. Publicly relying on readers of your blog and Facebook "friends" for business decisions, Stern argues, causes customers and employees to lose faith in you as a leader. Calacanis, of course, disagrees, and has embraced the label in a long post defending his newly christened role. Bring out the bulldogs, already.
