[Sigia-l] The Menace (longish, heated)

[Adam Greenfield]

Derek -

I don't even know why I'm responding to your repeated outbursts, except that
the bad feelings you've managed to stir up with your ad-hominen attacks are
threatening to overwhelm any useful critique of AIfIA.

(I should point out, despite your insinuations of in-group secrecy and
clicquishness, that I have absolutely no vested interest in AIfIA, except
personal aims and goals that generally parallel theirs'. I was not aware of
the Institute before the general launch announcement, nor was I at any time
asked to participate.)

You are playing the FUD card, my friend, and you're playing it badly. Why
"badly"? Because you're impugning the reputations of a group of people who
are, collectively, some of the most open, accessible, responsive folks I've
ever come across, in this context or any other.

I don't know any other such field, frankly. IA is a place where anyone can
hit any of the high-visibility practitioners with an email asking a question
- even a pointed one - and getting a response well inside 24 hours. Look at
Andrew Hinton on MetaFilter, or Christina here, engaging genuine and
principled critique with thoughtful responses.

See, folks will follow up on your claims. They'll fire off a message to any
of the people you mention and get an open, reasonable, and most probably
witty invitation to dialogue in response, no matter who they happen to be.
You think anybody who's bothered to do that is going to believe there's some
Secret Evil Star Council steering the IA community?

So I'm really not sure what you have to gain by portraying the AIfIA folks
as some kind of ego-mad junta, and oh-by-the-way managing to slag everyone
who's ever derived insight or fellowship from their efforts as "sheep."
Except for attention that would otherwise be denied you, and which you
appear to feel is rightfully yours.

I'll tell you what, man. *You* work your butt off organizing summits and
mailing lists and journals and cocktail hours, for years running, all the
while trying to keep your clients happy and develop your professional
armamentarium. *You* do all this while writing a book that does a splendid
job of explaining our arcana to the people on the ground who need to use
these tools, day in and day out. *You* do all that and, in at least three
relevant cases, see the business you've built from nothing fall apart around
you.

Can you do *any* of that, Derek? I see precisely zero evidence supporting
such an assertion, if you'd care to make same, but go ahead, be my guest.
You do that, and then I'll take your hurt feelings seriously when you've
been left off the list. Until then, you deserve no more of my or anyone
else's attention than a boorish sophomore without a prom date.

For my part - Lou, Christina, Victor, Peter: Thank you. I plan to hold y/our
Institute to high standards, but I have absolutely no reason to doubt your
good faith. Keep up the good work.

 Very sincerely,
Adam Greenfield
Lead information architect

Frontage-Razorfish
Tokyo

T +81 3 5475 2055 (direct)
F +81 3 5475 2021 (fax)