Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Amazon CTO Rips Blogging Authors a New One

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the no-holds-barred dept.

theodp writes "Following what was characterized as rude treatment of invited guests in a confrontation at Amazon HQ, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels turned to his personal blog to give author Shel Israel a public scolding for suggesting Amazon doesn't 'get' blogging (Amazon's blogging innovations include 'faux' personal blogs and patent-pending plogs). Vogels went on to voice concerns on Israel's blog that blogging could be too distracting for Amazon employees - think the self-proclaimed guy-with-guts challenged CEO Jeff Bezos about the distractions of his space exploration efforts?"

6 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Heh by popeyethesailor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Classic slashdot. A ridiculously biased summary, and the last point is completely irrelevant to the subject.

    Hell yeah! CTO doesnt 'get' blogging!

    I wish more people were as blunt and forthcoming as Mr.Vogels.

    1. Re:Heh by MrAnnoyanceToYou · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Biased or not, this particular blog entry is one of those entries that defines blogging - pointless, small in both approach and impact, boring, and overhyped.

      Around paragraph 3, I thought, "Go write some code or fill out a 27B stroke 6 somewhere." The amazing thing about modern society is that it hasn't produced more great art with more people, it's just produced more junk to get in the way.

      The summary is biased, the articles are biased, the only people interested in this particular fight are those who follow successful internet people around like pasty white guy paparazzi. Give it a rest.

      --
      My little site.
  2. soap opera for nerds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    More drama than a spanish soap opera. The only sad part is this lacks the good looking women and I can understand what they are saying...

  3. Who did what to who and what happened then and ..? by MasJ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow, am I the ONLY one here who can't make head or tail of what the text in that post says ? It's really confusing. Who did what to who and what happened then and where to who after what was done ? Mind clearing things up a bit ?

  4. Time to drag out this old chestnut by This+Old+Chestnut · · Score: 5, Funny

    Explaining jokes on the internet is like competing in the special olympics...only retards do it.

  5. Ah, the blogerati by The+Bungi · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I generally enjoy reading Scoble's blog because I think he's very honest about what he's doing and he does it in an environment that is probably not very conducive to the "total openess" he wants to have. He also gets points for even trying (though Microsoft was really one of the first larget tech corps to institutionalize blogging).

    That said... it seems to be this is a classic case of mass-induced elitism. I don't think the Amazon guy was off in his line of questioning. What's good for Microsoft or Sun might not be for Amazon or eBay, yet Scoble and his friend come across as the quitenssential "it" boys, giggling and stomping their little feet because the hick across the table doesn't know what the small fork is for - as if his life depended on it.

    I suppose if you live in that "blogosphere" long enough it must look to you like everyone is blogging and, more importantly, that everyone should be doing it. I don't think that's the case. I've found many corporate attempts at blogging to be underwhelming and downright stupid - if you don't "get it" then just don't do it at all. I doubt many millions of Amazon customers are going to decide one day that they won't spend a dime online anymore because Amazon doesn't have a blog.

    The blogorati need to come out into the light and look around once in a while.