Re: <nettime> tensions within the bay area elites

[Michael Weisman <popeye@speakeasy.net>]

I don't think this is a Bay Area thing.  Google, Schmidt, and even Cory, operate at a supranational level, traveling from place to place and speaking and working all over the globe, without any regard to national borders or local cultures.  They live in cyberpsace, literally.  I'm sympathetic to Cory's concerns, but they are a little childish.  Cory is shocked, shocked to wake up and find out that Eric Schmidt, the old-school businenessman hired to be the adult in the room at Google, turns out to be a moderate Republican who sees his company as a fellow traveller with western governments (Google pulled out of China).  Why wouldn't a company like Google seek to be in concert with Boeing, Lockheed, GE, or GM? Like his entitled brethren, Cory wants special rules to apply to him, his family, the places he shops and eats, and to no one else.  I mean, I listen to this discussion almost every day.  It can be described as a generational difference as much as anything, and Cory identifies wit
 h the generation below him (Millenials), and Schmidt identifies with the generation above him (late Boomers).  

Google plus (a practical failure BTW, like most of Google's rollouts) will not be where the mass murder of anyone is 'outed.'  And Cory can bitch all he wants about privacy, but Boing Boing, his blog, has nine trackers on its site, including doubleclick and google analytics, and beacons as well.   So I guess Cory is all religious when it comes to his own privacy, but not so much when it comes to making money on his website from snarfing up little bits of others' privacy.  I'm not sure who is more, or less hypocritical.  

Mike Weisman 


On May 11, 2014, at 6:57 AM, Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl> wrote:

> Dear nettimers,
> 

> I know, there are tons of examples of this. I just want to know more 
> what you think of it, in particular if you happen to live there, or 
> come from the Bay Area.
<...>

---------------------------
Mike Weisman
please respond to popeye@speakeasy.net


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