Calacanis Get Winered

Hanging around with Dave Winer seems to lead to the inevitable scene where Dave calls you an idiot, or sues you after getting involved in a business deal with you.

[from On getting “Winered” yesterday]

My friend Dave Winer heckled me from the back row and threw me under the bus on this blog yesterday (insert “with friends like these” joke here). Dave’s complaint was a I was “spamming” from the stage by talking about my latest passion (the internet’s evironmental crisis) and my piece of the solution, Mahalo, I’ve never been heckled—heck, yelled at—like this in mind presentation in 12 years of speaking at events, let alone by a friend.

Instead of trying to understand Dave’s motives and delivery—which I am perplexed by—I’m letting my inner Jedi/Buddhist/Monk see past the person and delivery and into the issue. In other words, is something I can learn from the experience of being Winered?

I remember the mess at one of the Bloggercons, where Winer wouldn’t let Bob Wyman, then of Pubsub, speak because Winer thought it was commercial speech, although Bob had only said a few words. He also browbeat the indominable Chris Nolan when she stated unequivocally — in a session on “Making Money With Blogs” — that yes, she did want to make money blogging, and not use blogging as a means to make money some other way. But he kept telling her “No, Chris, you don’t want to make money that way.” And she kept responding, “No, Dave, I do.” He just wouldn’t accept what she was saying. It went back and forth a half a dozen times, at least.

He melted down again not long after at some blogging conference in Tennessee, I think, with Glenn Reynolds this time.

He’s a loose cannon, held in high regard for his contributions, but a powder keg. I had an actual pain in my stomach when he showed up that this year’s Reboot, although he actually didn’t attack anyone in public.

Winer has strong but totally misguided anti-commercial impulses, especially in conferences where many or all of the attendees are interested in commercial applications. Making money isn’t an intrinsic evil, and commercial speech is sometimes sensible and desired.

So, it’s no surprise to me that he turned on a ‘friend’ — a contact in the tech scene — and Winered him. Jason just encountered Winer roulette, and lost.