No Hart Feelings

I would not want to be John Hart today.  He is experiencing the darker side of group collaboration.  It has been quite something to watch.  Basically, it went down like this as far as I can tell from quickly going over all the relevant emails and blogs (please let me know if I got it wrong in any way - times may be a little off due to timezone issues in messages):

*Hart tried to usurp the term "Blogumentarty" from Chuck Olsen.
*Chuck sent him a polite note trying to work this out.
*Hart was rude to Chuck.
*Chuck tried again.
*Hart got nastier.
*Michael Verdi came to Chuck's defense.
*Hart tried to get rude and heavy with Michael.
*Sunday 2:51am: Chuck requested help from the Yahoo Videoblogging Group.
*The first response comes from Joshua at 5:32
*Then another from Andreas at 8:38am
*By 9:30am, the message flood has begun.
*Members discuss and suggest that Chuck begin Trademark process immediately.
*Various members post articles and make comments in appropriate blogs and groups.
*Andrew from Rocketboom jumps in.
*Members started contacting the bloggers on Hart's list.
*David Weinberger drops out of "59 Bloggers"
*Members reinforce Weiner with comments.
*Maddox has been contacted and asked to drop out of "59 Bloggers".
*~FluxRostrum posts the following to the group:

59 bloggers appear on the list
59 bloggers appear,
pull 1 a side and tell them the truth...
58 bloggers appear on the list..

*Amanda Cogdon of Rockeboom jumps into the fray
*Chuck lays out initial $250 for trademark.  Another $450 will be needed.
*Eric Rice suggested setting up a trademark fund and members donate money.
*Deborah Woehr is contacted by a member of the group.  Turns out she has never been contracted (or contacted?) by Hart about "59 Bloggers". Oops!
*Chuck announces availability of PayPal donation page for trademark fund.
*Jay Dedman, posts a video from NYC showing an official, released copy of Chuck's already released Blogumentary DVD.
*5:13am: Rocketboom breaks from "important" Micheal Jackson trial to lead with this instead.
*Chuck's fund was already up to $205 (67%) when I checked this morning around 7:30am PST.
*Hart has removed the interactive parts of his site and now only publishes the list.

All in about 24 hours.

Now that's what I call "power to the people!"  What a group!

Check out the Yahoo! Videoblogging Group messges if you want the details; otherwise, I'll keep you posted here.

Comments

[Duncan]

Thanks for the timeline! ;)

[Chuck]

Ahhh, so that's what happened. :-)
It's all a whirlwind. Thanks for posting this...

[Markus Sandy]

update: check out http://www.59bloggers.com

A bizzare last message. RIP.

[ro]

Well now that the flame and fury is over, how about we encourage Hart to do his 59 bloggers film? There's room for more than one blogumentary...

[Markus Sandy]

Hi and thanks for stopping by.

I agree that there's plenty of room for good documentaries. But as I pointed out originally in my earlier post, Hart's list of bloggers are people who put me to sleep anyway. That's why they are on my "zzzzzzz-list" (as opposed to someone's "A-list").

To me, it's a small perk that I won't have to see or hear more about this particular movie or any of the bloggers in it.

Sure, Dave Weinberger and Joi Ito may be fantastic guys and I may have enjoyed some of their writings at one time. On the rare occasion, I still do (it's not that I never read them, I just don't subscribe any more). Sometimes, they write something interesting (to me) and I get the word from other, more trustworthy, sources.

So bring on "Blogumentary II" or whatever. Just make it good and try not to do it by running over other folks.

Regards, Markus

P.S. I just added "Blogumentary" to my spell checker :)

[Michael Meiser]

Well, there was another nice summary over here:

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2005-06-08-n49.html

I blogged about it here:

http://mmeiser.com/blog/2005/06/59-bloggers-vs-blogumentary.html

In my opinion it all comes down to mutual respect. That's it. Period. The blogosphere DEMANDS it, a-list, b-list, or no list. Mutual respect is a core blogger value and indeed the blogosphere couldn't go on without it.

Peace,

Mike http://mmeiser.com/blog