O’Reilly and the Irish Web 2.0 Conference Controversy

May 27, 2006 – 11:08 am

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The controversy heated up a bit, with different camps choosing their arguments. The anti-O’Reilly people are hot, and demanding a lynching. Pro-Reilly supporters like John Battelle urge everyone to be calm, until O’Reilly returns from his vacation. Apparently, pissing people off is tiring work

BoingBoing says no one can own Web 2.0, so that’s at least re-assuring for everyone who has “Web 2.0″ categories on their blogs, like me. “Web”. “2.0″. Brilliant stuff! It’s hard to believe anyone could coin a phrase like that. It’s not really too similar to “Business 2.0″, so it’s quite original. It’s hard to disagree with that sentiment. In reality, this is a case of a “small business issue” that was grossly mis-handled by someone incompetent. In essence, O’Reilly can’t gain anything from this event, but stands to lose a ton of goodwill built up for the O’Reilly network and books over the years. To think the O’Reilly empire was emperiled by a conference in Ireland makes you shake your head. But we all know just how petty corporations really are.

When O’Reilly gets back he’ll be spinning fast I’d guess. The damage may already be done.

It’s one thing to protect a copyright, but it’s another thing to be stupid about it. I doubt this controversy will do much in the long run. It’s just something for people to talk about for a few days until some far greater comes along.

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