There are a lot of people I read and respect in the blogging and traditional reporting sphere. I take to heart a lot of what people like Dave Winer and Robert Scoble say because I trust what they have to say to a point.
When either Dave or Robert say something that makes me say yepp I have been thinking this also but really did not want to go pointing fingers or in many cases had assumed the issue was common knowledge only to think later after reading a post that maybe what I thought was assumed was not necessarily the case.
I have been taking a couple of companies to task for quite awhile not only to drive them to think a little bit but also to drive my readers to think a little bit about the situation and maybe move on their own to say something and drive influence in the same vein as I was hoping to convey.
It does not always happen but when Robert and Dave get hooked up and their brains are at parity it makes me understand the power and reach they have with simple collaboration. So far as David Berlind tacking bloggers to task I think he may be really trying to justify his opinion and his counter-fight is a little weak from my perspective but it is curious to see a mainstream writer for a mainstream technology reporting company, address non-paid bloggers on their opinions. [ZDNet]