De Morgen interview
On March 15, Flemish newspaper De Morgen published an article about the fact that Drupal is being used by various candidates in the 2008 race for the US presidency.
While that is great information to share, the article is overly sensational, focuses too much on me rather than on the Drupal community, and comes with the seemingly obligatory Bill Gates reference. Sigh!
Credit should be given where credit is due: Drupal's successes should be attributed to the Drupal community, of which I am just one part.
Well, I think it's pretty nifty that there is some recognition in mainstream media that open source projects can yield Good Things™. I'm not sure I like it that they put OSS against Microsoft all the time, but at least that is somebody everyone can understand, and most can relate to.
March 17, 2007 - 21:56... the article is overly sensational ...
Most media outlets are like that, whether we like it or not. This is how they sell copies.
... focuses too much on me rather than on the Drupal community ...
They need a "personification" of the project, not an abstract concept of "community". You happen to be the face of Drupal, specially for a Flemish media outlet.
... and comes with the seemingly obligatory Bill Gates reference.
The David and Goliath angle is always attractive to the media.
March 17, 2007 - 23:20I realize that, and don't lose sleep over it. My goal is to document what they write, so we can educate them, and point to it when they claim professional journalism is superior compared to citizen journalism.
March 17, 2007 - 23:33I think that we've seen more than our share of examples over the past, say 6 years, that professional journalism is not necessarily good journalism. US news corporations come to mind, but the Belgian media has not been faultless either. Especially in the way they seem to swallow some of the claims made by some governments. And even if they seem to be on the right track, it sometimes comes down to a play with words. A TV journalist says it correctly the first time, but subsequently shortens his sentence when he repeats himself, in the end leading to people understanding something else than what he actually meant.
March 18, 2007 - 10:31Credit should be given where credit is due: Drupal's successes should be attributed to the Drupal community, of which I am just one part.
While credit is indeed important, as far as I am concerned, Drupal is your show and I am merely glad to help.
March 18, 2007 - 20:08Post new comment