I don't think this is a Bay Area thing.  Google, Schmidt, and even Cory, 
operate at a supranational level, traveling from place to place and speaking 
and working all over the globe, without any regard to national borders or local 
cultures.  They live in cyberpsace, literally.  I'm sympathetic to Cory's 
concerns, but they are a little childish.  Cory is shocked, shocked to wake up 
and find out that Eric Schmidt, the old-school businenessman hired to be the 
adult in the room at Google, turns out to be a moderate Republican who sees his 
company as a fellow traveller with western governments (Google pulled out of 
China).  Why wouldn't a company like Google seek to be in concert with Boeing, 
Lockheed, GE, or GM? Like his entitled brethren, Cory wants special rules to 
apply to him, his family, the places he shops and eats, and to no one else.  I 
mean, I listen to this discussion almost every day.  It can be described as a 
generational difference as much as anything, and Cory identifies wit
 h the generation below him (Millenials), and Schmidt identifies with the 
generation above him (late Boomers).  

Google plus (a practical failure BTW, like most of Google's rollouts) will not 
be where the mass murder of anyone is 'outed.'  And Cory can bitch all he wants 
about privacy, but Boing Boing, his blog, has nine trackers on its site, 
including doubleclick and google analytics, and beacons as well.   So I guess 
Cory is all religious when it comes to his own privacy, but not so much when it 
comes to making money on his website from snarfing up little bits of others' 
privacy.  I'm not sure who is more, or less hypocritical.  

Mike Weisman 


On May 11, 2014, at 6:57 AM, Geert Lovink <ge...@xs4all.nl> wrote:

> Dear nettimers,
> 

> I know, there are tons of examples of this. I just want to know more 
> what you think of it, in particular if you happen to live there, or 
> come from the Bay Area.
<...>

---------------------------
Mike Weisman
please respond to pop...@speakeasy.net


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