News Source: http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com
Published: Mar 06, 2008 - 09:48 am
Story Found By: NickWilsdon 1901 Days ago
Category: Sphinn Zone
The Rules:
You cannot ask "Jason why are you such an jerk?" or any other type of questions along those lines. That means, no "why are you a "*insert any other derogatory comment here*?" type questions, and also no "why do you think SEO is bullshit" questions.
14 Comments
Comments
Why? Each time I see JC speak, he somehow tells me somthing we care about SUCKS.
Well you’re right Marty, Jason loves controversy and I don’t think he’s particularly respected by this community. Rightly so. However, Li has this opportunity to grill him so lets try and fire some hard questions at him. Rather than the usual Silicon Valley soft-balls of ’What is Mahalo?’ and ’Why is it going to be successful?’. This was one of my questions to him:"Do you honestly think creating controversy is a good long term strategy for brand building?"
*tries to scratch away Nick’s great question from public view* EMAIL that to me Nick! LOLMarty - you read my post, about "why JC for a third time", I feel the same way. Although Danny didn’t give him an entire cakewalk, I don’t think he expected Jason to be such a jerk either. The people from Kelsey group had not clue either what a jerk he could be, until perhaps a 1/2 hour before he went on when I told the AV guys, "watch out for the F bombs" (and they thought I was kidding!)I think as a whole, as a community we can ask some decent questions. I think this is actually a good chance for us to stop sitting back and complaining about how he’s more like the "Snake Oil Salesman", truly manipulating search with Mahalo. This is where we can ask the questions that need to be asked - come on, I know you got a few!Oh and just to clarify - SMG is only collecting the questions, Kevin, is going to be actually ASKING them. :)
Ah whoops - better put my Paxman head on and try and think of a few more. Kevin needs to study his interview manner too ;)http://youtube.com/watch?v=BklT7Qy07Is
I think Mike Mcdonald should get it all on video, and do the "Bleep" thing like they did with him and Rand’’s funny one. :)
I know Jason is notorious for saying things to get a reaction and push people’s buttons, but it sounds like we’re purposely setting him up to fail here. Why do we need to "gather" questions beforehand? Isn’t that the whole point of the keynote -- he talks and then people respond? Why purposely turn this keynote into a spectable and put Jason into attack mode? That seems like a good way to ENSURE he says something horrible, which just feeds the whole us vs him mentality.For whatever reason, Jason was invited back to speak at SES. Let him speak. And if he says something stupid, use the Q and A to respond and politely "correct" him. There’s no reason to set up a firing squad BEFORE he puts his foot in his mouth. Just my two cents. Feel free to attack now. :)
I think rather than just gathering a list of questions, it’d be better if just no one showed up for his keynote. Now that would be worth writing about :-)
Damn, Lisa is so smart. Must be that Long Island schooling. :)
I’m with Lisa, except I have no intention of attending his speech/circus. So I guess I’m more with Marios. :)
Good point Lisa, but there’s always the other scenario, where JC doesn’t do anything stupid and they’re left needing some good questions for the guy. I’d hate to see him finish his keynote and be asked about, say, the advantages of a human-run search engine. (!) It would be sensible to see what the guy says first and react to that but this can be a good backup plan ;)I like the idea of opening up the process to the community though. There are some very smart people around here; it would be interesting to see what they can come up with. I don’t think this process has to be that confrontational; the article was a little tongue in cheek. As Li said, the questions weren’t meant to be rude or derogatory, just tough.
I agree with you Mario. I have no desire to see him denigrate me or the industry in which I work just to stoke for his massive ego. If nobody shows up then nobody will hear what he has to say and he will not get the desired outcome (which is to get more people talking about him).
@Nick I think coming prepared with questions is a good idea. People should be doing that for every keynote and for every session. That’s the whole point of attending in the first place -- for knowledge transfer. It just puts a bad taste in my mouth when it seems like someone is getting ganged up on, even if it is only Jason. :) If we’re really interested in knowledge and getting information from him, why are we being asked to keep the questions a secret? Wouldn’t making them public allow Jason to research them and then provide audience members with solid answers? It’s the trying to catch him "unprepared" that makes the whole thing sound less than on the level, like we’re trying to embarrass him or hurt his reputation. In the end, it just makes us look silly. I’d rather we create an open environment for everyone.
Nick - thx for having the courage to sphinn Public Enemy #1 ... why send Q’s to Li Evans? (storyspinner). That’s easy - because she asked. It’s not about Jason. It’s about Li.The Q’s I sent Li relate to Digg: Greg blogged about it on SEL: "Beyond search, Microsoft and Google appear to be competing on another front: for social news site Digg. TechCrunch is reporting that Google and Microsoft, as well as a couple of traditional media companies, are preparing bids to acquire the site. The potential acquisition price is rumored to be in the $200-$225 million range."Looking forward to Danny weighing in. Digg’s sale price will be a good barometer for the market value of Sphinn. (Sphinn’s hot, Digg’s not.)@AimClear: agreed it’s no fun hearing critics bash SEO (especially when they’re wrong ;-) on the other hand, i like the idea of confronting critics and changing their mind. Peter Krasilovsky intvwd Jason @Kelsey ILM (LA). Jason has changed his tune.@Othelisa: thx for your comment on ganging up. Very cool. RE: anonymous questions - i think the idea’s just for fun and to let people ask without seeming like Jason-bashers. We had fun discussing the Q "Are You a Better SEO than Jason?" after the Kelsey conference in the SEW Forums & elsewhere. (I won’t drop a link)I interviewed Jason for SES Magazine (for SES NY) & he didn’t dodge a single Q.
Where do we get to ask why yet another search conference has Jason C as a keynote? That’s the burning question. How much does he pay to sponsor the keynote so he can speak? If this industry wants respect it needs to act like a respectable industry.