I wanna play too!

Acting like a child and stamping his little feet, Jacek has decided to have a little rant about Mobius, an invite-only event organised by Microsoft for influential members of the "mobility" community.

As regular readers readers will know, Jacek was once invited to Mobius and, surprise surprise, was never invited back (although he claims otherwise).

So why has Jacek started to rant about Mobius, out of the blue? Well, given Jacek's past record with trying to blackmail people into doing what he wants, we think he's probably demanded a place at the next Mobius event and has been told "no". We all know how Jacek can get when someone doesn't comply with his demands.

Anyway, here's the rant:

is Mobius a community ?

August 6th, 2006

This blog item is not a personal attack at anybody. There are no names named in this blog item at all. Just a general reflections about Mobius - a conference and “community” organized and managed by Microsoft.

Officially Mobius is an invite-only, yearly, conference organized and paid by Microsoft (bag with goodies and hotel and flying over airplane are paid by Microsoft) where Microsoft invites writers about mobility who are considered by Microsoft to be influential. Furthermore there is email discussion forum where all past and latest Mobius invitees are discussing things.

I myself was a member of Mobius and I am THE ONLY member of Mobius who left it on its own - by my own decision - because website for which I was writing and that was base for Mobius invitation - disappeared. Obviously many people who are members of Mobius no longer are writing for websites on basis of which they were invited or these websites disappeared but they have not behaved like myself and have not left. So membership in Mobius could be considered as “eternal”.

Microsoft claims that Mobius is a COMMUNITY of mobility writers. However I have some doubts regarding this because:

— Mobius is not open - only people who are hand-picked by Microsoft (or advised to Microsoft by existing Mobius members) can come. It is invite-only.

— the true influence doesn’t matter - some people who are considered “unfriendly towards some existing Mobius members” are simply banned for life. It doesn’t matter whether they said something unfriendly 4 years ago or 4 days ago. It is ban for life. And it doesn’t matter whether their websites are being visited by 1 million people more (a month) than websites of some existing Mobius members. The real true influence doesn’t matter. One prejudice is enough to exclude and ban somebody for life from Mobius.

— there are no selection criteria that would be open and published - it is all based on private judgements - very susceptible to mistakes, where people totally without influence and super-tiny readership are also picked by the way.

— there is heavy badmouthing ongoing at Mobius discussion forum where people who are not members of Mobius are being badmouthed by Mobius members. How do I know it if I am not a member of Mobius any longer? Because I have still contacts and apart from that things are leaking on blogs. In other words: how can it be community if people from outside of this community are bashed behind the doors?

— this whole “community” thing looks like disguise for bribery by Microsoft. Honest to God if it is community then why only Microsoft has to have right to pick members? Why other members can’t pick members or why some open/clear/not-closed process/selection criteria can be used for selection?

So, the question is: is Mobius really a community or just a bribery engine for Microsoft? If it indeed is a community why other people interested in mobility (or truly influential in mobility) cannot join, if not as people who are invited (and paid - travel/hotel) to come, then at leat as people who can participate in discussions there.

Can someobdy provide ANY PROOF or any hint that Mobius truly is a community?

Update 1: clearly Mobius fits better difinition of CLIQUE and not definition of community. Definition of clique includes “exclusivity”:

clique = a narrow exclusive circle or group of persons; especially : one held together by common interests, views, or purposes

… but definition of community has no “exclusivity” part:

community = a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society

… so everything indicates that Mobius is a clique and not a community. Am I wrong? Why?