Newsweek's "Real" Dan Lyons Pans Robert Scoble's Social Networki

http://www.beet.tv/2008/09/newsweeks-real.html

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Dan Lyons, formerly known as the Fake Steve Jobs, and now a columnist for Newsweek, showed up the Technology Review's EmTech08 conference and wasn't too taken with the panel on social media moderated by Robert Scoble. Not one to mince words, the curmudgeonly Bostonian declared in his own blog:

"It was like watching five college kids with ADHD and an eight-ball of coke trying to hold a conversation."

Here's the panel Dan panned:

Moderator: Robert Scoble, Managing Director, FastCompany.tv Panelists: Dave Morin, Senior Platform Manager, Facebook; David Recordon, Open Platforms Tech Lead, Six Apart; Joseph Smarr, Chief Platform Architect, Plaxo; Nova Spivack, Founder and CEO, Radar Networks

Meeting Dan Lyons

Earlier in the afternoon, I met Dan and chatted about the upcoming release of the paperback edition of "Options" and his new gig at Newsweek. I asked him about covering Apple and if he will get the same access as his predecessor Steven Levy who has moved onto Wired.

Dan seemed to bristle over the question, saying, "I clearly won't have the access that Steven had, but the argument I would make is that I don't know what good that access ever did Steven. But maybe he would argue differently."

At the end of this interview, you'll find footage of Dan meeting Robert Scoble before the panel later skewers.

More on Scoble and goings on around EmTech08 by Owen Thomas of Valleywag who came out East for the doings. It was great to meet him at the conference.

-- Andy Plesser, Executive Producer

Update: Here's Silicon Alley Insider's Peter Kafka on Dan's take on the Scoble panel.