Correcting the Record on Seagate CEO Bill Watkins – The Infamous Crap and Porn Dinner – I was there

Anil Dash has a post on Seagate titled – How to Kill a Personality.   Let me correct the record once and for all.  One of the best things about the blogosphere is that the truth can be told.  So let me tell it.  I was at this ‘famous crap porn comment dinner’ that Seagate put on for bloggers and press.  I sat with Bill Watkins and was there with Jeffrey O’Brien from Fortune.  I blogged about my reaction to the intial Fortune story here.    Also I was blogging from the dinner table the night in question -the post is here.

Anil Dash says “the net result is that Seagate’s CEO is going to work extra hard to never show any personality or have a sense of humor again when he’s on the record. “

I disagree with Anil on his quote.  Bill has a vibrant and dynamic personality – he is viewed within Seagate as a great leader.  His comment was part of a bigger conversation – let me translate for people not aware of the slang – “crap = stuff” and “porn = early adopter rich multi media”.  Everyone in the tech business knows porn is the bellweather for all tech trends.  Shame on Fortune because either way they look bad.  One they know porn is an early adopter of all tech media, so they look bad for misquoting the CEO of Seagate.  Secondly, if they didn’t know porn is the early adopter of media, then they look bad as a publication trying to cover tech with any credibility. 

For a church going person then the quotes put forth by Fortune seem offensive – I was there at the dinner Bill Watkins was taken out of context.  Fortune owes Bill Watkins big time for slamming him.  Does it matter Bill Watkin and his crediblity was positive in the blogosphere and to the intelligent users.

Scobleizer weights in.  Mitch from Infoweek comments (I disagree with him)