Recently, Daniel Lyons wrote an article for forbes.com, explaining that he was wrong about the SCO lawsuits all along, following the judgment that Novell owns the UNIX and UNIXWARE copyrights , and that SCO was also guilty of conversion (of money that belongs to Novell).Mr Lyons said in his article that he was “snowed by SCO” , with the justification that in a previous lawsuit by SCO - at that time called Caldera - what they said to him then turned out to be true. He says in this article he went to talk to SCO management, who gave him lots of information on what they were going to do to various entities… suing Hollywood studios that use Linux rendering farms and the like.. and he duly reported that to the world.

I find it admirable that he has written to state he was wrong about the SCO Saga all along. I have no issues with that. What I do have issues with is his calling of the good people at Groklaw “nerds” and “amateur sleuths”.

No. They are not “amateur sleuths”. They’re a collection of people who want to make sure that what is reported to the world is fair, balanced, and based on fact and truth. Groklaw didn’t just report what SCO management said, they also checked what was being said against known facts, and offered a report with opinion based on those facts. Check for yourself the history of the reporting of the SCO cases - in every published article the opinions stated, say by Pamela Jones (who runs the site), are backed up by well researched factual information.

I personally object to his belittling of these people. It stinks of elitism and arrogance where there is no justification for such, especially if you state things like

“I even wrote an article called “Revenge of the Nerds,” which poked fun at the pack of amateur sleuths who were following the case on a Web site called Groklaw and who claimed to know for sure that SCO was going to lose.”

Let’s examine and dissect that statement. First of all you poked fun at the “nerds” - there you go again with the disparaging remarks - “They’re not professionals they’re just a bunch of nerds” is the sentiment. How do you know they’re not “professionals”? Professional what? Journalists? How do you classify or judge what makes a professional journalist? Would you classify one as “one who merely reports the propaganda issued to them by SCO execs”, or “one who reports the propaganda issued by the SCO execs but checks up the facts and duly makes an informed opinion based on those facts“? Do you think the former or latter person is more professional? That was a rhetorical question, for the benefit of Mr Lyons in case he ever comes across this article.

Lets also look at the word nerd. According to dictionary.com’s definitions of the word nerd, a “nerd” is :

  1. A foolish, inept, or unattractive person.
  2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.

Other definitions include variations like “a stupid, irritating, ineffectual, or unattractive person” and “an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit: a computer nerd”

Not a very nice thing to call the “groklawers”, is it, Mr Lyons. Why do you think of them as such? Did you not know the meaning of the word when you used it? And used so many times, I might add. Do you honestly believe that the people involved in Groklaw fit this description? If so, then let me inform you that you are horribly mistaken.

Like any group online, the people involved reflect the global demographics. Some are very young, some are older, some are older still. All have different backgrounds, all assign their time differently according to what their interests are and what their life circumstances are. Some might be classified as “nerds” - I personally wouldn’t use such a disparaging label - but that might be a tiny fraction of the “Groklaw population”. There are a lot of groklawers who are very, very smart people. Smarter than you or I. Smarter than SCO execs and management. Some are lawyers as well as groklawers, some are programmers, some have histories that stretch way back to the origins of Unix - and even beyond that. But most of all, most of them actually care about fact, truth, and justice. Oh, and Linux, but not just Linux. Groklaw reports on cases other than just involving Linux - it’s just that for the last few years the SCO cases have been very high profile, with what people like Pamela Jones saw as being reported very shoddily with poor research - the last two points being what got these people you unjustifiably call “nerds” together to form the Groklaw community in the first place!

Which leads me nicely onto the title of my opinion piece. Journalism in the 21st Century. I hope you realize, Mr Lyons, what is going on around you. People on the internet are getting together. They are sharing their experience and knowledge. And, they are now turning out more professional journalism than what a large number of the so-called “professional journalists” are churning out.

Who, Mr Lyons, when you look back on the history of Groklaw reporting over the last few years and compare it to the rest of the mainstream press, are the more professional?

In my opinion, give me your nerds, Mr Lyons, any day, over your seemingly poorer standard of reporting.