Democrats Aren’t My (Movable) Type
Who’s behind your blog?
SOME MIGHT ARGUE that blogging has changed politics forever.
From the rise of internet activism and online fundraising that developed around the Howard Dean presidential campaign to the collective blog reporting that exposed the now-famous Dan Rather story based on forged, anti-Bush documents, it’s become apparent that the Web is the new media and blogging, its offspring. Growing daily.
Some might also argue that conservatives have gotten the jump on their outspoken rivals in the blogosphere, slightly ahead of most liberals in disseminating their news and views. Although, there’s recent reporting against it.
However, there is a great irony to be found at the root of all this.
One of the leading companies powering most of the blogs today is San Francisco-based SixApart. They develop and distribute both TypePad and MoveableType, which are ubiquitous in the blogging world. The company was founded by the husband and wife team, Ben and Mena Trott. And they - drum roll, please - are liberal Democrats.
How do we know this? Given that blogging is entirely transparent, with everything you type on display for the public to read, it just happened that I stumbled upon this evidence. On election day, November 2, 2004, Mena Trott announced to the world in her blog:
“Don’t Just Vote - You know, I’m not going to say “Vote.” And leave it at that. Vote for Kerry/Edwards.Being in the Bay Area, the odds that someone is voting for Kerry is pretty good and in our circle of friends and coworkers, the odds are even better. So, everyone pretty much assumes we all vote the same way. The truth is, when I ask someone “did you vote?” I really just want to know if they voted the way I did.
Since her “circle of friends and coworkers” are all like-minded (or maybe have to be to keep their jobs), I can’t imagine from where she gets any competing opinions. After all, what about diversity? Of ideas? Nonetheless, Mena’s candor is appreciated - albeit telling us something we already knew: Democrats prefer group-think. It’s more comfortable, I guess.
There’s a further irony to this story.
Sure, the company began as a “grassroots” effort, offering it’s services for free and, thereby, gained rapid user adoption. But soon it became an official “start-up,” evolving into a profitable business (it now charges for everything), even attracting significant venture capital investment. Last year, the company announced $10 million in second round funding from well-established VCs, including a major player from Japan. Presumably, this capital was used to acquire a leading competitor in January 2005. SixApart’s board of directors includes a founding member of PayPal and currently CEO of LinkedIn, as well as a former managing director of Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Sounds to me that capitalism is alive and well. Even in liberal, anti-business San Francisco.
But I just wonder, how does Mena really feel about all those conservative blogs out there, many of them having contributed, in some small way, to John Kerry’s defeat, and all made possible by her company’s software?
She better not blog about it, though. After all, the client is always right.
RELATED:
A Letter From SixApart
NOTE: CaliforniaConservative.org proudly supports WordPress.
April 11th, 2005 at 8:39 am
I work at Six Apart, and I’m friends with Ben and Mena, and I think you’re not being quite fair to the way our company works and the type of people the Trotts are.
First, our company consists of about 70 people around the world. We’re *very* diverse, in culture, politics, language (I think almost 10 languages are spoken by our U.S. team alone) and every other aspect. And we like it that way.
More to the point, we’re a growing company helping to define a new industry, to make new jobs, and to sell a lot of software and services not just here in the U.S., but around the world. I can’t think of any achievement that *better* fits conservative ideals than an effort like that.
On a more personal level, I know Ben and Mena (and all of us at Six Apart) take great satisfaction in having given millions of people a voice on the web, to share their ideas with the people they care about. If you want to find proof that they are not applying any litmus test to their employees or users, you only have to look back to the last presidential election, where we were glad to have both the Democratic and Republican campaigns using our tools to publish their ideas. On your blogroll alone, sites like Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, Blogs Against Hillary, VodkaPundit, and Powerline all use Six Apart tools to publish.
Finally, I’m not sure how valuable it is to apply some political litmus test to people who make tools. If you look at Microsoft, you’ll find that the overwhelming majority of employees are fairly liberal, which isn’t unusual for the Seattle area. With other software efforts, whether it’s Apple or Yahoo or anybody else, you’ll find that many of the major computer industry players are based in the Bay Area and have significant contributions from people who are probably more liberal than you, including the WordPress team itself.
I personally am glad we have a wide range of people making publishing tools, and a wide range of people using them. I am certain you don’t demonize half the people in this country simply because they might disagree with you on some political points (and I think you’d be surprised to find out how personally conservative Ben and Mena are) and assuming you don’t, I can’t see how anyone benefits by antagonizing others who are trying to give people a voice.
Sorry for rambling on so long in your comments, but I hope it’s given you some points to think about, and do feel free to get in touch if you feel there’s more that needs explaining.
April 12th, 2005 at 4:04 pm
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