Again, I’d like to reiterate my clarification – Digital Snippets was built using open source. The platform itself is not open source (i.e. code freely available). If we’ve said otherwise in comments on Brian’s blog or elsewhere, it was an error (last time I checked, humans still made those, though I could be wrong).

Our initial post introducing DS states the correct information very clearly.

Thanks for coming by!

Interesting post. While I agree with you on some points, I have a different perspective with others, and as you’ve pointed to my post in this one, I’ll address my thoughts on transparency and authenticity as it relates to social media and the internet in general…

My bottom line with social media (and the internet, and life in general for that matter) is that words and claims have meaning and need to be authentic in order for the transparency to become self-evident. I also don’t like spin, and as a consumer, and a marketer, I have a nasty habit of calling companies on it when I see it.

There is a distinct and important difference between communicating supportable marketing messages and positioning vs. stating something that is easily recognized as unsupportable. That is the essence of transparency and authenticity with brands in my view.

And in the age of semi (and complete) anonymity online, you really never do know who you are talking to. “Linus” could be Linus Torvald, the inventor of Linux and the pioneer of open source code. “Danny” could be Danny Sullivan, guru of all things search.

I bring up these two examples in relation to the post of mine you pointed to, and my assumption that the reference to “opening your books and executive offices and secret R&D labs and inviting the world in, answering each and every question that is asked of you.” was in reference to our back and forth over Digital Snippets at Brian Solis’ blog.

If anyone is going to make a claim online it should be easily supportable… that is transparency. In my post, I take issue with iStudio’s claim that their SMR was “optimized for search” (which was what the SMR’s original focus was over a year ago, with SMO as the secondary objective). When I can right click and “view source” (and, as a digital marketer & communicator who recognizes the power and democratizing nature of search and speaks at search conferences it’s a topic close to my heart) and see for myself if their release is truly SEO friendly, which it was not as it was built in an MSFT frameset, that is the internet in action and demonstrates the true power of the web and of how the playing field is leveled. I didn’t take issue with their release itself; I took issue with the spin.

In the case of Digital Snippets as I mentioned, I have no problem with SMG building a proprietary platform for SMRs. But, at the same time, I do take issue with your claim that it is open source. It was built using OS code, but it is copyrighted and therefore it is not itself OS. A semantic distinction, but an important one.

The internet is more than just words and product launches, it’s also millions of hours of coding and robust communities of programmers, developers, systems administrators, etc. etc. They have a language and culture as well that needs to be respected in the social media space. They have built the GNU license that open source code is distributed under and it’s important to respect the positioning of OS itself. Like I said, there’s nothing wrong with Digital Snippets, and I applaud you for releasing the content structure via Creative Commons license, but I felt it necessary to correct the notion that DS itself was open source.

Just as in the mass world we have Consumer Reports (not to mention gov’t orgs like the FDA) testing product claims, in the social media space we have friends, strangers and acquaintances testing our claims. What we say should be 100% supportable, which makes it authentic and transparent in my view.

Anyway, good discussion to have!

Cheers,
Tamera