Last week, several people forwarded an unflattering assessment of Pierre Omidyar by Mark Ames, and Yasha Levine at NSFWCorp.com (“The Extraordinary Pierre Omidyar”).
The writing is so caustic it was hard to unravel. They paint Omidyar as “almost a caricature of neoliberal ideology.” But in the process, they authors strike me a “almost a caricature of progressive criticism.” The closest to this level of venom that I’ve seen are the many ideological attacks exchanged between sectarian rivals on the far left (or among those on the far right, for that matter).
Here’s what, after rereading, appears to be the nut graph:
Charity without profit motive is considered suspect at best, subject to the laws of unintended consequences; good can only come from markets unleashed, and that translates into an ideology inherently hostile to government, democracy, public politics, redistribution of land and wealth, and anything smacking of social welfare or social justice.
Of course, this is only what the authors say about the Omidyar Network, the vehicle for much of the Omidyar family’s social investment and charitable giving. It’s their conclusion, and I don’t see it supported by the bits of evidence they try to muster.
And it doesn’t strike me as a reasonable conclusion to draw from the “portfolio” of Omidyar Network investments.
Charity without profit motive is suspect? Then how do they reconcile the record of charitable giving to nonprofits? Hostile to democracy and public politics? There’s quite a list of entities they’ve supported under the category of “government transparency.”
Government Transparency
African Media Initiative
Code for America
ePanstwo Foundation
Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente
Global Integrity
Global Voices
Janaagraha
Media Development Loan Fund
Mideast Youth
mySociety
New Citizen (Centre UA)
Open Knowledge Foundation
Praekelt Foundation
Project On Government Oversight
Sahara Reporters
SeeClickFix
Sunlight Foundation
The XYZ Show
Transparency & Accountability Initiative
Ushahidi
Omidyar is openly experimenting with ways to use his wealth to foster social change. He’s not doing this is a vacuum. There are lots of others involved in similar debates and experiments. The December 9, 2013 issue of The Nation coincidentally features a profile of “The New Economy Movement” by Gar Alperovitz. Same themes, different players. It’s fair to say that Omidyar is likely more “market” friendly than some others, but all are struggling with the question of how to build a new, more socially responsible economy within the framework of the old.
Oh, by the way. This morning’s news is that NSFW Corp., which brought us the Pierre-bashing article, is apparently itself a for-profit enterprise which failed on the financial front. The Guardian reports NSFW is merging with the tech blog PandoDaily.
Tech journalist and entrepreneur Paul Carr’s last venture was surprisingly old-school. NSFW Corp, a news site that billed itself as ‘the Economist written by the Daily Show’, put out a print magazine – and it even put up a paywall. Despite winning fans, it didn’t make money. Now Carr and co are off to join tech blog PandoDaily, a move likely to be met with applause and snickers in the incestuous world of tech hackery.
At least one person who sent me the Omidyar article included this comment: “I realize he’s your boss, so no response expected.”
So to clear the air in advance, I don’t work for Pierre Omidyar. I submit a (mostly) weekly column to Civil Beat, one of Omidyar’s ventures, on a freelance basis. I choose the topics, and work with Civil Beat’s editors when my copy needs cleaning up (yes, I do appreciate a good edit!). I have been introduced to Pierre Omidyar, and had one Skype conversation with him when Civil Beat was being formed. That’s about it in terms of Pierre and me.
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Can’t get the link to the story to work. Takes me to a page with a cutesy story about the sale to PandoDaily.
Found the story by clicking on archives at the top of the nsfwcorp page, and scrolling down the archives page past the pictures of their authors, and the print section to the dispatches section
Mahalo Ian. (I tried to make a simple ‘thank you’ comment, but it was too short, so I’m adding this parenthetical verbiage as well. Life is really strange, isn’t it?)
I just read the Omidyar critique and wonder if we read the same article. You say “the writing is so caustic it’s hard to unravel.” Except for the final paragraphs, I didn’t find it that way at all. It was an analysis of some of Omidyar’s major donations (or sometimes investments) that call into question his positive intent or at least suggest very serious blinders. It’s worth seriously considering whether investing in free market projects like privatizing education (such that teachers don’t need training but only read from a script the same things on the same day to all students) or microfinancing (which researchers who set out to validate its successes have ended by calling a failure, especially when run by for-profit organizations), or land reform (by granting slum dwellers title to their shanties without reining in the corruption that promptly divests them of what little they had) are worth the many millions of dollars Omidyar has invested in them or whether he is learning from his mistaken assumptions about the world. And meanwhile, given this track record, I don’t think it’s crazy to be concerned about what interests will be served by his control of the Snowdon material.
I encourage everyone to read the article for themselves:https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/extraordinary-pierre-omidyar/
A group that bills itself as “the Economist written by the Daily Show’” is a group not to be taken either seriously, or as original. “Carr and co are off to join tech blog PandoDaily” and titling a company “NSFW” shows a lack of seriousness, also. As if the ‘name’ is the selling point rather than the contents. Sounds like the blog should be called the “DailyPander” as the thinking, as reflected by the writing, is pandering to those who have prejudged. Omidyar does interesting and creative things. If you do many things, some don’t turn out so well. That’s life. Sniggering isn’t worth reading. Instead of NSFW it should be NWR, not worth reading.
What does NSFWCorp stand for?
Not Safe For Work
I read several tech blogs regularly, including Pandodaily. Crisp, witty journalism on that site. I’m a fan.
I also saw Pandodaily founder and editor-in-chief Sarah Lacy speak in Honolulu several years ago. Hugely informative and entertaining speaker. Learned a lot.
Jealousy brings out the worst in folks!
I’ve met Pierre on a couple occasions. I don’t know if he remembers me, however, I always found him to very approachable and willing to give a hand to many things.
I had a doubt about the initial model of Civil Beat as it appeared at first that it was working to be an “Advertising” based driven paper.
The subscription rates bother me and I won’t subscribe because it seems like each and every day there is something new to subscribe to and pay online for each day.
I wonder how much his new start-up will cost the average Joe Blow to access?