Sacred COWBs want a gerontolution

The latest in the long line of crotchety old white bastards, in this case some superannuated Pommy called Bill Thompson writing an anti-2.0 rant for the Register, has perked up the interest of a fellow COWB, Nick Carr.

It's hard to see what Thompson is proposing, since he rambles all over the place like a Trotskyite after a night on the bottle. The less said about the absurd Marxist analogy, the better. He lays on the purple prose, yet doesn't manage to communicate a coherent vision. (Never forget: this is the Reg we're talking about here. Not a noted bastion of advanced thought.)

If Thompson is so old and wise - I think I saw in his bio that he was present when the Declaration of ARPANET was signed in 1776 - then he should know that the Web itself is a presentation layer, so it's no surprise that a movement called Web 2.0 is also mostly about the presentation layer. What he is talking about is a re-engineering of the Internet. It's a classic mistake, confusing the Web and the Internet, and one that I wouldn't expect someone of Thompson's experience to make.

Anyway Nick, you have found someone who is possibly even more of a COWB than you, bravo! I hope you and Bill can share many a good virtual sherry whilst decrying the horrors of today's youth from the safety of your respective ivory towers.