Everyone has gone stir crazy.  When did things get so nasty.  When everyone starts in the beginning, they’re friendly, open, and considerate.  They’re all ears and they’re operating to higher ideals.  

Then things change.

Suddenly, the swoosh of money, venture capital guidance, a flood of users, and a rising “importance” changes mindsets. Suddenly, everyone has an ego.  Everyone has a vision.  Everyone stops working together.

I really don’t care about the reasons.  Many of the “upstarts” were hungry, docile, and friendly.  They were willing to work to higher ideals to make things happen.  To change the world.  Then they became big, got a little money, became arrogant, blind and stupid.  Suddenly, that rush to be open and friendly to build “scale” turns into a tragic set of actions which start to feel monolithic, monopolistic, anti-revolutionary and anti-competitive.

FOR EXAMPLE

Where the hell did Apple get the idea that they can somehow dictate what is appropriate and not-appropriate for their iBookstore?  This story has been making “hay” in the social media sphere that it has folks like Dan Gillmor are calling Apple’s actions “control freakery”.  I would agree. 

Here’s my response on twitter to Phil Schiller from Apple:

Want to guess the crime?  Here’s the snippet from the article (read full article):

I cannot sell PART of the course on Apple. SoHow To Think Sidewayswill not appear on the iBookstore. Neither willHow To Revise Your Novel.

But I also will not deal with this sort of head-up-ass behavior from adistributor. You don’t tell someone “The problem is the live links,” and then, when that person has complied with your change request and removed the live links, turn around and say, “No, no. The problem is the CONTENT. You can’t mention Amazon in your lesson.

This is not professional behavior from a professional market.

And cold moment of truth here—you cannot write a writing course that includes information on publishing and self-publishing and NOT mention Amazon. It’s the place where your writers are going to make about 90% of their money.

So I’m pulling ALL my work from the iBookstore today. I apologize to iBookstore fans. I tried. Hard.

This is what Apple’s actions remind me of:

Cut it out Apple.  You’re going down a dangerous path with publishing.  We understand your position about porn within the App Store (something you control directly vs. the WWW) but when it comes to book publishing, you’re entering into “dark” territory.

Also, we don’t see Amazon restricting books that contain very specific instructions on how to publish on Apple’s iBookstore as shown in this example:

I don’t see any way out of this for Apple.  I understand they built the ecosystem and now, acting as a distribution channel feel they can dictate what can and cannot be done.  But this is ludicrous and dangerous.  There is a lot of Apple hate out there.  Not sure if it is entirely because of Steve’s ego, Apple’s untold billions, massive profit margins, Foxconn challenges, or the $74 billion of money parked offshore for tax liability reasons but this type of stuff coming from Cupertino is silly.

And please don’t get me started by another anxious and “friendly” brand called Twitter. In the early days, it was okay to open everything up to everyone to help achieve scale.  Now that scale has arrived, it seems quite easy to forget one’s roots and where they came from.  The API changes for Instagram are petty.  Maybe it’s easy for me to say but as you continue to frustrate users in a very open and social space, these friction points begin to undo what was so great about mobile, social, and open. Do you want to be remembered for screwing with things when they were doing well?  After all, look what happened to DIGG.

I tweeted Phil Schiller at Apple about this (no, I am not Walt Mossberg…) as he’s the only noticeable Apple exec communicating with the public on that channel.  I didn’t expect him to comment but I certainly hope Apple notices from the chatter online social channels.  Apple has a lot to lose now and every decision like this acts like a small wave which will ultimately turn into a tsunami of discontent.  

Guide yourself accordingly as the lawyers would say.

UPDATED: Apple responds to author and says, “We made a mistake.”  FULL STORY HERE:  AMAZING APPLE TURNAROUND (Click Here)

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