Google is a temple to irony. It depends on everyone in the world to be open with their information so Google can organize it, yet Google is never open with its own information — whether that is how it manages ad shares or how it picks news sources or, now, how it treats people who come to a Google community conference. Google made it off the record. Why? What could possibly be said there, among hundreds of people, that should not be said openly. Dave Winer is having a proper fit about it. He links to Danny Sullivan, who in turn links to the Google conference site, which is now behind a password wall. Open the doors, Google, or at least the Windows.
I say this is a great opportunity for confidential-source blogging: Someone who’s at the conference should feed all the juicy bits to Winer for him to blog from outside.
