"What's nice about DaveNet," Dave says, "is that I don't need any money to do what I do. I don't require an editorial staff, and I don't need a printing press. Therefore I don't have anybody telling me what I can write. I also have a lead time that is the envy of every journalist in every other medium. If a news story comes out and I get it first, I can be out on the street in ten minutes. There's never been a medium like this, with that kind of immediacy. It changes the way news happens. It also changes the way opinion happens."
Dave Winer, software developer, is also webmaster, author, CEO, and janitor of DaveNet, a publishing phenomenon that is an example of what's possible on the Internet within the constraints of current technology and within the constraints of revenue models for doing business on the Web.
DaveNet is an ongoing rant-at Apple, at Microsoft, at the Web community at large. The subject, usually topical, depends on his mood. A typical DaveNet may start out with Dave commenting on a rock song he's listening to at 5 A.M. Then he may start "singing," even "crooning," the lyrics-his brave attempt at creating virtual karaoke in ASCII text.
He's come out of nowhere to emerge as one of the poets of cyberspace. DaveNet is always quite engaging, and his ability, his willingness to open himself up to say whatever's on his mind is quite impressive.