Dave, can you think of any way to get this in front of mayor-elect Gray?

Ross, that's a very fair comment. I hope Elias will take the time to submit a response here or wherever is appropriate to give insight into his thoughts. I've known Elias for many years and feel he's a stand-up guy. So while I don't have any knowledge of exactly what transpired, I'd vouch that generally he's not out to harm anyone.

At any rate I also don't want to lose focus on the message: The fact that entrepreneurs are even having this conversation is a good thing. I'd like to see initiatives that provide a safe environment for entrepreneurs to hash things out, innovate, and effect change.

Also, Peter Corbett - I understand you may be on the mayor's transition team? Can you give any insight as to what's being planned in this vein? Great to hear you're involved; that's a huge vote of confidence for startups in DC being a priority.

Dan, Look forward seeing you. As for Proudly Made in DC, right on!! I just did a blog post about them this morning which is along the lines you pointed out in your blog post:

Meet Awesome DC's soulmate: Proudly Made In DC http://awesomedc.com/2010/12/21/meet-awesome-dcs-...

Per our discussion earlier today, I will re-post this on awesomdc under your name with a link to your new profiles on awesomize.me :-)

As for our friend, Ross here, he brought this up with me when I was in Spain last month. I took my time and explained the whole thing. It's not really worth anyone's time to discuss this any further. I prefer to keep the focus on the subject.

Ross, Your negative and bashing behavior does not suit your domain name. You are acting like politicians who spend most of their time bashing and blaming others as opposed to accomplishing anything constructive. Politics has no place in Awesome DC and Proudly Made in DC. If you got nothing to contribute in technology and entrepreneurship, please stop wasting our time and stay out of our circle. Otherwise, we would welcome your input. DC is a very small city my friend. Your continuous bashing and negativity will backfire.

BTW, feel free to create your profile and company/welovedc.com blog on our new gig, http://awesomize.me:

All aboard! Social Media Train Gearing up to Awesomize your Business in 2011 http://awesomedc.com/2010/12/20/all-aboard-social...

Not to worry, I will not rate you 1 :-) I promise. I graduated from highschool long time ago :-) To me, everyone and every company in DC area is FREAKING AWESOME :-) drop us a note from the site if you got any question.

Daniel, I apologize for further taking this off-topic, but I can't not respond to Elias. I'm the biggest supporter you'll meet of the DC entrepreneurial community, and I am a "benefit of the doubt" kind of guy, but I have to chime in here. Precisely because I am such an ardent supporter of the community is why I feel such a need to speak out on this.

Elias:

a) Your repeated refusal to neither admit you've done anything wrong nor apologize for the fact that you blatantly plagiarized dozens of articles from multiple sources is wrong (on top of wrong), but your repeated tactic of firing back at Ross for rightfully protecting what is his is pathetic and maddening. You are the one that is doing the misplaced bashing here.

b) I have lived in DC since 1998, and been actively involved in the DC tech scene for many years. I have seen and talked to Ross at events many times, but have never even heard of you, Shams. Ross has for years run a free and open resource called DCTechEvents.com to actively support the community (never a single ad, BTW). You blatantly stole his (and many others') content. Thus, it seems a bit daft of you to use pronouns like "we" and "our" when speaking of the startup and entrepreneurship community of which you, at best, are not an active member, and moreover seemingly are an active pariah.

c) Even in this post you show your true colors by shamelessly self-promoting your sites.

d) You do know WeLoveDC.com isn't Ross's site, right? I would assume someone so connected to the community would know this.

Jeremy, AWESOME and thanks for forwarding.

Here was Peter's response on the Facebook DC Tech page:

Peter Corbett Here's my stance: we the entrepreneurs will do what needs to be done. The government has nothing to do with our success. The past 3 years of being engaged in these conversations in this city have lead me to reaffirm my belief - which I've always said publicly to gov and non-gov alike - that the entrepreneurial community will and must lead any efforts to make DC an entrepreneurial bastion. Let them follow our lead, not the other way around. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_1447953...

Nicholas wrote in response:

J Nicholas Tolson ‎@Peter: IMO, that is what Daniel is trying to do here. Part of this leadership is actively engaging our elected officials. We're the innovative ones, so we need to go to the govs with our ideas for how we can work together to make this a better environment for entrepreneurs.

And guys, I have to say that Peter, I respectfully disagree. Here's why:

I'm the first guy to say 'keep government out of business as much as possible.' But the role of the entrepreneur is to maximize results within an efficient market. And so the entrepreneur will do whatever is best for his business, and rightly so. The sad reality is that for many entrepreneurs, what's best for their business has been to take it to Silicon Valley. I've experienced this first hand, and it's the entire argument of my post. Why should an entrepreneur push a piece of rope uphill trying to innovate in an unfriendly environment when there's a much friendlier environment accessible to him? I would argue that many won't, and the flight of talent over the past 30 years proves my point. You wouldn't believe how many entrepreneurs I meet in Silicon Valley that wistfully say they wish they could've stayed back East where they were from.

There needs to be a prioritization to make DC entrepreneur-friendly from a macro, policy perspective, rather than putting that burden on the entrepreneur. Most simply won't take the burden; they'll just go elsewhere.

I think my most poignant point is in my closing paragraph, where I ask the mayor to go on a 'trade mission' to Silicon Valley and just find out what it would take to be relevant to entrepreneurs out there. The simple fact is that innovators on the West Coast don't care about what's happening in DC. It's not relevant to them. They're busy innovating on their businesses in their environment. I'm asking for a policy shift that will make them take notice. Make them innovators want to come to DC and contribute to our community here.

I also don't want to come off sounding like there's no innovation in DC. I hope I made it clear in my post that I'm very impressed by what's happened since I've been gone. But we all also need to face the reality that it pales in comparison to what's happening in the Valley right now.

I hope I'm being clear. I'm not asking Mayor Gray to get into the entrepreneur's business. What I am asking is for him to prioritize making DC relevant to innovators -- in fact, to make it THE most relevant place in the US for innovation. Maybe I'm biased; maybe I'm drinking the entrepreneurial kool-aid too much, but to me, this country was built on the successes of innovation and small businesses, and it's what separates us from many other countries. Making DC the best place to foster that innovation will pay dividends far into the future for our region.

Hi Elias--

First, I will note that awesomedc has gotten better. You haven't posted any stolen content in a month or two. Thank you.

But still, you never really seemed to grasp why it was a problem. It's particularly maddening *because* you're an entrepreneur. With one hand, you were making products, and the other, treating other peoples products like they were yours for the taking.

And yeah, until you understand that, I'm going to keep telling people about this. I feel like it's a story worth telling.

I'm not involved with WeLoveDC, they just thought it was newsworthy.

Guys, here's how I think about these things:

There's a cost to everything.

There's a cost to every decision we make. Elias, you have made some decisions that have made others in the community upset. And you're very defiant about those decisions. Maybe for good reason, maybe not. But regardless, we're all incurring a cost for having to sit through this argument. I would encourage you, Ross and Nicholas to really consider the cost of the conversation you're having. Is it worth the cost?

You may very well decide it is. You want to stand up for, and defend, your rights and the ways in which you were harmed. That, IMHO, is how countries end up going to war. They each are unwilling to acknowledge the other's position in the smallest amount. Often times, people just want a little validation.

It sounds to me like Elias, you want validation about the hard work you've put into making AwesomeDC awesome.

And Ross/Nicholas, it sounds to me like you want validation that what Elias did was wrong - he should not have lifted content w/o permission and/or naming the source.

And you know what guys? Let me give you that validation, because you both deserve it.

So just decide if the opportunity cost of digging in further is worth the loss of time you can spend innovating on other things. I would say that it isn't. But, in true 'weighing costs' fashion, I'm not going to get further into it, because after all, there's a cost to everything, and I have other things I'd rather spend my time on. :)

Wow! That's a lot of comment. I quickly scanned through them and spotted the word "defiant" many times. When Ross brought it up to my attention last month, I told him the reason. Looks like he has forgotten. So, I say it loud here again one more time for everyone to see so we put this to rest. I hope we start getting on with the issues Dan has pointed out here as opposed to this ongoing high schoolish conversation.

I never defied Ross's claim. To help the local College kids here in DC from UM, GW, GM, etc. Right after the launch of Awesome DC last December, I engaged ton of interns to populate Awesome DC about Awesome stuff happening in DC. Obviously, I could not create a user name for each one of them. So, I interviewed them and allowed them to post their articles under my name. I monitored them for the first few month, and it went well. Then I got engaged with my other works. I continued to post only the highly technical articles. My mistake was I failed to monitor the articles by those kids. This was going on till Ross pointed it out last month. Regretfully, I had to let those behind it go. That is why you have seen less content. I have tried to remove those that Ross listed. Besides, It's not like we are making money off of this. There! I said it. Happy :-) Blogging is not my job. I am an entrepreneur.

Nick, I can't help it that you have never heard of me. Hope this help: http://awesomedc.com/about/

Now, can we get on with the real stuff? - creating companies, creating Jobs, etc. Let's help each other to position DC as a Tech hub. Looks like we all have the same intention. Prove it :-)

BTW, I STOLE Dan's article and put it on Awesome DC :-) http://awesomedc.com/2010/12/22/mayor-elect-gray-....

I'll be glad to meet you guys face to face over a coffee or beer somewhere in Awesome DC :-)

Peace
Elias

More great back and forth between Peter & Nicholas on this topic on the FB group page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_1447953...

"Peter Corbett This has absolutely, 100%, NOTHING to do with the NYC government: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/12/war-for-ta...

J Nicholas Tolson This does, though. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/05/mayor-bloo... Are we really arguing about whether the DC govt can do more to help and encourage small businesses and entrepreneurs?"

Here are some GREAT essays by Paul Graham on the topic of startup hubs:
http://www.paulgraham.com/maybe.html http://www.paulgraham.com/startuphubs.html http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html