It's pretty rare I'll take a look at the whole circle-jerk world of "the blogosphere" but today seems to be my day for it, and this particular event was too funny not to mention here.

There's a European blogging conference called Les Blogs. There's quite a few of these conferences, in the US and elsewhere. From all reports, they basically involve getting the same tired old faces to yabber on about stuff everyone in the audience already knows and to appear important while the people who work for them tend to be the real innovators (This is not specific to blogging conferences, by the way; most industry conferences are similar. Conferences have become a bad way to disseminate industry news and to network now that we have the Internet.) And sometimes.. egos clash, or the few smart people who bother going to these events call out the bullshit of the blabbering masses. Anyway, I digress.

At Les Blogs, the usually charming Mena Trott and the no-bullshit Ben Metcalfe came to blows, after Ben called out her speech on 'civility in the blogosphere' as bullshit on the conference's IRC channel. Then, back online, Dave Winer wandered in to the fray with his usual unhelpful and patronising comments, prolonging what was, in reality, a pretty minor spat. So now it's a real Punch and Judy show, and has all the hallmarks of another great blogosphere drama. :-D

But, seriously, if the people on stage want to be or remain respected figureheads of their industry, they must be civil. CEOs, Presidents, and other public figures get nowhere by being rude and condescending to their audiences. Charm is key.

Mena (and most of the other 'heads' of the industry) need some serious media training if they want the blogging industry to mature, because these sort of charades are extremely unprofessional.

(My 2 cents: Ben is on the money. Watch the video. He presents his argument in a reasonable manner, whereas Mena is unprofessionally touchy. She needs some media training, or at least a thicker skin - as does Winer, but he's been around long enough for us to forgive his constant snarkiness)