Tech Guy Dead - Marc Orchant - Nope, I Never Heard of Him Either

Published on December 10, 2007 in Technology.

The tech bloggers are having a good cry today as a fellow tech blogger who was fifty died.

He was such a great guy. A real loss for the tech blogging world. Hell, just a real loss for the world.

“For the world” ? Go figure.

If you want to join in here ya go (note, none of these are Powerpoint):

UPDATE: After I read (or skimmed) the thirteen posts above, I thought I would just check a little further to see what I could learn about his contributions to the world outside of writing a blog.

So far, I’ve come up empty. There isn’t even a wikipedia entry.

You need to read some of the above links just to see how out of touch the tech bloggers are with what’s going on in “the blogosphere.”

Now if Bob Parsons dies, I’m boo-hooing with the best of them. His contribution is best measured in inches and cups.

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8 Responses to “Tech Guy Dead - Marc Orchant - Nope, I Never Heard of Him Either”

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1 Keri
Dec 10th, 2007 at 7:59 pm

Yep. I hadn’t heard a word about him, either. But I sure did see a lot of tweets out in twitter this weekend. Must have been a great guy!
2 Tim Marman
Dec 11th, 2007 at 9:27 am

Sure, Scoble can be over the top sometimes. We all know that. No, Marc didn’t change the world - most of us don’t. But he was a great guy and a good friend to a lot of people in the “blogosphere” and that’s why we’re talking about it and mourning his loss.

Honestly, it’s pathetic and trite to trivialize the loss of Marc because you “never heard of him” or because he didn’t have a Wikipedia page. 99.9% of people would fall into this category - and it doesn’t make a loss of a friend hurt any less.
3 goinglikesixty
Dec 11th, 2007 at 10:42 am

@Tim: Good guy and good friend. But if you read the thirteen links you would have thought that he did make a big change in the world - or even the blogosphere. He didn’t, so why the talk of the “missing man” formation, or “no blog links” to honor him.
Actually 99.999% of the people in the U.S. don’t have a wiki entry. But the ones that do, have made some kind of contribution that at least one other person thought worth mentioning.
When I croak, you can trivialize me.
4 Tim Marman
Dec 11th, 2007 at 11:38 am

So the new standard in determining whether you have made any contributions to society is if you have a Wikipedia entry? I guess we can just agree to disagree here.

I think he clearly made a impact in the technical blogger community. He blogged for a long time, was involved in a number of blogging startups, shared many insights and built a lot of strong relationships. Don’t let a couple of “silly” comments by Scoble and his audience eclipse the fact that most of the posts you link to are from people who knew and cared for Marc on a personal level.
5 goinglikesixty
Dec 11th, 2007 at 1:07 pm

@Tim: wiki: nope, but a tech blogger would have a link. I don’t argue that he made an impact in the tech blogger world. But the tech bloggers expanded that to the “blogosphere.”
startups: Nobody mentioned his startups, but I also am involved in many blogging start ups. I share my insights everyday.
personal level: I understanding wanting to show caring via blogging, but everybody I read, (I haven’t read anymore than the original 13) inflated his importance. I’m just indicating that he was a pretty average fellow - but well connected to people who blog.
“silly:” there is a college fund started for his kids. That’s not “silly.”
Care for the guy on a personal level, but Roger King of King World Productions died yesterday, and I don’t see the same outpouring of sympathy.
Credibility of technology blogs suffer when such hand ringing occurs because another blogger dies.
6 Tim Marman
Dec 11th, 2007 at 7:55 pm

I still don’t understand your infatuation with what he “did” or how “important” he was. Celebrities die all the time and to be honest I could give a shit. Roger King may have been “more important”, but I didn’t know him nor did most of the other bloggers in question, and that’s why we didn’t show the same outpouring of sympathy.

How exactly does this hurt the “credibility” of technology blogs? In case you forgot, blogging is fundamentally a form of personal expression, and we’re expressing our sadness over his passing.

As for the fund, well, there are a lot of people who have charities and trusts set up in their name, etc. The best I can tell, you’re just upset because this is prominent in this case, but like I said, it’s just because his friends happen to be visible in the blogosphere.

I guess I still don’t understand why you’re so upset about bloggers mourning the loss of a friend.
7 Tim Marman
Dec 11th, 2007 at 7:58 pm

And, I’d also point out, the fund was started by Oliver Starr, a close friend and colleague of Marc’s. Should that effort be condemned simply because Oliver is a blogger?
8 Rebecca Orchant
Apr 14th, 2008 at 9:53 am

Alright. I realize that you find this painfully clever. That in your way, you’re having a laugh at all the tech nerds who were deeply connected to my dad and are showing it by papering their blogs with love and tall-tales of his greatness. But please realize that the Internet is a VERY public place. I’m sincerely horrified by your flippancy. Maybe you don’t have kids. Maybe you don’t realize that for some Marc, my dad, could very well have changed the world. If you didn’t know him, and he had no relevance to you, than I see no reason for him to occupy a space on YOUR blog, which is clearly changing the world minute by minute.