If blogs are good for one thing, it’s for stirring up a good shit storm. That’s been the case since blogs have been around. Daniel Solove’s book, “The Future of Reputation,” wonderfully details the more noted online controversies in the history of the Internet.

And in Reno, ever since I began reading the blogs here approximately three years ago, the online squabbles also garner much attention and clickthroughs. It’s the natures of online conversation and human deficiencies, really, that has us gravitating toward these skirmishes.

The online persona is devoid of the more communicative body language, and it’s much easier to formulate thoughts by keyboard – where crafting, editing and deleting is much simpler than in person where everything is spur of the moment and physical presence also says a lot.

Yet the online conversations these days are incredibly vibrant, in fact likely taking place more than in person or over the phone anymore.

That’s been the case with what has come to be dubbed “Nevada New Media.” It was by appearances founded by a group of folks, the vast majority of whom have little-to-no time in online conversations pertaining to northern Nevada and at least one of whom has essentially disavowed much participation in anything having to do with Reno aside from having the city name as part of a blog and other marketing efforts.

So ire was quickly raised when the effort was initially publicized over Twitter, calling itself “Nevada New Media” and claiming to be putting together a forum to discuss Nevada and new media. (Presumably. It’s now being claimed that a new name and site are coming at the end of January.) At first, it wasn’t clear who was doing it, then when it was, the NNM site had virtually no links to any of Nevada’s new media efforts – such as this one, this one or any Nevada’s easily found blogs that often discuss new media.

The criticism has continued, and yet, by and large, despite claiming to be about community and conversation, virtually none of the people associated with the group has come out and publicly addressed any of the concerns. (Perhaps it’s because they don’t know these forums exist or that these conversations are occurring?) The one who has, has deferred some criticism, been wishy-washy about other points and has ignored attempts to meet publicly with those of us expressing criticism or concern.

Here’s a comment I posted about what I see as the problem:

I think the issue of this being part of the conversation is problematic because (the co-founder) as the Nevada New Media spokesperson … has chosen to shun local efforts prior to springing the latest upon the community. It reads like an attempt to take ownership of something she before didn’t care to participate in — as if none of it was good enough. That’s the message I get.

More recently she has dodged at least two public invitations (one … by me, and one by Mike on Twitter) to sit down and chat (okay, Mike’s was going to be broadcast live as a Tallcan episode, which would have been fun, IMO) about all of this, which is all fascinating, especially for somebody who claims to be all about ‘community building.’

I like some of what she’s done as a blogger in Reno (great taste in music, for example) — she and Ryan (Jerz) were the trail blazers in my opinion — and would like to get to know her better in person. If she’s not willing that’s fine, but then the dialectic comes off as empty and insincere, or when there, as full of excuses and rationalizations.

Judging by (other) comments, the conversation in other words, continues to be for and by the folks who have been and continue to be active participants in Nevada new media efforts — none of whom are formally a part of the summit that claims, essentially, to represent them.

I’m not sure how many more ways all this can be said.

This is essentially where some of the criticism is now. The other problem is that northern Nevada needs a summit of this sort. The technology is emerging too quickly and too many people who could benefit from it are still not using it, or worse, are petrified of it because of the immense learning curves involved.

Along with some colleagues, I have at least four proposals nearly completed that will be submitted for the summit, whatever form the forum takes. I won’t be holding my breath, however.