Over the past few days, another online publication covering the high-performance computing space has taken to the Internet in an effort to discredit the work we are doing at insideHPC.com. The publication asserts that our content is compromised by an affiliation with the U.S. Department of Defense.
Let’s set the record straight. With the acquisition of the publication announced in 2010, insideHPC is the sole property of myself, Rich Brueckner, a private citizen who has never worked for the government or contracted with the government in any capacity.
insideHPC.com is a forum that distills news and events in the world of high performance computing and presents it in bite-sized nuggets as a resource for supercomputing professionals. We provide original content and analysis as well as linking to external sources.
As President of the company and chief editor, my mission is to filter out the noise and provide the supercomputing community with HPC news that matters. As part of that mission, we sometimes post guest columns in an effort to provide different perspectives on HPC technology.
Separately, we have an advertising and sponsorship side that generates the income to pay our bills and enables us to grow. Our advertisers reach thousands of HPC influencers, recommenders and decision makers around the globe through our blog site, special event supplements, and direct email outreach. And since we believe in transparency, we proudly list our sponsor organizations.
We are a completely independent publication, with no ties to our sponsors other than a normal advertising relationship that exists with any media outlet. It’s a business model that’s been around since the printing press, and as such, we keep editorial decisions separate from the business in the interest of fairness. And, as stated, we have no financial, editorial, or intellectual affiliation with the DoD.
As an online publication, we analyze and editorialize with the same journalistic integrity that you will find at any U.S. media outlet.
While it’s no fun for me to sit here and defend myself, I am an optimist and I believe that there is a bright side to all this; as a publication, insdeHPC is growing in readership and global reach. At the same time, I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to wake up every day and get to write about my passion for high performance computing.
If you have any questions for us, please email Rich Brueckner at rich @ insidehpc.com. I will be glad to answer any further questions on this matter.
Thank you.
Rich,
Sorry you’re going through this. No one should be treated in such a manner.
Thank you for clearing the air and standing up for yourself.
Best of luck,
Ian
Hi Rich,
I’m also sorry to hear you’re going thru this … I don’t supposed you’d be willing to identify that other publication so that we can let them know what we think of what they’re doing? Also, do you think that the accusation may stem from the fact that insideHPC used to be edited by John West, who, IIRC, is / was affiliated with the DOD?
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Thank you for your support as a reader, but I really don’t want to slam anybody. That’s why I left names out.
These allegations were actually retracted by the source in July, 2010: http://lawandmore.typepad.com/law_and_more/2010/07/social-media-one-of-the-issues-it-raises.html#comment
Why they resurfaced repeatedly this week makes no sense to me.
My Open Letter was simply meant to clear the air and put all this to rest. And after suffering through that Salt movie recently, I’m just not much interested in government conspiracies anymore 😉
Who is the other blog that is attacking you?
That might shed some light to the rest of uninformed what they are saying that might be discrediting to insideHPC.
ah-hah. I found the post you refer to – or at least I did – and then it was gone. I guess a group administrator took it down. And rightuflly so. Maybe I’m a bit prejudiced since I’m in the military – but I feel like I know a lot…about the hpc community – and the players – and their reputations. And reading the post that was disparaging to insideHPC was like listening to the lunatic ramblings of Charlie Sheen. Insane – and way off base – not to mention inaccurate. insideHPC is a class act. The person making the remarks is a schmuck and is a poor representation of what this community is all about – namely cooperation and collaboration. Keep doing what you do so well at insideHPC. You have tons of fans out there. Like Charlie Sheen – this person will burn out really fast when he realizes the world is laughing their asses off at him.
Rich,
I think this comes from the fact that various editors, over the time that pre-dated your ownership, would have posts that were clearly during business hours. As an HPC professional myself, I often wondered how these contributors were permitted to research and post content during business hours. I know that my current employer would frown upon this practice if I was to start my own HPC blog.
FJW
Where is this “new” publication at? We will respond to their editorials.
responding to FJW. A reasonable question. I often post on a news site during the day – (or so it seems) by queuing my posts up the night before, It’s actually the “norm” rather than really doing “live” postings – so editors have time to go back in and change something before it actually hits the press (so to speak.)
Don’t you think this has to do with John West and the former owner he would often post during Government working hours? Might be that most of your Viz information comes from two guys who work for the DoD and are often posting things during the day. Wonder why folks get that impression.
This is a blog right. Sorry Rick but if you are opening yourself to the public then be prepared.
Personally I think this site is really just a tool for your advertisers. There is very little information of consequence. Everything is just a new this or a new that by one of your advertisers.
I would stop worrying about small stones and worry about what you are doing.