Thomas Friedman’s column this week in The New York Times, The Whole World Is Watching (registration required), makes the point that anyone you bump into – anywhere, anytime – might have a blog or a cell phone with a camera and a way to instantly, globally publish the details of your encounter.
As always, he’s got an elegant turn of phrase. He writes:
“The blogosphere has made the global discussion so much richer — and each of us so much more transparent.”
– Tom Friedman in The New York Times (June 27, 2007)
Oops… the Analysis Group Washington D.C. office threw my lunch away
Well, here’s my “transparency” experience. Note: regular readers know that I’m not generally very snarky. What happened today really bugged me so I decided to, er, blog it.
I was eating lunch by myself at an Au Bon Pain in downtown Washington DC. I got up from my seat to buy some coffee, leaving my obviously half-eaten lunch and a copy of The Washington Post spread out on my table.
When I returned two minutes later, three jerks (oops, I mean people) – one of them from an organization called, ironically, Washington Analysis Group (aka Analysis Group Washington D.C. office) – had cleared my table, dumped my lunch into the trash and pulled the table up to theirs in order to create a larger “work space.”
Oh and they didn’t appear to be eating or drinking anything from the restaurant – just using it for their oh-so-important meeting.
Hello?!
Not a word of apology did I get. Instead a rather annoyed Inside-the-Beltway “we are super important” and “clearly you’re not” muttering and we needed your table so tough luck.
Well, maybe the Analysis Group Washington D.C. office should analyze their behaviour a bit more closely. (From their site: they provide economic, financial, and business strategy consulting to law firms, corporations, and government agencies.)
P.S. In case you’re wondering, the group had their papers and folders spread out and it was easy to spot the Washington Analysis name and logo.
Update: Google search results (oops)
Well it took a week (it’s July 6, 2007 as I write) but this blog entry is now #2 in Google search results on Analysis Group Washington D.C. office (right after the link to their Web page). And no, I haven’t heard a peep from these folks. Doesn’t look like they’re online very much.
