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Well, I guess my analysis on Scoble and his response to my analaysis is mute moot now because he is leaving Microsoft for a startup called Podtech — kind of, but not entirely (more on this below). Congratulations, Robert.
And, congratulations to Microsoft for an amazing 18 month successful PR campaign — Scoble was every bit as a good as a microsoft banner, commercial, or live interview with Bill Gates. The ROI on Scoble for his helping Microsoft’s Brand Awareness and Brand Improvement was very high, I’m sure.
Saturday night, the web was buzzing with rumor and confirmation. Here is a snippet of how some bloggers reported the news that Scoble was leaving Microsoft on Saturday night:
9:08 Chris Pirillo leaks the news.
9.45 Tom Foremski’s post on Scoble (Bloglines reported it as filed 9.27 pm).
9.54 Vinnie files his post.
11:00 Don Dodge blogs about Scoble.
11.30 Techmeme has just reported it.
11.45 Om files his version.
12.07 Sunday AM – Jason files.
12.09 Matthew files
2:15 Scoble confirms
10:00 Techmeme – shows since it first ran it at 11.30; there are at least 50 blogs reporting it, & it is just in Sunday morning!
Here are more links about Scoble leaving Microsoft:
Robert Scoble leaving Microsoft for a Silicon Valley startup
Scoble Leaving Microsoft – News at 11
Scoble moves
Robert Scoble to Leave Microsoft, Joins PodTech.net
Microsoft’s top blogger Robert Scoble is leaving…
Scoble leaving Microsoft…
Evil Web 2.0 Part II
The Scobleizer calls it quits at Microsoft
Is Scoble leaving Microsoft
Scoble Leaving Microsoft
Is Blogger Robert Scoble Leaving Microsoft
News Flash- Robert W. Scoble Is Leaving Microsoft
+++++
What does this say about proper Journalism versus Blogging? Sad to admit it, but it reflects poorly on blogging. Look at me, I’m blogging about news as if it were really news. The truth is this: Scoble was a PR Guy for Microsoft — my analysis showed it quantitatively, kind of. In that post, I said that when Scoble talks about Microsoft, he truly believes it. I’m not sure if that’s true anymore. If He’s truly a Microsoft believer — that’s okay. Because we don’t know for sure, it brings into light his motivations — the stuff on his blog about his family, son, mom dying, etc. — can we take him seriously or is all that part of his media sideshow that is bringing in millions of eyeballs daily? I once believed that he was sincere in all of that. I’m not sure anymore — but I can’t confirm it either way.
I think that’s why it works for him — he’s seems sincere — and he uses that to make $ by blogging and evangelizing Micro$oft.
It’ll be interesting to see how podcasting adoption may or may not take-off with Scoble as it’s main cheerleader now. It’ll be also interesting to see if he’ll be podcasting as much about Microsoft as he was blogging about it. Perhaps that is a kind of litmus test we can use. Best of luck to him in his new job.
Note: I have nothing against Scoble or Microsoft — this is just commentary on whom to take seriously, especially when their blog is claimed to be personal, yet most of his posts are or were about his employer, Microsoft.
Scoble is just a case study in this scenario — the question of sincerity and being genuine will continue to be brought up with others, I’m sure. Paul Kedrosky is on my side. Check him out.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Scoble doesn’t seem genuine to me. He’s a public relations guy – that’s all he is. He doesn’t know anything about technology and his posts are pretty useless and lame. His posts are mostly about tech news that he hears about, his family, and Microsoft. He was a big Microsoft banner with a face to it. Yeah, he humanized Microsoft, but he also made a lot of people question his motives. Scoble is the three-headed cow in the Blogosphere freak show.
It is very difficult to appear to be genuine if you aren’t. I know that sounds strange but it is true. Robert Scoble once told me “every time I try to fudge things online my readers find out.” And it’s true, if you aren’t being genuine or truthful about something, it just doesn’t come across as being genuine, it’s the darnest thing
Jeremy Zawodny once asked me “what if you can’t keep it real?” That’s simple, I said, don’t say it.
BTW, the word is “moot”, not “mute”.
It’s worth noting that nobody who’s actually *met* Scoble has ever expressed doubts about his sincerity. There aren’t many people in the tech world who are as sincere as he is.
I can’t agree more with Liz. I’ve worked with Scoble on several occasions, mostly when he did some Channel 9 videos of the student developers I was working with. In every case he was genuinely excited to talk to the students and find out what made them tick, and he only posted on the stuff that he genuinely found interesting.
Robert is probably one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met. I may have disagreed with a position or two of his, but I never doubted his motives.
Simply because someone’s actions result in positive PR for a company does not mean they are a PR shill.
But why would he continue to blog in the same quantity about Microsoft if he’s now working for a different company. If it is a personal blog, then wouldn’t you logically conclude that he would blog about his everyday experiences? I would think so. And so now that he’s in a different work environment, his experiences will change and the content of the posts will change. The guy seems genuine to me.
I go for your belief on Scobble, Pete, and i can see you’ve got that special touch to being so detailed and instrumentally-technically very capable of proving yourself.
You seem to amaze me everytime i read the details you provide to your readers. Very, very interesting how you do it as if you have an “eye in the sky”.
I also go for that doubt you now have on Scobble about the sincerity issue to Microsoft…..although yes, only time wil tell.
For the record, I did an analysis on Scoble’s blog several days before he announced his resignation from Microsoft. I conducted that analysis using Ruby — I read-in his feed and did some basic computational linguistics on it. Scoble seemed to enjoy it enought to write about it. That analysis showed that over 50% of his posts were about Microsoft.
Several days later, he announced his resignation and Scoble responds to that post here. I wish him the best. I don’t know him personally and I have nothing against him or Microsoft. I sincerely wish him the best with his new venture and I hope he does good to the world and makes a lot of money from it.
Scoble is, however, a good case study in authenticity in blogging: are his words motivated by his employment, or are they truly his own? Humans have a difficult time de-coupling their personal life with work life and that’s part of the challenge. Oddly, though, over 50% of his posts were about Microsoft. Is that coincidence? It could be; it also may not be due to chance.
So, a person can’t be both genuine and a PR guy? Not at the same time, but the same person? Are humann beings that simplistic to you? LOL!
Look, Scoble is both. His job is PR. (He’ll say it is being a technical evangelist, but I’ve argued this with him and I’ll stick to my definition of a person who collects garbage to be a garbase collector and not a sanitation engineer.)
As a PR person employed by Microsoft you have to take certain things at less than face value…. his PDC ’03 hype, Oragami, and my personal favorite “Live”. He’ll go to his dying grave saying he’s the same blogger as he was 4 years ago. But that’s falls under the category of PR.
But then there IS a few things… the blogger he used to be with a love for all things new… the human being who – well, like most except maybe from the sounds of things, you – questions what it’s all about when dealing with the grief of slowly losing somebody close to you. These things somehow come across as insincere to you?
Damn. What a cold-hearted way to deal with your fellow human beings.
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