Robert Tebbutt referred to a recent piece of mine (see Living In The Shadow Of Clogs) as being apocalyptic in tone, when I was concerned with the inherent conservatism of corporations with regard to public speech of their employees.
Tebbutt goes on to zoom in on the role that Robert Scoble has played for Microsoft, but suggests that perhaps its time for Robert to move on to other things:
[from Teblog: Corporate blogging: stifling the individual]
Robert has acquired significant personal power. A 'wrong' word now can have a serious impact on his employer or on anyone else he sets his sights on.
Such is Scoble's power just now that Microsoft would have to be extremely careful how it handles him. He is spending lots of time travelling and glad-handing and being the star of 'geek dinners' (ugh!) Perhaps this is Microsoft's way of "letting him go" - encourage the guy to build such a huge personal brand, that he will decide that "outside" is better than "inside".
Problem solved.
Scoble doesn't agree, which is little surprise even if were contemplating a new career outside of Microsoft.
Robert has become a celebrity -- no offense intended -- based on the unique and pivotal role he has had in the 'opening up' of Microsoft, to the extent that he has been able to do that. His fame and influence are not principally derived from his great writing, deep expertise in software development and design, or a unique genius in marketing, like other highly regarded tech bloggers. As a result, Robert is unlikely to use the fame he has gained to take a full-time editorial/writing gig at The New York Times, a teaching job at Columbia, or launch a new Web 2.0 start-up. He could stay on the road, flogging his new book, and capitalizing on his notoriety in that age-old American fashion: the speaking circuit. He has done a lot of that over the past years, although I believe it has largely been done gratis, subsidized by Microsoft largesse.
Robert is a bright guy, very hard working, and has enabled great things in the world of blogging. It's a shame -- from my viewpoint -- that he works for Microsoft, and that he will be typecast for decades to come, if not forever, as the 'Microsoft blogger' instead of whatever he will be doing for the next 20 years... which I can't believe will be blogging for Microsoft.
And don't forget the newest flap -- Microsoft censorship of MSN Spaces Chinese Bloggers -- where Scoble was initially outraged, and now chastened for acting like a blogger:
Working in a big company is interesting cause there are lots of moving parts. Tracking them all down is difficult, especially when you have a full day of meetings and other things to do and when the stakeholders of the decision you’re trying to find out about are on the other side of the world in a time zone opposite of ours.
Blogger time isn’t that easy to live with when you work in a big company. That’s not an excuse, but just a fact. Already there are plenty of people who took me to task for reacting like a blogger and not waiting until I had checked with all the parties. Truth is this thing was going supernova already (it was on Instapundit before I even knew about it).
I have been talking to lots of people today, though, inside and outside of Microsoft. In every instance they asked me to keep those conversations confidential. Why? Cause we’re talking about international relations here and the lives of employees. I wish I could go into it more than that, but I can’t. Not yet. See, it’s real easy as Americans to rattle the door and ask for change, but we don’t live there. Saying “give them the finger” isn’t that easy when there are real human lives at stake. And I don’t need to spell out what I’m talking about here, do I?
One thing I’ve heard is that we spell out our terms of service very explicitly on MSN Spaces. Here in the United States we pull down stuff too at government request, like child pornography or other illegal content.
Being in the content business is not an easy one, that’s for sure.
I’ll pass more along as I can.
Sounds like a corporate-speak post, to me. Yesterday, I said this episode might be the one where Robert gets crushed. It is starting to sound like something like that is happening, or at least he is getting squelched.
1. David Tebbutt on January 4, 2006 02:17 PM writes...
Perhaps, instead of 'stifling the individual', I should have called it 'stiffing the individual'.
Sorry, it's been a hard day.
Permalink to Comment2. Dennis Howlett on January 4, 2006 02:20 PM writes...
I was more than surprised to see Robert doing this - especially after what was said at Les Blogs 2.0 about the situation in China. What's more, it seemed monumentally stupid to put one side of a story out without having checked facts - now of course, we see the price.
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