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Exit Interview with Scoble
capt turnpike writes "It's no secret that Windows technology evangelist Robert Scoble (of Scobelizer blogging fame) is leaving Microsoft for a startup, but Microsoft Watch's Mary Jo Foley has the first exit interview with Scoble. Topics range from what Microsoft could have done to keep him spreading the word and building out MS's Channel 9 community site, where he sees MS going and more. From the article: 'There were times when I knew I was taking risks. I didn't know what would happen when I told Steve Ballmer that his leadership on the gay rights bill wasn't good.'"
Don't you just love how "startup" is becoming the next "cool" thing to do in the business world. Because if you have a startup that has a MILDLY interesting product, thats become better than years of hard work at a corporation on a resume. This is another example of a rich guy with nothing better to do than expirement.
It's interesting because it's the only specific case he mentions in the intervew where he actually told the MS leadership that he thought that they were wrong.
FTA:
Another surprise? That every bad decision that I thought was bad had a logical explanation behind it. I didn't always agree with the decisions but there was always a decent thought process behind every decision and, most of the time, after hearing the circumstances behind a decision I usually came to the same conclusion that they did. It's not easy building software that hundreds of millions of people use.
Someone put too much XAML in his Cool-Aid...
He was a sort of newspaper ombudsman as well as their connection to the blogosphere. Someone who could take heat from the public without stonewalling it, who could act as a cheerleader for company products without coming across as too much of a shill. He built credibility by praising competitor's hit products early and often. Likeable enough to get lots of people inside and outside the company to talk. Interesting enough that readers came back the next day. Ambitious, but not so high and mighty that he would leave in a huff.
They must have figured out early on that he was only going to stay with them 2-3 years, and are relieved that he didn't move on to Google. I wonder if they'll replace him with another high profile type, or opt for the safer blog-by-committee.
I can say this because I work for PodTech.net. We're all incredibly excited to have him on board. I had been following him long before I started working at PodTech.net and consider myself a fan. I gotta say that it's been rather funny hearing all of the speculation regarding what we're about. I can't speak for why he left Microsoft, but I can only imagine that just as I left one great company that I still have high regard for, there were many reasons for *joining PodTech* for him as well.
These are incredible times and not just for PodTech.net, and not just for podcasting or the whole Web 2.0 thing, but how the world is changing right here, right now. This wave is much bigger than what happened in the 90s.
Heh. He already had a chair thrown in his honor -- photo (That's the IE team lead Dean Hachamovitch doing the honors).
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