Scoble, Blogosphere & Microsoft

I saw the Scoble story, which you can find here, here. His comments are very well written. Whatever opinions you may have about Robert Scoble, one thing is not in doubt. He helped change public opinion about Microsoft. Yes there are others: Ray Ozzie comes immediately to mind, but the Scobleizer was the first to break ranks. The option open to Microsoft is to make sure that they now find someone close to his nature with a relatively open personality and bring him/her on board. The truth is that while Microsoft may already have a bunch of other bloggers (3,000 or so as Scoble points out), but I rarely pay attention to, any of the blogs with .msdn in the address. As I see it, one of the key things about Scoble was that, in many ways subtle and not-so-subtle, he created an identity by maintaining a healthy distance between himself and the Microsoft “institution” and he stood out as genuine all through. In his early days of blogging, he set the pace for blogging, that includes several posts that were not directly related to Microsoft. His comments on his departure also show his lovable character. Vinnie sums up the Saturday night fever. I spotted the news when it was breaking(thanks to my blackberry).I had the whole Sunday daytime (am 12 hours ahead of EST) to write about this as things were unfolding – but alas I was put a no-blogging day restriction at home( first such sunday in last three years) –considering that I had been traveling too crazy the last few weeks. Scobeleizer - we will miss you in your current form. Hopefully you will create a new trend in your new assignment - best wishes to you.