A-list Blogger Robert Scoble of Scobleizer Interviewed

On June 10, 2006, the day that Microsoft's celebrity blogger and "technical evangelist" Robert Scoble announced he was leaving Bill Gates' flagship to join John Furrier's podcasting startup as Vice President of Media Development, the cyberworld went nuts.

That controversial day, according to Alexaholic, saw the web traffic at Scoble's new video employer Podtech.net peak at 15 million pageviews. But Robert Scoble's popular blog, called Scobleizer (at http://scobleizer.com/), beat even Podtech's enormous buzz.

Clocking in at close to 23 million pageviews, Robert Scoble's blog - which he began writing in 2000 and came to prominence with during his tenure at Microsoft - exploded with hits from cyber-seekers wondering if any kind of rift between Gates (or other top execs at Microsoft) and Scoble over his truthful postings contributed to Scoble's departure.

Bye-bye to Honest Blogging?
"First, I love Microsoft and Microsoft did not lose me - at least as a supporter and friend," Robert Scoble declared on his blog, deflecting reports that Scoble was fed up over having "his expenses challenged or…sharing an office…[or] that Microsoft challenged his views too often."

Scoble had grown to fame in the blogosphere because he wasn't afraid to write honestly - sometimes glowingly, sometimes derisively - about Microsoft products. Scoble's willingness to champion Microsoft when they produced greatness, or give kudos to their competitors when Microsoft failed, earned Scoble a credibility that a plethora of his faithful readers appreciate to this day.

The Resignation Heard 'Round the World
Publications pounced as soon as the news of Scoble's quitting Microsoft broke. Not only was the story covered by the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and other top-notch news services, it was the top tech item on the BBC's website.

PC Magazine even pitted Scoble against Gates in a piece called "Executive Roulette: Gates vs. Scoble Smackdown" that prompted Scoble to quip to its author:

(Um, Jim, can you tell me what kind of Merlot you were drinking when writing this? I'd love some of that! Heheh.)

Robert Scoble's departure beat out news of the World Cup, and landed at the top of Technorati's most-searched for news events. Folks were greedy to know why Scoble would defect to the Menlo Park, Calif.-based Podtech, a media company dedicated to podcasting and delivering Fresh Voices(TM) for the iPod generation.

Podtech.net - who now employs both Scoble and his wife Maryam Ghaemmaghami - had already announced a $5.5 million funding round back in March. They are one of the growing companies focused on the hot and happening world of video content creation, the same technical milieu that has apparently become Scoble's focus.

"Another reason I'm getting into video business," Scoble blogged on June 23, 2006, soon after the big announcement. "Google is testing advertising for video where they'll share the advertising revenues with content producers. Bing!"

Born of a Motherboard
Robert Scoble's latest career move was another fascinating upgrade for the man who was born on January 18, 1965, in New Jersey, but was reared only a mile or so away from Apple Computer's headquarters in Silicon Valley, where his mother worked to build Apple IIs.

With the apple not falling far from the tree, Robert learned how to solder a motherboard together at the tender age of 11, and aided his mom in building several hundred Apple IIs.

Years later, after being told "that blogging was hot," Scoble joined UserLand Software, a content management and blogging software startup, then NEC Mobile Solutions, and finally accepted a job at Microsoft in May 2003.

Scoble promoted Microsoft products like Tablet PCs and Windows Vista, but also gave negative reviews to his own employer's other products while simultaneously admitting when its competitors (like Apple Computer and Google) did better, solidifying an unheralded trust between Scoble and his blog readers.

"Mr. Scoble has become the best-known example of a corporate blogger," read a piece called "Blogging Off" in The Economist, a publication about which Scoble himself blogged:

"If there was one thing that put me on the corporate blogging map, it was being in the Economist. That magazine is more influential with executives than even the New York Times."

Robert Scoble e-chats with Associated Content
Associated Content was as pleased as a paid podcaster when the man notable enough to have his own Wikipedia page answered a few e-mail interview questions about blog-traffic tips and the latest techno-happenings:

On Microsoft's Zune vs. the Apple iPod
On November 14, the much-anticipated music player Zune from Microsoft is slated for release, going to head-to-head for the market share now enjoyed by Apple's iPod. Those in the know understand that a good word from Scoble and his partner-in-testing teenage son from a previous marriage, Patrick, could make or break a product.

About the Zune vs. iPod flap we asked Scoble straight out, "Is it really cooler to have a Zune?"

"Nope, a Zune isn't cooler than an iPod…yet," Scoble told us regarding the same Zune he all but skewered previously "for not having a podcast client…microphone…[nor] a way to subscribe to Rocketboom or ZeFrank or any other videoblog."

Inherent in Scoble's "yet" are the big questions that remain to be seen: Will Microsoft's ease in upgrading its Zune players knock iPods out the box? Or will kids keep their cool white iPod headphones while Zune plummets? No doubt, Scoble will be watching and blogging.

The "Stunning" Cisco Telepresence Experience
An extremely real type of virtual reality is upon us, and Scoble was one of the few to experience it firsthand at a recent meeting featuring Cisco's telepresence technology, which simulates the act of actually being there.

"This stuff is a HUGE step ahead of where we were even a couple of years ago," Scoble blogged.

"Were you beside yourself with joy?" Associated Content asked Scoble about the mind-blowing event, where proponents bragged that two Scobles could appear side-by-side on the plasma screens.

"Yeah, the Cisco thing was awesome," Scoble told us, but admitted that with a retail price of $80,000 for one screen and $300,000 for three screens, the real-life technology is, as Scoble confessed: "Way out of my price reach, though."

Ways to Drive Traffic Numbers Thru the Roof
With an expert on user-generated content in our midst, Associated Content couldn't let Robert Scoble go without finding out his thoughts about the future of USG.

"I have based my whole career around that so you know what I think," Scoble told us about his choice to stake his life's work on the belief that content providers are the Bill Gates of the future.

"User generated content…" Scoble blogged, "…it's key to how to build a very profitable and sticky business."

"And how do providers of editorial, audio and video content compete with the Dooce and Huffington top bloggers out there?" Associated Content asked Scoble.

"There's a whole book on that!" Scoble, the author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, chided us.

Then Scoble pointed us to a very helpful summary of the "10 Ways to a Killer Blog" lecture he recently gave, posted (where else?) but on his awesome, honest and killer blog - the Scobleizer.