Tom,

Interesting scoop. If you're right, this is a blow for not only Microsoft, but I fear the push for enterprise blogging initiatives everywhere. Without voices at big firms like Scoble blogging, it's far too easy for companies to button up their internal critics.

Jason

I just got a phone call about this too. Crazy stuff, huh?

Is it PodTech.net? Scoble is a great brand and will be better unleashed.

Regarding: "It is interesting that Microsoft did not move heaven and hell to keep him at the company given the many millions of dollars of positive publicity that the company has reaped from his efforts."

From a strictly economic viewpoint (no offense meant if you're reading this, RS), why should they do that? That is, if his fame comes from being the corporate blogsman, there's going to be a whole line of PR flacks who will be happy to do it too. Your prior material indicates that Microsoft doesn't seem to think blog PR is worth all that much. So they probably think they can get someone else to do it for the same low cost.

Scoble's almost certainly doing the right thing for himself too. His value for a blog company is undoubtedly greater for his fame than it is for Microsoft. That is, it would be much harder for a blog company to find someone as famous as him in that little community, than it would be for Microsoft to find another PR face.

Tom, if this is true, then it's big news for business bloggers. I'll keep my eye on this story. Robert Scoble is a superstar blogger and for him to leave Microsoft sends a message to other companies that their bloggers are not permanently affixed to them at the hip.

Jeremy: Any plans outside of Yahoo! :-)

Seth:Finding another PR face to blog doesn't neccesarily mean they can emulate Robert Scoble. It takes time to build a media brand and the noise level is increasing.

Jason: It's not a blow to enterprise blogging it means that companies that have prominent bloggers have an assett that they need to pay attention to.

Easton: RS was like an 800lb gorilla at MSFT, he could do what he wanted because he is such a public figure and commands a lot of attention. And yes, I think this raises the market value of leading bloggers. Edelman acquired Steve Rubel and Phil Gomes. We will see more competiton for the top bloggers IMHO.

Seth, Scoble was well known in the tech blog space before joining Microsoft, which is, no doubt, one of the reasons they hired him. That some people may think of him as the blog face of Microsoft is due to the fact that the profile of blogging has grown dramatically since Scoble started there and reached an audience who did not know of him "when."

I bet Seth's wrong, and both Scoble and MS will lose out by this.

At least Scoble will be happier. But what the hell were MS thinking of?

I just don't see Scoble working any magic at Podtech.net. It's a media 2.0 company. He's a popular blogger. So what?

Scoble at Microsoft had a certain chemistry. He was in the right place with the right (ie. wrong) attitude. There was frisson. Trusting Scoble to do his thing reflected well on Microsoft. Microsoft's perceived dinosaur status was the foil against which Scoble shone.

I don't know anything about Podtech, but they probably have perfectly good understanding of the whole media 2.0 thing. What does Scoble's attitude bring them? Sure he has some good contacts and a big audience. But he's going to end up A.N.Other journalist in a journalistic organization.

I don't doubt that Robert had do extra ordinary things to get his blogging profile built up at Microsoft, but that was done because he was a pioneering blogger. I don't think Microsoft did anything to Robert that they did not do to anyone at Microsoft. I think he did what he needed to do to break through that wall and build the public profile that would allow him to do and say the things he has to create positive change.

I think you are way off the mark with many things about Robert. I don't think Robert gave the Microsoft the chance to move heaven and hell to keep him. I think he made a decision and is moving on to other opportunities. I also think it will be positive for Robert and Microsoft.

Rob Greenlee
http://www.webtalkradio.com
http://www.mobilcast.com
http://www.melodeo.com

I actually think Scoble's move might help promote enterprise blogging. I think this may be a wake up call to corporations on the value of having some humanity in front of the community. Whatever happens, best of luck to Scoble!

Good for him. Great for podtech.net. Definitely a loss for Microsoft. We will be happy to have him in the Valley. He is a cool dude and was working really hard even in his Fawcette days.

so Tom -

in hindsight, any commentary on the original post you made, and Scoble's rebuttal of several of the items in it?

given that he subsequently disagreed with seven or eight points of your story, i'm wondering if you even bothered to contact Scoble (or others) to check on any of the items / sources you used in the post.

seriously, i can't seem to come up with any other conclusions than either a) your sources were WAY off and you didn't do your homework, or b) you intentionally made some of that stuff up to make for a juicier story.

i'd like to believe it's the former rather than the latter. what's your story?

How long before Microsoft buy Podtech and scoop up Scoble again!

Who is the next one? Jeremy Zawodny or Matt Cutts? :)

Tom,

I have to say that a lot of your piece seems to be built on assumptions rather than facts. I've been scouring the net to find factual evidence to back them up, but to no avail.

In fact, I found many posts where Scoble mentioned that he chose to pay for hotel rooms, conference attendence, specifically when there was no limit put on him by Microsoft.

If I were writing a book dealing with blogging and technology, apart from my employer, I'm pretty sure I would have made the same choices.

Good news break, but bad editorial (because that's what it clearly is) in my opinion.

John: I stand by my editorial. Robert did not pay for all his rooms, I know for a fact that he sometimes shared rooms, once with Jeremy Popper. And he says so himself if you read his blog. And his disatisfaction with his salary is well known within the community, he even made a reference just yesterday about his salary being not much more than Rocketboom's weekly take ($85K). Also, he told me himself at last year's Syndicate conference that he just gets up and goes to conferences, that they tried to control him with a travel budget but he just goes anyway. Robert is trying to make sure he has a nice friendly break with MSFT and that is fine but I stand by my story 100 per cent.

Just to correct you, Podtech is "A podcast Network", Cameron Reilly runs "The Podcast Network".

Hope this helps,
Molly

Tom,

Fair enough. Just to clarify, in my original comment, I meant that Robert had paid for his hotel rooms himself (not MS). Yes, I read that he stayed in friends rooms too. I guess the point was that there could be valid reasons for not having your employer foot the bill especially if it crossed over to some of your personal business interests.

In any event, and conceding that there may have been disagreements with Microsoft management, I take Robert at his word that his involvement with the company had more pros than cons.

PS: I don't work for Microsoft. Just my take.

I never had a travel budget. Not sure when I told you that, I don't remember saying that at all.

But, yes, it was more and more clear that my value was higher than Microsoft was willing to pay. But, that was #3 on my list of priorities. I've been offered more money before and turned it down. Why? Cause at the end of the day if you have a job you love it's worth a lot more than an extra few bucks. And I do love what I'm doing at Microsoft.

It was past due for Scoble to leave, really. I could not believe someone telling crap about his own company's CEO and about the company itself and being able to survive that long. His posts aren't that brilliant anyway. More like cheap gossip ala Jerry Springer of the tech underworld.

lol at ricardito... do you ever go outside and smell the ashes? hehe, I bet you do, while the person standing next to you is smelling the bed of roses that is growing up out of the ashes.

Your view is so distorted and pessimistic that I am wondering why you even commented. Get a life, dude.

Last man to leave Microsoft please turn off the light