The folks who do the work don’t get the credit

Augmented Reality 2 Minutes

I was at work last night and I noticed that lots of people are working late on some stuff you will hear about later in the day.

You don’t see these folks. People like Robert Coleridge. He’s a software design engineer. He doesn’t seek the limelight. You won’t read about him on Mini-Microsoft. He doesn’t blog. He’s never been on Channel 9. He didn’t come and ask me to talk about him. But he’s one of those guys who does stuff developers use. Yesterday I learned he developed the SOAP Toolkit and has been doing Web services and more for years.

It’s unfair that you know my name but you don’t know his. There are 60,000 inequities like that at Microsoft.

In our blog book I realized I had written out at least four people at Microsoft who made a huge contribution to Channel 9 (and actually dozens of others). Does Jen Schwartz or Robin Para, the ones who help me with my videos over at Microsoft studios get any credit? No. Does Jeff Sandquist, the guy who pushed the project forward get any credit? No. Does Charles Torre and Bryn Waibel get any credit for writing the code? No. Does Adam Kinney get any credit for helping out the past few months on the code and the design? No. Does Sanjay Parthasarathy, the guy who funded it (or Eric Rudder) get any credit? No. Does Steve Ballmer, the guy who told us to tell Microsoft’s story get any credit? No. But you know my name.

Stuff like this keeps me up at night. Why? Cause it’s important. It’s why I almost never appear on Channel 9 videos. I don’t do the work at Microsoft and I greatly value those who do.

Oh, while we’re thinking of this, Nordquist asks whether I’d be interesting if I didn’t work at Microsoft. I used to say “of course I would be.” And there’s some truth to that. I had thousands of readers before I joined Microsoft. But, it’s clear that being at Microsoft gives me access to things that I simply wouldn’t have access to before. I can go hang out with Coleridge while he builds new stuff and I get to go to sexy Web 2.0 conferences around the world like the LIFT conference in Switzerland where I’m speaking in February. So, I certainly wouldn’t be AS interesting. There is no company in the world that is doing as much geek work as Microsoft is.

Anyway, just some random stuff I’m thinking about at 3:02 a.m.

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Published by Robert Scoble

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21 thoughts on “The folks who do the work don’t get the credit”

  5. It’s why I almost never appear on Channel 9 videos.

    What? Unlike most of your blog readers I have watched lots of them. You always appear on them, or if not, your voice and big ear-bleeding belly-laugh are forefronted, so it’s still you, just off-camera. False humility as an art form. Bah. Every video on Channel 9 is about you.

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  6. It’s why I almost never appear on Channel 9 videos.

    What? Unlike most of your blog readers I have watched lots of them. You always appear on them, or if not, your voice and big ear-bleeding belly-laugh are forefronted, so it’s still you, just off-camera. False humility as an art form. Bah. Every video on Channel 9 is about you.

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  7. If you see Mr Coleridge again, thank him for putting the SOAP toolkit together. I worked on a team for about 4 years that used that thing week in, week out. So handy.

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  8. If you see Mr Coleridge again, thank him for putting the SOAP toolkit together. I worked on a team for about 4 years that used that thing week in, week out. So handy.

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  9. Christopher: hmmm, the lens is pointed away from me and toward someone else. Quick, tell me the name of a newscaster. Now, quick, tell me the name of a camera guy.

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  10. Christopher: hmmm, the lens is pointed away from me and toward someone else. Quick, tell me the name of a newscaster. Now, quick, tell me the name of a camera guy.

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  11. you’d be just as interesting – it’s just that like everybody else interesting out there you’d be scraping around for blog traffic! 😉

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  12. you’d be just as interesting – it’s just that like everybody else interesting out there you’d be scraping around for blog traffic! 😉

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  13. Robert –
    I think you just gave them credit and that was a great way to do it!
    You are most assuredly in the thick of things and I do not think it would make a huge difference if you were not working at Microsoft. You are very passionate about the internet world and that would come across in your blogging no matter where you worked.
    Dewayne Mikkelson
    blog: http://www.shadowcentral.net/
    Dewayne.Mikkelson@Gmail.Com

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  14. Robert –
    I think you just gave them credit and that was a great way to do it!
    You are most assuredly in the thick of things and I do not think it would make a huge difference if you were not working at Microsoft. You are very passionate about the internet world and that would come across in your blogging no matter where you worked.
    Dewayne Mikkelson
    blog: http://www.shadowcentral.net/
    Dewayne.Mikkelson@Gmail.Com

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  15. There’s quite a lot of us doing solid work that you use every day but we don’t seek the limelight. Perhaps we are secure well rounded people eh?

    I’ll be at mindcamp showing some stuff off like everyone else, but I don’t have a blog. I have a life and am too busy doing stuff to be writing about what I would be doing if I weren’t blogging.

    As for changing the world, we all change the world. Some of us feel the need to crow about it, some of us don’t.

    I left work early and took my kid trick or treating last night. I’m sure some geeks wrote some tasty code last night. I’ve got higher priorities.

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  16. There’s quite a lot of us doing solid work that you use every day but we don’t seek the limelight. Perhaps we are secure well rounded people eh?

    I’ll be at mindcamp showing some stuff off like everyone else, but I don’t have a blog. I have a life and am too busy doing stuff to be writing about what I would be doing if I weren’t blogging.

    As for changing the world, we all change the world. Some of us feel the need to crow about it, some of us don’t.

    I left work early and took my kid trick or treating last night. I’m sure some geeks wrote some tasty code last night. I’ve got higher priorities.

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  17. For a sec I thought you were going to show some love to all the contractors at Microsoft who certainly provide some great service and innovation – they definitely don’t see any of that limelight. Ever stop to think about those people, Scoble?

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  18. For a sec I thought you were going to show some love to all the contractors at Microsoft who certainly provide some great service and innovation – they definitely don’t see any of that limelight. Ever stop to think about those people, Scoble?

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  19. Pingback: Signal 11 » Scoble: It is about them

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