Alfred Thompson, who works for Microsoft, basically says I’m not welcome at Mix: Why Scoble is irrelevant in the world of Web 2.0.

Ahh, yes, ye olde “you must be a developer to understand anything on stage at Mix” argument.

Oh, but wait a second.

I just looked at the speaker list. Andrew Rashbass is on stage. He’s Publisher of the Economist magazine. Is he a developer? Why is Microsoft putting him on stage?

Mike Arrington of TechCrunch is on stage too. I wonder if Alfred thinks Mike is irrelevant to Web 2.0? Last time I checked Mike is a former lawyer.

Last year Tim O’Reilly was on stage. I wonder if Alfred thinks Tim is irrelevant to Web 2.0? Last time I checked Tim is a book publisher and, now, a venture capitalist.

Oh, also on the Mix stage is Tom Bodkin, assistant managing editor of the New York Times.

But, Alfred Thompson is right. What I +write+ about Microsoft stuff might be irrelevant, particularly to the developer audience that Microsoft is trying to reach but he must have forgotten my day job: to search out new technologies with my video camera to report on them.

I guess I’m to blame cause I haven’t put my demographics up of my audiences but there’s lots of developers who are watching my videos.

Adobe’s Apollo team recognizes that, which is why I got a personal invite to come over and talk with the Apollo team.

In the video, embedded here, you learn what the new APIs are in Apollo (at about minute 22:00). Oh, but wait, a non-developer couldn’t have asked THAT question, could he? I followed up with at least half a dozen questions about APIs and what Apollo enables for developers. Yet Alfred thinks he wouldn’t learn ANYTHING technical from my work. Interesting.

Not to mention I’ve interviewed more than 200 people since I’ve left Microsoft — a very large percentage of whom are CEOs or CTOs working in the Web 2.0 industry. Nah, not relevant to Microsoft or its developers, right?

[podtech content=http://media1.podtech.net/media/2007/04/PID_010900/Podtech_Adobe_Apollo.flv&postURL=http://www.podtech.net/scobleshow/technology/1446/talking-about-rich-internet-applications-apollocs3-style-with-mike-downey&totalTime=2599000&breadcrumb=276d541f-3551-41a9-a4c0-ed0051d0af6c]

It’s interesting that Microsoft doesn’t see people who make media for technologists as important. I guess Alfred assumes everyone who cares will watch Channel 9 or 10. And I say “Microsoft” because this seems to be a common theme tonight of dissing journalists in public who report on Microsoft’s doings.

Oh well, either way, I’ll be out in the lobby with my video camera interviewing DEVELOPERS and bringing them to you and their opinions of Microsoft’s latest technologies.

It’s funny. Microsoft certainly seemed to like it when I did that when I worked there. But now that I’m not a blue badge anymore I’m irrelevant to the Web 2.0 world. Hmmmm.

Irony: Alfred says he hasn’t written code for 13 years. Welcome to the irrelevant Alfred! I do read his blog for the entertainment value too, I must admit! 🙂 Ahhh, maybe this is why Google is beating Microsoft in search and other things on the Internet.

Shhhhhh. I’ve learned from several companies that they are getting paid to build apps for Microsoft and I know of several people at Mix who are getting paid to come attend. I wonder if anyone will disclose what they are getting paid?

UPDATE: If I worked on Channel 10, a Microsoft-owned channel (done by the evangelism team that puts on Mix, by the way — their offices are literally right next to each other, which makes it extra funny) I’d be pissed at Alfred. After all, the two video hosts there aren’t developers and they just tried to teach us what a mashup was by interviewing a Microsoft developer. I guess they are irrelevant too. I wonder if they’ll get a free ticket to Mix?

UPDATE2: Robbie van der Blom cracked me up with his Twitter remark: “@scobleizer, wasn’t Microsoft irrelevant to web2.0???”

Ahh, just in time to start talking about Web 3.0. I’m glad I’m not going to get tagged with Web 2.0 ownership. Alfred can have THAT! 🙂

Hmmm, I haven’t gotten a pass to the now sold out Mix07 just like Fred Vogelstein, writer at Wired, finds himself wanting. But Jeff Sandquist is having a bit of fun asking the community whether or not he should get a free pass.

Speaking of which, I don’t have a pass to Mix07 either. I still am going, though. Instead of going into the conference, though, I’m just going to hang out in the hallway and do some sort of hallway cam like I did last week at the Web 2.0 conference. It’s my little protest against expensive conference passes to hear about something new Microsoft wants me to talk about anyway.

That said, if I end up getting a free pass, should I go inside? I’ll let my readers decide. Personally I think we should put a Ustream.tv camera on Mike Arrington’s head so we can all watch what it’s like to interview Ray Ozzie on stage. Would you watch that? 🙂

UPDATE: Loren Heiny doesn’t have a ticket either, but will be hanging out in the hallway. Great, we’re gonna have an unconference live hallway outside the event. It’ll be like the Oscars where the stars get interviewed before they head into the event. Heheh.

Even I have computer troubles. I was using my Mac today (17-inch MacBookPro that’s fairly new) and all of a sudden a pattern of weird boxes came on the screen, then the mouse froze, and now it won’t properly boot, same pattern remains on screen. Sigh. I hate it when my computers die. At least I now have a backup. So back to work. Who said Macs never crash? Not me.