More on Microsoft and not going to PDC

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Frank Shaw answers back. He’s the head of Microsoft’s account at Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft’s main PR firm (and has been for years). Frank’s one of the smartest guys in the PR business, so it’s good for him to step in here. He basically has a finger lashing for everyone involved in yesterday’s incident, including me. I just saw his post in Google Reader, and added this note to it when I put it on my shared items blog:

Frank runs PR for Microsoft for Waggener Edstrom. He takes me to task. Fair enough. I over reacted a bit, mostly because employees were saying that what they said on blogs and on Twitter doesn’t reflect back on their companies, even if they try to disclaim that it’s their opinions. Sorry, that’s just not true. I didn’t make that point well, though, and over reacted. I’m still not going to PDC, it just isn’t high enough value for me. Same reason I’m not going to Apple’s PR thing in the morning. Engadget will beat me all over the place and I don’t have a team to tackle the event. At conferences I rarely get video that fits FastCompany.tv’s style — this year I’ve been to dozens of conferences. How many have you seen video from? Very few.”

To other Microsoft employees, I apologize. Glad to see that Frank addressed this in public.

My feelings got stirred up quite a bit by being on Gillmor Gang and hearing the other participants in the call saying they thought it affected their perception of Microsoft in a negative way, so I figured I’d make a point to get a discussion going. It did that, for sure, and for doing that I’ve done myself some harm. I’ll lick my wounds and come back at it tomorrow.

Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

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38 thoughts on “More on Microsoft and not going to PDC”

  1. One thing I like about you Robert is that even though you sometimes shoot from the hip with strong opinions, you’re equally quick to take accountability for your part. Well done, Mr. Scobleizer, even Hugh Grant can’t confess and apologize as well as you. 😉 My sincere apologies for calling you a prima donna.

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  2. One thing I like about you Robert is that even though you sometimes shoot from the hip with strong opinions, you’re equally quick to take accountability for your part. Well done, Mr. Scobleizer, even Hugh Grant can’t confess and apologize as well as you. 😉 My sincere apologies for calling you a prima donna.

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  11. Dare, it may not be a virtue but it sure is nicer than the kind of vindictive go-for-the-kill I’ll-hate-you-forever attitude of Michael Arrington. FWIW, I posted a comment on the TechCrunch blog last night that said:

    “Michael, for a guy who makes his living writing opinions about others you sure have a thin skin when the roles are reversed.”

    Sure enough, half an hour later the comment was deleted.

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  12. Dare, it may not be a virtue but it sure is nicer than the kind of vindictive go-for-the-kill I’ll-hate-you-forever attitude of Michael Arrington. FWIW, I posted a comment on the TechCrunch blog last night that said:

    “Michael, for a guy who makes his living writing opinions about others you sure have a thin skin when the roles are reversed.”

    Sure enough, half an hour later the comment was deleted.

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  18. Arrington has an agenda against google and yahoo, everybody knows that.

    He has no credibility at all.

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  19. Robert,
    I have less and less time on my hands over the past couple of years.

    With that said I’ve been cutting down the number of RSS feeds I read regularly. And sadly, you are now on the bubble. When you were at Microsoft it seemed that your blog was focused, engaging and a bit entertaining.

    But for me, over the past couple of years you’ve become boring and distracting. Your blog posts point to videos, twitters and friend feeds that I honestly don’t have time for. What I have time for is engaging and informative information from you.

    And then you have these drama things that, althought interesting on a personal level, they don’t really add value to my professional life.

    And many years ago you wrote how to have a great blog is in part sticking to your niche — drama isn’t your niche.

    The only thing that keeps me subscribed right now is the fact that you still might find something that educates me about IT. But if things continue on their current path, I’m not sure how long I’ll stick around.

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  20. Robert,
    I have less and less time on my hands over the past couple of years.

    With that said I’ve been cutting down the number of RSS feeds I read regularly. And sadly, you are now on the bubble. When you were at Microsoft it seemed that your blog was focused, engaging and a bit entertaining.

    But for me, over the past couple of years you’ve become boring and distracting. Your blog posts point to videos, twitters and friend feeds that I honestly don’t have time for. What I have time for is engaging and informative information from you.

    And then you have these drama things that, althought interesting on a personal level, they don’t really add value to my professional life.

    And many years ago you wrote how to have a great blog is in part sticking to your niche — drama isn’t your niche.

    The only thing that keeps me subscribed right now is the fact that you still might find something that educates me about IT. But if things continue on their current path, I’m not sure how long I’ll stick around.

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  23. I wonder why Dare would still keep going with this.
    Bringing up something that happened 2 years ago? Is there so much free time at microsoft?

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  24. I wonder why Dare would still keep going with this.
    Bringing up something that happened 2 years ago? Is there so much free time at microsoft?

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  25. Dude, there is no way I have time to watch videos of CEOs being interviewed. And since it’s not a good way of reporting on conferences…why are you still doing it?

    Text dominates video in almost all circumstances (cue Robert coming back with a bunch of niche cases where video is better).

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  26. Dude, there is no way I have time to watch videos of CEOs being interviewed. And since it’s not a good way of reporting on conferences…why are you still doing it?

    Text dominates video in almost all circumstances (cue Robert coming back with a bunch of niche cases where video is better).

    Like

  27. Dude: I could write 10,000 words about the new Apple laptops that were released today or I could shoot one minute of video and show them to you. Which is a more effective use of both or our times?

    Herschel: I’ll work on that. You really should watch my “Like” feed at FriendFeed, though. I hand select the best of the tech industry stuff there for you. That’s at http://friendfeed.com/scobleizer/likes and you’ll find very little noise there.

    I’ve switched quite a bit of my time to FriendFeed because that’s where a lot of the best bloggers aggregate their information to, which doesn’t just include blogs.

    Videos are how I get into companies to learn new stuff or have conversations with interesting people. I link to them because I think you can learn a lot from them.

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  28. Dude: I could write 10,000 words about the new Apple laptops that were released today or I could shoot one minute of video and show them to you. Which is a more effective use of both or our times?

    Herschel: I’ll work on that. You really should watch my “Like” feed at FriendFeed, though. I hand select the best of the tech industry stuff there for you. That’s at http://friendfeed.com/scobleizer/likes and you’ll find very little noise there.

    I’ve switched quite a bit of my time to FriendFeed because that’s where a lot of the best bloggers aggregate their information to, which doesn’t just include blogs.

    Videos are how I get into companies to learn new stuff or have conversations with interesting people. I link to them because I think you can learn a lot from them.

    Like

  31. Good for you Robert.

    I think one problem is that when you are among the Gillmore gang, you will always find someone to say their respect for Microsoft is diminished, since some of them seem to be always looking for that. It would be good to step out of that echo chamber to calibrate what you see happening.

    OK, I’ll cool it too! Stay well, dude. Enjoy the home cooking.

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  32. Good for you Robert.

    I think one problem is that when you are among the Gillmore gang, you will always find someone to say their respect for Microsoft is diminished, since some of them seem to be always looking for that. It would be good to step out of that echo chamber to calibrate what you see happening.

    OK, I’ll cool it too! Stay well, dude. Enjoy the home cooking.

    Like

  35. I am wondering why you are “licking your wounds”? Shouldn’t you be cleaning your shues? Stepping in dog sh*t usually requires cleaning.

    I find it surprising that you find you need to lick your wounds… I think someone remarked before that people of your type handle it badly when they are scrutinized for comments made. I guess that someone is right.

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  36. I am wondering why you are “licking your wounds”? Shouldn’t you be cleaning your shues? Stepping in dog sh*t usually requires cleaning.

    I find it surprising that you find you need to lick your wounds… I think someone remarked before that people of your type handle it badly when they are scrutinized for comments made. I guess that someone is right.

    Like

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