Robert Scoble, the Crown Prince of Bloggers over at Microsoft, is leaving Microsoft to join PodTech.net. The news that Scoble is leaving Microsoft – which wasn’t even supposed to be news yet – leaked out sometime between last night and this morning. In fact, Scoble himself said of the leak, about 11 hours ago, “I just made this decision and it got out before I was completely ready to talk about it.”
Reactions to the news that of Scoble’s departure have ranged from “so what?” to “ohmygawd, it’s the end of the world as we know it!”
So the big question is – is this big news? And if so, why is it big news?
Well, Scoble is clearly the most visible of all of the bloggers at Microsoft, itself one of the most visible of companies. But as Scoble himself points out, he was but one of 3,000 bloggers at Microsoft.
Still, he was considered by many to be the people’s voice of Microsoft.
Some, such as Mathew Ingram and Vinnie Mirchandani, suggest that perhaps Microsoft didn’t treat Scoble well enough – didn’t do enough to try to keep him from leaving. To that Scoble scoffs, “How do you know that the company didn’t move heaven and hell to keep me happy? They did. I have the best job in the tech world. Bar none.”
So the question is, what is the big news? Why is this big news? Or, put another way, is there any there there?
In other words, what’s the big scoop?
Well, according the Scoble, the big scoop is this: He’s really excited by the opportunity to work in the video blogging industry. He says, after meeting Cali Lewis, one of the video bloggers working with Adam Curry at podshow, “Cali is showing us all that you can get a low-cost video camera, make an interesting show in your nights and weekends, and within six months get such a large audience that you are quitting your day job.”
What he found to be most of note in this exchange with Cali was the big smile on her face as she was talking about it.
Concluded Scoble, “But I had the same smile on my face when I told Cali I just quit my day job too to work in this new media industry.”
Now, Robert and I run in some of the same circles, and some of the same mailing lists, and so I understand that, and all I have to say to that is, “Good on ya, Robert! We wish you the best!”
