After one more open letter to Bill Gates, this time about creating a Microsoft music player, Robert Scoble is accused of insulting his coworkers.
If I understand it correctly the accuser, Ed Kaim, is a former MS employee that still have strong bonds to MS. He’s for example on MS’ own list of Microsoft bloggers.
I didn’t find Scoble’s post insulting to his coworkers, but Kaim obviously did. And it’s reasonable to think that he’s more or less writing on behalf of at least some of those people.
I don’t pretend to have the answers, but there’s many questions to be asked in this:
- Blogging is about transparency, many of us say (and mean it). But does anyone, including the readers, benefit from reading internal corporate “bashes” if that’s what this is? Is it that kind of transparency we’re talking about?
- A blogger like Scoble earns a lot of credibility by being very open. Does a discussion like this increase that credibility? Or does it decrease it when we realize that he’s not talking for MS as a whole? He’s never claimed to, but in order for him to affect our general image of MS we must believe that people there are a lot like him. Otherwise he’s just an individual with no bearing on MS.
- Blogging is a social tool, but at what point do we as bloggers rely too much on our blog? Is there a risk we’ll start writing a post instead of starting a face-to-face discussion with our coworkers, clients etc?
Fredrik Wacka is the author and founder of the popular CorporateBlogging.Info blog which is a guide to business and corporate blogging.
Visit Fredrik Wacka’s blog: CorporateBlogging.Info.
