October 19, 2005

Scoble vs. Mini-Microsoft: My Take

Lately, a lot of people in the blogosphere have been having some major discussions trying to decide who better represents Microsoft, Robert Scoble or Mini-Microsoft. I think that's the wrong question to ask. Personally, I believe that the true question to ask is which aspects of Microsoft are represented by these two individuals.

I believe that Robert Scoble represents Microsoft's inner child. He bounces between energetically secretive ("Ooooh, I know something you don't know...") and the class show-off ("Look at what we did!") to transparently envious ("They have something better than us...") to downright lazy ("This linkblog is too much work, so I'm just not going to do it anymore.")

I believe that Mini-Microsoft represents Microsoft's consceience ala Jiminy Cricket. He sees that Microsoft has made mistakes over the last thirty years, and he is trying to call out some methods for redeeming those mistakes. He also gets frustrated by what seems like dry-rot in the area that would become Microsoft's heart should it ever turn into a "real boy."

I may be right, I may be wrong, but I believe that both have their strong points. Microsoft ignores either one at its own peril.

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