What Scoble Is March 14th, 2009
We all now by now, that Robert Scoble is gone from FastCompany.tv. It was without doubt that he would find a new home quickly, he is the single most influential person in social media (Kevin Rose be damned, he has less pull). What company would not want to have him associated with their brand? Well, the good new is that he will be taking checks from RackSpace, a great company that I have had the pleasure to interact with in the past. You can read about that here.
But that is not what caught my eye about the entire excursion. I tried to figure out exactly what Robert does that is so useful, and why people love to interact with him. Or, why RackSpace would snap him up so quickly. What is Scoble? Aside from being an influential blogger, what does he do that people need? What does he produce? I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Robert in person (hopefully within the next few months, I will be in the Valley, and will have lunch with him), but I have interacted with him a variety of times online, and have distilled the Scoble philosophy, if I may be so bold.
To begin with, Scoble is open. His phone number is public, his email address, etc. If you need to reach him, you can. I would however, advise against calling him unless it is important. Pseudo-prank calling someone of his stature is just bad taste. But past his openness, he is social. Not social in the classical sense, as a person that interacts with other people. Scoble is hyper-social. He connects everywhere. It seems in fact, that it is impossible to avoid him. Any social service of any weight online, is a place where Scolbe roosts.
This combination of openness, and constant discussion, is why Robert is special. Recall that he became ascendant with his posistion at Microsoft, who had noticed him as an accomplished blogger at UserLand and NEC. His career was founded on being social, and that has been its continuing fuel. As Scoble moved through other positions, PodTech to FastCompany, and now to RackSpace, he has had seemingly the same job: talk.
And this is where we find out why Scoble, is famous, and we are not. Scoble is a much better networker, writer, and social person than we are. Talk to anyone in the Valley, it seems that they have all had lunch with Robert. Everyone follows him on Twitter, on FriendFeed, etc. We all listen to him when he podcasts. Scoble is the distillation of the social trends in the internet, into a real person. A damn nice person, from what I have noticed.
Scoble is the model that we should all follow. We need to connect more, to be more open. Taking steps to this, in the “about me” section of this blog, you can find all my contact information, including my personal cell number. If Robert does it, chances are you should as well. I believe that Scoble is showing us not only how to use current technologies, but how we will use them in the future. It is time to get on board.
In my unwritten quest to become a Scoble-lite I have met more interesting people in the past six months than I would have in the coming three years if I was operating a “traditional” life. The future is written, just read Scoble’s blog.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)
March 14th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Really big idea. however social media still become useful right now