The day the music died

In all truth, Scoble's departure from Microsoft - and reality - was announced on May 8th.

For his entire reign, Robert Scoble had used his unexpected status to achieve a number of key objectives:

1. To singlehandedly create a small, but by no means insignificant, in-road into the dark and malevolent fortress of the Microsoft corporation

2. To boost his own standing as a proud leader among wannabe geeks - could anyone possibly blog as much as him without landing themselves a full-time blogging job or shunning sleep forever? (No.)

3. To get paid reasonable amounts of money to fulfill Microsoft's global PR and marketing objectives to be 'more friendly, like Apple'

4. To satisfy a niggling yearning to spend all his time surfing the web, then sharing his thoughts with a large reader base from across the planet

5. To make money.

When Scoble's 'mom' landed up in hospital, The Scobleizer didn't stop blogging. Oh no. He blogged about every minute detail of his experiences, from holding her hand by her bedside to his experiences trying to find a decent way to play MP3s at her funeral.

It was at this point, I reckon, that he decided to move on from Microsoft. As he blogged from his dying Mom's bedside, this is what ran through his mind:

"A little technology note (you know I couldn't resist) the machines that are keeping track of her vitals and helping her breathe are running Windows. Yet another demonstration of just how many machines Microsoft's software is running on."

Now, I'm not sure about you - but if that was me, I'd stop and think: "Hey! I'm sitting here, nursing my poorly mom who, if the truth be known, never find her way out of this stinkin' hospital save for a rest home with poor AV capability, and all I can think of is work."

It's no surprise that Scoble has now confirmed that he's off to join Silicon Valley startup TechnoPodcastBloggersComDotNet, or whatever they're called this week. I'm sure he's been offered an even reasonabler salary to sit and do what he has been doing for ages anyway (whatever he bloody well wants, basically), while wearing an 'I'm blogging this' t-shirt.

But I'm worried about my old pal Bob. While at Microsoft, he had a plan - to chip away at its image through his honest - sometimes far too honest - journal. At Microsoft, his honesty was his USP. What will it be now?

Tagged: scoble blogging