Scoble: I’m not an edge case

It got a little heated at Search Champs today when someone said “Scoble’s an edge case.” I get a little defensive about that. Why? Cause today’s edge case is tomorrow’s mainstream user. Just ask Douglas Engelbart (the guy who invented the mouse). Everyone called him an edge case in the 1970s (he was even kicked out of the research community he told me cause his ideas were too “weird”).

Thanks to Dion Hinchcliffe for recording that session and pulling out my quote in audio. Lots of people were having fun with it after the session.

  • http://mattbg.blogspot.com/ mbg

    There are probably SOME edge cases that become mainstream, but I’d bet that the vast majority remain edge cases, gradually reduce in frequency, or just disappear altogether.

  • http://mattbg.blogspot.com mbg

    There are probably SOME edge cases that become mainstream, but I’d bet that the vast majority remain edge cases, gradually reduce in frequency, or just disappear altogether.

  • http://mattbg.blogspot.com/ mbg

    #25, when you have people who try to make it so by repeatedly telling you that something is the way they say it is, you have a small window of opportunity in which things really do have to become the way you say they are. If they do, you end up looking smart. If you don’t, people catch on, you become irrelevant, and it’s difficult to regain traction in future.

  • http://mattbg.blogspot.com mbg

    #25, when you have people who try to make it so by repeatedly telling you that something is the way they say it is, you have a small window of opportunity in which things really do have to become the way you say they are. If they do, you end up looking smart. If you don’t, people catch on, you become irrelevant, and it’s difficult to regain traction in future.

  • Troller

    Fan boy.

  • Troller

    Fan boy.

  • Goebbels

    Still waiting to hear why we should listen to you, Scoble?

  • Goebbels

    Still waiting to hear why we should listen to you, Scoble?

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  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Goebbels: you shouldn’t listen to anyone. Including me. Unless you want to.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

    Goebbels: you shouldn’t listen to anyone. Including me. Unless you want to.

  • http://www.activewords.com/ Buzz Bruggeman

    We all need a lot more edge case in our lives, as compared to the boredom and mediocrity that consume most people’s lives…

  • http://www.activewords.com/ Buzz Bruggeman

    We all need a lot more edge case in our lives, as compared to the boredom and mediocrity that consume most people’s lives…

  • http://homepage.mac.com/dave_rogers/ dave rogers

    We need less disdain of “most people.”

  • http://homepage.mac.com/dave_rogers/ dave rogers

    We need less disdain of “most people.”

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  • http://www.bynkii.com/ John C. Welch

    They dropped WiMP:Mac, because it was a pile of crap, a SHAMEFUL pile of crap that the WM team just as shamefully let the MacBU take heat for.

    Amazing how Robert never got angry about that, especially since it would have been legitimate.

    Anyway, it sucked. The WM team was about as likely to make WiMP:Mac as feature complete as say QuickTime on Windows is, as they were to make their server run on Linux and provide the source code for free under a BSD license.

    So now, you’ve lost no real features, and it runs in a player that doesn’t blow chunks. It’s a win-win.

  • http://www.bynkii.com/ John C. Welch

    They dropped WiMP:Mac, because it was a pile of crap, a SHAMEFUL pile of crap that the WM team just as shamefully let the MacBU take heat for.

    Amazing how Robert never got angry about that, especially since it would have been legitimate.

    Anyway, it sucked. The WM team was about as likely to make WiMP:Mac as feature complete as say QuickTime on Windows is, as they were to make their server run on Linux and provide the source code for free under a BSD license.

    So now, you’ve lost no real features, and it runs in a player that doesn’t blow chunks. It’s a win-win.

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  • Goebbels

    If anyone can think for themselves, why are you whinging and cryingabout it?

    Someone doth protest too much.

  • Goebbels

    If anyone can think for themselves, why are you whinging and cryingabout it?

    Someone doth protest too much.

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  • http://eirepreneur.blogs.com/ James Corbett

    You *are* an edge case Robert but don’t worry, we *all* are. We just don’t realize it.

    I currently subscribe to hundreds of feeds but if things pan out they way I expect they will I’ll soon subscribe to none…. yet sample thousands.

    I expect the Feed Aggregator to go the way of the dodo, to be replaced by the Feed Grazer. Its a completely different model and it will be enabled by OPML directories and Reading Lists. When the World is an Outline we don’t have to wed ourselves to a tiny number of information flows (eg. 400) – instead we can graze everything.

    And we’ll all be edge cases :)

  • http://eirepreneur.blogs.com James Corbett

    You *are* an edge case Robert but don’t worry, we *all* are. We just don’t realize it.

    I currently subscribe to hundreds of feeds but if things pan out they way I expect they will I’ll soon subscribe to none…. yet sample thousands.

    I expect the Feed Aggregator to go the way of the dodo, to be replaced by the Feed Grazer. Its a completely different model and it will be enabled by OPML directories and Reading Lists. When the World is an Outline we don’t have to wed ourselves to a tiny number of information flows (eg. 400) – instead we can graze everything.

    And we’ll all be edge cases :)

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  • http://www.leathersaloon.com/ Linda

    I think just having a real website these days makes you an edge case.. or just blogging..
    by the way check out http://www.leathersaloon.com
    We are living on the edge of new technology every day by still utilizing the computer. Let’s keep it going for the future generations. We will all be looked at as “pioneers of blog” someday.

  • http://www.leathersaloon.com Linda

    I think just having a real website these days makes you an edge case.. or just blogging..
    by the way check out http://www.leathersaloon.com
    We are living on the edge of new technology every day by still utilizing the computer. Let’s keep it going for the future generations. We will all be looked at as “pioneers of blog” someday.

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    Anyway, I love reading about this!

  • http://www.juegoszaping.com/ juegos

    Chris: I totally disagree that Microsoft markets to edge’ers. What exactly have we done in the past four years for edge cases (while they were still edge cases)?

  • http://www.juegoszaping.com/ juegos

    Chris: I totally disagree that Microsoft markets to edge’ers. What exactly have we done in the past four years for edge cases (while they were still edge cases)?

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