Sometimes I step in it (and did over at MiniMicrosoft)

by on July 7, 2006

Hey, I’m human. Sometimes I step in it. Bigtime. Over at Mini-Microsoft I let my emotion run wild (which turned into a blog post about anonymity and me and, even, a “be Robert Scoble day.”)

That kind of emotionality is something that I was holding back while I worked at Microsoft.

So, why did I go on an anti-anonymity tirade? Pent up anger from being attacked over three years? Maybe. Emotional relaxation? Possibly. After all, I no longer need to worry about what 60,000 people think about me.

That might have all played into it, but what really got me going was an anonymous coward attacked someone I worked closely with: Steve Cellini. Now, Steve and I aren’t close friends. But one thing that you can’t attack Steve on is his work ethic or his work quality (two things the coward attacked him on). That set me off. It made me emotionally lurch out at all anonymous posters. I watched how Steve managed the PDC, which had hundreds of speakers, thousands of attendees, millions of dollars in budget, and I worked closely with him on that and other projects and he always was a guy I respected and who got things done with a minimum of budget. Anyway, that set me off.

I was a jerk. And, I’m sorry. I broke rule #13.

Ken Camp and a few others say I’m interesting again. When I spoke to audiences I often told people communicators have a knob that they can turn. On one side is “safe.” On the other is “interesting.”

Hopefully I’ll figure out soon where the right place is to put that knob.

As to Mini, now that I’ve calmed down a bit, there is value in having anonymity, but there’s a lot of crap that comes along with it too. If my little tirade gets people to focus on the crap a little more than the good aspects (enjoy those new Starbucks machines and the towels in the bathrooms!) then maybe my being a jerk will have helped the world.

Frank Shaw, vice president at Waggener Edstrom, hates anonymous posts too. They sure can get under your skin sometimes.

One thing, I’m not participating in Mini Microsoft’s comment area anymore. I figure fighting with anonymous cowards who’ll attack good and upstanding people just ain’t worth it anymore — if that’s the leadership that’ll get Microsoft into being a more customer-centric organization I wish them all the luck.

But, I guess everyone will post over there now using my name. That’s fun, but it ain’t me.

  • I'm still not sure why ou're a celebrity, but this is the first time I've ever actually red a blog entry :) Who knows, perhaps a scoble-loving, blog-reading, click-clacking fire has been ignited in my bossom, and now I will feel the wrath of Scoble's addictive personality and blogging habbits...will I be an addict this time next week? :)

    Take it easy man, and enjoy the new office view!
  • Celebrity is a relative thing. I'm not Paris Hilton.

    How did I get to be known online, though? The word-of-mouth network is very efficient and getting more efficient every day. Well, that, and I married Maryam. She's the real celebrity in our house.

    I've had the opportunity to meet and write about some interesting people along the way, though.
  • Robert, it happens to the best of us and it merely shows you're human too (which is a good thing :)). I, for one, was glad to see you and others come to the defense of Steve Cellini. I only met him shortly in my recent interviews at Microsoft (he was the last interviewer of the day), and my impression of him was the exact way you described him. I, for one, look forward to working on a team under him come a week and a half from now.

    So, keep it on up!
  • Anonymous coward
    Anonymous posts are the only safe way to comment on topics relating to Microsoft. I'm ex-Microsoft and the company I now work for is a Microsoft partner; my continuing relationships with Microsoft employees, and our company's business relationship with Microsoft are key to our company's success. Anything critical I post could result in retribution against me and my company. Don't think it will happen? I saw it happen, many times, while I was at Microsoft.

    Since Mini blogged about Vic leaving, I've desperately wanted to add my two cents, but haven't come up with a safe way to do it; so the things I know (fact) and think (opinion) about that situation remain only in my head where no one else can benefit from it. Ah well.
  • Employees of Huge, hi profile corporations are in a sense lucky....the companies may FINALLY act out of fear of embarrassment, and the matter snowballing into mainstream media coverage....which means a permanent blemish in today's digital achived society


    Just imagine what employees of small(who cares) companies have to go through...there are absolutely no resources for them - other than some uncaring government agency.

    But reading some of the comments in Mimi's blog - it is a sad state of affairs that BEFORE BLOGS many of these injustices would never have been resolved. :( :-(

    Blog technology actually opened a new avenue for resolving grievances that years ago would have just been politics as usual
  • rick gregory
    "Anything critical I post could result in retribution against me and my company. "

    I understand your point and will grant if it you're making comments about MSFT in general or one of the business units, but when criticizing someone specific this is hypocritical.

    If you're willing to do damage to someone, have the guts to do it with your ass exposed too. If you're not willing to do that, then don't try to take down specific people. Sniping at people publicly from an anonymous place isn't courageous 'telling truth to power'. It's cowardly.
  • Sarah
    meh, people who want to contribute to conversations in a meaningful, constructive, or positive way, will do so, anonymously or not.

    As for the rest, I don't care if they are anonymous or not. They are just background noise.
  • Preston
    If you're critical of your leadership, and you can think of no other way to get it across to the rest of the company and to shareholders to initiate change, then anonymity is a necessity. This has been part of Mini's purpose since the beginning.
  • Preston: yeah, I understand that. But along with the good aspects of being anonymous come the negative ones, which -- in general -- outweigh the positive changes. Which is why I've changed course on Mini.

    I also see that the ThinkWeek process is now open to all employees (both to submit, and to comment).

    Microsoft should open an anonymous forum inside the company so people can vent without recriminations possible.

    It's funny, though. I've found in life that you get a lot more change done when you sign your name to things. But there are definitely risks involved there too -- you should watch my exit interview over on Channel 9 for more on this.
  • Mike
    I'm not sure why you every worried about what anyone at Microsoft thought about you. That's not exactly something a Microsoft employee worries about. Not anyone I have ever met at least and I work there.
  • Mike: maybe I didn't say that properly. When you are a public face of an organization you BETTER think about what that organization thinks of you. You also BETTER realize you have a responsibility to represent them professionally.

    It's why a certain executive got fired recently. Maybe he SHOULD have thought about what his coworkers (and management) would think of his behavior?
  • sometimes people post anonymously simply because they don't want to be flamed - an internet tradition of sorts - for having a contrary to popular view, but they wish to make a statement.

    also i assume most people who put a name are actually anonymous and having not web site to link to for varification or contact - so i wonder how i allocate anonymity to any non-website non-blogger? ha.

    there will always be people who disagree with our views no matter what they may be. anonymous posting is a part of life - and its partly because we're likely to attack in our own pseudo anonimity so we need to accept some responsibility for that one I guess.

    anyway it was an interesting thought i had in passing - who is anonymous other than the signer anonymous. Patsy or Ben or John could be anonymous.

    sorry for the side rant lol...
  • John G
    I also see that the ThinkWeek process is now open to all employees (both to submit, and to comment).

    Submission was always open to all employees, except that you had to submit to a designated contact for your division. Though now you dont have to go through anyone, which is good.
  • Robert:

    Your writing is definitely more "free" when compared to the last six months or so.  I've found that stress and external pressures kill my creativity when writing.  I've thought of several things that I want to share but never make it to the 'blog.  What about you?  Care to give us a peek at "things you wanted to write but couldn't" ?

    Steve
  • Steve, there are lots of things, mostly about cool little companies that I just haven't had time to get to.
  • Bob
    Robert, I worked for Microsoft for 5 years (lifetime 4.0). Towards the end, I began providing feedback on a number of external and internal concerns that I saw as limiting the company's success - many of which are now obvious to all. In retrospect, most of that was was less harsh than what you'd see routinely on Dare's blog today. It nevertheless got me asked to leave the company. I don't regret my decision and would do it again, but the cost was high. And while things seem to have changed for the better subsequently (i.e. Dare can blog fairly openly), MSFT is still a very political organization. So I can understand why others choose to provide their feedback anonymously. Does that create a potential for abuse? Sure, but if that's the trade-off for silence, then maybe anonymity is the lesser evil.
  • sig
    Robert, I smell trolls I think. And trolls comes in all forms and they always stay in the dark...

    Being Norwegian I know some secrets about trolls (you know of course that trolls came from Norway) - a secret that every kid up there knows; they burst when daylight hit's them! :D
  • I can understand why some people would want to post anonimously.

    Personally, I don't; I take responsibility for what I say - choose to stand up and be counted and with it have to take accountability for my actions.

    This isn't always easy. I suppose in some places this isn't always a possibility. A great example is China - Scooble - I've called you personally on this one.
    Certainly, if you have a Yahoo account failing to speak with the upmost of secrecy may have you imprisoned for years....You've addressed this before and I commend you for it.... We need to address this issue more.

    I read the other day that the US is now the 48th ranked country when it comes to freedom of the press. Perhaps, it's time I speak less boldly and remember that my own freedom may be in jeoprady.
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