I didn’t realise when I praised Robert Scoble the other day that I was stepping into a little internet firestorm. A couple of burning embers can be found in the comments and you’ll find plenty more on the Scoble blog.
Some have focussed on the idea Scoble described and picked plenty of holes in it. Others are understandably massively sceptical about whether the Microsoft behemoth can ever really adopt open source.
I’ll just reaffirm that it’s great that this employee is supported in being this open about his thinking. And I think it’s a straw in the wind: businesses are more porous than ever – something that far too much branding ignores in favour of simplistic messaging.
And I’ll fillet this from Scoble’s own argument
I’m very fortunate to work for a company that encourages me to try things. In public. When humans try things occassionally they’ll fail… And don’t think Microsoft is alone. Silicon Valley is scattered with such courtyards. The failures. Oh the failures! But out of those failures comes Apple. Comes Intel. Comes Google. Comes eBay. Comes Cisco. Comes Yahoo. Yeah, everyone knows the big successes, but really, it’s the failures that teach us things.
Yes, my idea was wacky. Yes, it is a stupid, idiotic, naive idea. But I learned a lot. In all of the discussion there was more product feedback about music players turned over to the world than would have been gained from 20 customer feedback sessions.
So, the stupid idea got you all to talk. Is that a bad thing?
