Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Faryl — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:01:50 -0000

to question #2 - I could write a lengthy list here, but one thing in particular I use blogs for that I realized lately is finding "purer" sources of information. A regular "web" google search brings up too much crap these days, whereas a google "blog" search generally provides way more useful information than spam.

Not always the best route - depends on what you are looking for to begin with. Granted, you still have your share of spammy blogs (splogs?) and information needs to be taken with a grain of salt. But I've had much better luck using the blogosphere as a starting point than starting elsewhere.

Hope to see the PC/RS interview on a podcast soon! :-)

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Michael Beck — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:01:20 -0000

1. I use Mashable as a great resource for keeping up with new Web 2.0 startups. Most of the newer social networking sites I use now are ones (such as FriendFeed or Shouldi) I discovered through Mashable.

2. Blogs serve many purposes for me. In the case of news, it provides me further insight into a story, or sides of a story that traditional media outlets can't or won't. It also makes me aware of issues that are up and coming; the things that typically do not get covered by "big media" until story has reached a certain level of maturity.

But the biggest use of blogs for me is it allows me to customize the daily information download into my brain. Instead of pouring through headlines on the main page of CNN or Fox News, I'm getting custom content delivered into my reader that only deals with my interests.

3. Are bloggers journalists?
Not all bloggers are. Bloggers fall into five main categories:
Journalists
Columnists
Diarists
Conversationists
Multi-Level Marketers

Some bloggers may fall into multiple categories.

4. Are you more likely to trust a company that has a corporate blog?
Not unless that corporate blog is very candid about company issues both good and bad. Otherwise it's just another advertising avenue.

5. Flipping the question: what are blogs bad at? Whatâ€™s the worst thing about blogs?

Reaching out to non-bloggers and people who don't know how to work a newsreader.
If you look at the top blogs, most of the top blogs, TechCrunch, Engadget, Gizmodo, Boing Boing, Lifehacker, Mashable... 13 of the top 20 blogs are aimed at bloggers and people in the technology community.

The other 7? Celebrity gossip, Post Secret (personal gossip), Politics and a LOLcat site that's a hit with the young social networking demographic.

Too many blogs spring up and try to gobble up a share of "bloggers as readers" market because they have free access to those readers simply by leaving comments that include a link to their own site. It's like being able to staple your business card to the cover story of every copy of someone else's magazine for free. Who wouldn't want to take advantage of that?

But the blogs that are getting exposure to an audience that typically didn't read blogs before are becoming the rising stars. When CNN started including the segment "what the bloggers are saying..." after all the big news stories, a whole new audience of people suddenly became curious about this new medium and checking out political blogs.

When entertainment news stories started quoting TMZ.com as a source, there's a whole new group of people who became curious about blogs.

As people started posting LOLcat pictures back and forth as comments on each other's MySpace profiles, a whole different audience got exposed to a blogging website.

Going forward we're going to start seeing a trend where political blogs, humor blogs, gossip blogs and other blogs that speak to bigger demographic slices are going to start becoming the top blogs because they have bigger pools to pull readers from.

The rest of the blogs will continue to arm wrestle for the same readers while they report on everyone else's success.

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Ryan Merket — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:30:31 -0000

If you had a million dollars to invest. How you would invest it if you only had the following ways to invest:

1. Internet video / TV
2. Mobile social networking
3. DataPortability / Open standards

ie: 200k on internet video, 300k on... etc.

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Jeremy Neal — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:54:37 -0000

Are bloggers journalists? For the record, I have a degree in Journalism and worked in the field for several years, before my career evolved into other things. I started blogging about a year ago. I view it exactly like being a journalist, only I'm both writer and editor. I use all of the same skills and tactics. The thing about most blogs is that they are more like the Editorial page than News section of a newspaper or magazine.

I heard a podcast interview the other day by a "journalist" who was talking to some of the top Digg users. He kept trying to assert that blog articles were not "journalistic" because they don't pass through traditional editorial filters. The arrogance was unbelievable.

Most bloggers are journalists, in my opinion.

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

zoostation — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:42:34 -0000

Ask him if he'll allow Mashable to run a "Pimp Scoble's Blog" contest. hehe

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Kerry — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:37:21 -0000

Ask Robert if he realizes he is the Britney Spears of the blogging world.

1. What is Mashable good for?
Mashable is my one stop place to catch up on what's happening on the front lines of web 2.0. It's good for keeping me overly distracted each morning as I decide whether any of the info needs to be followed up.

2. What are blogs good for? How do you use them?
Blogs are a good way to distribute info, without having to drag in the publishing infrastructure. I use them both to share and to learn.

3. Are bloggers journalists?
No. Journalists can blog, of course, but generally, the freedom of most blogs allows the blogger to effortlessly interject opinion and bias into the content without fear of true backlash.

4. Are you more likely to trust a company that has a corporate blog?
It would entirely depend on the company, the purpose and the content of the blog.

5. Flipping the question: what are blogs bad at? Whatâ€™s the worst thing about blogs?
Mediation. In my experience, many bloggers are horrible at mediating comment sections. If the comments begin to get out of control, with anger or off topic rants, the solution appears to be either delete, block or ignore.

I can't think of a worst thing about blogs. I find them to be a different extension of all the same things that exist anywhere else in human relations. The worst thing about blogs are the people behind them, which is the same answer for the best thing about blogs.

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Asad — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:22:08 -0000

@Joshua and @Tom and Jerry

Your comments regarding his website design are seriously offmark, because you cant see past the design to the actual content. I routinely point friends to his site to show them that "content is king." Even if your site looks completely plain, if your content is good it will drive people to your site. If you cant see that well then Im not sure what can help.

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

CountRob — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:00:49 -0000

This question goes to both Scoble and Pete: What exactly does it take to be a New Media Expert? What are the qualifications? Maybe 1 semester of college, a Wordpress blog, and a whole lot of time to waste?

Also, another question for that Scoble guy: What "leet" hacking have you done besides installing plaxo on your facebook account? I mean, everyone says you have these leet skillz, but I can't really see any evidence of that.

Finally, if Microsoft offered you your job back, would you take it, or continue being the most painfully annoying attention whore in the web 2.0 blogosphere?

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

coyenator — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:19:44 -0000

I'd thank him for pushing the limits. I'm fascinated by his willingness to be so visible and transparent at his learning edges. I'm sure glad he has thick skin and an interesting sense of humor.

I'd ask him about the future of blogging. In five years what will the blogosphere look like, sound like, be like? What's the most important anticipated influencer on the future of blogging?

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Kat — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:00:01 -0000

Robert - have you ever been h.u.m.b.l.e a day in your life?

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Cindy Kelly — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:40:08 -0000

Ya don't mess with a parent about their relationship with their kids, particularly when said parent is obviously involved regularly in parenting. Robert has talked about his kids enough that we know they mean more to him than life itself. Only someone who has no kids would think that's a fair question. It simply shows no taste or good judgment.

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Cindy Kelly — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:35:19 -0000

Robert has addressed this. Competing for # of followers is lame. Even more lame is then discussing competition for # of followers.

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Cindy Kelly — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:32:06 -0000

That question has no effect on most people who have kids.

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Shawn K — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:10:15 -0000

Scoble - What do you think of blogs that talk about or offer a rebuttal to something a fellow blogger said, but don't link back to it?

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

John B — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:24:31 -0000

Firstly, why does Scoble carry such self-importance and why does Mashable even care? Scoble long ago jumped the proverbial shark.
1. What is Mashable good for?
Mashable's value is increasingly unclear. I need to find a way to filter that incessant pounding in my ears that is the Mashable stream of valueless information and learn to identify and invest in the components that bring value to me.

2. What are blogs good for? How do you use them?
The very best blogs are more similar to the "editorial section," where knowledgeable people with communications skills can wade in on important topics. The worst blogs resemble newsfeeds with limited benefit.

3. Are bloggers journalists?
Some may be good journalists. Some are not required to be good journalists because they have other skills and insights. Too many bloggers sound like self-important droids trying too hard to be heard by an audience which they know little about and for which they probably have little interest.

4. Are you more likely to trust a company that has a corporate blog?
It makes no difference; there is no meaningful correlation between a company and its blogging efforts. However, there is an absolute correlation between the perceived quality of a company and the quality of its blog.

5. Flipping the question: what are blogs bad at? Whatâ€™s the worst thing about blogs?
Too many blogs, with too little added value

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

SearcHâ—† EngineS WEB — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:49:06 -0000

A topic for BOTH of you

Do you remember when your blogs first hit the Technorati 100?

What was your initial reactions?

How did this change your lives?

What factors do you feel contributed to the blog getting there and staying there?

What directions do you feel your blog will go into during the next decade?

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Jeff Hobbs — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:45:22 -0000

Who are you, and what are you doing here?

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

diystartupnews.com — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:18:01 -0000

How much would it he take to stop blogging etc?

If Microsoft offered him a load of cash would be work for them again?

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Conor — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:51:28 -0000

Ask Scoble why he's such a pretentious douchebag.

The only question of yours that grabbed me was #3. My response would be that bloggers are capable of being journalists just as much as journalists are capable of being bloggers.

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Tom & Jerry — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:33:38 -0000

Ask him...

1) Why he likes Twitter better than his kids? (I saw him get pissed on Twitter for a similar inference)

2) How he expects anyone to take him seriously since his blog looks like a 3rd grader designed it.

3) If he's aware that he acts exactly like the "Pipsquack Bird" from the Tom & Jerry cartoon.(Many won't get this reference, but those who do will be ROTFL, cuz it's true)

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Nicole Simon (Berlin, Germany) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:23:31 -0000

1. What is Mashable good for?

a news site with a specific focus which I can follow to stay informed in this area.

2. What are blogs good for? How do you use them?

Wrong question. What are books good for? How do you use them? I use a certain kind of blogs for information retrieval, others for amusement, others for inspiration, others for keeping in touch.

Blogs per se to me are "something with a feed which is more usable than a static website". A tool I can use in different varieties. I for example rarely follow comments on entries, but digest a lot of feeds with a different interest than somebody who wants to read up on three closest friends.

3. Are bloggers journalists?
Not that one again. Are tabloid reporters journalists?

A journalist is somebody with a certain set of talent, goals and expertise. A blogger can be so as well if they like, but it is more about professionalism on the one side and content on the other.

4. Are you more likely to trust a company that has a corporate blog?
Not per se. It depends a lot in how they actually present themselves. Do they treat me like I would like to be treated? Or do they try to jump on another hype and still not get it?

5. Flipping the question: what are blogs bad at? Whatâ€™s the worst thing about blogs?
Too simple of a question. Again, there is not 'that' blog.

There is no need for me to consume everything, so if I do not like something, I can leave it. Blogs are tools and it is the people behind it who make the strategy and planning as well as the execution and implementation.

Speaking of implementation: your comment area sucks. ;)

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

stan — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 06:12:53 -0000

He needs more shirtless pics online.

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

mike power — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:01:41 -0000

You could ask him how many hundred video interviews you have to do before you get one that a) uses the microphone unobtrusively b) doesn't have the interviewee backed up against the wall c) shows more of the interviewee than it does of Scoble's grinning face d) demonstrates that someone with basic editing skills may have been involved at some point e) uses a fixed camera, you know, like, on a tripod, when filming a fixed subject, you know, like, a talking head rathet than one that appears to be held by someone suffering from Parkinson's.

There are plenty more along the same lines although you could ask: Why, after producing so many videos, do they still suck?

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

Michael Dorausch — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:56:36 -0000

When it comes to community, what cities have you found offer the best environment for support and growth and where would you live/move to to if you where starting a web based business today?

Re: What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?

wyclif — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:43:19 -0000

http://twitter.com/wyclif/s...