Difference between revisions of "Robert Scoble"
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| − | Robert Scoble is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. Scoble first came to prominence during his tenure as a technical evangelist at Microsoft, due to his blog "Scobleizer." | + | Robert Scoble is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. Scoble first came to prominence during his tenure as a technical evangelist at [[Microsoft]], due to his blog "Scobleizer." |
==Early life== | ==Early life== | ||
| − | Scoble grew up in Silicon Valley. His father was an engineer at Ampex and Lockheed Martin. His mother worked for Apple Computer as a member of a group of women who built Apple IIs at home. Robert learned how to solder a motherboard together when he was 11 and helped his mother build several hundred Apple IIs. | + | Scoble grew up in Silicon Valley. His father was an engineer at Ampex and Lockheed Martin. His mother worked for [[Apple Computer]] as a member of a group of women who built Apple IIs at home. Robert learned how to solder a motherboard together when he was 11 and helped his mother build several hundred Apple IIs. |
| − | He studied journalism at West Valley Community College and San Jose State. In 1989 he persuaded Steve Wozniak to donate $40,000 worth of Macintoshes to the WVCC journalism department, and then took responsibility for setting them all up. At that time he was a Mac Evangelist, fond of installing beta software and performing weird hacks on other people's old Apple computers to improve their performance. | + | He studied journalism at West Valley Community College and San Jose State. In 1989 he persuaded [[Steve Wozniak]] to donate $40,000 worth of Macintoshes to the WVCC journalism department, and then took responsibility for setting them all up. At that time he was a Mac Evangelist, fond of installing beta software and performing weird hacks on other people's old Apple computers to improve their performance. |
==Career== | ==Career== | ||
| − | After college worked for Fawcette Technical Publications and then for Winnov, a manufacturer of webcams. His job supporting webcam users led him to be active in Microsoft's NetMeeting support newsgroups, for which activity he was named a Microsoft MVP. | + | After college Scoble worked for Fawcette Technical Publications and then for Winnov, a manufacturer of webcams. His job supporting webcam users led him to be active in Microsoft's NetMeeting support newsgroups, for which activity he was named a Microsoft MVP. |
| − | + | He left Fawcette to join [[David Winer]]'s UserLand Software, which was a content management and blogging software startup. He worked for John Robb as Director of Marketing. After the startup ran out of money and was unable to pay his salary, Robert worked for free for a month and eventually had to switch jobs. | |
| − | He found a job at NEC Mobile Solutions from a Craigslist posting as Sales Support Manager for TabletPC. His job responsibility was to answer all the phones and all the emails with support/sales requests. He had started using blogs (a skill learned in UserLand) to provide tech support and listen to feedback from NEC customers. | + | He found a job at NEC Mobile Solutions from a [[Craigslist]] posting as Sales Support Manager for TabletPC. His job responsibility was to answer all the phones and all the emails with support/sales requests. He had started using blogs (a skill learned in UserLand) to provide tech support and listen to feedback from NEC customers. |
His blog was noticed by Vic Gundotra (then General Manager of Platform Evangelism at Microsoft), and Robert accepted his offer to work at Microsoft. | His blog was noticed by Vic Gundotra (then General Manager of Platform Evangelism at Microsoft), and Robert accepted his offer to work at Microsoft. | ||
