7 ms·

The problem is, he is one of the MOST influential people in the tech ecosystem. Yes, he is a "blogger", but in many cases he could make or break a product, a st

The problem is, he is one of the MOST influential people in the tech ecosystem. Yes, he is a "blogger", but in many cases he could make or break a product, a startup or a career. A friend of mine startup was noticed (and acquired) by Facebook because Scoble started blogging about it and that came to the attention of Zuckerberg. This guy leaves and breathes in tech conferences, as he is a regular invited speaker/guest. I'm sure he had to see, read a million of "code of conducts". The fact he claims "I have no employees... I have no power" is...disgusting.

ghaff 9y ago
I think you overstate his influence even back in the day. But absolutely to the rest of your comment. One of the more cringeworthy parts of a rather cringeworthy post.
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  Scoble himself has always overstated and self-aggrandized his own influence, as have so many others in the press, the industry, blogs and twitter (many of them actually trying to suck up to him and flatter him, in order to get a good mention in return -- see "Lesson 5: Reciprocate" below), which contradicts his current ploy of desperately trying to downplay his own influence so he can justify his behavior as "almost but not quite entirely unlike sexual harassment". https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/25/16547332/robert-scoble-sexual-harassment-misconduct-response-blog-post https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/25/16547332/robert-scoble-s... Scoble has been called “one of the most influential players in the [tech] industry,” and one of the “top ten people to know in Silicon Valley.” https://venturebeat.com/2015/01/28/5-things-silicon-valley-can-learn-from-robert-scoble/ https://venturebeat.com/2015/01/28/5-things-silicon-valley-c... The amount of love the tech community has for Robert Scoble is overwhelming. If the tech community were a country, Scoble would be its ambassador. Not only because we would want him to be, but because he truly knows more about the state of the global tech community than anyone else on planet Earth. I’ve known Scoble for seven years, and I’ve always been in awe of how much knowledge this man possesses about so many startups. [...] Lesson 5: Reciprocate Due to his influential status, Scoble gets many perks from entrepreneurs around the world, just like most influencers do: Free gadgets, access to apps, invitations to visit conferences and stay in nice hotel rooms, and so on. These are usually forgotten by most influential figures in the Valley. However, Scoble never forgets these gestures and always acknowledges them — either through a Facebook post, tweet, or a reciprocal gesture. He doesn’t just take these benefits for granted like other folks of his caliber might. Entrepreneurs, of course, appreciate this and remember him for it. Many of the activities throughout Scoble’s birthday for example, were contributed by individuals, due to their admiration for Scoble and appreciation of him. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-lorenzen/the-top-10-people-to-know_b_8435302.html https://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-lorenzen/the-top-10-p... 3. Robert Scoble Many people know Robert Scoble for his blog Scobleizer, which he wrote when he was working with Microsoft. Today, Scoble working for Rackspace and their sponsored community site Building 43, which focuses on highlighting and promoting cutting-edge startups and breakthrough technology. If you want to be featured in Silicon Valley, he is the individual to turn to. After all, his influence in the area is long-standing as Scoble grew up in Silicon Valley, just blocks away from Apple’s head office.
zaroth 9y ago
Where does this line of thinking lead? I mean it's one thing to limit any attempts at intimacy in the workplace, but if you're just 'influential enough' then you expand this definition to include anyone in the entire tech sector? This seems clearly illogical. Again, if there was assault it's a totally different matter. But sexual harassment is a lower bar specifically because of the idea no one should have to work in a hostile work environment. You can't create a hostile work environment if you're not actually working with someone or exerting direct influence over their career?
- TarpitCarnivore 9y ago
  > You can't create a hostile work environment if you're not actually working with someone or exerting direct influence over their career? Quinn's story was not at a 'work environment' so does it have any less impact? Why are you letting him adjust the narrative to define what he feels is harassment?
  - openmosix 9y ago
    Let's also not forget that it was a conference. A very laid back-camping kind of conference, but a conference. In today's standards - where you can't join a project or visit/talk to a conference without accepting a CoC - this would still be considered an extension of the workplace, or at least be classified as a "professional setting". We are not talking rocket science: if you are in a professional setting, getting overly drunk, make out in public and then proceeding to random groping - is NOT ok. You can have him redefine the narrative however he wants, he still a serial sexual offender.
    - zaroth 9y ago
      Read back to the context of my question. Two drunk people coming together to "make out" at a camp out -- this is a "conference" like Burning Man is a conference -- if this is in and of itself is creating a "hostile work environment" I think that words are losing their meaning. I don't really care what kind of narrative Scoble is trying to make. I have no knowledge of the specifics of his situation or his encounters, and couldn't care less about passing judgement on him. But I was very curious about this idea that, which seems to be stated throughout this thread, someone can become so influential in an industry that any non-professional contact they have industry-wide could be sexual harassment. And again, and again, I have to say, if there was assault that is just a completely different issue entirely.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
jcahill 9y ago
I challenge "one of the MOST influential people" as vigorously as is posthumanly possible. Off the top, how many people here who are both under 30 and hack on something (hardware, wetware, anything) know who scoble is? I only vaguely remembered his name with effort, and even that may have been by analogy to somebody else. In fact: the more I look into him, the more the expression "never-was" (as a more extreme form of "has-been") comes to mind. Just step through his wikipedia entry⁽¹⁾ and it'll be hard to disagree with the assessment: > 4 Appearances > > In November, 2013, Scoble was co-keynote speaker with > Shel Israel at the 2013 Telstra Australian Digital > Summit. Scoble and Israel talked to their book titled > "Age of Context: Mobile, Sensors, Data and the Future of > Privacy". read: noise. > On April 1, 2008, The Register ran an April fool’s spoof > claiming Robert Scoble was actually an IBM bot. read: a stumbling, college newspaper-esque exercise⁽²⁾ in retrofitting a disposable assignment (april 1) to trash-talk scoble openly. unambiguously dripping with disdain, really. > On November 14, 2007, he was a contestant on a game show > at NewTeeVee Live […] at what now? > [f]eaturing other internet celebrities such as Veronica > Belmont, Casey McKinnon, Cali Lewis, Kevin Rose, Justin > Kan, and others. who? there are two tech names here, and zero celebrities. > On November 6, 2006, Scoble appeared as a panelist on a > Chinese Software Professionals Association event called > "The New Age of Influence: The Impact of Social Computing > on Media and Marketing". read: noise. > 5 Milliscoble > > In September 2008, Follow cost, a website which > calculated how annoying it would be to follow anyone on > Twitter, invented the milliscoble unit of measurement > defined as: "1/1000 of the average daily Twitter status > updates by Robert Scoble as of 10:09 CST September 25, > 2008." At that time, Scoble was averaging 21.21 tweets > per day, so a milliscoble is 0.02121 tweets per day. A > person with a milliscoble rating of 1000 will be as > annoying to follow as Scoble. read: further open contempt of scoble as shitposter incarnate. So what do we have? A guy who had some kind of readership as a microsoft evangelist 13+ years ago, then circled the drain of ~web tv~ for a decade, then landed an Entrepreneur in Residence gig — read: unpaid internship⁽³⁾ — ultimately just circling a slightly newer, slightly shinier drain (VR). One who, along the way, consciously uncoupled⁽⁴⁾ from all the content streams and personal branding whose maintenance constitute the entirety of an independent writing career. The blogger's own site, at .blog no less, is a contentless placeholder now. We're left with some sorta phantasm of a now-defunct, still-not-tech personality: a never-was. If the Ghostblogger of Milliscobles Past can kill your startup, your startup almost certainly didn't need to exist. ____________________ ¹ http://enwp.org/Robert_Scoble http://enwp.org/Robert_Scoble ² https://theregister.co.uk/2008/04/01/ibm_scoble_nano https://theregister.co.uk/2008/04/01/ibm_scoble_nano ³ https://scobleizer.blog/2016/05/17/mental-blocks-resource-constraints https://scobleizer.blog/2016/05/17/mental-blocks-resource-co... ⁴ https://scobleizer.blog/2012/07/02/scalable-livin https://scobleizer.blog/2012/07/02/scalable-livin

ghaff 9y ago

I think you overstate his influence even back in the day. But absolutely to the rest of your comment. One of the more cringeworthy parts of a rather cringeworthy post.

DonHopkins 9y ago
Scoble himself has always overstated and self-aggrandized his own influence, as have so many others in the press, the industry, blogs and twitter (many of them actually trying to suck up to him and flatter him, in order to get a good mention in return -- see "Lesson 5: Reciprocate" below), which contradicts his current ploy of desperately trying to downplay his own influence so he can justify his behavior as "almost but not quite entirely unlike sexual harassment". https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/25/16547332/robert-scoble-sexual-harassment-misconduct-response-blog-post https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/25/16547332/robert-scoble-s... Scoble has been called “one of the most influential players in the [tech] industry,” and one of the “top ten people to know in Silicon Valley.” https://venturebeat.com/2015/01/28/5-things-silicon-valley-can-learn-from-robert-scoble/ https://venturebeat.com/2015/01/28/5-things-silicon-valley-c... The amount of love the tech community has for Robert Scoble is overwhelming. If the tech community were a country, Scoble would be its ambassador. Not only because we would want him to be, but because he truly knows more about the state of the global tech community than anyone else on planet Earth. I’ve known Scoble for seven years, and I’ve always been in awe of how much knowledge this man possesses about so many startups. [...] Lesson 5: Reciprocate Due to his influential status, Scoble gets many perks from entrepreneurs around the world, just like most influencers do: Free gadgets, access to apps, invitations to visit conferences and stay in nice hotel rooms, and so on. These are usually forgotten by most influential figures in the Valley. However, Scoble never forgets these gestures and always acknowledges them — either through a Facebook post, tweet, or a reciprocal gesture. He doesn’t just take these benefits for granted like other folks of his caliber might. Entrepreneurs, of course, appreciate this and remember him for it. Many of the activities throughout Scoble’s birthday for example, were contributed by individuals, due to their admiration for Scoble and appreciation of him. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-lorenzen/the-top-10-people-to-know_b_8435302.html https://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-lorenzen/the-top-10-p... 3. Robert Scoble Many people know Robert Scoble for his blog Scobleizer, which he wrote when he was working with Microsoft. Today, Scoble working for Rackspace and their sponsored community site Building 43, which focuses on highlighting and promoting cutting-edge startups and breakthrough technology. If you want to be featured in Silicon Valley, he is the individual to turn to. After all, his influence in the area is long-standing as Scoble grew up in Silicon Valley, just blocks away from Apple’s head office.

zaroth 9y ago

Where does this line of thinking lead? I mean it's one thing to limit any attempts at intimacy in the workplace, but if you're just 'influential enough' then you expand this definition to include anyone in the entire tech sector? This seems clearly illogical. Again, if there was assault it's a totally different matter. But sexual harassment is a lower bar specifically because of the idea no one should have to work in a hostile work environment. You can't create a hostile work environment if you're not actually working with someone or exerting direct influence over their career?

TarpitCarnivore 9y ago
> You can't create a hostile work environment if you're not actually working with someone or exerting direct influence over their career? Quinn's story was not at a 'work environment' so does it have any less impact? Why are you letting him adjust the narrative to define what he feels is harassment?
- openmosix 9y ago
  Let's also not forget that it was a conference. A very laid back-camping kind of conference, but a conference. In today's standards - where you can't join a project or visit/talk to a conference without accepting a CoC - this would still be considered an extension of the workplace, or at least be classified as a "professional setting". We are not talking rocket science: if you are in a professional setting, getting overly drunk, make out in public and then proceeding to random groping - is NOT ok. You can have him redefine the narrative however he wants, he still a serial sexual offender.
  - zaroth 9y ago
    Read back to the context of my question. Two drunk people coming together to "make out" at a camp out -- this is a "conference" like Burning Man is a conference -- if this is in and of itself is creating a "hostile work environment" I think that words are losing their meaning. I don't really care what kind of narrative Scoble is trying to make. I have no knowledge of the specifics of his situation or his encounters, and couldn't care less about passing judgement on him. But I was very curious about this idea that, which seems to be stated throughout this thread, someone can become so influential in an industry that any non-professional contact they have industry-wide could be sexual harassment. And again, and again, I have to say, if there was assault that is just a completely different issue entirely.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

jcahill 9y ago

I challenge "one of the MOST influential people" as vigorously as is posthumanly possible. Off the top, how many people here who are both under 30 and hack on something (hardware, wetware, anything) know who scoble is? I only vaguely remembered his name with effort, and even that may have been by analogy to somebody else. In fact: the more I look into him, the more the expression "never-was" (as a more extreme form of "has-been") comes to mind. Just step through his wikipedia entry⁽¹⁾ and it'll be hard to disagree with the assessment: > 4 Appearances > > In November, 2013, Scoble was co-keynote speaker with > Shel Israel at the 2013 Telstra Australian Digital > Summit. Scoble and Israel talked to their book titled > "Age of Context: Mobile, Sensors, Data and the Future of > Privacy". read: noise. > On April 1, 2008, The Register ran an April fool’s spoof > claiming Robert Scoble was actually an IBM bot. read: a stumbling, college newspaper-esque exercise⁽²⁾ in retrofitting a disposable assignment (april 1) to trash-talk scoble openly. unambiguously dripping with disdain, really. > On November 14, 2007, he was a contestant on a game show > at NewTeeVee Live […] at what now? > [f]eaturing other internet celebrities such as Veronica > Belmont, Casey McKinnon, Cali Lewis, Kevin Rose, Justin > Kan, and others. who? there are two tech names here, and zero celebrities. > On November 6, 2006, Scoble appeared as a panelist on a > Chinese Software Professionals Association event called > "The New Age of Influence: The Impact of Social Computing > on Media and Marketing". read: noise. > 5 Milliscoble > > In September 2008, Follow cost, a website which > calculated how annoying it would be to follow anyone on > Twitter, invented the milliscoble unit of measurement > defined as: "1/1000 of the average daily Twitter status > updates by Robert Scoble as of 10:09 CST September 25, > 2008." At that time, Scoble was averaging 21.21 tweets > per day, so a milliscoble is 0.02121 tweets per day. A > person with a milliscoble rating of 1000 will be as > annoying to follow as Scoble. read: further open contempt of scoble as shitposter incarnate. So what do we have? A guy who had some kind of readership as a microsoft evangelist 13+ years ago, then circled the drain of ~web tv~ for a decade, then landed an Entrepreneur in Residence gig — read: unpaid internship⁽³⁾ — ultimately just circling a slightly newer, slightly shinier drain (VR). One who, along the way, consciously uncoupled⁽⁴⁾ from all the content streams and personal branding whose maintenance constitute the entirety of an independent writing career. The blogger's own site, at .blog no less, is a contentless placeholder now. We're left with some sorta phantasm of a now-defunct, still-not-tech personality: a never-was. If the Ghostblogger of Milliscobles Past can kill your startup, your startup almost certainly didn't need to exist. ____________________ ¹ http://enwp.org/Robert_Scoble http://enwp.org/Robert_Scoble ² https://theregister.co.uk/2008/04/01/ibm_scoble_nano https://theregister.co.uk/2008/04/01/ibm_scoble_nano ³ https://scobleizer.blog/2016/05/17/mental-blocks-resource-constraints https://scobleizer.blog/2016/05/17/mental-blocks-resource-co... ⁴ https://scobleizer.blog/2012/07/02/scalable-livin https://scobleizer.blog/2012/07/02/scalable-livin