Robert Scoble 
Startup Liaison Officer | Rackspace Hosting
San Francisco, CA, UNITED STATES
Legendary blogger, technical evangelist, and author who advises on the step-by-step processes required to build a successful tech startup
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Biography
Robert Scoble is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. Scoble is best known for his blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technology evangelist at Microsoft. He currently works for Rackspace and the Rackspace sponsored community site building43. He is also the co-author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers with Shel Israel.
In the late 1990s, Scoble worked for Winnov (a manufacturer of webcams) supporting webcam users. During this time he was named a Microsoft MVP for his activity in Microsoft's NetMeeting support newsgroups, and for maintaining a NetMeeting information website.
Eventually, Robert joined UserLand Software, which was a content management and blogging software startup. He worked as a Director of Marketing, but left shortly after the the startup ran out of money.
He found a job at NEC Mobile Solutions 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 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 Scoble accepted his offer to work at Microsoft. Scoble joined Microsoft in May 2003. He was part of the Channel 9 MSDN Video team, where he produced videos that showcased Microsoft employees and products. He was unusual in the level of access he offered to his users, which included publishing his cellphone number on his blog and urging people to contact him directly with issues, as well as accepting comments on his blog. His support for Microsoft in his blog, however, drew controversy and in 2005, he became the first person to earn the newly coined moniker of "spokesblogger."
In June 2006, Scoble announced he was leaving Microsoft to join Podtech.net as Vice President Media Development.
In January 2008, Robert left PodTech to join Fast Company, where he launched FastCompany.tv with two shows: FastCompany Live and ScobleizerTV. He characterizes the first as "a show done totally on cell phones." Though he no longer produces videos for FastCompany, he continues to write articles for their magazine.
In March 2009, Scoble announced via his blog and on the Gillmor Gang that he was joining Rackspace. As part of his work there, he teamed up with the company to develop building43, a new content and social networking website.
Industry Expertise (9)
Public Relations and Communications
IT Services/Consulting
Advertising/Marketing
Wireless
Social Media
Computer Networking
Internet
Media - Online
Media Production
Areas of Expertise (7)
Cloud Computing
Startup Consulting
Online Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Brand Development
Corporate Blogging
Corporate Branding
Education (2)
San Jose State University:
West Valley Community College: Journalism 1992
Links (5)
Event Appearances (7)
Which Platforms Do You Bet On?
Mobile Connections 2011 Bellagio, Las Vegbas
2011-04-18
Socializing Content: How to Make Readers Passionate About Your Content
TECHmunch Food Blogger Conference Austin, Texas
2011-03-12
Keynote Speech
The Next Web 2011 Amsterdam
2011-04-29
Cloud Computing: Bubble or Revolution
Web 2.0 Expo New York 2011 New York
2011-10-12
The app market opportunity: From killer app to killer business
Open Mobile Summit 2011 San Francisco
2011-11-04
Keynote Opening and Closing Remarks
Geo-Loco Conference San Francisco, California
2011-11-03
Beyond the TechCrunch Launch: Building Traction with Social Media
The Founder Conference 2011 Mountain View, California
2011-05-03
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