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Tuesday, August 01, 2006
 
 

Six reasons why Robert Scoble is Mini-Microsoft

 
 

Robert Scoble I'm onto you. I know you are Mr. Mini-Microsoft. Now, now before you roll your eyes and move on thinking this is just another half-hearted accusation lets go over my evidence. You see, I've been doing some Scobleizer and Mini-Microsoft blog forensics and have found some small facts that create some decent theories which lead me to believe that you are the person responsible for Mini-Microsoft. It's all good, I'm a fan and a reader of both but you challenged us Scoble... You wanted to be anonymous. Being anonymous begged us to find who was responsible. That person is you. I know you know! But now the world must know. This is what I know:

It's easiest to explain by walking through a timeline. So I'll start from the beginning:

Theory #1
Scoble was hired by Microsoft in 05/2003 and started blogging shortly after in 09/2003. Mini-Microsoft was started in 07/2004.

In theory, after blogging for nearly a year with fear of losing his job for saying too much Scoble decided to find a better way to say what he wanted without that fear. Thus, Mini-Microsoft was born.

Theory #2
Wordpress vs. Blogger. Wordpress for Scobleizer,  Blogger for Mini-Microsoft. They aren't the same. Switching it up so that we see no similarities. Subtle Scoble, subtle. You almost had me there!

Theory #3
This is my favorite piece of evidence. It was right there in front of us but we were too lazy to put the pieces together! We all know that Robert's Mom grew sick and passed away in 05/2006 (I'm sorry Robert, my thoughts and prayers are with your family). During this time of support for his Mom Robert left work to be with her and if you follow his posts you'll know that he wrote some occasional heart-wrenching posts about his Mom and his feelings as he went through this tough time. Mini-Microsoft went dry during this time. Here are the ever-so-convincing post timelines:

May 7th
Scobleizer: Last Microsoft/tech related post
Mini-Microsoft: Microsoft related post

May 8th
Scobleizer: Does a personal post about Mom's condition and how he's heading to Montana the next day

May 9th-18th
Scobleizer: No Microsoft/tech related posts. Only posts about the current Mom situation.
Mini-Microsoft: Absolutely no posts. Nothing. Nada. Why would he? He's preoccupied!

May 19th
Scobleizer: He posts Back in the land of bandwidth and cell phones
Mini-Microsoft: He posts Still here

Theory #4
The post times don't overlap. For example take this sampling of post times (as received by NewsGator):

Scobleizer Mini-Microsoft
Thu 7/20/2006 8:50 PM  
Thu 7/20/2006 8:32 PM  
Thu 7/20/2006 8:11 PM  
Thu 7/20/2006 5:50 PM  
Thu 7/20/2006 3:25 PM  
Thu 7/20/2006 3:23 PM  
Thu 7/20/2006 3:20 PM  
Thu 7/20/2006 2:49 PM  
Thu 7/20/2006 11:13 AM  
Thu 7/20/2006 10:58 AM  
  Thu 7/20/2006 8:22 AM
  Thu 7/20/2006 8:16 PM
  Thu 7/20/2006 6:05 AM
  Thu 7/20/2006 2:52 AM
  Wed 7/19/2006 8:14 PM
  Wed 7/19/2006 11:30 AM
Wed 7/19/2006 3:57 AM  
Wed 7/19/2006 3:33 AM  
Wed 7/19/2006 3:15 AM  
Wed 7/19/2006 3:15 AM  
Wed 7/19/2006 3:01 AM  
Tue 7/18/2006 5:20 PM  
Tue 7/18/2006 4:37 PM  
Tue 7/18/2006 3:28 PM  
Tue 7/18/2006 3:19 PM  
  Tue 7/18/2006 3:18 PM
Tue 7/18/2006 12:57 PM  
  Tue 7/18/2006 11:21 AM
  Tue 7/18/2006 11:10 AM

Theory #5
Duplicate coverage of news between the 2 blogs didn't happen often. For example when Bill Gates decided to leave Microsoft Mini-Microsoft mentioned it but Scobleizer didn't. Odd, why wouldn't the Scobleizer mention somebody he respected and worked for?

Theory #6
Since Scoble quite Microsoft on 07/01/2006 there has been no juicy inside info on Mini-Microsoft. The posts are thoughts on information we all were already privy to.


So there you have it... I think Scoble wanted to be exposed though. He got sloppy, but he's too smart to be sloppy! He didn't care anymore. 

Now that you have the monkey off your back Robert you can now breathe a sigh of relief. The calm will eventually come but not too soon. Yes, you will be overwhelmed with questions, yes your integrity may be challenged, but this is nothing new for you and you perform well under the pressure. I believe that what you did is right and was in Microsoft's best interest. Thank you for making Microsoft better Mr. Robert Scoble a.k.a. Mini Microsoft.

Readers, is it a load of BS?! You be the judge. The data is the data. The theories are... well theories. Time will tell. Either Scoble confesses or we decide with further evidence (e.g. Mini-Microsoft gives us no more juicy inside info since Scoble is no longer on the inside).

 
   
   
   
Tuesday, August 01, 2006 8:16:20 AM (US Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
I knew it!
Tuesday, August 01, 2006 9:03:19 AM (US Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
Tue 7/18/2006 posts have some overlap. . .
Tuesday, August 01, 2006 11:55:43 AM (US Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
This was the hot rumor at TechEd 2006, that Scoble and Mini were the same person. Scoble says it isn't so, and although, at first I thought there might be some truth to the rumor, I've have since changed my mind.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006 12:26:42 PM (US Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
What's up with your links? They are so annoying.
Daniel
Tuesday, August 01, 2006 1:37:21 PM (US Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
Mini is not Scoble...simple as that. On the other hand, I think Scoble and Ze Frank are the same person! Have you ever noticed the strange similarities?
Tim
Tuesday, August 01, 2006 10:58:14 PM (US Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)
Schizophrenia is a persistant, cruel illness. So sad.
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