Expanding on Interesting Developments

Having [finally] had some time today to think about the idea that the blog authors that are the subject of my research have noticed my work (before it's even done) I've decided to focus on it a little tonight. Others beside Scoble have noticed this work but, I'm sure they'll actually post something about it or not.

Scoble writes in his entry on my work,

"So, I see a lot of value in being a connector role, or someone who'll tell you when there's interesting stuff elsewhere on the blogs."

This is interesting because I had suggested that Scoble served as a gate-keeper for his readers. I wonder if we're talking about the same thing? Probably pretty close. So, it would seem that Mr. Scoble is well aware of the role he's playing in his blog. It would also seem that his posts reflect this awareness very plainly. For example, in his post about my work he doesn't say whether he agrees or disagree with what I'm saying. He merely makes the work's existence know. It's easy to see that if he did come out very clearly on one side of an issue he would loose some degree of credibility in some reader's minds. Credibilty is critical to any person seeking to communicate within the role of a gate-keeper or connector.

When we combine Robert Scoble's credibility (as a MS Employee and a neutral arbiter of interesting information) with the content on his blog both in terms of his posts and the resources he lists we see a great example of effective gate-keeping.

There is one issue that I know a few people share based on comments and correspondence with me. These folks (and probably others) don't buy into my assertion that bloggers hosted at various URLs are Microsoft employees or necessarily strongly affiliated with Microsoft.

What they contend may in fact be true. However, perception is key here. When an author has a blog hosted on blogs.msdn.com or weblogs.asp.net it sure gives the casual reader the perception that the author is either directly employeed by Microsoft or affiliated in some other substantial way. I wonder how many blog readers actually take the time to learn all they can about a particular author? More likely, how many people start reading a certain blog because a buddy or co-worker does?

This leads to an interesting question. Does the level of apparently Microsoft-driven blogging represent a concerted effort on the part of Microsoft? Or, is this an unintended (but not undesireable) consequence of the rise of a popular new form of communication? Does the answer even matter??

The answer does matter especially if we're looking at what levels of credibility readers may assign to one blog or another. I wonder what people think about that?