Oh, geez, my son is blogging…

Patrick called me while I was waiting in line at Google for a ride to my hotel. He said “guess what Dad, I have a blog.” Oh, great, what’s the URL I asked. miniscobleizer.blogspot.com.

I sense he’s just trying to be rebellious. First an iPod. Now he’s using a Google blog tool. I gotta straighten him out. He’s only 11. Imagine how rebellious he’ll be when he’s 14!!

By the way, I didn’t help him at all. He says that “without any readers my blog will fail.” I’d answer: write anyway. But the readers certainly make life much better.

Oh, what else did I tell him? “I’m at standing in line at a Google party.” Then I got into a car for one of the most incredible rides of my life. Who was sitting next to me? James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress. Read his bio. Oh. My. Gawd. This guy is incredible. He runs the #1 library in the world. Think about that. I ask him how Microsoft could help him out. He pitches me on a way to change how everyone in the world will use libraries. Over the Web. Says it’ll cost only about $25 million.

He then goes on about the world’s treasures that are located in the Library of Congress. The rare books. The international collections. I’ve been pinching myself ever since.

Oh, and Maryam, he told me all about his trip to Iran. Says I have to go. Says the people there are smart, educated, interesting, and nice. I said “I know, that describes Maryam, my wife, to a T.”

Published by

Robert Scoble

As Startup Liaison for Rackspace, the Open Cloud Computing Company, Scoble travels the world looking for what's happening on the bleeding edge of technology for Rackspace's startup program. He's interviewed thousands of executives and technology innovators and reports what he learns in books ("The Age of Context," a book coauthored with Forbes author Shel Israel, has been released at http://amzn.to/AgeOfContext ), YouTube, and many social media sites where he's followed by millions of people. Best place to watch me is on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble

Comments

  3. I has checked your son blog, the spelling of his blog title is still wrong: ‘Mini Scoblizer’. Anyway, it’s a great start. Congrats! I will give him a comment too.

  5. I has checked your son blog, the spelling of his blog title is still wrong: ‘Mini Scoblizer’. Anyway, it’s a great start. Congrats! I will give him a comment too.

  7. […] Oh geez, my son is blogging. “I sense he’s just trying to be rebellious. First an iPod. Now he’s using a Google blogI gotta straighten him out. He’s only 11. Imagine how rebellious he’ll be when he’s 14!!” Well, ready or not, here comes Patrick Scoble “the son of a 40 year oldblogger”.   #     […]

  12. Bryan: getting my son to use something he doesn’t want to use is very challenging. Personally I like it that he tries stuff that I wouldn’t use, cause then I have something to talk with him about.

  13. Bryan: getting my son to use something he doesn’t want to use is very challenging. Personally I like it that he tries stuff that I wouldn’t use, cause then I have something to talk with him about.

  22. I love the fact your son is anti MS. Good thing he didn’t use MSN Spaces. Those blogs are ugly. Blogger is not much better, but we all have to realize that Google will own us all. (except for Steve Jobs)…

  23. I love the fact your son is anti MS. Good thing he didn’t use MSN Spaces. Those blogs are ugly. Blogger is not much better, but we all have to realize that Google will own us all. (except for Steve Jobs)…

  24. Robert,

    good to see Library of Congress and Microsoft talking… even if only in the back of a car!

    LC, and others, are increasingly recognising the need to open up access to the wealth of material held in libraries around the world, and there are a large number of fascinating activities underway in this area.

    Technology companies such as Talis are working with these libraries to ensure that this content, and the services that might be built upon it, are as open and accessible as possible, and that they fit within the wider web rather than sitting in a library ghetto.

    The library should go to the user, rather than expecting the user to come to the library. And that’s EXACTLY what we’re doing, leveraging web-based standards, and the capabilities broadly described as ‘Web 2.0’.

    Watch this space!

  25. Robert,

    good to see Library of Congress and Microsoft talking… even if only in the back of a car!

    LC, and others, are increasingly recognising the need to open up access to the wealth of material held in libraries around the world, and there are a large number of fascinating activities underway in this area.

    Technology companies such as Talis are working with these libraries to ensure that this content, and the services that might be built upon it, are as open and accessible as possible, and that they fit within the wider web rather than sitting in a library ghetto.

    The library should go to the user, rather than expecting the user to come to the library. And that’s EXACTLY what we’re doing, leveraging web-based standards, and the capabilities broadly described as ‘Web 2.0’.

    Watch this space!

  26. Yeah, Smart, Interesting and Nice, what a crock! Irans President was quoted as saying: “no doubt the new wave [of attacks] in Palestine will soon wipe off this disgraceful blot from the face of the Islamic world”.

    “Anybody who recognises Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury,” he said, in remarks aimed at Arab states.

    He is not alone in these thoughts. How can Microsoft help them?

  27. Yeah, Smart, Interesting and Nice, what a crock! Irans President was quoted as saying: “no doubt the new wave [of attacks] in Palestine will soon wipe off this disgraceful blot from the face of the Islamic world”.

    “Anybody who recognises Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury,” he said, in remarks aimed at Arab states.

    He is not alone in these thoughts. How can Microsoft help them?

  28. Wow, for ONCE, in your spew of ego-fed name dropping, I am actually impressed. :) James H. Billington wow. I mean wow. Dang. I mean wow. Wow again. I read a few of his Russian books back in the day and his old PBS Series was a classic. And Theology Today is the best of its mold. He was placed in as Director during the John Hughes era timeframe, this I know, I think 1987, as ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ was on big screen. Odd association, but LoC always held a fascination.

    Just an expansion of NDL? The LoC sounds like an actual decent program, get page images of some of the material, that used to require a special researcher pass, as back when I was working for Cato and indirectly for the first Bush WHO, was right next to the LoC (pre-Mass Ave. days) and I swear I got lost in the caverns so many times. Having some of the uncopyrighted historical material all paged-imaged is a dream. Delicate projects tho. $25 million seems just a start. But isn’t National Archives doing that, what is LoC’s role? Dang, if this becomes a reality, I am gonna send a resume to James H. Billington, but I can’t hold a candle to him. For that matter 99.99999% of the world can’t.

  29. Wow, for ONCE, in your spew of ego-fed name dropping, I am actually impressed. :) James H. Billington wow. I mean wow. Dang. I mean wow. Wow again. I read a few of his Russian books back in the day and his old PBS Series was a classic. And Theology Today is the best of its mold. He was placed in as Director during the John Hughes era timeframe, this I know, I think 1987, as ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ was on big screen. Odd association, but LoC always held a fascination.

    Just an expansion of NDL? The LoC sounds like an actual decent program, get page images of some of the material, that used to require a special researcher pass, as back when I was working for Cato and indirectly for the first Bush WHO, was right next to the LoC (pre-Mass Ave. days) and I swear I got lost in the caverns so many times. Having some of the uncopyrighted historical material all paged-imaged is a dream. Delicate projects tho. $25 million seems just a start. But isn’t National Archives doing that, what is LoC’s role? Dang, if this becomes a reality, I am gonna send a resume to James H. Billington, but I can’t hold a candle to him. For that matter 99.99999% of the world can’t.

  30. Son of a Scoble!

    Robert Scoble’s son, Patrick, has started a blog called Mini Scoblizer. Good to know his Dad, Microsoft uber-blogger Robert Scoble, has a succession plan. Technorati Tags: Scoble

  39. Dear Guzzard;
    Ideas of a president are not the idea of his/her peoples.
    Most of our peoples are not agree with our president. We said many times: We don’t want him and this government but what did do other nations?
    Our cruel government arrests anybody who wants freedom and other nations look at them!
    Surely most of them are like terrorists and think like early humans! 😀
    But can you say that all peoples are the same?
    They pay money to their fans and want them to go to streets and say “Down with Israel” or “Down with USA” but!
    But we sit at home and say “Down with yourself!”
    Our country is growing on our shoulders but they save moneys! They’ve forced our great peoples to migrate from Iran.
    I except you think better about people (Not only Iranians). We have many smart men or women but also have many stupid people.
    We want peace and don’t support them and respect to other religions and want others to respect to us.
    + Our president face is like Hell Boy face, isn’t it?! :)

  40. Dear Guzzard;
    Ideas of a president are not the idea of his/her peoples.
    Most of our peoples are not agree with our president. We said many times: We don’t want him and this government but what did do other nations?
    Our cruel government arrests anybody who wants freedom and other nations look at them!
    Surely most of them are like terrorists and think like early humans! 😀
    But can you say that all peoples are the same?
    They pay money to their fans and want them to go to streets and say “Down with Israel” or “Down with USA” but!
    But we sit at home and say “Down with yourself!”
    Our country is growing on our shoulders but they save moneys! They’ve forced our great peoples to migrate from Iran.
    I except you think better about people (Not only Iranians). We have many smart men or women but also have many stupid people.
    We want peace and don’t support them and respect to other religions and want others to respect to us.
    + Our president face is like Hell Boy face, isn’t it?! :)

  44. You know you’re a geek working for Microsoft when buying an iPod and using a Google blog tool is deemed rebellious!

    At 11, he could already be getting into girls’ pants, smoking weed, and drinking booze.

  45. You know you’re a geek working for Microsoft when buying an iPod and using a Google blog tool is deemed rebellious!

    At 11, he could already be getting into girls’ pants, smoking weed, and drinking booze.

  48. Very interesting, you’re communicationg with your family via blog posts instead of e.mail. Now, I just heard a podcast or read a blogpost a couple of hours back with just that notion, that e.mail is outdated, replaced by blogs and IMing.

  49. Very interesting, you’re communicationg with your family via blog posts instead of e.mail. Now, I just heard a podcast or read a blogpost a couple of hours back with just that notion, that e.mail is outdated, replaced by blogs and IMing.

  50. Do you have a dog? If so, will he start blogging? :)
    I think it’s cool that your son started a blog. I wish when I was younger that I could have developed an interest in what my dad did but the stock market & banking was too boring. :)

  51. Do you have a dog? If so, will he start blogging? :)
    I think it’s cool that your son started a blog. I wish when I was younger that I could have developed an interest in what my dad did but the stock market & banking was too boring. :)

  56. My heart is warmed. This isn’t rebellion, this is a son looking up to his Dad. The ultimate compliment, in my opinion!

    I should only be so lucky (so far, my daughter wants to be a Dr. and my son a Daddy - I am 0-2, but my hubby is 1-1). Though, I suppose a Dr. is better than a PR Chik?

  57. My heart is warmed. This isn’t rebellion, this is a son looking up to his Dad. The ultimate compliment, in my opinion!

    I should only be so lucky (so far, my daughter wants to be a Dr. and my son a Daddy - I am 0-2, but my hubby is 1-1). Though, I suppose a Dr. is better than a PR Chik?