I see Rick Segal picking on Amazon's CTO after reading a bunch of blogs this morning about our Amazon talk (and the ensuing controversy about whether or not we answered questions very well or not). I love how Rick called friends at Amazon and did some homework.

Hey, I want a rematch! Scoble (Microsoft evangelist) vs. Werner (Amazon CTO). Topic? Would blogs be good for Amazon? Think about the draw that'd bring at some conference!

Other good comments on this topic? Loren Heiny, blogger (he started a software house too). Jim Minatel, Wiley employee (book publisher!) and blogger.

Update: I answered the questions Werner raised, and more on a post here.

I just saw this over on the BrandToBeDetermined blog — that Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson are talking about are bloggers an authoritative source at big companies? Turns out the answer, at least here at Microsoft, is "maybe." (They asked our PR department and I got involved in the conversation internally that happened).

• Executives like Ray Ozzie who blog? Absolutely. Any executive is almost always on the record for the company.
• Team blogs like the IE team blog or the Xbox team blog? Yes with an asterisk, because what goes on those blogs is usually vetted by other people on the team and they discuss it (which explains why those blogs are generally a bit more reserved than individual blogs. I put an asterisk there because some teams might not require pre-vetting, but up to today team blogs are generally good sources of information on those products).
• Individual bloggers like me? Depends (the PR team says to always call and verify facts, just to be safe). For me, it depends what I'm writing about and the tone I'm taking in my writing. If it's about the team I'm on (which does On10.net and Channel 9) and I say something you can assume I'm pretty authoritative and the facts I'm giving you are pretty accurate. If I interview, say, the head of the Internet Explorer team or Bill Gates or someone else, you can be pretty sure that's an authoritative piece of content that reflects the company's opinion pretty well. But most of the other writings I do? I'm not vetted. I don't check with others before I write my opinions. So, you should "fact check my a**" as they say around the blogosphere. On the other hand, I am on the record and you can quote me in press and blogs and other stuff (and I often do). If I say something about Microsoft I work very hard to make sure it's accurate (and if it isn't, you see that within minutes as my readers jump on me in my comments which are open and unmoderated).

That said, if you're a journalist writing a story it's best to check in with our PR teams (if you don't know how to get ahold of them, see the "Press" link on the right side of my blog, or drop me a line and I'll get you with them). They will be happy to give you the "official" story as well as they know who the official spokespeople are from each team and can put you in touch with them.

I do expect blogs to be used to get both the official and unofficial story out about things, just as the Security Team is communicating about Internet Explorer fixes on its blog.

This came up a few times in speeches today. Many PR departments are really struggling with this. They don't like the fact that employees at the edge of a company can get quoted in news media. This is a grand experiment that still is playing out in corporate America today.

What do you think?

I just spent a few minutes talking with Max Skibinsky, founder and main developer behind Hive 7. Wow, he's a total JavaScript God or something. He's done stuff in the browser that I didn't expect. They just released a beta preview of Hive 7 today.

Anyway, Om Malik got the same tour a few hours earlier so I'll just link to him and go back to working on stuff here at Microsoft (yeah, working late again, damn email is just flowing faster and faster).

Om, this isn't real full 3D yet. Your camera position can't move and you can't spin things like you can in Second Life (objects are flat, but look 3D because of opacity). That isn't taking away from what Max did at all. It's awesome.

Also, it does both Second Life and Hive 7 a disservice to compare the two. Second Life is a downloadable application. That means it'll be far richer than a browser-based application. But Hive 7 will get more users quicker because most people aren't willing to download an app and install it, especially if they perceive there isn't much value there (and for most people there isn't much value in these things — yet).

In Hive7 I was brought into a room with lots of objects in it. Chairs. Tables. Curtains. Each thing was an object that I could drag around. Each was programmable via JavaScript. Max inserted a chess board in the middle of the room and we were playing chess. He inserted a picture of my son and put it on the wall. He inserted a video and started playing it. He inserted a Web browser and we browsed the Web together. Very cool stuff. All in a browser Window. All with no plugins or other installs.

Oh, and the backend? It's running on Windows Server 2003 64-bit. I'm noticing a trend lately — more and more cool stuff on the Web is running with Windows as a backend (MySpace announced last week that they were running on the same). Max says he can't yet afford to build out a huge datacenter so if too many people show up all at once they might not be able to get in.

If you get an opportunity to play with it, do, it's a lot of fun and even if you don't end up a long-term user you'll appreciate what a browser can do a whole lot more. Works on IE and Firefox.

Ted Wallingford writes: "If I were Steve [Ballmer], I would allow my kids to use Google and the iPod, observe their activities, and find out just what the heck Google and Apple are doing right!  Will the Microsoft ever learn?  Come on, little Microsoft!! I'm pulling for you… I really am!"

I agree. Heck, just hang out with my son for a few hours. He loves his Apple stuff, including his iPod (Dave Winer got him an iBook for his birthday back in January).

My brother-in-law, who works for Apple on the Mac team, loves egging him on too. Bought him some Apple shirts, one of which you can see him wearing at brunch on Sunday on Tara's blog.

I tell Patrick he better do his homework before buying anything, whether it's from our side of the fence or somewhere else. I want him to explain to me why it's better and what he didn't like about the competition and he better have a better answer than "it's cooler." Although that pretty much was his answer for why he bought an iPod. Turns out peer pressure on the playground is driving a lot of technology choices. Teachers tell me that's how MySpace ripped through their schools too. Patrick told me "my school is an iPod school."

He broke his iPod, by the way (dropped it and broke the screen) so he's saving up for another device that plays media. Will it be an iPod or will there be something else to catch his fancy? Right now he thinks he's gonna buy another iPod.

I'm a bad parent and a bad evangelist, what can I say? But on the other hand, if he ever switches away from an iPod, you'll be likely to listen to him. I'd love to send him to SteveB's house and see if Steve can convince him to switch.

Personal note to Patrick: finish your homework, update your blog (it's been a while), and don't play Second Life too much.

Oh, and Steve Ballmer: you'll be happy to hear that he's bugging me to buy an Xbox 360 — I haven't yet cause I've been home something like a handful of weekends since the launch, but that should change soon (he holds an Xbox camp for all the kids in the neighborhood during the summer) and he wants me to get him a SmartPhone.

Want MSFT to MSFT get MSFT the MSFT attention MSFT of MSFT a MSFT public MSFT company? MSFT Rebecca MSFT MacKinnon MSFT has MSFT one way.

Sorry, just a little search engine work there. But you get the point of what she's recommending you do.

On10.net there's a cool school that uses Tablet PCs and requires all the fifth graders to have one. Obviously a private school (and expensive) but cool nontheless.

Alfred Thompson, who works with schools as part of his job at Microsoft, blogs more about it.

John Phillips, director of education at the school, has a blog and talks about the project too.

By the way, we're looking for other educators who are using technology in interesting ways in their schools. Do you know someone?

You might think that the trick to good speaking is speaking well. Being confident. Having interesting content. And all that.

Now that I've given a bunch of speeches (four in the past two days), I'm learning that the real skill a speaker needs is listening. Can you take a question during a talk and turn that into something useful? Can you do it from Amazon's CTO? It's hard.

What was interesting was how different all four audiences are. The Chamber of Commerce audience asked lots of questions that showed they were hungry for ANYTHING that could help them get their business more exposure. Guerrilla marketers. The government audience asked lots of questions about how to get approval to do a blog. They pointed out that there are lots of rules inside governmental organizations about how to, and when to, share information with the public. Made me realize why the government took a couple of days to really start to deal with Katrina.

The Amazon audience told us that they like to let their product do the talking and that then they'll listen to the feedback and participate in their forums. This matches the kind of stuff I heard at Target and Google.

Doc Searls, in 2004, noted that great brands won't get blogging. It's too bad, too, there are so many passionate people inside Amazon who are just waiting to share their passion about online shopping and books. I took pictures of them so I could remember them. To me the people who work at Amazon are Amazon (yes, I can still hear Jeff Bezo's laugh in my head — I remembered that he hung out with everyone else at O'Reilly's FooCamp all night long — that drive to find a better idea is why they have such a great company).

One thing I learned, though, at Amazon is the deep love of their customers. That resonated with me a lot. Appreciate the people who pay your paychecks and reward them with killer stuff and listen to them when they talk with you. I love that culture.

I guess that's why I'm different than a "consumer." I wanna know what's on the minds of the people creating products and services, and, I'd love to have conversations with them about their products and learn some stories so that I can better evangelize their work. Ben Hollis asked "what about Apple?" during our talk at Amazon today (and, I missed, that he asked the same thing on his blog earlier). Yeah, maybe Amazon, Google, Apple, and Target don't need that — this quarter.

But, long term? Most people I know like doing business with people and companies 1) that they know and 2) that they like 3) that listen to them when they ask for something better/different. I was reminded of this the other night when Shel and I were out to dinner. He got a piece of duck that simply was not worth the $28 he was paying for it. He complained, nicely, but the woman serving us didn't do anything and just said "I don't make the prices here." It isn't lost on me that he's not gonna go back there (and neither will I, to tell the truth cause it was damn tiny).

Aren't you more likely to be a happy customer when you're listened to? Maybe if the chef came out and explained why the price was so high and gave us a good story things would have been different "that duck is a very rare one hunted in an exclusive area in Canada and air-flown straight here so it's really fresh." Heheh. I'm reminded of that every time I look at Microsoft's Product Feedback Wiki. You do realize that Microsoft didn't create this, right? Our customers did. Allmost everything there is written by a customer. Why in heck would they do that if we weren't gonna listen? And, if we don't listen, do you think people will keep doing it?

Other things I learned? Everyone is proud of what they do. I met people from FEMA (Michael Howard, PIO is someone I wish I could go on disaster drills with — he told me that there's a 25% chance of a major earthquake sometime in the next 30 years here, so his team is working to try to get ready for that kind of disaster), from the Red Cross, from universities (hi Kathy Gill, nice tech blog by the way), from small businesses (if you ever need a DJ to host a wedding in Seattle, check out Susan McKee), to Ann Marshall, director of public relations for Cingular Wireless (I thanked her for my great phone). All authorities on their business, their communities, their competition, their marketplace.

I keep asking myself this week after my big blow up last week. "Are you listening?"

Update: Steve Rowe wrote, on his blog, about our session at Microsoft yesterday. I hear that the video will soon be made available publicly from that session.

Mini-Microsoft, an anonymous but popular blogger who writes from inside Microsoft has turned on comment moderation. Interesting. That means he's gotten tired of the anonymous commenters who are griping about things. Ironic. But, I understand. Boy, do I understand. Mentally it's hard to separate out the personal attacks (and, boy, they have been getting personal lately — things that you wouldn't hear in even the worst bar fight) and keep them from hurting you. These things are designed to hurt. They aren't designed to help anyone or help anything.

The venom is flowing. I figure there's no way to control it, so might as well encourage it. Who can write the best anti-Scoble flame? What's the nastiest thing you can say to me? Let's get it all out on the table so you can get all your venom out of your system and we can go on with life together.

Here, let's practice: Scoble, you are the evilest, fattest, rudest, stupidest, most egotistical, corporate shill that I've ever seen. Even poo is better than you.

I'm sure you can think up better. It's 2:44 a.m. Shoot me for not having good flaming skills this late in the evening.

There's a good example over on Rick Segal's blog. I bet Rick will pull it down, but it says "I am so sick of that fat retard….he is like a overgrown child and looks so stupid trying to defend MS as their press turns to shit around them!"

That's getting into the spirit.

There's a couple of good examples over on Shelley Powers' blog: (Ken Camp) "he’s become a drone without new insight and is such a boring read any more than i don’t bother most of the time." (Scott Koon) "I just …. feel smarter since I stopped reading him. I filled my aggreagor with more do-ers and less talkers like him."

Or, how about Comic Strip Blogger? He goes even further with his comic about me. First panel? "That swine Robert Scoble."

Oh, ouch, keep it coming! Who can flame better?

Come on, we all know it's not politically correct to like Windows Vista or Internet Explorer! So, as my bedtime treat, these bloggers must be banned. Heheh.

Andre Costa: I am running Windows Vista right now. How would I best describe it? Awesome! Dude, you are so banned now! No one will ever believe another thing you'll say! You'll never get a good mod rating on Slashdot if you keep talking that way.

Dave Shea: (He used to bash IE): It's likely that any praise of Internet Explorer will still be controversial for now, but it's well-earned. Hear me out. Um, no, you're banned from blogging forever! We can not put up with any IE love here! You were right to go with your gut. Controversial is right!

Jim Holmes: More Great Openness at Microsoft (talking about IE team's opening up of its bug database). Hey, Jim, we can't have any talk about Microsoft opening up, OK? Keep it to yourself or a hoard of Slashdotters might visit you and taunt you.

Chrono Tron was #1 on Wordpress.com yesterday, but just made a big mistake by posting Advantages of Vista and IE 7. But, he saved himself by saying the delay sucks. Oh, OK, you get a pass Chrono! Saved by using the word "sucks" within a post about Vista and IE 7.

For everyone else, let's not have any more of this kind of talk. If you do, Shelley Powers might link to you and believe me, you don't want her to do that!

Indie music by the Los Shoegazers (that's Valerie Landau's son Camilio — I know Valerie through NextNow, a group of intellectuals who hang out with Douglas Englebart, among other smart people). Click down to "I Met You on MySpace." Destined to get at least 200 more plays. Heheh.

Sean Coon, can you make me a borg card like that? That's cool. We could collect the whole set!

I love the "stick it" closing arguments by James Spader on Boston Legal. It's amazing how many things Americans have just kept quiet about lately.

Oh,TabletKiosk is taking orders for Origamis (er, UltraMobilePCs).

Are you into IIS, well there's a group of excellent Webcasts coming up this week all for you and all free.

Professor Lynda Gratton, of the London Business School, has a cool video on The Power of Good Conversation. Great companies value conversations, she says. I love the 50 Lessons idea where they have successful business leaders who share their experiences in the form of short video stories.

April 1 is the day to take pictures of everything you put in your mouth. At least if you buy into Oralpixation. Sounds like a fun thing to do on April fools day.

Wanna listen to the USA's National Public Radio on your cell phone? Well, Rob Greenlee told me that Mobilcast now is doing just that.

I've been using the new NewsGator Inbox 2.6 for a few days now and it runs great. Lots of little new features (better synch, for instance, and it gives you a list of errors so you can find out if a feed is permanently down now). Congrats to Greg Reinacker and team on shipping that and a new FeedDemon. More on Greg's blog. This is still the feed reader I use (NewsGator in Outlook).

Improbulus, on the Consuming Experience blog, is complaining about nextsplog abuse on Blogger. Oh, boy, yet a whole new form of stealing traffic.

And, with that, I'm off to bed. Have a busy day tomorrow due to speeches and other stuff (Shel Israel and I are speaking at Microsoft in building 113, room 1021 tomorrow at 1:30 p.m.). Unfortunately only open to Microsoft employees, but we'll try to get it videoed and up in public.