Scoble Gets Blogged Down in Technology  SJSU alum reflects on being one of the world's most famous bloggers By Mark Powell Orange Staff Writer

            Robert Scoble was never going to finish the barbeque chicken sandwich he had just ordered from the menu at Gordon Biersch.

            He was hungry enough to eat the whole thing, but the world’s most famous corporate blogger couldn’t avoid talking about weblogs for more than a couple bites.

            Not bad for a guy who never actually graduated from San Jose State, the rumor being that he failed to pass one class on Shakespeare. 

            “It’s worse than that,” Scoble said while fighting with laughter.  “I was one final paper away (from graduating).”

            Scoble, now Vice President of Media Development for PodTech, first started blogging back in 2000 when the subject was brought to his attention at a web developer’s conference. 

            After firing up his first blog, he had reached a pinnacle of only 18 readers.  Things have changed over time.
            According to Scoble, there are roughly 60 million blogs worldwide. 

            And according to the Technorati top 100 most read blogs list, Scoble’s ranking floats in the 15th-30th most-read range every week.

            To San Jose State Assistant Professor in Advertising Lily Buchwitz, Scoble truly is a celebrity.

            “It is the equivalent of seeing U2 play at one of your local pubs,” Buchwitz said. 

            Is Scoble famous?  He doesn’t seem to think so.

            “I’m not Britney Spears,” Scoble said.  “Whenever someone does come up and talk to me it’s another geek.  It’s usually someone I want to talk to.”    

            There are benefits as well as drawbacks to having a significant online presence, Scoble believes.

            “I get invited to better parties,” he said.  “But I get too much email; hundreds every day.”

            Scoble has friends in “every city in the world” and was even greeted personally by a crowd of 120 people upon showing up to London for a party.  He’s been invited to ski down the Swiss Alps by a few high rollers in his day.

            But Scoble never strays too far from his SJSU roots, which include Journalism and New Media lecturer and friend Steve Sloan.  The two have known one another about 15 years, Sloan said. 

            And Sloan remembers when the “gifted” Scoble would get into a little bit of trouble for tinkering with school computers back in the early 1990s.

            “Robert would load Beta programs onto the computers,” Sloan said.  “And they would crash.” 

            Though his intentions were anything but sinister, Scoble and his antics eventually led to his nickname: the Scobleizer.

            “Robert had played around with a professor’s computer and the professor stood up and said ‘My computer’s been Scobleized!’” Sloan recalled.

            So what does a person with an online presence such as Scoble’s have to say about the future of blogging?

            “As far as I know, there are two truckers that blog.  But in a year that means there will be 10.”

            On the heels of this simple example, Scoble says that the blogging pool doubles in size every six months, and will certainly add depth to the assortment of credible blogs found online.

            With so many other people blogging, Scoble may finally find time to sit down and finish a meal for once without having to blog or discuss blogging.

            Right?

            “I have to blog a few times a day.  Just today I was blogging from my car in the parking lot of Hitachi Data Systems,” Scoble said.

            Please, somebody get this guy something to eat.

Related Links:
Robert Scoble's Blog
PodTech 
Technorati Top 100

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Orange Journalism:
A class project by the students of Journalism 134, Online In-depth Reporting, Fall 2006, with Dr. Richard Craig.