A conversation with Jon Udell about his new job with Microsoft
For today's podcast I decided to interview myself about my upcoming new gig. It's a short episode, under six minutes, and the transcript follows. — Note: I actually meant to push this to the server later today …
Context & Ripple Effects
Jon Udell's move from InfoWorld into Jeff Sandquist's team at Microsoft was announced via a six-minute self-interview podcast, and the same-day pickup tells the real story: Scobleizer credited Sandquist personally, James Governor's MonkChips ran a 'Holy Crap Microsoft Just Got Awesome' reaction headline, and Rex Hammock pre-declared Udell his soon-to-be favorite Microsoft blogger. A single hire being metabolized that fast by the developer-blogger layer is the news — Microsoft bought a trust channel, not an employee.
The timing sharpens the point. It lands in a rough stretch for Microsoft's public-facing work: a hands-on reviewer panned the Zune as inferior to the iPod in late November, a partially censored pornographic image briefly hit the company's own RSS Team Blog earlier in December as a harsh lesson in licensing practices, and the firm's claim that its new Web-design tools complement rather than compete with Adobe is unconfirmed positioning that analysts already doubt. Bringing in one of the most credible independent voices in the trade press reads as a deliberate counterweight.
First-order effects
- Microsoft's evangelism organization under Jeff Sandquist gains a columnist whose independent reputation transfers in-house, while InfoWorld loses one of its most recognizable bylines.
Second-order effects
- Rival platform vendors get an explicit benchmark: one well-chosen hire generated more same-day goodwill across Scobleizer, MonkChips and Hammock than routine product messaging has, making recognized independent voices a recruitment target rather than merely a press audience.
Third-order effects
- If Udell retains his audience after crossing to the vendor side, the trusted-filter role splits into independent and corporate tracks, and trade-press influence migrates toward individuals with audiences rather than mastheads.
The trend: Platform vendors are hiring independent technical voices as in-house evangelists, converting personal credibility into a owned distribution channel as blogging erodes trade-press gatekeeping.