Robert Scoble doesn't understand enterprise software
Before saying a word, let me state that in my few dealings with famed uber-geek blogger, Robert Scoble, I've found him to be a great guy and I like him. Having said that, let's address the issue: Scoble asks his readers about enterprise software …
Context & Ripple Effects
This critique lands mid-arc for Scoble. His January 2006 exit from Microsoft had already been debated (whether he should leave), his disclosure habits drew their own scrutiny (his full-disclosure post that December), and in November 2007 he floated the idea of the 'serverless Internet company' able to run a webwide business from a browser. IT Project Failures takes that framing as evidence of a consumer-web lens applied where it does not fit.
The story traveled fast for a blog argument: Rough Type ran the same take the same day ('Misunderstanding enterprise software'), signaling the dispute touched something bigger than one author's opinion — the gap between A-list blogger enthusiasm and how enterprises actually buy software.
First-order effects
- Scoble's 'serverless Internet company' thesis meets a direct enterprise-side rebuttal from IT Project Failures, putting his judgment under scrutiny at a moment when he is also rumored — unconfirmed — to be planning a January departure from PodTech.
- Rough Type's same-day pickup extends the argument well beyond IT Project Failures' readership, turning a single critique into a public test of Scoble's enterprise credibility.
Second-order effects
- Bloggers who echoed Scoble's own October warning that leading tech blogs trade access with PR flacks and lose their skepticism now face the mirror-image charge: amplifying claims without checking them against enterprise buying realities.
- Enterprise software vendors reading the exchange get a live data point on whether A-list blogger endorsements carry any weight with IT decision-makers, whose evaluation criteria differ sharply from consumer-web buzz.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, tech-influencer authority bifurcates into two tracks — consumer-web reach and enterprise credibility — forcing vendors to court each separately rather than assuming one transfers to the other.
The trend: The A-list tech blogosphere is colliding with enterprise software's distinct buying logic, exposing how little consumer-web credibility carries across that line.