This Scobleizer entry led me to several more RSS subscriptions. I obviously already follow the Scobleizer, which resulted in my earlier subscription to the weblog of his Senior V.P. Eric Rudder. Eric may not post often, considering the considerable demands on his time, but he "gets it" in a big way. Today I discover Lenn Pryor, Scoble's boss. Subscribed. From one of Lenn's posts, I found another member of Lenn's staff and Scoble teammate, Jeff Sandquist. Subscribed. RSS Rocks!

Lenn and the team recently launched Channel  9, a multi-tool attempt to humanize Microsoft through video, blogs, wikis, et al.  I have not had the time to examine the site in any detail, but it is an interesting experiment. I picture the Microsoft legal team "cocked and locked" waiting for someone to screw up. No stress...

I was listening to the BloggerCon webcasts earlier. Channel9 has come up a couple of times as an example of corporate/customer interactions that are done right. It's nice to hear that Lenn is getting appreciation too.

I am so fortunate to be working for Lenn. And we both owe a lot to the execs above us: Vic Gundotra, Sanjay Parthasarathy, Eric Rudder (did you notice that Eric is active in Channel9?) and Steve Ballmer. These are the executives who aren't getting the credit for weblogging and Channel9 at Microsoft, but who deserve it. It's not easy taking a "we need to communicate better with our customers" stance at Microsoft. Remember, just a few years ago this was the company that tried to close down its MVP program.

Lots of times our executives are seen as bad guys. But, these four are the ones who are egging us on to do more for our customers. Eric Rudder said so when I nailed him in the parking lot.

Everytime you hear "Channel9 rocks" you should think of those guys.

They are putting their careers on the line to make Microsoft a more open, friendly, informative, and transparent place and I, for one, greatly appreciate that. When I say I love Microsoft, a whole lot of that love is due to these guys' attitude toward customers and people in general.

Is it hyperbole to say that careers are on the line? Absolutely not. Weblogging/corporate transparency is still an experiment in our society. How many other large companies have more than 100 webloggers? Ask yourself: why not? Because corporate openess is very risky. It requires taking an attitude of "hire great people and let them do their work." Not many corporations are willing to do that.

I'm very proud to work for a company that is becoming more open and transparent right before your eyes. Thanks Steve, Eric, Sanjay, Vic, and Lenn.

[Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger]

5:24:29 PM