Advice for Robert Scoble

Robert Scoble is a tech blogger. Or, as he keeps reminding everyone, an A-list tech blogger. He used to be a ‘technial evangelist’ for Microsoft. (Not kidding; he got paid to do that — that’s the only way anyone will evangelise for Microsoft.)

Today, Scoble is vice-president of media development for PodTech, a technology entertainment network. He’s also author of the highly regarded Naked Conversations, a book about how blogs can change the way businesses interact with consumers. In general, he is very smart and, when it comes to technology and Web 2.0, he has many interesting and useful things to say.

But I’ll never watch his videos.

And it’s not because of the people he’s interviewing as part of his Scoble Show. On that show, Scoble frequently interviews the top figures from the top companies in the top stratum of the tech industry — something I take great professional and casual interest in — as well as entrepreneurs doing exciting new things in the digital space.

I won’t watch Scoble’s videos,  because they are, essentially, home videos. He arrives at an interview, sets up a camera (or has a cameraman shoot it), and then has a conversation with his interviewees. That could be alright — intelligent and knowledgeable techies talking to each other about the latest and greatest has its appeal. But Scoble does three things to ensure I’ll never give his videos the time of day:

1. He doesn’t edit — so we’re left with all the fat around an interview: the introductions, the digressions and hesitations, the off-topic musings and interruptions. Often, the crux — the meaty stuff — is lost amidst all the noise.

2. The interviews go on and on. I’m a big fan of online video, but you’re not going to get me to sit in one place to watch three poorly-framed talking heads gab on for half an hour or more. Again, this is largely an editing problem. Pick out the 10 minutes of gold and give me that — I don’t need the rest of the fluff, and I certainly don’t have the time to deal with it. Especially when I’ve got YouTube, a million other tech blogs, and well-written and neatly-edited news videos and reports to read online.

3. No text summaries. Most of the time, I have no idea what I’m getting myself into, because Scoble doesn’t summarise in a neat paragraph what is discussed within the video interview. Telling me who the people are and what is the company isn’t enough. Before I commit my precious and much-competed-for time to such a lengthy video — which requires my undivided attention — I need to have an idea of what’s going to be covered. Otherwise I’m scared the whole thing will be a waste.

Scoble might consider this link-baiting, but it’s not. This blog is too insignificant, and I’m too small-time to care about that. I just wish he’d change the way he does his videos. I hope he reads this and does that.