Scoble, PodTech Decide Not To Take PayPerPost Honorarium: Why?
Some bloggers, me included, have written about A-list blogger Robert Scoble's February 2, 2007, announcement that that he was speaking at Pay PerPost's "PostieCon 07
...Cause I’m a capitalist and because I think that blog advertising is something that we should talk about...
For details about the conference, scheduled for June 1 and 2, 2007, in Orlando, Florida. see the February 3, 2007, PayPerPost item headlined "Robert Scoble to Keynote PostieCon 07."
As might be expected, Scoble's announcement sparked considerable criticism due to his prominence in the blogosphere and PayPerPost's unsavory reputation in some quarters. One of the most direct responses I've read came from "New media developer and professional blogger" Duncan Riley of Australia. He declared in a February 2, 2007, post that Scoble, a Vice President of Media Development at PodTech, has "become a paid shill for PayPerPost." He added:
Credit where it’s due, Scoble has balls…and a whole pile of guts in between. His reasoning is that they’re paying, it’s capitalism at work and he does this sort of thing, which is fair enough, but talk about putting the cat amongst the pigeons, a baby into a tank of sharks or Steve Irwin into a school of stingrays. Even some of his best mates have come out against him, notable so far his co-author Shel Israel....
To read Duncan's entire post , see "Scoble has balls.
I stated in a February 2, 2007, post headlined "Duncan Riley: 'Scoble Has Balls' that I agreed that Scoble had balls for disclosing that he was being paid to speak at "PostieCon 07." Scoble told his readers:
This is my first speech where I’m not only having my travel and expenses paid, but they are covering my salary too. That check will not go to me, but will go, instead, to PodTech, who is paying my salary.In addition to agreeing that Scoble had balls, I also said:
But let's see how he holds up under the barrage of criticism that's bound to come his way due to the fact that PayPerPost is so despised by some prominent bloggers. Finally, I think Robert loves controversy. As he likes to say, "Scoble: pissing off the blogosphere so you don’t have to."
Well, it seems that after a barrage of criticism, PodTech, which is described as "a growing network of audio and video podcasts for influencers and leaders in the global technology and media industries," has "decided not to accept speaker honorariums from any conference." I heard from Scoble twice today regarding his relationship with PayPerPost.
In the first post, in the comment section of The Blogging Journalist, Scoble defended his decision to speak at PostieCon 07. He wrote: Some things you should know about this (my emphasis):
This was followed by: "I've posted an update at http://scobleizer.com/2007/02/02/payperspeech-disclosure/1) I am being paid to speak at the PayPerPost conference. I have NOT been told what to say. I have NOT been told to say only positive things. I have NOT been told to say ANYTHING on PayPerPost’s behalf.
3) Here is some context. PayPerPost pays people to attack me (seriously, it has). I dislike PayPerPost’s goals a lot and am not changing my opinions of PayPerPost just because they are paying us a tiny sum of money (far smaller than what Seagate is paying to sponsor my show, and a tiny fraction of what I was paid at Microsoft). I also don’t agree with PayPerPost’s disclosure policies.
4) I am not going to be speaking out on PayPerPost’s behalf, nor have they asked me to. They simply wanted me to speak on whatever I would like to their audience.
5) If you don’t like what a company is doing, are you going to get better results by throwing rocks through its front window or sitting down with them and trying to change its behavior?"
PodTech has decided not to accept speaker honorariums from any conference."
Over at Scobleizer, Scoble posted an UPDATE2, in which he says: "here’s the PayPerPost blog where they tell more about “PostieCon.”
I commend PodTech founder and CEO John Furrier for his position on this. While I'm a firm believer that bloggers and other experts should be paid for speaking engagements on most occasions, I didn't think this one was right for Scoble. I like him and don't want to see him waste his hard-earned reputation on a company that wants bloggers to become paid hustlers writing glowing posts about PayPerPost's advertisers.
(Note: There is no number 2 itemized in the list above. Presumably, it's one or more of the sentences in No. 1).
Comments