Jeffrey:
>Podtech should have known that Irina had a huge network of influential people who >love her, and rightly or wrongly took her firing personally. In retrospect, >it could have been done better. The problem is that at some point or another it's a business. If money keeps flowing out and not coming in at an increasing rate eventually investors get itchy. PodTech was going through its own managerial problems at this time too, which caused almost every problem you detailed below. You might have seen that the CEO is no longer the CEO. You might notice that I'm off to do something else (even though my show was pretty damn profitable). And that almost everything else is getting closed down except that which brings in revenues. I won't say anything bad about Irina, but I've learned many times in my career that whenever you hear about someone getting fired from a company that there's more than one story. Keep in mind that Irina had been laid off when we hired her and we invested a TON of money in her career and in Eddie's (and we even let Eddie keep thousands of dollars in gear so they could keep doing their show - that's more than I'll get from PodTech when I leave). And sorry for beating up on the community, I hope it comes out of this and sees some real success stories. Sorry that PodTech wasn't one of them, although PodTech is still living to see another day and still deserves our support. Robert Scoble ### _____ From: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jeffrey Taylor Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 11:43 PM To: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com; Robert Scoble Subject: Re: [videoblogging] My Amends To Robert Scoble Robert, I'm really sorry that your first venture out of Microsoft didn't turn out to be an overwhelming success. It wasn't entirely your fault, as things like this go. But I am afraid you're trying to hang your baggage about this failure (and I think failure is a good thing) on this community. Podtech could not have done a better job of communicating through it's actions, regardless of its intentions, that Podtech did not care about videobloggers anymore. Long before now. I really don't want to crap on the goodwill sent by Gena, and I am the first person to do my best to see both side of an argument. 1. Firing Irina, saying that Podtech's focus had changed and publicly saying how much Podtech had spent on her was a signal to us that Podtech did not want to focus on this community anymore and wanted to turn towards corporate content. I saw nary a negative comment about Podtech before Irina. Podtech should have known that Irina had a huge network of influential people who love her, and rightly or wrongly took her firing personally. In retrospect, it could have been done better. 2. The Lan and Vloggies controversies did not help. This was an opportunity for Podtech, at the very least, to communicate their respect for the community as they changed their business plans. Still, it was a debacle on both sides from start to finish. Total dramafest. 3. Podtech is just as responsible for the ill-will created as this community may be, and the sad thing is that the "goodwill cost" of certain decisions was not calculated before the decisions were made. It cost Podtech more to fire Irina, to not take care of Lan immediately and to be a bit greedy with the Vloggies than it saved. As for the rest, I really hope you'll get a cooler head about this. Blip gets thanks and lauded here all the time. Many others do as well, and the ones that don't get our eyeballs and sponsorship/VC cash that puts food on their tables (and in some cases, Baccarat crystal and Royal Doulton china on their tables, too). They'll be fine, because you're absolutely right when you say entities don't need "us" (whatever "us" is) to do well. I don't think that many of us think that at all. I really hope you do well at Fast Company or wherever you end up, Robert. You deserve success simply for having the massive courage it takes be your authentic self in all forms of media. And I am sorry we live in a world in which being playfully, passionately excited about something, like you are about technology, is given such a nasty reception at times. On 26/12/2007, Robert Scoble <robertscoble@ <mailto:robertscoble%40hotmail.com> hotmail.com> wrote: > > Gena, > > Thanks, this was a very nice Christmas present and a nice way to end a > really great day. Someone just forwarded me your email and I appreciate > that > too. > > I haven't been able to respond over on the Cheryl page because it keeps > saying my comments are spam, which is funny too. Oh well. > > One thing I wanted to say over there is that PodTech invested more than a > million dollars in this community (seriously, I have the receipts, we > hired > dozens of videobloggers and even had a few on our staff, including people > who are very active on this group). I've personally got tons of people > here > paid, some of which got paid more than $100,000 each since PodTech was > born. > > Part of my frustration is that the community, rather than cheering on > businesses that are trying to put food on videoblogger's tables, actually > turn and attack and not in a helpful way and when someone is under attack > I > don't see many in this community come and stand up against the mob. > > I just looked back on the last few days of posts here and I see pretty > predictable results from my outburst. But you didn't get the point. How > many > of you stood up when TechCrunch said that PodTech deserved to be in the > dead > pool? How many of you stood up when that same blog, or when Valleywag > printed attacks against me? Not many. > > Hint: eventually sponsors and employees get the message and move money > away > from a company that isn't getting community support. And, worse, it > definitely demoralizes the employees and makes them far less willing to > take > risks on behalf of the community. > > That's why Cheryl's post about Epic-FU rubbed me the wrong way. I can bite > my lip when it's me under attack (although, no, it's not fun) but when I > see > a repeated pattern I felt I needed to speak out about it and this > community > has often not been friendly to those of us who are trying to make > businesses > that get more of us paid. > > Let's turn it away from PodTech. > > Have any of you thanked Revision3? Rocketboom? Huffington Post? Federated > Media? Jason Calacanis? (He was attacked here, but my friends who worked > for > him say his paychecks never bounced). Leo Laporte? Epic-FU? Or any of the > other people struggling to make money in this new art form? And there are > dozens of others who are trying to build businesses here in the NewTeeVee > industry. > > How many of you have stood up and said thank you to YouTube, Blip.tv, > Kyte, > or any of the other companies who are trying to make it possible for you > to > distribute your work (and get paid - I know at least one videoblogger who > gets paid more than $10,000 per month thanks to YouTube's advertising > deals)? Some of you have, and that's always appreciated. But most of you > remain silent, or don't look to help out and make sure there are healthy > businesses here. > > There's tons of others, too. > > As to PodTech's run-in with Lan Bui, there's a reason why we were arrogant > in response: those pictures were taken at our party: the Vloggies. An > employee used them without checking because she assumed that the community > would support us and that pictures taken at our own event could be used > without worrying too much and it was on a sign, not something that would > make us tons of money. Turns out she was very wrong (how many of you have > never made a mistake?), but if someone took pictures at your Christmas > party > last night, and you used them on your blog, and then that photographer > sent > you a bill for $3,000 wouldn't you be a bit miffed? Especially after you > lost tens of thousands of dollars on such party? (PodTech lost a lot of > money on the Vloggies, and, indeed on the videoblogging network it was > trying to build). > > Today PodTech is turning away from videoblogging and more toward corporate > content which doesn't pay videobloggers at all - so we all lose. Myself? > I'm > moving to something new next month - it'll be fun and I want to take the > community with me, but my eyes are far less idealistic than I was when I > left Microsoft and thought that this community would really be fun to work > with. It doesn't take much business insight to see that this industry, er, > community, is having a tough time coming up with a business model. It > doesn't take sharp eyes to see that this community hasn't rocked and > rolled, > even while other video communities have. > > Maybe there won't be a good business model for videoblogging (although I > think I've found one and would like to get more people on board), but it > seems to me that when a company is helping pay videobloggers that this > community should have done everything possible to make sure it succeeded. > > Me? I'm going to do everything possible that Zadi and Steve succeed, and > succeed wildly. That's how I'll give back to the community. > > I really appreciate this note, it's a great Christmas present and makes me > feel like doing even more to help this community. > > Robert Scoble > > ### > > _____ > > From: videoblogging@ <mailto:videoblogging%40yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com <videoblogging%40yahoogroups.com>[mailto: > videoblogging@ <mailto:videoblogging%40yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com <videoblogging%40yahoogroups.com>] > On Behalf Of Gena > Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 10:41 PM > To: videoblogging@ <mailto:videoblogging%40yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com <videoblogging%40yahoogroups.com> > Subject: [videoblogging] My Amends To Robert Scoble > > Robert I want to specifically address an issue you have brought up and > I don't think you were being heard. > > You took a lot of heat concerning the Podtech - Censorship of Loren > debacle. Words were said and mud was flung in all directions. Upon > reflection, I don't think folks separated you from the company or in > fact the actual person that generated the situation in the first place. > > I think we as humans start to classify folks as "personalities" and > not as real people. I met a very nice person (this would be you) a few > years back. We talked as regular folks. To be honest I tend to do > that with everyone I met. But others treat you as "The Scoble" with > reverence. > > The other side of that seems to be intense anger when there is a > disagreement. It is not right but there ya go, it is human. Part of it > is the celebrity thing. The other side of it is somedays we just do > not act according to our better natures. I didn't speak up and say > "Hey, he didn't cause this situation why are you going after him?" > > I have been to other events where folks wouldn't part their lips > toward me because I'm not an "A - Lister". This is a good thing as it > cuts down on the amount of BS I have to produce. I'm aiming for zero > emissions. > > When I look at the comments section of your blog those folks play > rough. I don't know how you can plow through that stuff on a daily > basis. What is scary is that these folks like your writing but are > almost cannibalistic in how they respond to your posts. > > You may or may not have good reason to deal with this group again. I > don't know. But I do want to say that speaking for myself only I > acknowledge the dog piling you received and it wasn't right. For > whatever part I played I'm sorry and I heard what you said. > > Gena > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > -- Jeffrey Taylor Mobile: +33625497654 Fax: +33177722734 Skype: thejeffreytaylor Googlechat/Jabber: thejeffreytaylor@ <mailto:thejeffreytaylor%40gmail.com> gmail.com http://twitter. <http://twitter.com/jeffreytaylor> com/jeffreytaylor [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
