I’m not sure I understand what Hugh means by Microsoft has opted to take the non-Cluetrain route but then again the entire Cluetrain trend is something I’ve never been too knowledgeable about.
Hugh’s thinking that Microsoft are heading down the path of ‘extinction management’; trying to keep the walls up and impermeable to conversation. I don’t see it that way. Maybe part of the organisation is on that track but there’s definitely enough people within Microsoft who are engaged in the conversation to make me believe they’ll pull through.
Where Dare does miss the cluetrain bigtime is in his suggestion that handing over Channel 9 to “professionals” could be a good thing in the wake of Scoble’s departure.
It may even be a good thing to have some professional media folks running Channel 9 instead of just amateur media geeks.
I haven’t ever used Ch9 but whenever I’ve read about it, it seems like a cool place. Replacing the amatures will suck, the real users will see through it in a second and it is so not what the cluetrain is all about.