Robert Scoble responds to those that think no tough questions were asked at the blogger gathering with Bill Gates the other day.
I think Robert’s right. Bill Gates is so experienced with answering questions, that he’ll know how to turn even a difficult question into something that makes a point he wants to get across.
I do think though, that gatherings like this are not just venues for debating–though some might enjoy that–but rather “nods” to the conversation that’s going on online.
For a long time I’ve wondered if Bill Gates would jump into blogging. He seems to understand its leverage quite well. But I also can appreciate how each and every word he writes could be twisted and turned so maybe it’s not best to say what’s on his mind.
I have wondered, though, if he couldn’t borrow a trick from Robert Scoble, though, and start a link blog. No commentary. Just links to stories, blog posts or whatever that he finds interesting for whatever reason. I imagine he’s too busy to read a wide variety of posts, so he wouldn’t have to link all that often. But I think quite a few bloggers would get a kick out of knowing that Bill Gates read their post. It’s like giving the “nod” to the conversation, but a lot less expensive fashion than flying folks up to Redmond.
Molly Holzschlag has a good transcript of her questions about web standards with Bill Gates here:
http://www.molly.com/2006/12/14/who-questions-bill-gates-commitment-to-web-standards/
Actually, it sounds like she was pressing fairly hard.
Bill Gates owns up to the fact though that IE was left to languish for too long.
Just wondering, why doesn’t Microsoft sponsor a Nascar??I am actually a very interested microsoft student that was just wondering why it hasn’t been done yet!?? Thanks for all the education and advancements in life,
Whitney J. Johnson