Robert Scoble to Leave Microsoft, Joins PodTech.net

It looks like recently funded PodTech.net has hired Microsoft’s Robert Scoble, who writes one of the most popular blogs, and he’ll be moving from Washington to Silicon Valley.

I spoke to Robert briefly a few minutes ago. His on the record comments were “No comment for now. I’ll be posting shortly.” His off the record comments were, well, off the record. Congratulations to both John Furrier, the founder of PodTech, and Robert.

This is a bigger blow to Microsoft than will be apparent at first. Robert was responsible for much of the positive press around Microsoft. He put a very human face on Microsoft, and did much to get people to take a new look at the long hated company. I’m not sure Microsoft could replace him, or if they will even try.

Dave Winer, a long time friend of Scoble’s, just wrote a long post about his decision to leave Microsoft. He says “A person like Scoble can have enormous influence just by adopting some very simple ideas.” I agree. I missed the dinner last night that Dave mentioned because I was in Las Vegas for the eBay Live conference. Sounds like it was a good one.

Update: Robert’s first post on this is here.