<$BlogRSDUrl$> Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Internet Happenings, Events and Sources


Wednesday, December 03, 2003  

The Spoke
http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=4C7240:1F61EF2
http://www.thespoke.net

Microsoft Corp. has quietly launched a Web logging, or blogging, service targeted at tech-savvy people in their teens and 20s, but the service is apparently open to anybody. The service is called TheSpoke and is part of Microsoft's Academic Developer initiative, a Microsoft spokesman said Tuesday. The site was created by Singapore-based marketing services company Earth9 Pte. Ltd. and went live last week, said a spokesman for Smooth Fusion Inc., the Lubbock, Texas, company that hosts TheSpoke.net for Microsoft. Microsoft's academic developer initiative is focused on building a community of students interested in software development, the Microsoft spokesman said. TheSpoke is in a test phase and more features will be added, he said, adding that the site is not intended to be competition for blogging services such as Google Inc.'s Blogger.

TheSpoke looks to be more of a mass-market effort. The first members, dubbed Hubbers, for the site were recruited with postings on Web sites for gamers. In one such recruitment posting, apparently from the team setting up TheSpoke, the call to join goes out to any opinionated young person wanting to blog about technology and gaming. "TheSpoke is an online community for young leaders that are tech savvy and opinionated. TheSpoke provides tools to collaborate, discuss and debate the future of technology," said the recruitment posting, published Nov. 8 on an Xbox enthusiast Web site. Joe Wilcox, a Washington, D.C.-based Jupiter Research senior analyst, doesn't see TheSpoke as a threat to other blog services, but rather as a tool for Microsoft to win support from young software developers who might otherwise choose to work on projects that compete with Microsoft.

posted by Marcus Zillman | 2:18 PM
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