You know, I don't know Robert Scoble that well, so I wasn't really wanting to chime in to respond to this post he recently made. In fact, the closest I've ever been to Scoble is that I'm now working in his old office, that's it. But after reading Jeff Sandquist's response, I have to chime in and disagree with Scoble as well.
I won't pretend to know whether Scoble's ego is out of control or not*, but Scoble, you are just wrong. I vehemently disagree with the sentiment that a blog has to be public to be a "blog". My wife blogs, is it public? No. Why? Because it deals with issues like fertility problems and other struggles. Even though it is not "public", it is available to be linked _within a smaller community_.
You can't find any posts from Google, MSN Search, or any other external search engine. However, all her posts are discoverable by other members of the community that are facing similar issues. She is getting a lot of the benefits from public blogging while being able to limit her audience to a support group that would be able to understand and sympathize with her. I fully support her doing so, and encourage her to continue. Would I call it a blog? ABSOLUTELY. Within her community, they all gain the benefits of blogs and accomplish all five "things" that Scoble discusses (via the use of internal tools). After blogging for almost three years, I like to think at least that I perhaps "get it" more than the average Joe.
In the comments on Jeff's post, Scoble makes the following statements:
You just gave them their own name "internal blogs." Over on my blog you called them "private blogs."
Go see a trademark lawyer. You know that "Vista" is not the same thing as "Windows Vista."
Scoble, once again, you are just wrong. I don't believe this is the same thing as comparing "Vista" and "Windows Vista." Comparing "private blogs" to "public blogs" is more like comparing "wool sweater" and "polyester sweater": they are BOTH sweaters!!! They simply use a different "medium".
In my opinion, it is pretty short-sighted to say that "private blogs" or not "blogs." Think of the use of blogging within support groups: like for people suffering from HIV/AIDS, recovering Alcoholics, etc. They can have a way to communicate "publicly" within their own support group yet still remain "private" to the outside world. In a way, it is almost like comparing the "private", "protected" and "public" keywords in a programming language. Alas, I won't go down that road of comparison though :).
So please Robert, step back and look at the bigger picture. By taking the perspective you are, you are only hurting the topic that you say you are an "expert" at. If you really love blogging as much as you do, please open your eyes to the different ways blogging can be used to help make this a better world, not just the ways that "you want" to use them. Remember, you != everyone.
*although statements like "Blogging is something I'm a weeeee bit of an expert on" in this response post certainly make it seem that way. With how relatively young blogging is compared to other forms of communication, I don't believe that any single person can be considered an "expert" at it.