Microsoft's New Enthusiast Evangelist

My former boss, Michael Gartenberg, is leaving the analyst ranks for Microsoft, where he will assume the new role of enthusiast evangelist.

On a new Weblog, he described his role, "to find, engage and work with enthusiasts and other influencers and show them all the cool stuff that Microsoft is doing."

I first encountered Gartenberg on Feb. 10, 2000, when he was an analyst for Gartner and I was a reporter for CNET News.com. A day earlier, Gartner PR sent an e-mail that an analyst was available to discuss the Feb. 15 launch of Windows 2000. Wrapped up in other stories, I didn't immediately respond. I later phoned and Gartenberg gave some startling projections: Slow Windows 2000 adoption and warning that one-in-four businesses would have trouble running the software. I filed the story, which posted early on Feb. 11, a Friday, and moved onto the next news item.

By 11 a.m., phone calls, e-mails and instant messages poured in claiming that my story was driving down Microsoft' stock price. What I didn't know then, but later learned from Gartner PR: No other reporter called to speak to Gartenberg and Microsoft had held up a press release with Gartner's Windows 2000 sales projections. So, Gartner PR proactively made an analyst available.

Two years later, Gartenberg would hire me to launch JupiterResearch's Microsoft Monitor practice. In November, he got unexpected news--that I would leave the analyst ranks and return to journalism, as editor of Microsoft Watch. Now, he's leaving, too.

The same month I joined Jupiter, Microsoft hired Robert Scoble as a technical evangelist. Scoble already was a blogger when he left NEC for Microsoft, but his blog exploded while working there. Scoble's early days as Microsoft's profile blogger marked the beginning of renewed grassroots outreach by Microsoft, especially to the technical and enthusiasts communities.

Scoble worked for Lenn Pryor, then Microsoft's director of Platform Evangelism. Pryor was the mastermind behind Channel 9, which launched in Spring 2004. Gartenberg will be doing podcasts at Channel 9 companion 10, among his other responsibilities.

I chuckle whenever going to Channel 9, because an avid Mac user, Pryor, developed and launched Microsoft's premiere blog reaching out to developers and enthusiasts. He left Microsoft for Skype about a year following Channel 9's launch. Scoble departed Microsoft last summer. My physics teacher taught that nature abhors a vacuum, but Microsoft has yet to fill the void left by Scoble's exit.

Could Gartenberg be Microsoft's next Scoble? He's as good a candidate as any. Gartenberg brings tremendous stature as an analyst, and he is a long-time blogger with a popular following. He also understands enthusiasts and their roles as evangelists.

Today he wrote, "Why Microsoft? There's a revolution going on. A battle for the hearts and minds of consumers in terms of their digital lives. I firmly believe that Microsoft is the only company that will enable the seamless transition for users to move in and out of the different aspects of their lives."

Gartenberg has started that evangelism already, methinks, even though his first day at Microsoft is Monday. Gartenberg has been a big Apple supporter, too, and I wonder how some of his Apple-loving past blogs will go over with the Microsoft faithful or the enthusiasts.

Apple doesn't have the kind of evangelism outreach or transparency of Microsoft. But a few more Apple marketing ideas applied to Microsoft outreach could go a long way. Gartenberg knows both sides and the software and gadgets in between them.

And a Mac guy created the hugely successful Channel 9 by getting support from the Windows die hards.

"People like me with ideas that rock the boat only get things done with support of strong leaders, who give us air cover to do so," Pryor said.