After Microsoft’s Blogger In Chief, Robert Scoble, announced that he was skating for greener pastures, IBM’s Lotus In Chief, Ed Brill, quickly leapt to the fore, rationalizing:

One of the other things that Robert Scoble did for Microsoft was evangelize the value of “corporate blogs.” One of the unseen audiences for my weblog is the internal IBM audience. I think Scoble was very successful at using his blog as a bit of a “bully pulpit” — getting other Microsoft groups/individuals to see things differently. His audience wasn’t just customers, partners, and competitors — it was co-workers, too.

Brill exhorted IBMers who read his blog to prove it by signing in.

Not surprisingly, nearly 100 quickly complied, lavishing praise on his superior goodwill, intelligence, communications skill, cut of his jib and all ’round great guyness.

The Lotus Lovefest did not go unnoticed.

Robert the Scoble HimSelf concurred, at least with the basic premise:

Ed Brill, of IBM, notes that corporate blogs are often best used to talk to internal audiences. I totally agree. There’s something about putting an idea in public that gets it considered a lot more strongly than just writing an email to a contained group of people.

But Scoble groupie and independent blogger Steve Richards objected, noting that, unlike Brill, Scoble often brutalized his employer over its shortcomings, publicly fought for change, and welcomed robust dissent… much like a non-captive blogger.

“Ed, I don’t see any of these characteristics in your blog,” he wrote, “For me, your focus is on debunking Microsoft marketing, and I readily admit that you have some valid points to make there. I know for sure that most people would prefer you and your peers to blog about your great products and processes, to encourage a whole host of passionate developers, users and consultants working with your technologies to share their passion and expertise.”

While Brill acknowledged that Richards was “one of a few people” (including Email Battles) who had warned him that his publicly-shared Redmond fixation is a bit unseemly, he thundered that IBM/Lotus has taken sucker punches for far too long “without so much as a peep.”

Then Brill shared why he isn’t Scoble, and never will be. Whereas Scoble’s job was to roam around Redmond with a webcam and evangelize, Brill blogs on his own time. “Blogging is not mentioned anywhere in my IBM job description or performance evaluation. It’s a means to an end, in part, in terms of having a clear and open channel to reach my customers. But it’s not my job. My job is to make Notes sell — and for me, the blog is a tool that helps with this.”

While he gets excited about other IBM innovations, he confessed, he can’t be a catalyst. “It’s not my expertise.”

And he has no time, inclination or duty to chase down rumors. Thus, Brill admitted, “I’m not trying to be Robert Scoble.”

Good.

Where Brill’s position is that of a warrior girded for battle on the field, Scoble was high above in the announcer’s booth, filling the airwaves… a massively different charge.

That’s why, when he strikes you as a bit too abrasive, condescending or fixated… You might want to give Brill an extra bit of slack. The man has product to sell.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Email Battles Backgrounder: