Microsoft has launched TheSpoke, a web logging service
aimed at tech-savvy people in their teens and 20s.
The service is part of Microsoft's Academic Developer
initiative. The site was created by Singapore-based marketing
services company Earth9 and went live last week, said a spokesman
for Smooth Fusion, company that hosts TheSpoke.net for
Microsoft.
Microsoft's academic developer initiative is focused on building
a community of students interested in software development.
TheSpoke is in a test phase and more features will be added,
although the site is not intended to compete with other blogging
services such as Google's Blogger.
Microsoft has set up specific web log communities, mostly for
people with more than an average interest in Microsoft software,
such as the GotDotNet blogs, but does not offer a mass-market blog
service.
TheSpoke looks to be more of a mass-market effort. The first
members for the site, known as Hubbers, were recruited with
postings on websites 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.
Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox did not 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.
"While there is a blogging component, TheSpoke is not a blogging
site. Creating this kind of community is a longstanding Microsoft
approach, particularly when it comes to building relations with
developers," he said.
"Considering that academia is fertile ground for Mac and other
Unix and Linux development, Microsoft is wise to provide
alternative resources like TheSpoke, where student developers can
gather and build a community."
TheSpoke is at
http://www.thespoke.net/
Joris Evers writes for IDG News
Service