Josh Bancroft’s TinyScreenfuls.com

I have a friend from work (hi Danika!) who’s at the Blog Business Summit up in Seattle. Yesterday, I got an email from her right before my OBIABC Podcasting presentation saying “you just got mentioned by name like three times!”. Turns out it was in the session on mixing personal and professional in the blogosphere, with Robert and Maraym Scoble, Chris Pirillo and Ponzi, and Jory Des Jardins.

Janet Lee Johnson has a blog post about the session. I’m guessing this is the part where I got mentioned:

“[Chris is] saying that Intel should pull in people who really care about what they’re writing about (mentioning people who are blogging outside of Intel, and are Intel employees) because they have the passion, the street cred, and the chops that any corporation should be nurturing as bloggers.”

Thanks, Chris! My ego loves stuff like this! Seriously, though, it’s gratifying to see my efforts at putting a human face on Intel get recognized, and I hope it brings more Intel folks to poke their heads out of the firewall, and start talking.

And thanks to Janet for the liveblogging, and to Danika for letting me know, and making my day yesterday.

Oh, and on a side note, Janet is right - we need to link to the Intel Software Network and IT@Intel blogs from the intel.com home page. Bryan, who do we need to butter up to get that to happen?

Update: Wow, you guys are awesome. Not only did the questions start coming in, but others are jumping in and answering them in the comments. Real, actual conversation! I love it! I’ll get my own answers posted as soon as I can - I’ve been buried this week, which means perhaps this wasn’t the best time to do this, but I couldn’t hold it back any more. I won’t forget you!

Update 2: Rob Bushaway over at GottaBeMobile.com asks a question about mobile driver support for Intel graphics. Brian Jarvis (my podcast partner and fellow Intel employee with a blog) answers the question (with instructions and a photo!) over at his blog. See? This is how this stuff is meant to work!

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I want to start some conversation. I’m not officially authorized to speak for Intel on any matter (see my “Caveat Lector” disclaimer over there in the sidebar), but there are a ton of things that I can talk about. I’m just a guy, a blogger, who works at a very large company that makes the most complex things ever made by humans. It’s a fascinating place, and I know there are lots of you that would like to know more about Intel. Or maybe you have something you’d like to vent. Or perhaps you just want to say how much you love something Intel has done (wouldn’t that be nice?).

So, I’m punching a proverbial hole in the firewall. Do you have a question about Intel? Anything from what the food is like in the cafeteria to how Intel tackles some of the same problems that you probably face in your business? Let me have it, and I will do my best to either answer it, or find you the right person at Intel who can. Heck, maybe I’ll even get more Intel folks to start blogging. As with everything in life, there are no guarantees being made here. Just an honest desire to do something right for Intel and its customers.

Email me or post a comment, and I’ll get you an answer as soon as I can. This is hopefully going to be an ongoing thing, with more and more Intel people opening up and joining in.

Rules: Remember the living room rule. If you don’t behave as if you were a guest in my living room, I’ll ask you to leave, and lock the door. No secrets, nothing confidential. Do not post them, do not ask for them. And remember, we’re all humans here. Be nice.

I’m trying to be a role model for corporate bloggers, and of course, I’m not about to do anything that’s going to get me fired. Is this risky? Edgy? Yes, it is. It’s definitely unusual. Besides Scoble, I challenge you to name someone at a big company that has made themselves available to try to help answer questions on an individual level. But I really feel strongly that it needs to be done, and someone has to be the first one.

Why am I doing this? Because I believe there’s great value in forming connections and relationships between people. You can’t have a relationship with a giant legal entity known as a corporation, but you can form relationships with the humans who make up that company.

I’ve been too quiet/scared to blog much about Intel for a while. Part of it is the “restructuring” (layoffs) going on - I didn’t know if I’d still have a job, so I kept my head down. But part of it was also the “chilling effect” of having attracted the attention of HR and legal more than once. So I’ve been building up my courage to do something bold and risky, and here it is.

I’m getting naked, putting myself out there, and hoping that this works. Spread the word - link this post on your blog, post it to Digg, del.icio.us, Slashdot, whatever you want. Let’s start some conversation…