The Microsoft founder and former CEO is of course famous for leading his company to unparalleled success during the 1990s with an all-star lineup of PC software: Windows, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Explorer, etc. He might have made some money for himself along the way, too.
But ever since he relinquished his position as Microsoft's chief 10 years ago, Gates quietly has been disengaging himself from the limelight, his own company and, consequently, the cutting edge of the consumer-tech world.
He continued to provide oversight on Microsoft's product development as chief software architect until 2008, but there can be little doubt that his concentration has shifted to the philanthropic organization he founded in 1994 with his wife: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Gates Foundation has been heralded for committing billions to fight global diseases and poverty, as well as providing Internet-enabled computers to low-income and remote areas. But it has received some criticism, too, namely for supporting agro-business and ignoring global warming.
Yet Gates now appears to have recognized that the social media tools created by other companies over the past decade pose a whole new opportunity to spread the good word of his charitable endeavors and get others involved. He came back to Facebook on Tuesday after a sixth-month exile, joined Twitter hours later, and on Wednesday launched his own blog-style Web site, Gates Notes.
CNET scored an exclusive interview with the tech mogul. He said he plans to "post content about three times a week," including podcasts.
""The Internet is tailor-made for the kind of activities I am involved in," Gates told CNET. He continued:
Although Twitter and Facebook are crowded with other celebrities, only a few tech entrepreneurs of similar status and repute have moved to embrace the social Web to the extent that Gates just did, perhaps because it entails so much direct feedback from readers.When I take a trip, we have all these photos. People want to see that, and it's very easy to put it up there. If I read a book, some people are considering whether to read that book or want a short understanding of what that's like. ... I think it's going to be a lot of fun to share on an ongoing basis. ... It will help guide me.
However, there are a few notable examples.
Forbes noted that HDNet chairman and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has been a prolific poster on Facebook, Twitter and his Blog Maverick. He often airs his own controversial, unconventional views, which he would probably argue are the very same kinds of ideas that have allowed him to succeed. Sample post:
Craig Newmark, creator and namesake of the world's most popular and lucrative ad-listing service, Craigslist, is also a social-media triple threat. He typically provides esoteric, tech-minded takes on a variety of subjects. Here is a sample entry on his blog:Why are we condemning Jeff Zucker & NBC over Leno?
What Zucker and NBC did was the EXACT RIGHT MOVE.
Business environments change. When they do, as broadcast network television has, and continues to, there are two basic choices. You can do it the way it's always been done, or you can challenge yourself to change the game.
Another famed Internet entrepreneur who maintains a formidable social media presence is Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and the concurrent Wikimedia Foundation, also a nonprofit computer-centric charity like the Gates Foundation. He has his own blog, primarily occupied with subjects pertaining to his eminently favored Web encyclopedia. Wales also appears on Facebook and Twitter, though the latter has not been listed as a verified account. Sample post:For me, the big deal is that everyone understands the need to focus on a culture of genuine customer service, not just talking about it, but really doing it. However, in any large group that kind of change is really difficult, for reasons no one really gets. That applies to all large groups, private industry as well as gov't.
I feel that the cultural beachhead to make this happen is the internal "innovation initiative," where the rank and file of an organization get together, online, and work on what makes sense to fix things. People can vote up the good stuff. In a sense, this is a suggestion box, tied to a serious force multiplier.
Longtime Gates rival Steve Jobs also has a popular blog. The blog addresses contemporary issues, praises Apple's achievements and criticizes the company's competitors. Oops, that's actually tech writer Dan Lyons' not-so-subtle masquerade as "Fake Steve Jobs." The blog is truly influential, though, having motivated its readers to contemplate staging a real-world uprising, as this sample post explains:Communities can now produce print magazines of higher quality, and of a more timely and customized nature than traditional print magazines can. YOU can publish your own cooking magazine or cookbook on Wikia. (Make one for your family, with all your great-grandmother's favorite recipes?)
On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific time, we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user (or as many as we can) turn on a data intensive app and run that app for one solid hour. Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network and sick of their abusive comments. The idea is we'll create a digital flash mob. We're calling it in Operation Chokehold. Join us and speak truth to power!
