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The Robert Scoble smack-a-thon continued on Friday when Robert posted a story that he is going to be speaking at a conference sponsored by PayPerPost and they were going to pay him for his travel and time expenses. This unleashed once again a huge amount of backlash on Robert where most people were calling him a sell-out. There have been several items recently that Robert has written that I have disagreed with and have said so in several posts. But this time folks, I have to say, I think people are overreacting and are just jumping on the ever present Scoble bashing bandwagon.

I am not a big fan of PayPerPost and I agree that when you pay people to write things, it brings up a number of ethical issues. But PPP are not writing Scoble’s speech nor are they telling him what to say. He is a well respected member of this community and if they want to pay for his travel and time to speak at their conference, I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. I also have to give Robert props for posting the disclosure online when he knew it would bring nothing but more negative feedback.

Paying someone to come and speak is nothing new. Some of our most respected and well liked people are being paid tens of thousands of dollars to speak at companies and conferences, i.e. Bill Clinton, Rudy Guiliani, etc. If Robert is going to take the time to travel to the conference and give a speech having his time and expenses paid for I think is expected.

What I will find interesting is exactly what Robert is going to say at the conference. This conference will be attended by PayPerPost fans and users. Will Robert take this opportunity to speak his mind and opinion which will be contrary to most people in attendance or will he take the easy way out? Based on the substance of his speech, I think will determine whether this is a real issue or not.

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Technorati Tags: Robert Scoble, PayPerPost