The Masked Blogger is an Apple employee who has decided to "join the conversation," while trying not to have the conversation turn to the inevitable topic of his employment being terminated by Apple. The blog in question was born out of a desire to respond to Shel Israel's post [Shel Hell Dampens my Mac Envy] on Naked Conversations about the way Apple manages (or fails to) their customer relationships and support experiences and how that may ultimately dictate their future. Shel ended his post with an invite for any Apple employee to respond if they wished to be heard on the matter. Enter "Masked."It's no secret that Apple does not encourage organizational transparency. Many an employee, at various levels, has been canned for opening their mouth. It will be interesting to see where this "conversation" leads and whether it can be sustained, with or without anonymity. The Masked Blogger kick-off comment is an excellent one: "...the broader issue is how we evolve large company support organisations where typically the relationship is managed by a junior member of staff and arbitrated by fixed processes? How do we build two-way conversations and trusted relationships?"
Those questions and more are critical ones for Apple themselves to answer if they want to continue riding high. As Masked himself points out, "The organisation that cracks this first will have innovation far more valuable than any product based innovation!" I couldn't have said it better myself.
Now of course we all want to know who this masked blogger really is. It's not Steve Jobs himself. It appears to be someone within the corporate loop or the AppleCare group - but this person is not in the US. Note his or her use of the ise form of "organization" which is more prevalent in the UK - and the reference he/she makes to Sainsbury's Supermarket, which is in the UK. So we're looking for someone who lives in the UK, speaks "proper English" and shops at Sainsbury's. Your guess is as good as mine. Start your sleuthing!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-09-2006 @ 3:17PM
Breached said...
Just because the person might be British does not mean they don't work in Cupertino. There are numerous British-born people in Cupertino that continue to do such things as add a 'u' to color FOR NO REASON. When will the British get with it and start writing and speaking the proper English, American?
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10-09-2006 @ 3:22PM
Breached said...
Right, but how can they shop at Sainsbury's and work in Cupertino? I am a horrible detective.
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10-09-2006 @ 3:32PM
Ian! said...
A quick look in the whois database shows (some information removed, for brevity):
domain: activeconversations.com
owner: Rob Smeaton
organization: Signals
email: bsmeaton@signals.co.uk
address: Broadgates
address: Market Place
city: Henley-on-Thames
state: --
postal-code: RG92AA
country: GB
created: 2006-09-26 12:55:48 UTC
modified: 2006-09-26 13:10:10 UTC
expires: 2011-09-26 08:55:48 UTC
contact-hdl: gcrolla@signals.co.uk#0
person: Gianna Crolla
organization: Signals
email: gcrolla@signals.co.uk
address: 35a Hart Street
city: Henley-on-Thames
state: --
postal-code: RG9 2AR
country: GB
source: joker.com live whois service
query-time: 0.032649
db-updated: 2006-10-09 19:24:24
So the owner of the domain (not nessisarily the blogger) is Rob Smeaton, who lives in Henly-on-Thames in the UK. He's also associated with signals.co.uk, which is currently "under construction". He is also associated with rockoptic.com, which is also based in the UK. He doesn't appear to work for Apple, but he owns the domain that the Masked Blogger is publishing on.
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10-09-2006 @ 3:35PM
Fraser Drew said...
colour is the proper spelling.... (well for me in england!!) My argument for 'proper english' is it was ours first, so ours must be right!!
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10-09-2006 @ 3:37PM
Joel said...
Do a whois on activeconversations.com Comes up with two names. Rob Smeaton and Gianna Crolla. Hmmm.
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10-09-2006 @ 3:43PM
Jeff Clark said...
What about the fact that he uses dollars instead of pounds?
Hmmm... Might be be trying to throw us off the trail?
...LonelyMacGirl15?
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10-09-2006 @ 3:52PM
Laurie said...
Breached - I give you points for recognizing and admitting your inadequate sleuthing skills :)
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10-09-2006 @ 3:54PM
IdolAmerican said...
"Note his or her use of the ise form of "oraganization" which is used more prevalent in the UK"
Also note the lack of use of spell check and grammar tools.
Indeed, you 'could' have said it better yourself.
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10-09-2006 @ 4:03PM
iFelix said...
I am from England so I do use colour.
However color could be argued to be the correct spelling as it is older than colour.
Color is the original old English spelling.
Colour is a French bastardisation of the old English spelling.
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10-09-2006 @ 4:15PM
Laurie said...
Now now IdolAmerican - neglecting to delete an extra word after I'd reworded a section isn't bad grammar - just bad proofing by several of us who looked at it before it went live :)
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10-09-2006 @ 4:33PM
Ian Moss said...
I din't care about ll that....
When can I get an iPhone from Sainsburys...?
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10-09-2006 @ 4:34PM
Meta said...
Oh.... I live in England.... I shope (yes olde Shope) at Sainsbury's..... darnit I lived in America for a while and picked up color and Zeee's and Starbucks....
Am I bilingual?
No frankly its a pain can't we have just one language between the great pals of the western world?
Do I work 'for' Apple?
I will take the 5th on that.
Seriously though if the chap or guy does work for Apple and is happy inside blogging then he surely missed a trick on whois.
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10-09-2006 @ 5:01PM
S.C. said...
Start our sleuthing? Get this well-intentioned person fired and lose a valuable source of inside information on Apple? Brilliant idea.
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10-09-2006 @ 5:10PM
Douglas F Shearer said...
Who says he has to live in England?
I could also live and work in Scotland.
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10-09-2006 @ 6:04PM
Joshua Hernandez said...
Do you really think someone who is smart enough to work at apple and blog about apple stuff would really be dumb enough to register his own domain when if anything gets tracked back to him his great job would be in jeopardy. Not Really.
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10-09-2006 @ 6:42PM
IdolAmerican said...
+1 point for finding the extra word, -5 points for missing the misspelling -- again.
It looks like you need to acquire better proof readers!
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10-09-2006 @ 6:54PM
Laurie said...
LOL - I /just/ found the typo - after reading it like 50 times! This is why self-proofing is always a bad idea. When you know what it is /supposed/ to say, you gloss right over what it /actually/ says. But you're right, we do need better proofreaders :) As you may know, we mostly proof each other's posts but it's on an as-available basis. Not that blogging is an excuse to be lazy when it comes to these things, but it is a different animal than the traditional writer/editor/proofreader routine and it's very easy for things like that to slip through the cracks. I can't read the NY Times without cringing at every typo I come across (and there are always typos) so I get where you are coming from.
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10-09-2006 @ 7:08PM
Laurie said...
btw, just so i know - are you going to keep changing your email address to hide (attempt to anyway) your identity? i get a kick out of the fact that you can't help but "stalk" me at this point, but it's getting a bit sad, proofreading abilities or otherwise.
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10-09-2006 @ 7:09PM
IdolAmerican said...
:) Safari: Edit/Spelling/Check Spelling As You Type
And please don't compare blogging to Sulzberger's rag...it's been well-established that bloggers have higher standards! :)
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10-09-2006 @ 8:14PM
Robert Beier said...
Don't know if I would consider using the word "by" instead of "buy" proper English,
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