Perhaps Amazon.com should build a boxing ring for its guest author series. Shel Israel and Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble stopped by the company yesterday to present their book, "Naked Conversations," and apparently had a lively discussion with Chief Technical Officer Werner Vogels on the issue of corporate blogging.
Recounting the event in his own blog, Vogels said he asked the authors some very hard questions about why Amazon should institutionalize corporate blogs. The authors "appeared shell-shocked that anyone actually had the guts to challenge the golden wonder boys of blogging and not accept their religion instantly," Vogels wrote.
Israel responded on his blog that Vogels "was behaving like he was locked and loaded for bear hunting" and eventually called for an end to the "mutual acrimony." Scoble commented that he wasn't shell-shocked and Vogels mischaracterized his reaction. Later, Vogels promised to be nicer to the company's next guests.
Now, some have proposed a rematch, and a venture capitalist is offering to fly Vogels and Scoble to a Canadian Web conference for a "smackdown." You could sell tickets for this one.