The geek in question: Matthew Baldwin

The job title: Programmer/Writer on the protocol documentation team.

So, what are you working on right now?
We have been creating technical specifications for the protocols used by Microsoft applications to communicate … okay, this is the moment where the eyes of the person who asked that question typically glaze over, so I’ve never actually come up with an ending for this sentence.

Is it awesome?
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The geek in question: Steve Clayton
The job title: Software plus Services Lead

Let’s start with the easy stuff – what are you working on right now?
I’m working on Software plus Services strategy in a part of the company called Microsoft International.

You were also involved in that whole Blue Monster thing a year or two back, right? How is the Blue Monster aging?
Hugh McLeod did the cartoon, and he was just asking me, “What should we do now?”

I said, “We don’t do anything. We created this thing that’s out there — it splits opinion and inspires dialog. It’s got a life of its own.” I don’t push it, but I still get mail from people about it.

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The geek in question: Jeff Sandquist

The job title: Senior Director, Platform Evangelism

How long have you been with the company?
I think it’s been about 12 years. I get a plaque every once and a while to remind me. I started as a contractor answering phones for Product Support Services.

So, if you’ve been here that long, you’ve gotten to witness Microsoft’s shift toward transparency — including your own “peer to peer over a beer” work with Channel 9. What are the limits of that transparency? How does it feel knowing management reads your blog?

When I first started here, I was terrified of the higher ups. They were almost like Santa Claus — these mythical figures running these billion dollar businesses. I used to be so scared of Sanjay that I would actually go down a different hallway rather than talk to him.

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Microspotting and its creator, Ariel Meadow Stallings, rely on social media marketing to attract job candidates who would probably never consider working for Microsoft.

By Fred Albert

If an outgoing woman with a wide smile and braids the color of peppermint sticks sidles up to you in a Redmond cafeteria and starts asking about your life, there’s no need to call security. You’ve just attracted the attention of Ariel Meadow Stallings.Stallings is the pigtailed perpetrator behind Microspotting, a corporate blog that profiles some of the most interesting, passionate personalities at Microsoft. Launched last October under the auspices of the Staffing Marketing team, Microspotting feels anything but corporate, reflecting the offbeat, irreverent character of the writer/photographer and the all-around life force behind it.
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Dare is just your average program manager, popular Microsoft blogger, son-of-the-former-Nigerian-president. When he recently bailed on his very popular blog, I had to follow up with him on the details.

We’ll start with the easy question: how long have you been here and what are you working on right now?
I’ve been with Microsoft for six years, and right now I’m a PM on the contacts platform. Recently I worked on the initial platform for events.live.com, and then I worked on the What’s New page on Spaces, which shows you what your friends have been doing on Spaces.

When I interviewed Mini-Microsoft a couple months ago, I asked him about his favorite MSFT bloggers, and he mentioned you. And then two weeks later, you quit blogging! What’s up with that?

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Perhaps you’re familiar with Mini-Microsoft, the anonymous Deep Throat Microsoft blogger who’s been lovingly griping online about the company online since 2004.

Mini is somewhat infamous (having been interviewed by Business Week and The Seattle Times) and has managed to maintain his anonymity despite all the attention.

I recently had the chance to pester Mini with some of my own questions, and took the opportunity to ask him about his sad experience with facebook, how he felt about Fake Steve Jobs, and his groupies.

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Dare Obasanjo just wrote a great post about his job AND his blog:

Thousands of Microsoft employees share their ideas with their coworkers, competitors and customers via blogs on a daily basis. Lots of companies would clamp down on that sort of behavior and ensure that only sanctioned company positions go out in employee communications but not Microsoft.

Read Dare’s whole post.