Microsoft and its Fired CIO: “Sex in the City” of IT – or Not…

As Network World news editor Paul McNamara posted in his Buzzblog (on Thanksgiving Day, no less!), Microsoft's recently fired CIO Stuart Scott (not the one from ESPN) starts a new job today, at a wholesale mortgage lender based in Florida. The news release accompanying Mr. Scott's new job was, as Paul wrote, effusive in its praise, but opaque in terms of providing any details about the reasons for Scott's firing.

I share Paul's previously posted musings about the "geek press" seeming to be unwilling and/or unable to write about anything meaningful having to do (or even allegedly having to do) with sex. But I wonder if this says as much or more about Microsoft and the industry more broadly than it does about the media covering same.

I mean, when was the last time we saw a sex scandal report involving anyone in IT? There was that case involving US Capitol staffer Robert Steinbuch and girlfriend, "Washingtonienne" blogger, and Senatorial aide Jessica Cutler. And, of course, there were the apparently explicit text messages sent to Congressional pages by former representative Mark Foley (now reportedly seeking work in Hollywood!). But these simply involved bits of technology, not any actual high-profile technologists.

Keane, the IT outsourcing company acquired in June, did replace its CEO (the founder's son) after he resigned in 2006 in the face of sexual harassment charges from two female employees, charges the former CEO denied. While this brings new and likely unintended meaning to Keane's former slogan - "we get IT done" - it isn't the type of sex scandal we see all too frequently in politics and other areas of business. (It IS, of course, reprehensible whenever anyone uses power or position to harass colleagues and subordinates, but that's not the point of this particular discussion.)

It could sadly be the case that we don't see more racy coverage of IT because there's just, to borrow from Gertrude Stein, "no there there." I prefer to believe IT folks are just much better at being private, but recent and repeating episodes involving the loss or misplacement of private information makes me skeptical.

In any case, I doubt we'll ever learn anything about Stuart Scott's departure from Microsoft that tells us anything material about the company or our industry. But that fact may speak volumes all by itself.