Scoble. I read his blog like a passing motorist eyes the remnants of bad road accident. Occasionally there are hilarious lines like this: "It’s amazing to see how fast Zuckerberg’s stock is falling in the conversation networks I’m hanging out in".

But the other day Scoble strayed out of his erratic blogospheric orbit and launched and started making comments about Enterprise Scoble. Scoble starts off with this post. This starts somewhat of a storm. Michael Krigsman from ZDNet manages some restraint. Nick Carr then attacks Krigsman and accuses him of not understanding enterprise software. Krigsman fires back with his apology for boring apps.

Now I think I might be qualified to comment on Enterprise Software. I've run big enterprise software projects. I work on a team which sells an enterprise class product - counting some of the world's largest and most prestigious enterprises as customers.

So here goes - here is my defense of enterprise apps:

Our highly computerized workplaces have the potential to futuristic paradises or Orwellian sweat shops. The software which we use every day can be a source of empowerment or a mechanism for control. To build software which someone uses to earn their livelihood is a great honour in a capitalist society. To build sofware which helps people have positive emotional experiences in their customer interactions is a great honour in our consumer society. To build software which is an scientific invention is a great honour in our technocratic society.

Too many people are beginning to take their enterprise software for granted. Too many people forget the time before email, shared calendars, customer databases. Perhaps some people need a week or two of typewriters, carbon memos, ledger books, paper diaries and 3x5 cards. While Scoble is out there participating in his conversation networks and pretending to be a journalist (albeit with the hard drinking and ethics) - I'll be out there trying to make the lives of business people and their customers better.