Would Microsoft staffers still blog if they didn't have to?

I was reminded after reading a funny post about the "Ten Things DownloadSquad Loves About Microsoft" that a friend within the company told me about a year and a half ago that most staffers in evangelism or developer relations roles are required to fulfill something like ten hours of community involvement per week. Most 'Sofites opt for the blogging path, seeing as how it's the most flexible, is the least directly interactive (affording the employee the ability to avoid sitting through a customer's lecture about things wrong with MS software) and retains the most control from an editorial and publishing perspective. And heck, it's fun.

Nowadays, most Redmond staffers in tech capacities are active members of the blogosphere and Scoble's done a good job of mandating RSS feeds for major departments. (I'm intentionally looking past the vast majority of Microsoft's infamously un-technical HR and marketing staffers we've all come to "love" over the years, although there are some scant examples of good blogging work - props to Heather and Gretchen, respectively.)

But I'm still led to wonder that if such interaction with partners, customers, competitors or just interested passersby - would Microsoft staffers still be as passionate for participating in new media? I'd say they would. Blogging is too ubiquitous and easy to do to ignore. Podcasting efforts from within the very hallowed halls of the Great Northwest is starting to catch on after speculation/criticism, although the "purity" of many MS podcasts - often distributed media as WMAs or WMVs, not MP3s - can be questioned.

At any rate, we're better for having their presence as part of the community.