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The rise of the "enthusiast evangelist"

Chris Mohney · 02/16/07 05:00PM

Jupiter Research's Michael Gartenberg will be hopping over to Microsoft, a la Jon Udell, to serve as an "enthusiast evangelist." Whatever you think of the credibility issues such positions create, it's not like this is a new phenomenon. All you really have is a publicist with a little bit of industry celebrity, and those have been around forever. But this "enthusiast evangelist" title is odious in the extreme. When did evangelism become a positive term to anyone but evangelicals? If anyone hands me a business card with "evangelist" anywhere thereon, they better get ready to magically heal my whooping cough.