Robert Scoble

Robert Scoble is announcing his new project this afternoon -- Building 43 -- in a live broadcast on the TwiT Live network. Scoble is launching the project in conjunction with hosting provider Rackspace, with the self-described geek taking the name from Google's main headquarters building. The idea is to "show people how to build better Web sites" by incorporating social media services like Twitter, Facebook,  FriendFeed and others, Scoble said in the TwiT Live broadcast.

The super blogger says it will be more than just video and he tells TechCrunch how it will differ from Channel 9, the video site that Scoble helped start at Microsoft in 2004. Scoble tells TechCrunch:

"I was one of five guys who started that and, yes, we broke a lot of corporate rules. We put customers on the home page who could write “Microsoft sucks” and we wouldn’t take that down. We didn’t follow the color guidelines of Microsoft’s branding department. Channel 9 was one of the first corporate sites to have RSS feeds everywhere. It was also one of the first to have a wiki. Building 43 will definitely live by that same philosophy, but it will go a lot further."

Scoble said one of his first questions when he started talking to Rackspace about the project was: "Can I talk about Amazon?" Amazon.com is a competitor to Rackspace in the cloud computing arena. Scoble says he plans to not only talk about Amazon, but also Microsoft, Google, IBM and others.

Building 43 won't be competing with TechCrunch, Huffington Post or other content sites, with Scoble saying they plan to do "how to" videos. For example, people could tune in to "learn how to put Facebook Connect into their Web sites" or to learn tricks of search engine optimization, Scoble says.

In the TWiT Live broadcast, the Rackspace execs said they love what "Robert did at Microsoft" with Channel 9 since he held the company accountable. Now, Rackspace will try to utilize the well-known blogger to build its image.