Tales From Behind Microsoft's Firewall

lizzyben writes "CIOinsight.com is hosting an interview with Robert Scoble on life after Microsoft. 'By blogging for the world's largest software company, Scoble changed the way companies communicate with the world and became an industry celebrity in the process.' He talks about MS culture, senior management and the benefits of blogging from inside the belly of the software beast." More from the article: "We used blog-search engines to find anyone who wrote the word 'Microsoft' on their blog. Even if they had no readers and were just ranting, 'I hate Microsoft,' I could see that and link to it, or I could participate in their comments, or send them an e-mail saying, 'What's going on?' And that told those people that someone was listening to their rants, that this is a different world than the one in which no one listens. It was an invaluable focus group that Microsoft didn't have to pay for."

Comments

Re:Yet nothing is changin....

[Tim C]

Why can't MS notify you about that when you first boot instead of at some unpredictable time when the whole world might be watching?

Well, the very few times it's happened to me, it *has* been when I first logged in. More specifically though, I'd imagine that it happens when the AV software notifies the security centre that it needs to be updated, which is likely to be whenever it feels like it.

I'd be wary of pinning all the blame for this one on MS; it's entirely possible that it's the av software that's nagging you.

Spare me, Robert

[truthsearch]

I have one of the "I hate Microsoft" web sites he linked to. I used to read Scoble's blog and comment on it occasionally before he become famous. As soon as his blog started to get any traction he stopped posting anything intelligent. He became a pure evangelist who claimed Microsoft should listen to the haters, then bashed anything critical of Microsoft. And in the end, not much if anything changed. Microsoft used him to try to improve their image. And having this fake power Scoble became full of himself. He's a tool. Microsoft still ignores critics.

Re:focus groups and corporate bs

[TheRaven64]

Version 7 of UNIX was the first one to be really nice to use. Some regard it as the pinnacle of UNIX, with everything added afterwards as bloat. I wouldn't go quite that far, but it was definitely a very nice system, particularly judged by the standards of its era.

Microsoft licensed it from AT&T and marketed their derivative (which included some BSD enhancements) as Xenix, a full-blown UNIX for 16-bit x86 computers. For a while, it had the majority of the UNIX market share. Xenix was eventually dropped by Microsoft (and sold to the old SCO) when they started developing OS/2.

At the moment, Microsoft are working on Singularity, an OS using type theory as the basis for security (based on similar ideas to the JNode operating system).

Over the last three decades, Microsoft has developed three 'real' operating systems; Xenix, OS/2, and Singularity. They have developed Windows NT, which is quite a nice OS buried under a pile of userspace crap written for backwards compatibility. The closest thing to a real OS that they have been able to sell is NT, and that's because of all the backwards compatibility junk, rather than the strength of the OS.

The moral of the story? You can build a better mousetrap, and the market will decide it's rubbish because it doesn't come in purple.

Re:focus group might improve things

[R2.0]

Not necessarily. Companies can ignore focus groups just like any other data.

One case is the last version of the Chevy Caprice. It was a new curvy design, and they brought in some focus groups. Response was favorable, but for 1 detail - the rear wheelwells were not rounded but "skirted", in a throwback to an earlier design aesthetic. The focus groups pretty consistently said that detail made the car look heavy in the rear, giving it a "fat ass". The chief designer ignored this data, insisting that his design would be considered stylish and that "focus groups don't know anything."

The Caprice was introduced to universal dislike of it's proportions, and sales were slow. After a few years, GM revised the rear quarter panels to a rounded arch, making the rear of the car visually thinner and less heavy, but by then the damage was done. The car only lasted a couple more years and was dropped, along with all of the GM rear drive line. (they have since brought back some rear drive models)

Re:Too much work

[Hijacked Public]

Scientology has already won.

Re:Too much work

[networkBoy]

Touché...

As to the slander/libel, hey it's all the same in a fixed medium. (was in radio, while you're speaking it it's slander, once it hits transcript it's libel, either way my broadcast licence is no more :)
-nB