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

behind their firewall?

[Wizzerd911]

If I was behind a Microsoft firewall, I'd just feel insecure ;)

Yet nothing is changin....

[BWJones]

Robert,

You may have responded to some rants on how Microsoft products work (or don't), and that is all fine and dandy, as it was appreciated. However, the problems are *still* there. I still get the little hardware wizard that wants to help me when I plug in a new mouse, or Windows will still notify me that there is either a new network found or that my computer is at a security risk because of virus subscription expiration in the middle of a Powerpoint presentation!

It's stuff like that (and much more) that are driving people to alternatives

Re:Yet nothing is changin....

[BWJones]

and if Microsoft didn't warn you people would complaine(sic) about that.

Actually, no.... I would not.

How unprofessional is it in the middle of a presentation to have something like that happen? In the movies, they call it interruption of suspension of disbelief. In business and science, it's called absurd.

There is no way to make everyone happy, so you provide the best protection you can and try to make the least number of people pissed. To me, a better question would be "why did you let your antivirus expire?".

That is a cop out that lazy people trot out when they do not want to do the real work required to think about how people actually interact with their computers. Actually, there *is* a better way and Apple computer has showed us.

Re:Yet nothing is changin....

[Znork]

"It's actually a really hard thing to do, so I don't criticize Microsoft too much."

No, really, it isnt.

Unrequested drastic UI and focus alterations are _always_ undesired. You dont need to query anything about wether the user should be interrupted; the user should _not_ be interrupted. For anything. At any time.

Nobody _ever_ has so much spare time these days that they sit around doing nothing but wait for random suggestions, be it from telemarketers or syslogs. They're always doing something, and unless 'looking at the system messages' has reached their priority queue, whatever they're doing is always more important.

(Actually, there is one time where an interruption is appropriate; notification that they're going to be a whole lot more interrupted in a short while, such as notifying the user that a system shutdown is imminent or the battery is about to explode)

There. Now that we've concluded that interruptions with push-information are more or less always inappropriate, the question instead becomes 'how do we quickly and unobtrusively notify the user that there is information available when his attention strays'?

The answer to that, of course, is things like notification bars, system trays, tickers, etc. Unobtrusive UI features requested and placed appropriately by the user.

"It's a significant challenge."

No, really, it isnt. Anyone who's been in a classroom should be able to solve it; thirty unruly programs need to learn to raise their hand and wait to get asked, rather than blurt out whatever's on their mind.

Re:Too much work

[justkarl]

Face it: even the most virulent criticism of MS here would contain enough useful information that if Gates & Co. actually paid attention, they'd find innumerable ideas for improving their wares. And all for free.

Criticism != constant flames. They'd have to sort through hours of "Micr0$0f7 suxx, lam3r!!!" in order to get any useful information. Not terribly dissimilar from regular Slashdot users.

Re:focus groups and corporate bs

[Steve Newall]

Microsoft have tried to support a *real* O/S, Xenix. I used this on AT class hardware many years ago and this got me hooked on Unix and other derivatives (AT&T SvR4.3, Minix, SCO Xenix, SCO Unix, Novell / SCO Unixware, and obviously Linux). ( See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenix for a brief history of Microsoft's involvment in Unix) But, as you note, they seem to be primarily a marketing company, and it's in their best interest to promote the O/S that sells and gives them the greatest return for their investment.

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.

Call me cynical, but...

[tommasz]

...I never quite understood Scoble's impact or why so many people considered his tenure at Microsoft so important. I can't think of a single Microsoft product that has significantly changed as a result of his interceding on some poor user's behalf. It was more like a grand, and public, experiment in listening to the users. Considering they let him leave and especially since they haven't replaced him, it says they've heard enough.

Re:Too much work

[Yvanhoe]

They'd have to sort through hours of "Micr0$0f7 suxx, lam3r!!!" in order to get any useful information. Not terribly dissimilar from regular Slashdot users.

But quite dissimilar from the +5 moderated posts. Slashdot has this unique automoderation feature that one seems interested in copying. Flames on /. take the shape of a lot of nested posts with, occasionally, one intelligent argument being shown at +5.

Really, the signal/noise ratio is very high here compared to other forums.

I don't linke the "we are the core of the technology world" meme, though...

Re:Mod Parent Retarded

[spun]

"millions of people run it without serious problems or they wouldn't stay with it."

Perhaps these 'millions of people' don't realise they actually have a choice.

Perhaps they don't want to realise they have a choice. They aren't like us, computers aren't "fun" for them, they are just a tool. What OS they use has little meaning to them, but they wouldn't want to have to learn another, even if it were better. Having to choose an OS would only confuse and anger them. Sorry, I love Linux as much as the next rabid slashdotter, but people who care about what OS they use are a tiny minority.