Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Ousts IE Mobile Manager For Revealing Nokia Phone Details
suraj.sun writes with an article in CNet concerning the axing of a Microsoft employee for revealing a few too many details about the upcoming Nokia Windows Phone. From the article: "...Joe Marini, who worked as a Seattle-based principal program manager on the Windows Phone team, tweeted: 'I just got a chance to try out one of the slickest looking #Nokia phones I have ever seen. Soon, you will too!' The tweet contained a Windows Phone 7 hashtag, #WP7. Marini sent subsequent tweets about the device, including one that rated it an '8' and another that said 'the camera was good, but I didn't have optimal lighting.' ... Marini stepped down after being informed that he would be let go for violating Microsoft's social-media and blogging policy (PDF). "
it doesn't really matter what the content was, it's probably more that he was blogging about confidential unreleased products. If he signed something that said he would not do this, and went on to do just that, he violated the agreement even though his comments were positive.
It's not even particularly new for companies to be super paranoid about "leaks", and to interpret what constitutes a leak very broadly. Apple is probably more paranoid, for example, and Apple employees tend to just avoid Tweeting anything Apple-related for that reason.
I do agree that this was stupid, unless there's something more to the story; it doesn't appear that he actually leaked anything that could plausibly be considered secret, and certainly not any interesting secrets.
I also like the now-self-referential part of the policy that recommends employees think, before they take an action online:
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Unfortunately CyanogenMod is all but dead since Samsung bought out the primary developer. Yeah I know all about the "state of cyanogen" blog post but the fact is, the ROM has had very little progress in months and these types of situations rarely get better.
It's dead unless someone forks it and takes over.
From the Blogging FAQ:
Microsoft considers Slashdot to be on the same level as the New York Times! The Ironic thing is the original tweet did not make slashdot. The reaction from Microsoft did.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
I read through most of the policy and given the nature of his tweets, it seems a reach to fire the guy.
Can I disclose confidential information when blogging? ... ...
Most importantly, to preserve Microsoft’s rights to protect its innovations through
patents, do not disclose or describe any new features, functionalities, or
innovations that have not been publicly disclosed or released without first
checking with your business unit management or your LCA patent contact
This section mentions not revealing new features, but from what was broadcast, he did not reveal anything specific nor anything that was not already basically understood. I could see getting a reprimand, held back from promotion type of punishment, but to just say "bugger off" for making positive comments about a MS product? ULM is not weird, their stupid. This could have been turned into a marketing scoop, getting the lemmings talking about it and perhaps now wanting to try it out. Since we don't know much about the man as an employee, perhaps he was horrible as a manager and they just needed a reason to boot his butt out. My sense, they just took what could have been both a teaching moment for employees and a marketing bonazza into more negative PR for an already tarnished image.
Bad form Microsoft, bad form.
Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
I'll be buying the one with Meego installed.
Meego is dead, Webos is dead, and I don't feel very well.
I don't know. I played with the WP "Mango" beta the other evening. Metro may not be as aesthetically pleasing as iOS but it was definitely an improvement in terms of integration of contacts, social media, and apps, and yet I could still see how to manage them separately.
In terms of appearance and functionality it was better than any Android phone I've played with.
I equated their appearance this way. WP8 is to Facebook as Android is to MySpace.
WP7 does not appear to be even distantly related to the old Windows Mobile 6.5 CE crap. They did a decent job with this one. (first impressions only so far, of course.)
John
Worst possible software? I hate to swoop in and defend Microsoft of all things, but Windows Phone 7 isn't that bad. It's not perfect, but I think it has a lot of potential. I'm personally excited to see what it can do with some decent hardware (Nokia).
ok, I work there, so this is firsthand information. In the last 4 months it has been beat into us NOT to tweet/talk/post/facebook anything about anything not yet released. It all started around the MGX leaks of the past, feeding into the WP7 announcements, and the recent Win8 announcements. We are not to even tweet anything that has been recently released. (Win8). An entirely new program has been developed around the new social medis policies, and people are going to the HR training for it. There is no way you can miss all of the warnings and decrees from on high about this. Sorry, a very important rule was broken. He is being made the example. Sucks, but don't break important rules.
This is a non-story.
Microsoft employee violated company policy about blogging by posting details about the phone. Employee was going to be fired for violating the policy. It doesn't matter if the violation was benign or not. The only reasons this is on slashdot is because
A. The story is about Microsoft.
B. It's about company policies perhaps being "unfair".
I think it's mostly A and very little B.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
This is possibly the most boring story slashdot has ever posted.
Siblings are mostly correct. You normally can't get jail time for violating an NDA. However, you can if it constitutes fraud; if you sign the NDA knowing or expecting to violate it and it causes actual loss to the company, in order to receive some compensation or benefit.
However, this was clearly not premeditated or fraudulent. Merely careless..
Well, I have an HD7 that a friend gave me and I have a few impressions I would like to add. First off, why doesn't text reflow when I zoom in on the browser? I can't read text that is .5 mm tall and if a website forces the text to stay wide, I have to pan the screen back and forth if I want to zoom in. That's just ridiculous and is a solved problem on iOS and Android since antiquity. Also, why can't I type in a url in landscape mode? I hate having to constantly switch orientation just to do this as one of the unfortunate side effects is sometimes websites get stuck in jumbo text mode where you can't zoom out at all. Also, why is the home screen stuck in portrait? My next question is why do apps take so long to start vs my Droid and my iPad? Another question might be, why are third party apps so choppy? Have you tried the Engadget app? It's practically a slide show at times. Another impression... my HD7 came with an extended battery. It barely lasts a day and a half of light use. Windows phone has a long way to go before it is even close to iOS or Android are in terms of overall utility and it shows in the fact that while Androids fly off the shelves, windows phones continue to collect dust.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.