Microsoft

Gary Rivlin at Fortune Magazine has some recent articles about Steve Ballmer and Microsoft senior management (The problem with Microsoft… & Why insiders think top management has lost its way). The articles make great fodder given the rise of Apple to be larger than Microsoft in both market capitalization and revenues. What is strange is that I love both of these companies. I’m an ex-Microsoft employee. It was a great place to work. And I have been an Apple fanboy for a long time (spending my entire signing bonus in 1997 on Apple stock). Let’s be clear Microsoft is still a large powerful company, they have just lost their way in defining the next generation of technology, business models, and customers.

Still, Ballmer needs to do something to shake Microsoft from what, at best, seems to be a textbook case of corporate ennui: MIT’s Michael Cusumano, who has featured Microsoft in several books, including the new work Staying Power, sees a company hopelessly stuck in neutral, in no small part because Microsoft has a weak board and no one expects Bill Gates, the company’s top shareholder, with about 5% of shares outstanding, to oust the CEO, who was the best man at his wedding. “Ballmer has been a good steward of Windows, and that’s about it,” Cusumano says.

Gary Rivlin nailed my feelings and analysis on Microsoft in The problem with Microsoft…. Microsoft is a juggernaut. But the markets and choices are evolving. There are a few successes like Silverlight, Kinect, XNA and Office. But generally the article highlights deeper structural and cultural issues.

Windows Platform dominance – Licking the cookie
Politicized management culture with “Made men” and “political assassins”
Lack of urgency – Massive existing businesses SharePoint is the last $1B revenue business
Killing products too early or too late – see Courier (too early) and Kin (too late it should never have made it to market)
Stock stagnation – this has a lot of impact on hiring new talent, retaining talent that should retire (under water ESOP buys)

There is lots to love about Microsoft. But I think there are even more concerns for the future. Just look at what the latest generation of big web companies are building on: Yahoo! (PHP, MySQL, Hadoop), Google (Java, Python, BigTable), Facebook (PHP, memcache, Cassandra, Linux), LinkedIn (Solaris, Tomcat, Oracle), Groupon (Java, Salesforce, EC2, Zynga (PHP, MySql, AMF), Quora (MySQL. memcache, PHP). Sure there are shining examples of companies building on SharePoint and SQL Server and Azure, but do they have the size and scale of those previously mentioned? And look at the fight for mobile developers. Appcelerator’s quarterly developer survey shows percentage of developers “very interested” in developing for different platforms: iOS (91%); Android (85%); Windows Phone (29%); sure it’s a head of Blackberry (27%). But this just reinforces my concerns and disappointment. Microsoft is a huge company. And I hope they can continue to build world class products, markets and inspire future developers.

Goodbye Microsoft, so long and thanks for all the bits

by davidcrow

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/2049233526/ — Photo by Stuck in Customs

Can you believe that it has been 1230 days since I announced I was joining Microsoft? I’m guessing a lot of people lost out on that one in the over/under pool. Well, it has been a fantastic 3 years, 4 months and 7 days so far, unfortunately there are only 4 days left until it’s over for me. Effective Friday, September 24, 2010 I will be leaving Microsoft Canada.

I’m heading back into the fray. Or as John so eloquently puts it, I will be starting on a new path, with some old friends and the plan is actually quite simple:
Have fun and try to take over the world responsibly. I’ve spent the past 3+ years talking to entrepreneurs about programs like BizSpark and trying to help them build on the emerging Microsoft technologies and platform. I’m looking forward to getting back in the trenches and using customer development to build and ship products.

I’m not alone. There are a few of the folks that I’ve worked with or been lucky enough to call a friend that have also left Microsoft in the past year including: Don Dodge, Adam Kinney, Scott Barnes and others. This didn’t impact my decision to leave, it’s more just a curious observation.

As a sidenote, I’m pretty sure that John will be looking for a ISV DE (in non-Microsoft acronym speak: a developer evangelist focused on independent software vendors). What does an ISV DE do? Here’s the ISV DE job description from Belgium.

The ISV Developer Evangelist mission is to drive platform adoption and revenue growth with depth and breadth ISVs. The ISV Developer Evangelist is focused on winning ISV adoption of Microsoft platform technologies by working with ISV senior technology decision makers within these organizations. This is accomplished by collaborating with the ISV PAM (Partner Account Manager) to build a well-managed, mutually beneficial alliance that drives revenue growth and expands the reach of strategic Microsoft products within the partner’s solution portfolio.

It was a great time to be a part of the Developer & Platform Evangelism team at Microsoft Canada. And if I’d consider working with John Oxley (@joxley), Mark Relph (@mrelph) and the team again in the future. If you’re looking for a fun gig working with ISVs including startups and emerging companies, make sure you follow up with John.

Canadians, Canadians, Canadians

by davidcrow

Steve Ballmer is coming to Toronto.

He’s speaking at the Can>Win initiative presented by The Canadian Chamber of Commerce. The event is focused on helping to “define strategies to secure Canada’s global advantage”. The effort is publishing 16 one pagers from thought leaders (there 8 published as of Oct 15, 2009) in a dialogue on what Canada must do next. I’m waiting to see who is lined up to round out the remaining 8 dialogue pieces. I am a little underwhelmed as none of the published pieces are about telecommunications, technology, copyright, education or any of things that interest me. So I’m hoping based on the event participants that these topics will be covered. Speakers like:

Dr. Indira Samarasekera,
President, University of Alberta
Parker Mitchell
Co-CEO, Engineers without Borders
Trish Wheaton
Chief Marketing Officer, Chairperson, Wunderman Canada

I’m hopeful that there will be some thought pieces on topics that interest me.

I wasn’t always a Steve Ballmer fan. He was that funny dancing man from Microsoft. But it was at Mix08 that I changed my mind. Sure, I had become an employee of Microsoft Canada and ultimately Steve is my boss. But it was his interview with Guy Kawasaki that forever changed my opinion of Steve.

I was impressed with both the depth and breadth of his understanding of the Microsoft business. He was informed about strategy, about operations, about technology, about sales, about acquisitions. I was just blown away at the insight, honesty and the casualness of the conversation. It also helped me understand the “Developers, developers, developers”. Steve is a passionate guy. And he’s very, very intense.

If you get a chance, watch the full interview with Guy Kawasaki and Steve Ballmer. It changed my opinion.

Getting ready for PDC

by davidcrow

I’m starting to get ready for another trip to Los Angeles for Microsoft PDC. PDC08 was a great trip, however, it ended really poorly for me. I arrived home from LA and spent 5 days in Toronto General Hospital after complaining all week about chest pain. It turns out that after a heart attack, they take this stuff very seriously, and wanted to do an angiogram. I promise for PDC09 to not hole up in my hotel room and hide because my chest hurts!

Thomas Lewis has a great post on Hotels for PDC09. I’ve stayed at the Westin Bonaventure for PDC08 and CHI98. It’s a great hotel. It was where True Lies was filmed.

“Where do all the Microsofties hang after the event? If you are a fan of edgy chef personalities, you know that you always want to find the dives the chefs go to after their shifts are done. Later in the evening, after evening events and A/V checks are done, many of our kind will head over to the lobby of the Westin Bonaventure where everyone will be hanging out at the bar chatting up the news of the day and talking with attendees. Now, if you are looking to find all the hipster-Microsofties, then you want to head to the club at the rooftop of The Standard. The view there is awesome but the drinks can get expensive.” Thomas Lewis – Devil’s Field Guide to the PDC

But I’m thinking I’m going to change it up for 2009. I’m turning over a new leaf. And in a tribute to my turn-of-the-last-century industrialists I’m thinking the Millennium Biltmore will be my home away from home for a few days in November. I stayed in the Biltmore as part of the planning committee for CHI2000. And while the hotel is not the family estate, it should be fun. It’s only a few blocks from Westin, check out my Bing Collection of the hotels to help find your friends in downtown LA, and it’s something new. Plus how can you go wrong with the name Biltmore?

“Make Web, Not War” aka Can’t We Just Get Along?

by davidcrow

Joey provides the details the upcoming ‘Make Web, Not War” event in Toronto and Vancouver.

Make Web, Not War is happening today in Vancouver (June 2, 2009) and next week in Toronto on June 10, 2009. (Let’s not start about disaster that is the web presence, frames, Flashturbation, no deep linking, etc.). Microsoft released the Web Platform Installer, WebPI for short, version 2 includes IIS7, SQL Server, Visual Web Developer, ASP.NET and PHP. That’s right, PHP and the ability to install popular PHP and .NET open-source applications including WordPress, Drupal and more.

Here’s my take, it’s great to see Microsoft embrace web technologies. The web is a mash of technologies from operating systems to application servers to database servers to web servers to development frameworks to AJaX frameworks to CSS frameworks. It’s all about choice. You can mix and match the pieces that make the most sense for you at a moment in time. And now that choice, flexibility and power come to web developers that run Windows operating systems.

Not everyone has the flexibility of choosing each of the layers. When I worked at Rye High, I built applications initial in ColdFusion 6 and Oracle 8i because it was what was available. The addition of FastCGI and PHP to IIS opens the available tools to many developers and IT professionals that run Windows in their corporate environments. The WebPI makes it drop-dead simple to install PHP and Drupal or MediaWiki. Pick the right tool for the users, the tasks, your infrastructure and support. Make informed decisions.

Are there limitations? Definitely, part of the fun is playing in the boundaries and pushing as close to the edge as possible.

Come together right now over me

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it” – Alan Kay

The event is about focusing on the task at hand. Let’s make a better web. Let’s solve problems. By helping developers gain access to the applications and platforms they want is important. Microsoft is starting to understand, again, the power of an ecosystem. Rather than fighting to convert PHP developers to ASP.NET, you can see the empire embrace and enable the tools that are a part of the web.

Further evidence of this acceptance of PHP as a language and a tool of the web can be seen PHP SDK for Windows Azure. The addition of Java in the Azure world.

Toronto – June 10, 2009

I’ll be talking about the web, open platforms, innovation and karma at the Toronto event on Wednesday, June 10th at the Ted Rogers School of Management (use the entrance at 55 Dundas Street W.) and runs from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m..

It’s a full-day event with presentations by:

Mano Kulasingam, Digiflare Inc.
Brendan Sera-Shriar, PHUG.ca / Rich Media Institute
Stephen Nichols, Softcom
Yann Larrivée, PHPQuebec

The Toronto event will feature breakfast, keynote, web partner community showcase, another keynote, lunch, breakout sessions, a Windows Server 2008 InstallFest, a web developer technical session and the FTW! competition final showdown. It’s be a very full day.

The registration fee for both the Vancouver and Toronto events is “donate what you want”, with a suggested donation of CAD$10. The money will go to a good cause: PREVnet.ca, the anti-bullying network.

Hope you’ll come out!

What:	Make Web, Not War
When:	Wednesday, June 10, 2009 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM
Where:	Ted Rogers School of Business 55 Dundas St West Toronto, Ontario M5G 2C5

Knowledgeworx – Junior Developer – Microsoft/.NET

by davidcrow

Toronto, ON

Hi – I’m Brent Ashley, independent DemoCamp sponsor and Ajax Pub Nite host. I am a Senior Developer and one of the founding partners at Knowledgeworx.

Knowledgeworx (http://www.kwx.ca) is a leading provider of wireless
infrastructure services, technology asset management and networked device monitoring to the retail sector. Our products and services are built with Microsoft Sharepoint and custom C#/.NET/MSSQL code combined with a rich and powerful back end toolset consisting of Linux/BSD, Nagios, Mysql, Apache, FreeRadius, PostgreSQL and many other Open Source elements.

We are looking to employ two junior developers, one with a Microsoft/.NET focus, one with a Linux/OpenSource focus. We are a small shop so there will be lots of opportunity for overlap and cross-learning.

For the Microsoft focused position, we want someone with knowledge and experience with as many of these elements as possible:

C# and the .NET 2.0 framework
WSS / MOSS
MSSQL
building Web Services (client and server)
CSS/Design
Javascript/Ajax

Our ideal candidates will have a passion for technology, demonstrated participation in the technology community, and a voracious capacity to learn and grow. You will be eager to work with our intermediate and senior staff who have years of experience and in-depth knowledge to share.

We are currently accepting resumes via email to [email protected]