All those Microsoft ants
p2pnet.net News:- Here’s a different view of Microsoft.
No one’s in charge. Rather, “aggressively independently executing Microsoftees” almost magically contribute to a greater whole, “with no apparent task master,” postulates Carter Maslan in a Microsoft blog post.
“There’s no one really in charge – no monolithic position on any given technology topic.”
Maslan says his observations were inspired by his time at Merck (the pharmaceutical giant) when a colleague “left me with two pithy comments: ‘the tools sell themselves’ and ‘doing business with Microsoft is like doing business with an ant colony’.”
So, “if the tools sell themselves and there’s no single voice – how could we produce great material that succinctly summarizes the value in moving to a new platform?” wonders Maslan
“That’s what crossed my mind as I was listening to NPR’s interview with the guy behind the LA Times Wikitorial. Why not try that community approach for product marketing material – see what happens.
“Nowadays, some of the best ‘Marketing’ is happening in a Cluetrain Manifesto style expository conversation taking place at scale in community blogs – 1000s of them. The problem is blogs stink at synthesizing and summarizing those conversations at any given moment. Where can I go for a synopsis of the top reasons to move to VS 2005? Does that synopsis reflect the breadth and depth of the community’s actual project experience? How could Marketing datasheets become succinct and accurate reflections of the real-life project experiences of the community?
“That’s what I hope becomes of these High Five WikiSheets – that they become a community resource filled with meaty and succinct articulation of the ‘why->what->how’ perspective on platform technologies. We’ll see… go there and weigh-in.”
Now you know ; )
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
blog post – What’s a High Five WikiSheet?, August 5, 2005
