Alfred is right: I’m irrelevant to Web 2.0

As a former Technet, MSDN and MCSE(almost) member I’ve been to numerous MS brainwashing sessions. I also had a Novell CNE working for me at one time, and a neighbor who talked me into being an Amway dealer for a year. Guess what? All the same thing.

As a Microsoft developer you get discounts on tools that allow you to develop products that (lo and behold) only work on Windows and most likely require APIs that in turn require Office and IE.

Some of the speakers you mentioned are probably there because they have a financial interest in the “network” (MS advertising in magazines, MS oriented book publishing), but I bet some are there just for show too, keeping up the pretense that MS technologies are “open”. In this regard I think they made a mistake by not inviting you, and thanks to this guy’s ineptitude they are now beyond the point of being able to rectify it without looking even more anal than they already do.

Once you take the filtered glasses off you see almost everything MS does for what it is, and it has nothing to do with technology (except in a few rare instances by pure coincidence).

MS thinks (and with some good reason) that if they can get a significant portion of Web 2.0 (or Web anything really) to use their tools for development they can make ownership of their client software a prerequisite for using that significant portion. I know people who swore by Frontpage, because they were lazy they refused to care that it generated sluggish, buggy and incompatible web pages. If only 80 percent of viewers could see the page as it was intended to look that was good enough for them. I’ll wager most of the attendees at this conference have the same attitude.

The biggest lesson (some) users are finally starting to learn is to avoid lock-in. Once you get that message almost nothing else matters. The EU understands it, I think parts of Brazil do, China to some extent. But at a less measurable level thousands of SMBs and even enclaves within large companies. Let’s see if the old MS techniques still have their mojo.

I’m betting against.

@macbeach

“MS thinks (and with some good reason) that if they can get a significant portion of Web 2.0 (or Web anything really) to use their tools for development they can make ownership of their client software a prerequisite for using that significant portion.”

You must be speaking of Microsoft ten years ago. Ask people around you who are close to MSFTees and you’ll see that much has changed internally in terms of strategy.

Needs an MSN ID to post to his blog? No problem I got one. I see I’m not the only one who tried out “live spaces” or whatever they are calling it this week and never got around to actually using it for anything:

http://shellcity.spaces.live.com/

Shellcity is of course my word for Microsoft’s relationship to software. But you have to say it several times real fast to get it.

You’ve made my day Robert. I can go out and enjoy the lovely beach weather today and wait for the tide to come in tonight on all of this.

(I think it’s a low news day anyway.)

@macbeach

“MS thinks (and with some good reason) that if they can get a significant portion of Web 2.0 (or Web anything really) to use their tools for development they can make ownership of their client software a prerequisite for using that significant portion.”

http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/exhibits/684.pdf

Too get a good feel for the present, all one needs to do is look to the not so distant past.

If only web 2.0 were real and not hype du jour. MS would actually have a dragon to slay. In the absence of that, we can observe them swinging their air swords with “LIVE”. OMG, it’s f’ing LIVE! WoW.

“You blokes look uptight. You should try logging off, it relieves tension.” Ray Tracer (ReBoot, “The Return of the Crimson Binome”, v.3.3.1)

Wired lost out because it waited a week before the event to ask for one. Presumptious register on your radar? Sense of Entitlement? I am paying to go to Mix and I planned to go 2 months before. How are you better than me? Why would you get in free and I wouldn’t and at the last minute? If your work for such a prestigious magazine why can’t you afford to plan and buy a ticket in? These are the questions Wired is facing.

Scoble, If you asked in the last 2 weeks I would consider your request equally rediculious. Waiting is the issue. I think if you can wait to ask than you can wait 24 hours after something happens at mix for the Videos on VisitMix.com. Plan ahead or wait in the lobby:)

Why did this thread degenerate into just another MS-bashfest featuring the usual bashers, Welch, Goebbels, Chris (aka Beer), et al? You guys repeat the same stuff in every one of Scoble’s posts, most of it not relevant to the topic at hand.

Would not MS need outsiders at every dev conference if the new OS is actually the web?

I do not know if this Alfred is talking on the behalf of Microsoft but one thing is sure: he is an idiot and those not seem to understand what evangelism is about.

On the other hand, I am not sure MSFT has that many good news to carry out these days and as such they are probably looking for channels which are dumber and can relay a message without asking too many questions. (Although I have to say that I found your Adobe interviews not as aggressive as Scoble can be – for example, it would have been nice to push them around support around standards, better integrations with the 100+ AJAX frameworks instead of re-inventing the wheel, about the future of flash in an AJAX world and potential convergence).

@Edwin

“On the other hand, I am not sure MSFT has that many good news to carry out these days and as such they are probably looking for channels which are dumber and can relay a message without asking too many questions.”

Thanks, Dude! This one really really made my day )

Well, if that’s what you do actually think, I stongly suggest that you keep your eyes and ears open next week. We’ll talk about this later

Dude.

There are exactly one bajillion ways you could have written this post and your comments without being so…

Well, maybe not.

You’re such a wiener.

You are learning how non-conforming journalists are victimized by a vendictive Microsoft and WaggEd — a campaign the two have waged since the late 1980s on any reporter who dared to question the MS line.

@Mike

It’s almost a PSA of some sorts. Besides, Mix is a rip off. Look at what you get at RH Summit: http://redhat.com/promo/summit/ 3 days, food, lodging, GOOD speakers, ect… I have a doctors appointment in Montreal and I am desperately trying to reschedule so I can still make it. At any rate, guess how much Linux world costs? NOTHING, only if you take certification labs. What the hell are you paying for at Mix? To be marketed to for 3 days a bag of chips? Sad, sad, sad….. That should be free. Hell, Microsoft should be paying YOU to go to mix. They paid people to go to E3 2 years ago and cross their arms in an X shape. Why shouldn’t Scoble and the Wired reporter be paid just to show up? It’s not like they’re going there for their health either. They are trying to report news. You Mike are going there to be a fanboy.

fanboy comment was aimed @Josh, not Mike. Sorry Mike.

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=303421#303421
“As a result one less Microsoft Employee attending Mix. ”

He’s breaking everybody’s heart.
These are self imposed limitations. MS rented the space at the hotel. Nobody is going to stop them from pulling in another chair.

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=303144#303144
“Some thought he should dress up as Elvis and others felt he should be a special Channel 9 correspondent to attend. ”

Way to humiliate the man. Just like Marc McDonald claimed I was selling GUIDs on ebay for no good reason.
I can’t wait for the day when we no longer have to put up with this software company.

@81 — Buy a ticket in? The media? You really have no clue how this biz really works.

Non-conforming journalists are victimized? Actually Microsoft is pretty darned nice, compare that to Apple which demands worship and will seriously go out of their way to blacklist and nail on wall. Microsoft, as most mature companies (and even the US Congress), has learnt, enemy today, friend tomorrow. Short memories are the keys to success.

But you also have to have a sense of the news biz too, they need a story to pitch, a proxy to field, a nugget to tug at, so you will get simpilistic Adobe vs. Microsoft stories, that don’t really capture reality, nor please a highly technical audience, yet it’s a good drama story arc hook for the readers and editors. Real life isn’t a TV show, but it has to be written like it is. Cry a river, if you don’t like it, but it’s just the way the world works.

But playing class warfare games (Developer vs. Media) is playing with raw political fire, which seems a skillset at Microsoft of late, taking the internal infighting external.

“Although I have to say that I found your Adobe interviews not as aggressive as Scoble can be …”

???
When was Scoble ever “aggressive”? He always sucks up to the interviewee, getting out of the way to let the guy talk about his project. That’s what he’s about, which is fine. I’ve never seen him go “Tim Russert” on anyone.

@92 “Buy a ticket in? The media? You really have no clue how this biz really works.”

It’s up to Microsoft how they dole out their press passes. Is Wired on their list? Maybe, maybe not. At the end of the day, it’s for MS to decide. As for Scoble, well he can delude himself all he wants into thinking he is “the press” but he’s a blogger. Now, does PodTech qualify as “the press”. Again, that’s for Microsoft to decide. But, I don’t “a list” bloggers should feel like they deserve the same level of credentials. Now I know Scoble will say “but bloggers are jounalists”. Well, they may think they are. But when it comes to events like this, it’s up to the owner of the event to determine who “a journalist” is.

LayZ: I’m now a monthly writer for Fast Company Magazine, so no longer just “a blogger.”

They have 700,000 circulation, so a bit more than my blog reaches.

Alfred Thompson, Andrew Rashbass, Mike Arrington and Tim O’Reilly are all absolutely irrelevant to Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 has nothing to do with content. Those who were concerned with posting content on the web and had important enough things to say could do it all before “blogs made it easy”.

I couldn’t say for sure whether you’re more irrelevant but those guys are so bottom of the barrel it’s not even worth competing with them.

Web 2.0 is actually about making sites and driving traffic without any content. Here, the communications experts think this is a new opportunity for their skills where in fact they are being replaced by automation.

@96….

Hey, how bout that. yawn.

Still doesn’t mean MS finds your relevant enough to comp you.

http://www.wunderkraut.com/sounds/simpsons/homer/makebelv.wav

it’s up to the owner of the event to determine who “a journalist” is.

True enough. But anyone leaving Wired off, needs to go back to marketing school. Can’t let personal bias’s get in the way, if I held an event, enemies and friends alike. But the dodgeball games are quite unprofessional, single out, character assassinate, roast and belittle whomever you like in an open forum and call it “transparency”. When the wind isn’t at your sails, call them “trolls”. See how easy it can be?

But End Prog, already spent too much time over this non-issue.

@98

“Here, the communications experts think this is a new opportunity for their skills where in fact they are being replaced by automation.”

yawn, “Web 2.0″ isn’t about automation. It’s about a new-”er” interface to the same old content.
A lot of sites still won’t give out their content via XML API, without charging a fee. If you go and get it via HTTP, and are not simply sampling it ala google, you are violating copyright.
This has been the case for the past 10 years now.
Web 2.0 has nothing to do with this. User generated content has been around a LONG time. Remember tripod and angelfire?

Nothing is being replaced by automation any more than it was a few years ago. “Hype du jour”. Quote me on that. The Web 2.0 bubble never even got close to bursting. It made a small spattering noise then went away.

The reason Web 1,2,3.2 is so popular is because most people can’t do real programming. So they put up a website with some php code and think they’ve created a masterpiece to rival that of Linus Torvalds.

It only works when the tech is brand new, like back 10+ years ago before 1999. It won’t work now that people are tech savvy to the web.

Most people now are using leech services like rapidshare, youtube, flickr and others. Services that essentially are very hard to make revenue on. Not like the old days when you could put a bicycle shop online and be the ONLY bicycle shop online in the world and make a million bucks at it.