The Sikh Geek

It’s Blue Monster’s first birthday so come on …”Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you…”

As with most One Year Olds it’s just beginning to walk and talk beyond those early baby ramblings and we’re just getting beyond those “aawwhh isn’t cute!” or “looks just like it’s dad!”. As Steve says in his post people either love it or hate it and I’ve personally gone from one extreme to another and back again and I’m sitting at the “love it” end at the moment. But as Steve points out people have an opinion on it. One thing I cannot deny is Steve and Hugh’s committment to it and their desire to start the multitude of conversations that have gone on around it. It’s made me think about my relationship with Microsoft, iQubed’s relationship with Microsoft, my customer’s relationship with Microsoft and my relationship with other Microsoft Partners.

Some people may think there is a certain arrogance to “Microsoft being able to change the world” but there is no doubting that as the one of the richest companies in the World, it does have certain responsibilities beyond it’s core business aims. In fact it is called Corporate Social Responsibility.

I used to be firmly on the “Microsoft is Evil” camp and my aim when starting out in business was to show businesses how Microsoft was screwing them silly and locking them in to their solutions. Open Source was the saviour to me! Before starting my business I was a software team leader for a Software Consultancy specialising in GSM/3G solutions to major Telecomms compnaies. We were developing test software for this market enabling 3G testing. I led a team of 6 Java Developers and introduced them to NetBeans (Open Source development framework), Ant (Java build tool), CVS (Configuration Control) and Bugzilla (bug/issue tracking) - so the whole toolset and application was Open Source from start to finish. I then went on to work for a Smartcard Company working on developing test tools using Eclipse (Open Source Java development framework) working with a team who were totally Open Source and where one of the team was a contributor to Debian. So, you can see I don’t come from a Microsoft Technology background.

How does this relate to the Blue Monster? Well, my Company is now a Microsoft Certified Partner and I’m a SBSC Partner Area Lead and I was sitting clapping enthusiastically at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver in July to Steve Ballmer. So, quite a “Road to Damascus” I would say! It was some people from Microsoft who changed my perception of Microsoft because they actually came out from TVP and talked to us. I began to find that I actually liked these people, that I could trust them, that they did not bullshit me and they were genuinely interested in my success. You could say it was their job to do this but thinking back, it was not their job to do all the things they did do and they did it because they believed in something more than just a big corporate that they worked for. It was the Blue Monster at work eventhough they were not necessarily followers of it.

I used the Blue Monster in my recent presentations to fellow SBSC Partners because we are at the frontline of how end customers perceive Microsoft, we are the ultimate Blue Monster foot soldiers whether we are fans of it or not.

Microsoft lost its anti-trust appeal with the EU Commission as reported by BBC News Online yesterday. It might still appeal yet to the European Court of Justice as the Genereal Counsel wanted to absorb the details of the ruling before deciding. So, Microsoft was convicted of breaking anti-competition rules in the EU to complement the previous conviction back in the US. I watched Microsoft’s reaction through Brad Smith, Senior Vice President and thought it was a very measured and humble response. He even thanked the Court of First Instance for their committment and diligence in considering the issues.

On the other hand the Blue Monster made it in to the FT and Hugh has got a range of the Stormhoek wine branded with the Blue Monster label and being discussed in that article.

I thought this was a bit of a contrast with on the one hand the thing that many people point to as highlighting the not so good aspect and the attempt by Steve Clayton and Hugh MacLeod to tell a different story of Microsoft.

The EU case has been going on since 2004 and to be honest I think things have changed since then. The Novell/Microsoft agreement has brought about an Interoperability Lab and an official Strategy by Microsoft on Open Source. The work by the Port25 guys is pioneering within the context of Microsoft and they are quite open in saying that product groups still view them with some suspicion as they go about Microsoft trying to promote the idea that Open Source presents opportunties rather than just threats.

So, it’ll be interesting to see which side will win the day!

UPDATE

After writing this post I saw this post from Adriana Lukas linked from Hugh’s Blog and makes the same connections as me between the FT Article/Blue Monster and the Anti-trust result.

… I also just saw the comment from Barry Dorans (I’ve met the guy at a couple of NxtGenUG meetings) and I have to agree with him, I just wasn’t brave enough to say it

“Ah but you highlight the problem with bluemonster in your quote from the press release, it’s not about MS, or their employees, it’s all about Hugh. That certainly seems to be the reaction from a bunch of people, and that’s a shame, it’s diminished the effectiveness because it’s seen as another vehicle for the creator, not the subjects. It doesn’t have teeth any more, it’s been defanged because it’s not about the brand, but it’s about the creative.”

Certainly most of the reactions are congratulating Hugh in getting the article into the FT and can we have some wine by the way! I’ve felt for a little while it was becoming too much of an elite, of having coffee in trendy London cafes and connecting with people who were from exclusive Marketing companies because they think Hugh is hip and cool. I have nothing against Hugh, I love the stuff he does and use one of his cartoons as my business card now. It’s just that I don’t hear the types of conversations I thought I would and if you’re the only one doing it, then people then just begin to think you’re mad or on an ego trip or attention seeking.

This group on Facebook has exploded with 247 current members in only a few weeks! I saw that Hugh was asking if this was a good number. I definitely think so, as I’m sure it’s going to grow some more yet!

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with “The Blue Monster” which I think is good because at least it provokes a strong reaction. It has made people have a different set of conversations about Microsoft and it certainly has touched a chord with many people. Make of it what you will! That is why people like it as they feel they own it somehow…I suppose? For me anything that talks to the Social Corporate Responsibility side of an organisation gets lots of brownie points with me but I can also see that people might see it as a slightly arrogant view. However, it’s not really a Microsoft Corp message, it’s a grassroots message. My question is though, will it just always be a “marketing” message or will it effect real change?

So if you want to have some interesting discussions about Microsoft then get onboard!