Putting our own House in Order....

re: Putting our own House in Order....

techivist — Fri, 23 May 2008 03:35:59 GMT

I, too, am glad to hear & see that Microsoft, as a whole, is very excited about how they can contribute to the open source community. However, as others have said, MS has a long way to go before they start making inroads with the open source crowd. I agree with what Cristobal & Anthony have said.

Lastly, I also don´t think that ¨many external people understand what Microsoft is trying to do in the open source space.¨ It would be helpful to open source evangelists, like myself, to have an idea of how MS thinks it can contribute to the open source community (&, inversely, how open source association will help MS).

hope to hear/read more,

--techivist

re: Putting our own House in Order....

http://www.toyswarehouse.com — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:39:55 GMT

for a while, a scientist. I even a pair I noticed then. black years later. friends

Open Source Day + 30 …

Port 25: The Open Source Community at Microsoft — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:18:40 GMT

The same week that Brad Smith (Microsoft’s General Counsel) keynoted at the Open Source Business Conference

re: Putting our own House in Order....

Jeff Smith — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:11:06 GMT

I think it is great you had such a large turn out. I think that shows that MS is starting to understand the importance of open source.

Also thanks for mentioning WIX. I was just looking for a program like that. :D

re: Putting our own House in Order....

Anthony — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:05:12 GMT

@MJM

Hello MJM,

Thanks for update. I think a similar event targeted with invitations sent out to people outside Microsoft would be nice. I disagree with the statement: " ... many external people understand what Microsoft is trying to do in the open source space .. ". Microsoft does not quite have a shiny reputation when it comes to Open Source and claiming that people understand what Microsoft is doing in that space is a bit of a stretch. I think what Microsoft does really well is confuse people ;-)

I think Port25 members would probably need to be more involved in outbound activities evangelizing Microsoft activities in Open Source and showcasing how and what Microsoft is doing in that direction for two different reasons: 1) enhance Microsoft reputation w.r.t. Open Source (FUD, etc) and 2) build a credible story about Microsoft activities and what it is trying to achieve and why.

Thank you.

re: Putting our own House in Order....

MJM — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:25:29 GMT

@Andy -- I'm happy to see the interest in this topic. As I said to another poster on another post, this was an internal event to educate and converse with Microsoft employees. We won't be posting any transcripts because (1) it wasn't transcribed and (2) we want to encourage the ongoing internal dialogue, which can include some difficult and cointentious questions. I posted about the day to let people know there is a strong positive interest in open source at Microsoft and that, contrary to some people's views, our team isn't an outlier or rogue element in the company.

re: Putting our own House in Order....

Andy Jones — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:37:35 GMT

Where can I download transcripts of the talks? I think a lot of people would be interested in what was said, else why blog about it?

re: Putting our own House in Order....

MJM — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:20:27 GMT

@Cristobal -- Thanks for commenting. I would contend that our executives are changing their tune (externally and internally). We can debate whether it's far enough. But I don't think anyone can argue that change isn't happening.

You're right, licenses *do* matter, patents *do* mattter, and community involvement *definitely* matters. And in all those places, we are making strides.

Will Microsoft ever change enough to satisfy all the OSS communities? I highly doubt it, and I don't think it can. Even within the "OSS world" there is significant disagreement about the "right" way to do open source. But you can be sure we will continue to change. Market forces will dictate that.

re: Putting our own House in Order....

Cristóbal Palmer — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:04:26 GMT

Your CEO sets the tone. Until he stops making predictably-timed public bully statements about patents, there are many Open Source types (myself included) who will have a hard time taking you seriously. I understand that big ships turn slowly, but his message is a 180 from where people using Red Hat at work want to see you going.

Being tied to a particular Linux vendor with which you've partnered is no better than being tied solely to Microsoft in the eyes of the OSS crowd. Convince us with good code, good faith, and radical openness.

Posts like yours here are a great step, but licenses matter, your stance on patents matters, and how you approach the whole community of Open Source users matters.

Good luck.

re: Putting our own House in Order....

MJM — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:49:43 GMT

@Bryan -- Thanks for your comment. Point of clarification, I'm not *the* open source evangelist at Microsoft. I'm part of a team that works to develop our open source strategy and educate people inside and outside Microsoft about that strategy. No one on my team, least of all me, claims to be *the* expert on open source. We're just doing our best to understand open source and work with it in a way that makes the most sense for our customers and partners.

re: Putting our own House in Order....

Bryan — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 02:24:55 GMT

Wow, I just have to say, if you're the open source evangelist and this is the first you've seen that map, you guys have a long way to go.