March, 2007

Yep, I'm lovin my Leica :)

Security vendor Clearswift says "employees pose security risks by discussing work issues on social media Web sites" - reported in Business Week this week. They have advised companies to review or implement security policies and procedures around web 2.0 applications after a survey found that

• 42 per cent of company employees aged 18 to 29 had discussed work-related issues on social media websites

Shocking. Lets all stop blogging immediately. Err, no.

When I talk on the tube or down at my pub I pose a security risk as I don't know if it's a journalist sat next to me or a competitor. Granted the web poses a wider risk as more people are out there than at my local pub (though my local gets pretty busy with team Foxton's on a Friday) but I think people are likely to exercise more constraint with their keyboard than they are in the pub. Loose lips sinks ships and all that.

The advice provided is companies should have policies and I agree with that but it's hardly revolutionary. My policy would say "be smart" and engage your brain before talking company business anywhere - be that in the pub or on the web. I would also have a policy that says "do talk about your work" as word of mouth marketing is the most powerful but seems to be a dying breed.

Alex at Melcrum has a more balanced view of the report that is well worth a read.

That was the quote that stuck in my mind today from our Partnering for the Future roundtable in Cambridge. I'll not attribute it here but I suspect the owner may own up anyway :)

We had a great day of listening and learning from 11 partners who had strong views around Web 2.0, Web 3.0, skills, the creative industries, transparency at Microsoft and much more. I'll be summarizing soon but our team (including UK MD Gordon Frazer and Partner Director Scott Dodds) left in no doubt that we can do a tonne more with the help of this group and their friends. They're our brand ambassadors.

More to follow soon but the main thing I left with was we need to hang out with these folks more often and listen. We have much to learn.

if you want a quick view of what Expression is all about, check out the video. Probably worth downloading as the bitrate here is pretty high for smooth streaming.

Download WMV (right click and choose Save As)

I've been listening and watching the whole Open XML debate for a while now and decided it was high time to chime in and ask you to offer your support. Here is my very simple recap of things - apologies for the paraphrase but this is the deal.

1. Customers and partners have repeatedly asked us over the years to open our proprietary Office document formats. You were probably one of them...I used to get this question a lot when I started at Microsoft.
2. We listened (novel I know) and in Office 2007 we included the Open XML format. We also support it in Office 2003 through a free add-on.
3. Customers have since told us they would like Open XML become an open standard with broad rights to use, without cost, without any patent infringement. Makes sense.
4. Microsoft agreed and called for the standardization of Open XML via international bodies like ECMA. They approved it as an open standard on Dec 7th 2006.  
5. The vote was nearly unanimous; of the 21 members, IBM’s was the sole dissenting vote. IBM (again) was the lone dissenter when ECMA agreed to submit Open XML as a standard for ratification by ISO.
6. The ISO process involves a 1 month period for national bodies to review followed by a 5 month technical review process and when ODF (an alternative doc format) was under consideration, Microsoft made no effort to slow down the process - why should we?
7. In the meantime, during the one-month period for consideration of Open XML in ISO, IBM led a global campaign urging national bodies to demand that Open XML was not even considered. They ignored the fact that the vast majority of ISO members chose not to submit comments. Nice eh?
8. We think this is a blatant attempt to use the ISO process to limit choice for commercial motives - no surprise that Notes doesn't support Open XML.
9. We think people want choice. Seriously.

If you agree, please show your support at http://www.microsoft.co.uk/openxml/ - it only takes a few moments.

thanks!