My wife and I seem to have had some friendly competition as developer community engagement has made our jobs have been very similar over the last few months. I had a decent blog, she took her writing skills and created a better blog.  I started the Powertoys blog… she did a really cool interview on Channel9.  One year (just about) after I started my blog I’ve now been Slashdotted.  I don’t think she wants to try and top that but who knows what she is cooking up next.

 

It’s funny, before I make any post I think quickly “What would Slashdot say?”.  If I have to think about it I generally re-read my post to verify there is nothing I wouldn’t be confident supporting to that crowd and my boss included.  I did that Friday, made the post, but by time Monday came and went I assumed I was in the clear.

 

This morning, when I checked mail and saw all of the comments (that go to my inbox) I said “wow, that’s a lot of comment spam.”  I ignored them until I saw the mail that said “jledgard on Slashdot!”  Then I wondered if I wouldn’t have preferred the normal comment spam.  I quickly made the update to clear up any belief that I was responsible for the WIX/WTL stuff.  Given the misattribution though, my co-workers have enjoyed suggesting “Hey, didn’t Josh invent that? Let’s ask him.” But even if some of the attention was undeserved I value the feedback and conversations that could be had on this topic since I really do want to see us do more in this space.  

 

I’ve also been tracked down by several acquaintances from college and High School.  An even stranger coincidence is that I make the second former PCD student to have been slashdotted in the last week.

 

I’m going pull out themes of comments from the blog and Slashdot and respond to them as new posts.  It might take me a few nights and a few entries, but I’ll try and get to anything constructive or entertaining so if you are waiting for a response from me feel free to subscribe for a few days.  

 

Yes, My Cardkey Still Works

Several people have suggested I’m not long for Microsoft. Here are a couple of examples:

 

·          theGrendel says “Yes, Josh, I commend your efforts but I think you're wasting your time. In fact, I don't think you have much of a future at MSFT, considering what you're advocating.  It's unfortunate, but hey, you're young, and you'll probably land on your feet after you're fired.”

·          Girly says “Hey Josh, when's your last day?”

 

 

Of course there are some who seem to think the opposite and call for my instatement as Microsoft CEO.

 

Coming from a testing background this theme had me paranoid enough that I did actually ask my boss today if he has yet to get any requests for my head on the chopping block.  The answer is no.  Of course I haven’t gotten any sudden promotions either.   Cultivating a basic culture change at Microsoft is proving a difficult job and I’ll admit that not everyone is bought into even the most basic community engagement efforts; however I’m confident that things can change.  But if I do get fired, and you need a CEO… you can send mail to jledgard(at)gmail.com. :-)

 

The Issue of Trust

I wouldn’t trust Microsoft either if I was outside our firewall.  Here are some posts from people that think trust is key: 

 

  • Gile: “Open source advocates don't trust Microsoft and some of Microsoft's internal memos give them reason to.”
  • Mike Capp: “Transparency fosters trust, and encourages participation because you can see things happening as a result of that participation. I switched from Opera to Moz precisely because of this issue - at the time Moz was still buggier, but because of the process I had a lot more confidence that it would improve.”
  • Undisclosed: “If you want the trust of the community, you have to first show respect to the community. Not a bunch of hand waving marketing speak.”
  • Bill: “I would say the key thing to making people want to work on Open Source projects with/for Microsoft is to get the developers to trust you. Why should anyone want to work with/for Microsoft when Microsoft has a tendency to treat its customers like criminals.”
  • Lilo: “It would be great if these (MS discontinued router firmware) can be supported through an open source effort. This wouldn't impact MS business <read not competing>, and in fact would improve the value of an MS product for customers <read increased trust in future MS products>.”

 

We (Microsoft) have spent years damaging what had formerly been very good relationships with the developer communities through our lack of developer engagement, transparency, caring, and general air of arrogance.  I don’t expect partners or customers to regain trust today because one person posts in the newsgroups, two people blog, or three groups start being more open with the source of their projects.  It is especially hard when there are still conflicting messages to this date from Microsoft.  I’ve said it before, but you are witnessing a Microsoft in the midst of a transition where we are slowly digging our heads out of the sand. The transition will not be smooth and Microsoft will make mistakes. 

 

I’m not sure that trust is only fully regained by big gestures. I think it can start small and build over time.  Building trust can start with one newsgroup post that answers a question, two bloggers that turn into two thousand, and three small open projects that eventually lead to larger components with richer levels of engagement that solve a broader base of problems for our customers with Microsoft based platforms.  Wow, that sounded like some Marketing BS right there didn’t it?  I guess I don’t expect this post to make you trust me either, but if you stick around I’ll try and earn it and trust can start with individuals at Microsoft.