The New Microsoft, or How to Add Value to the Microsoft Development Community
Chris Sells posted a great article on how weblogs have fundamentally changed how people get information in the developer community. In his former life, Chris made his living doing just that. Now he's making a major transition. This post really resonated with me, and I'm struggling with some of the same questions. The "old way" of technology instruction and information sharing that involves writing books, writing articles, and speaking at conferences is being eclipsed by more "real time" communications, including a lot of valuable technical content via weblogs and more open communications through e-mail and IM. This is a stark contrast to two or three years ago, where I struggled to get information on a regular basis. The only guy that I could ever get to regularly respond to e-mail was Steve Swartz, and he was extremely helpful in several instances. But now that kind of behavior is the norm at MS. These days, any MS person I meet now will quickly volunteer their e-mail address and will ensure that I get some sort of response to any question that I may have. Sure, you could have tracked many of the same folks down a few years ago, but now it is almost the opposite. Product teams are practically begging for feedback from anyone willing to provide it! I think that the Microsoft people, including the product teams, are committed to sharing information with customers at a level that I would have never imagined just a few years ago. Heck, a couple of weeks ago I got a chance to ask Steve Ballmer direct questions, and he also encouraged me to e-mail him (or his staff probably, but still its a good thing). The product teams that I've had a chance to talk to are aggressively reaching out to customers in the same way. Much of this interaction is online and in the newsgroups, so you don't have to spend a lot of money to get the benefits. The old days of chasing people down at the PDC or TechEd may be coming to an end.
I don't want to overstate this, but it is almost a different world for Microsoft developers than it was a few years ago. I wonder if the industry that guys like Chris and Don (and many other talented people) built, the writing/speaking/training/music playing/nude photo taking work in the software development community for lack of a better description, will continue to be relevant going forward. I think it will probably be relevant, at least the nude photos and music. :) But seriously, I think there will be a strong alternative for folks that are willing to reach out to Microsoft directly and actively participate in these online communities. They may not want to go to books or magazines or training classes, they may prefer to talk directly with the person who designed a particular feature or tool. For someone like myself, who hasn't established himself as an expert on par with the greatest minds of the industry, my books or articles may suddenly carry much less weight. Sure, there are the DevelopMentor and Wintellect guys that are still well respected, and their work is still going to be very valuable. But there are plenty of other people who may become "middlemen" in this industry if they're not careful. This is another great example of how the web is enabling people to be more productive and self-sufficient in many aspects of their lives, and companies like Microsoft seem to be working very hard to help people realize these benefits. It is also a challenge to many of us to strive to add more value to this community and to creatively find ways to help people get the most out of Microsoft and out of themselves. I'm trying do this through my weblog, at least as a start. I'm also going to try to do some creative things with my upcoming book projects, including the Yukon book and the "other book" that should be announced soon. Still, it is going to be an uphill battle for many of us. It is like we're starting over as a community in many respects, and for those of us who don't have many years invested, that may present an opportunity. For those that do have a lot of years invested, it may be "sink or swim".
Also, I don't work directly with any other major technology companies that support developers right now, so I'd be curious to know if this phenomenon is happening across the industry in the same degree that it is happening at Microsoft. Please share your experiences in the comments.
