Microsoft Changes Tune - Less Secrets | Maslow Forgot about Beer ™

Filed Under (Business, Technology) by Sean on February 22nd, 2008 at 12:02 am

I would like to think Steve Ballmer read my damning indictment of him and his company and my recommendations when deciding to share more of the company’s secrets. The New York Times story quotes Ballmer as saying the company was adapting to “the opportunities and risks of a more connected, more services-oriented world.”

According to the story, by Steve Lohr in today’s Technology section:

Microsoft said on Thursday that it would open up and share many more of its technical secrets with the rest of the software industry and competitors. Microsoft executives, in a conference call, characterized the announcement as a “strategic shift” in the company’s business practices and its handling of technical information . . .

The broader goal, they said, is to bring Microsoft’s flagship personal computer products — the Windows operating system and Office productivity programs — further into the Internet era of computing. Increasingly, people want a seamless flow of documents, data and programming code among desktop PCs and the Internet, especially as they make the shift from using software on a PC to using services on the Web.

The story also quotes Microsoft’s general counsel as saying, “qualitatively and quantitatively different from anything we’ve done in the past.”

I think this is great news, however I am not 100% sure of its sincerity. Did Microsoft finally wake up and realize the world around them or is this some surreptitious strategy to gain regulator approval to pursue Yahoo and continue with business as usual?

I suppose I’m the eternal optimist and hope they really are changing their tune and overall company strategy to fit the realities of the current marketplace. Microsoft has plenty to teach the industry; they certainly have much to learn from it.

We will have to stay tuned and see. Microsoft has much to do to de-vilify itself and step down as the industry bully and consider itself an important part of the technology ecosystem. It needs to become a shepherd of open standards and interoperability. A rising tide of industry-wide innovation will lift all boats and broaden technology’s reach, which will help technology achieve its promise.