Martin Fowler kindly posted the sad news that John Vlissides has passed away.
John was a member of the 'Gang of Four' who have irreversibly influenced the way software is now written using the concept of patterns inspired by Christopher Alexander.
Thank you John for your contribution to the industry and art of software - you will be sorely missed.
A notable part of the discussion came when Linda Hamel, the ITD's general counsel, was asked why she thought the Citizens Against Government Waste have taken a position against the decision, and called it anti-competitive. "I think that with the exception of the disability organizations, almost all of the organizations that have come out against ODF have been funded by Microsoft," she stated.
When pressed to clarify whether the organizations are subsidiaries of Microsoft, Hamel said, "I am saying that they have been influenced."
What is of significant concern is that this case has now become a millstone around the neck of key politicians' ambitions and their careers placing unquantifiable pressure on Peter Quinn which reminds me of a well know phrase that "all is fair in love and war".
UPDATE: Microsoft Offers Office Document Formats to Ecma International for Open Standardization Company to work with other industry leaders in standards body to foster interoperability and unleash power of billions of documents worldwide. So ODF will have to compete with another open standard.
This is a very interesting and perhaps for the cognoscenti an expected development. Microsoft after watching upstarts and open source projects begin to eat into and erode their marketshare albeit slight have now responded - they have turned to the internet to save themselves and evolve the software-
is-a-service paradigm - not forgetting another emergent trend known as
software-is-the-message.
But here lies the question - Microsoft has been providing feature-rich tools before the use of the internet that people decided were not as good value as other free-and-open-source software because they delivered more than was required, they were bloated with features and inherently became difficult to maintain as well as creating vendor lock-in. In comparison
open source tools were/are fit-for-purpose, free therefore without any vendor lock-in and easier to maintain - here in begins the FUD/flame war on maintenance but a lot of people have argued this one to the death already so I apologise for raising the point again.
So, what will make Microsoft differentiate against other web based services? Perhaps it will be the ability for them to continue their mantra of 'use
one platform, use
our platform' as has SUN Microsystems... Sun won a deal recently with a huge US manufacturer because as
Jonathan Schwartz was excited to point out - they get one vendor who can deliver an end-to-end solution.
Microsoft is well placed to become an end-to-end vendor in the software-as-a-service space if it delivers the value businesses are looking for - as more businesses fragment into
smaller, inter-connected and specialised communities of practice this could prove a viable option for those who find comfort in the Microsoft brand. The problem as it stands is that businesses are becoming vendor neutral as they prefer to rely on their trusted advisors who are best placed to understand their business and weave the mix that works for them.
What struck my eye however was that yet again, it seems the revenue model is always harking back to advertising - is this the business above all others?
Advertiser Opportunities
The addition of Office Live and Windows Live services enables advertisers to reach an even larger, more engaged audience. Today Ozzie outlined Microsoft’s vision for an advertising network powered by MSN adCenter, where advertisers will have access to tools that provide them with control, insight and intelligence to create more meaningful connections with customers. The advertising network will be open to partners over time so advertisers can connect with a broader audience through traditional media as well as new scenarios such as Internet Protocol television (IPTV) and mobile communications products.
UPDATE: Developers become advertisers with Microsoft @ Register.com
Check out:
Microsoft Live: http://www.live.com/
Further commentary:
Dave Winer, John Battelles, Ross Mayfield, Joe Wilcox