Why Channel 9 is stupid
Yeah, that's right, I'm not going to fit in with all of the “me too” crowd. Channel 9 is stupid.
I mentioned awhile ago that GotDotNet has been a failure of sorts, partly for technical reasons, but partly because it's another fragmented kingdom at Microsoft. In addition to GDN, we have ASP.NET and WindowsForms.NET. All three went off to do their own thing, and clearly never talked to each other.
Now we have this Channel 9 thing, which is supposed to offer some kind of insight into how Microsoft's developer folk work, and allow us to talk back to them. Sounds pretty good in theory, right? I don't think so.
I can't really speak for all areas of development, but right now I think that I get a pretty good insight into how things in the ASP.NET are going on via the blogs of people like Rob Howard and G. Andrew Duthie, as well as a number of non-MS bloggers who also participate in the forums at ASP.NET.
Should I now go to this new site (with the ridiculous avatars down the left side) because it looks cool and trendy, and everyone thinks it's a good idea? Is there a mandate that the people in the ASP.NET sphere go there and participate? If there's not, then it's just one other place I'm really not that interested in going. I can barely keep up with the other content I want to read.
They post that they want to “move beyond“ newsgroups and blogs or whatever. That's a joke. The protocols change, but when you stop and look objectively at the Internet today, we're just using rich text editors now to post to Usernet and .plan files. Let's not kid ourselves.
Here's the thing, for years we've complained about marketing getting in the way of the real point and purpose of product. That's a valid concern, and certainly the only problem marketing causes these days is delays (because we shouldn't need to wait for Whidbey). However, now with Microsoft fostering this entrepreneurial spirit, kingdoms rise from the dark corners of Redmond without any regard to what's already going on elsewhere. For all the evil that marketing allegedly is, at least there's some kind of coherent strategy there. But then again, they post right on Channel 9 that marketing has no place there.
It could get more ridiculous, or the kings of these kingdoms could all sit down together, put their egos aside, and decide how to consolidate their resources and serve the market segments they cater to more affectively. That sounds like marketing, I know, but modern marketing is more of a two-way street than it ever has been, especially since that Internet thing came along.