Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
scriptingNews outline for 4/29/2001
Author: Dave Winer Posted: 4/29/2001; 4:00:20 PM Topic: scriptingNews outline for 4/29/2001 Msg #: 22165 Prev/Next: 22164 / 22166
WriteTheWeb: "Online marketing has never been this smart."
Scripting News was not nominated for a Webby, again. We've never won an award, for anything. Maybe that's a good thing. I've given up trying to figure out why. What ever.
Zeldman: "You cannot reason with shrieking men."
Jakob Nielsen: "How can I apply the term 'nerdy' to a product named 'Eggy'?"
Hey some people who write books have an idea which book I'm reading, and am almost finished with. Before you gloat too much, it became a great book around chapter 4. When it comes out I'm going to recommend everyone who wants to understand how the Web became a disaster area read it so we can make sure it never happens again. Lots of new observations.
First, there were people at Microsoft, notably Ben Slivka and Brad Silverberg, who would have endorsed my proposal that Microsoft be forced to split the browser into a separate company. According to the book, most of the mid-level managers, who actually met separately, would have endorsed it too. The "Strategy Tax" is a big issue inside Microsoft. There's no doubt that lock-in is the Big Thing for both Gates and Ballmer. What else? Ballmer didn't understand how the Web worked until 1998. Get that. He's making big decisions for the Web, and didn't even bother to figure out what it is. It's probably true of Gates as well. As I suspected they could have avoided the antitrust trial, easily. Gates is not much-loved in his own company. What else did I learn? Well, I know this is just one point of view. But the story resonates with my experience. It's so funny that they want to get a developer thing going, when they spent the last eight years undermining the developers. They're in for a rude awakening when we don't all flock to their latest lock-in strategy. We have minds Bill.
Bottom-line, the software industry, like every other industry, must have competition. Microsoft is a dead-zone for lots of former competitive categories. When a category gets sucked into Microsoft it ends up in Bill's mind, and dies. They have no ideas other than owning everything. This ends up being very negative, to put it mildly. It's the most centralized system imaginable. All ideas die in Microsoft. Well enough of that. OK? What do you people say. Got any guts? Care to say no to Bill and Steve and their latest lock-in strategy whatever it turns out to be?
Now more than ever we have to work together. No lock in. Lots of good little companies. Goodbye to the death star. Become a bank, venture capitalist, consulting company, whatever. But please keep them away from developers, at all costs. They wonder why the developers don't flock to Windows anymore. Hey they killed all the developers who tried. Geez. It's so obvious. (This will probably get quoted somewhere. Oh la.)
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