evangelism

Behind the scenes at Microsoft's Channel 9

REDMOND, Wash.--Microsoft's June rollout of a niche software development kit that lets developers create PC applications for its Kinect motion-sensing game was a breaking news moment for the tech evangelists of the tiny Channel 9 unit.

Channel 9 is a group of 10 full-time employees and dozens of volunteers from within Microsoft, who produce video programming for the Web to connect the company with the folks who write software applications that run on its platforms. When the Kinect for Windows SDK debuted, it was an all-hands-on-deck moment.

Channel 9 aired four hours of live video with how-to sessions … Read more

The difference a few years makes to open source

For those new to open source, whether on the business or development side, it's hard to appreciate just how far the movement has come in the past few years.

In 1998, when I had my first taste of open-source software through my company's investment in Cobalt Networks, virtually no one knew what open source was, including now-common projects like Linux. Things were a little better in 2000, when I joined a Linux start-up (Lineo), but I spent much of my time working with prospective customers to ease their concerns over open-source licenses like the GPL.

By 2004, when … Read more

R.I.P., open-source evangelism

We have reached a critical inflection point for open source.

With everyone from Qualcomm to UBS to Microsoft embracing open source in one shape or another, the question is no longer "why" to use open source, but rather "how."

Because of this changing mindset around open-source adoption, we no longer need evangelists encouraging open-source adoption. Adoption is a given. It's the default.

No, what we need now are those that can illustrate how to derive the most benefit from the inevitable adoption of open source.

This is perhaps evident in MindTouch's just-released survey of … Read more

Better reasons to use Linux on the desktop?

In reading through "Top 10 Responses to Why I Should Use Linux? A Linux Evangelists' Reference," I couldn't help but think that Linux needs better evangelists for its desktop crusade.

Take this one:

"Linux is easier to use than Windows. Using the Terminal is not necessary, in most cases."

You don't start by proclaiming Linux easier to use than Windows, then follow that up with the assurance that you won't normally need to use the terminal/command line.

The fact that you might ever have to do so should be enough to scare … Read more

Herding cats at Microsoft

Tim O'Brien must have one of the more difficult jobs at Microsoft. As senior director of Microsoft Platforms, he is tasked with getting different parts of Microsoft to dance to the same tune. "Part of my role in the company is to help groups understand what the paths are," O'Brien said during an interview at Mix '08 earlier this month. "If the groups are heading down random paths, at the risk of oversimplification, we try to get on a common trajectory."

It sounds like a herding cats job. Microsoft has multiple platforms and agendas, … Read more