[odf-discuss] standards schmandards

[Ian Lynch]

On Thu, 2007-07-12 at 13:35 -0700, Christian Einfeldt wrote:

> Oh, no, that is entirely incorrect.  First, there are plenty of
> corporations that are "bigger" than Microsoft. 

You don't have to be bigger than them to cause them problems. Even when
Google was a lot less than half the size of MS in terms of
capitalisation it won most of the important battles. They have caused
many of MS best engineers to jump ship and MS has been powerless to stop
this.

>  IMHO, most people probably agree that such influence is NOT
> desireable. 

Which is why most other big players in the IT industry are backing ODF
rather then MOOX/OOXML or whatever we want to call it. But its
complicated because strategies for individual companies vary depending
on specific opportunities that arise.

>         Most of these things are just "listening to your customer's
>         needs", and since MS's needs include ego stroking, the rest
>         just falls out naturally.

>  Microsoft, by contrast, creates a culture of fear among its employees
> and business partners.  

Mainly because it can. When you have a monopoly you can do things you
wouldn't get away with if you were in a highly competitive situation.
But as the platform moves from the desktop to the internet MS's long
term future is going to have to shift from reliance on Windows and
office anyway. Even if they get ISO status for their file formats, its
not going to change the way technology is changing. If the formats
become highly interchangeable its really not going to do much more than
put off the inevitable. If that enables say Linspire to thrive its still
bad for MS so its looking increasingly lose lose for them the only
uncertainty is the time scale and whether they can find replacement
revenue streams for Windows and Office. The pressure will be to have to
cut prices as alternatives mature. 

>  A profound sea change ( Bill Gates words, not mine) is sweeping
> through the entire content industry, as the Internet swallows
> privately held networks.  All content providers, which includes
> software and movies and music, are facing economic pressures to change
> their fundamental model for delivering their IP as services, not
> packaged products.  

Actually a lot of the pressure is to give content away free to encourage
growth of the customer base for allied services and advertising. prince
just did a deal with a national newspaper here to give away his most
recent album. Paper paid him about $1m which is more than he would have
got from a record company and gave the CD away to boost circulation and
hence their advertising revenue. The music industry is in a sort of
death throw. MS are offering film downloads to Xbox to undercut video
rental etc. Google gives us Google Earth, Google Apps and Google maps
for free because it boosts advertising. We give content away instead of
using conventional advertising to get people to use our site and take up
our qualifications. So I'm not that worried about what RIAA or BSA or
whatever do, they are going to get increasingly desperate as the gravy
train hits the buffers. Doesn't mean we can be complacent and stop doing
the right thing, just we don't need to be too paranoid either :-). 

> They are losing control, and they are fighting back with socially
> irresponsible means, rather than doing as Google, for example, is
> doing, and anticipating the profound changes riding the growth of the
> free and open Internet. 

And part of Google's success is that they have gone against the
conventional wisdom. Since 2000 Google's stock has seen far far better
growth than MS.

> Microsoft deserves strident criticism because it is suppressing
> fundamental social freedoms, not because it is "big".  Google is
> nearly as big,

I think it still has some way to catch up yet but it would not be
surprising if it grows bigger. Of course a lot of people find Google's
"big brother" capacity chilling too.

>  and is rapidly growing bigger, and is continuing to act nearly as
> responsibly as it did as a smaller company.  The difference between
> Google and Microsoft is the difference between night and day. 

Thing is that Google's business model is disruptive to MS's so the
stronger Google gets its likely to be the weaker MS will be. Google has
some vulnerabilty though because other people can produce good search.
Look at http://clusty.com/ for example. Probably though Google will get
big enough to buy any up and coming competitor and we might then be
saying similar things about them as MS. Personally I think there is a
fundamental difference because search does not force you into using many
other dependent apps. Using Windows does.

Ian
-- 
New QCA Accredited IT Qualifications
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