RSSFormer WaSP Interoperability Advocate Hired by Microsoft
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published January 31, 2007, 12:25 PM
The lady who in September 2005 called Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's claim in a BusinessWeek article that his company would eventually "win the Web" "deplorable in the light of what the Web means to the world, to users, to designers and developers and to put it into Microsoft parlance, customers," now finds herself working for him.
Molly Holzschlag, the former group lead of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) and still contributing expert to the W3C, announced on her new MSDN-hosted blog this morning that she has joined Microsoft on a contractual basis, to provide expertise to the Internet Explorer group on matters of interoperability.
"The Web, as envisioned by its creator Tim Berners-Lee, was always meant to be an interoperable platform," Holzschlag wrote yesterday. "That was the entire heart and soul of its emergence: To provide people a means of sharing information across the world without regard to the computer platform or browser in use."
She added that, while evangelism is one way to promote interoperability, another involves actively working with developers toward a "stable baseline of compatibility," and providing education toward that end.
Last December, Holzschlag was one of a group of 14 bloggers invited to tour Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington. As she blogged at the time, she asked Chairman Bill Gates why Microsoft waited five years to move forward with Internet Explorer 7.0, and what will Microsoft do to ensure that Web standards development doesn't have to wait another five years in order to keep Microsoft in the loop.
Her transcript of the question reveals Gates' pattern response, which some would view as typical: attempting to rephrase the question, and then taking the questioner to task for not having accepted it as the question that was asked to begin with. "Eventually a question has to be answerable," Gates is quoted as having said.
That same month, OSTG Editor-in-Chief Robin Miller was one of another group of ten bloggers invited to a similar tour. There, as Miller reported for Linux.com, company executives touted the power and vision of Vista and asked its guests - including the Linux advocates in the crowd - to please blog about that vision. At the same time, guests were instructed to sign a non-disclosure agreement preventing them from communicating certain details of their visit.
"Microsoft is not short of smart, hard-working employees," Miller wrote. "I'm sure that in many ways it's a great place to work. I also think, from what I heard during my visit and what other Microsoft employees and customers have told me at other times, that it has degenerated into a series of disconnected fiefdoms that aren't all moving in the same direction."
For his trouble, Miller received a free Zune, which OSTG then offered to give away as a "development system."
Meanwhile, Holzschlag's life appears to be changing direction. As she wrote yesterday, "It is my desire that persistence coupled with diplomacy will assist us all in moving to a time where interoperability becomes the heart of the Web again."
This from the lady who in 2005 wrote the following: "The Web belongs to everyone. The Web's core vision and value is to be platform independent. Microsoft has no right to think it can win a tool that is for the people, of the people, and ultimately - by the people. No Mr. Ballmer, you will never win the Web for one very good reason: We the people will make sure you never do."
Interesting article. May I point out that working as a consultant to promote interop and standards within IE and Microsoft products is exactly the same as ensuring that the Web remain in the hands of the people? That's what standards are all about.
And may I also say that as a vendor, they are buying what I am selling, not the other way around.
With warm regards,
Molly
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|Thank you so much for your response, Molly. I'd be intrigued to understand more about what it was you discovered at Microsoft that led to your moderation in tone over the past few years - what helped you discover that diplomacy and education, joined with evangelism, as you've blogged, will help you meet your goals better now than before.
Congratulations on your new contract, and good luck on your new mission!
Yours,
Scott Fulton
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|Hi Scott,
In answer to your question I quite simply have to point to the people I worked with during the WaSP / Microsoft Task Force year. There is a definite split between the technology and business agendas there, and of course business will influence any tech decisions, for good or bad. Hey, that's Microsoft. We all know that! ;)
I think it's also a bit of the Clue Train philosophy: Revolution from the inside and all that.
I spoke to Ian Forrester at the BBC yesterday and I talk in more detail about this and other topics too. The vidcast runs around 15-20 minutes or so, but take a look if you're inclined: http://blip.tv/file/140923
Warmly, Molly
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|"No Mr. Ballmer, you will never win the Web for one very good reason: We the people will make sure you never do."
Maybe she hasn't changed her mind on that--well, at this point I think MS will die before it has a chance to regain the crown. Mark my words: no matter how little Bill Gates may be influencing Microsoft these days and in the future, he is still the cornerstone of that company. Once he's gone, I'll give Microsoft 5 years before they are either bankrupt or extremely small market share. Reason? He's the only one that seems to care about Microsoft rather than caring about what money he makes from microsoft. Steve could maybe hold it together if he's still around, but not for long.
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|Microsoft is going to be much much richer in 10-20 years. They and Apple will embed hardware encryption ("trusted" platform) so deep that it will be feasibly impossible to steal software AND MOST OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY in the future and they will collect a fee for every damn DRM'ed byte crossing your machine CUZ THEY MADE IT UNSTEALABLE IN THE FIRST PLACE. If v1.0 has flaws, v2.0 will have much less and v15 of the pirate-hell-maker will destroy piracy altogether. And before you ppl try to say "everything is crackable blah blah blah" I suggest you talk to a few top crackers from cracking forums and come back to me on that one, hmm'K? Just ask them if THEY can imagine an uncrackable platform and what it will entail - they'll tell you stuff like self-destructible encryption-modules upon inspection/analysis, individual binary per purchase, spray-peppered code with random checks, entrapment code that takes you on grand tour to nowhere as a debugger, entrapment code that slowly and RANDOMLY/RARELY/undetectably mutilate itself as punishment+later_pirate_detection+user frustration, etc etc. They'll tell ya it's only a matter of MONEY and TIME before something will come out that NOBODY WILL BE ABLE TO CRACK in a feasible amount of time (500 years ain't gonna cut it). Just ask...
This ain't gonna change whether Redmond get nuked tomorrow or the entire world switches to free OSs. The ones who would wanna make money off their UNPIRATABLE intellectual property (not give it away) WILL be able to do just that EVEN on a free OS or NOBODY WILL USE THAT OS. The reason it hasn't happened yet is because the OVERHEAD for such BRUTAL ENFORCEMENT is UNBEARABLE in today's computational power terms. In 5-10 years? 100+ core machines and 20-core "portable player"? Absolutely irrelevant/unnoticable.
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|"persistence coupled with diplomacy will assist us all..."
And if diplomacy fails? Who invades who?
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