Michael Russell chimes in on the (now slightly old news) debate in the developer world about Microsoft’s recent dev tools and subscriptions pricing and packaging updates – and highlights this point, which he sums up:
Just remember that the development community is now very close-knit due to your efforts with Channel 9, INETA, blogs and the like. Because we’re more close-knit, we are more likely to take on the cause of our more vocal members, because if you slight one of us, you slight all of us.
Good point.
For years now we have been pounding into the groups here that “community is king” – go where your product’s users are, engage in their conversations, learn from them and let them know you are paying attention. Ask questions. Listen. But especially, encourage your user community to become a real community – talk to each other, learn from and relay on each other, take ownership, develop thousands of strong voices.
The tighter that community, and I feel the Microsoft dev community has evolved into a pretty exciting and vibrant world of its own, the more powerful any reaction is going to be to something that shakes it up. Positive or negative, the reaction is amplified beyond what most companies are used to. And regardless of who any decision directly impacts - the small ISV, the enterprise dev shop, the budding student dev – the relationships forged within the community breaks down those traditional segments. The members support each other, and lend the weight of their voices to someone else’s concerns. One lone voice gets picked up, and amplified enormously.
Companies want strong and engaged user communities as it fosters the idea of users learning from each other – eventually the community takes on a life of its own, and the corporate role shifts into being a good citizen, supportive yet not dominating. Along with a vibrant community comes the building strength of their voices, and companies can react by engaging in that conversation or ignoring it – the choice I feel says a lot about how deeply the message of open conversation has pervaded the character of the company.
This is a fantastic example of the strength and vibrancy of the Microsoft developer community. Whatever comes of it, it’s amazing to watch.
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Thanks for the link. It’s a shame that the Developer Tools Division seems to have ignored the outcry rather than work to find a middle ground, however.