“Time is long past for Microsoft to revitalize user group relations and reach out to those people that get it.”
Joe Wilcox from Jupiter Media weighs in on Scoble’s Team 99 idea, and takes a shot at Microsoft’s user group relations in the process. Having run our MSDN user group relations program in the US from 2001–2003, I’ll take a bit of issue here. I don’t think Joe is giving much credit to the huge popularity of MS-related user groups, and to Microsoft’s equally substantial investment in helping them succeed.
Take a look at Culminis (IT user groups), INETA (developer user groups), and Microsoft Mindshare (consumer user groups), plus the recently launched Codezone. Mindshare and Codezone are Microsoft-owned programs, while Culminis and INETA are heavily Microsoft-supported but run by user group leaders. All four programs represent major investments of time and resources by Microsoft into the user group community that has grown up around our products. Thing is, a lot of this isn’t visible because we rarely do much PR about it, and journalists and bloggers rarely find the efforts compelling or controversial enough to make good print.
Scoble chimed in with personal experience on this same point. Most people would probably be quite surprised at how extensive Microsoft support for UG’s really is. Because most of it is behind the scenes, it just doesn’t get the press, which is fine by us.
Mindshare, INETA, and Culminis are designed mainly to support the UG leaders, to help them run better and more exciting groups and meetings. Codezone is new – it is for the UG members themselves. Every year MS employees speak at hundreds of UG meetings and MS sponsors things like INETA’s Speaker’s Bureau to get top-flight speakers in front of even more groups. Huge amounts of product and program feedback comes back from these experiences. Vast amounts of compliementary software is given out to group members.
The most amazing part of an organization like INETA, moreover, is that it is run by the community, not Microsoft. The UG leaders have a tireless enthusiasm for the developer community that I find inspiring just to be around.
Why does MS care so much about this one type of community? UG’s are simply one of the most powerful expressions of grassroots community you’ll find – from the Homebrew Computer Club (or here, here) through today, they are the living embodiment of the power of local community.
Their popularity ebbs and flows – they tend to peak right around the release of a disruptive innovation in the technology they are focused on, as people seek out free training and support, and during down job markets, as job seekers hunt for networking opportunities. But even in down years they are where you find both the seekers and the leaders.
I will agree with Joe that we can (and should) always do more to support UG’s, especially as we lead up to Longhorn. UG’s are a fantastic resource for a company to tap into for product feedback, and we are always looking at more and more effective ways to support them. I just don’t agree with comments like “Those efforts have all but disappeared…”
Pop into the INETA/Culminis User Group Leader Summit at TechEd 2005 for an example. (Here’s a post from the 2004 event)
