Switching gears… I attended Startup2Startup this evening, an event Dave McClure puts together every month. The title of this month’s talk was CeWebrity DeathMatch: Jason Calacanis vs Guy Kawasaki on “Is Apple Becoming Big Brother?” This obviously interested me a lot, given my new role on Windows Mobile, the recent issues that have surfaced with Google Voice on the iPhone etc. The conversation this evening jumped around quite significantly, but a few things Guy Kawsaaki said, especially about Dan’l Lewin and Microsoft, really stood out:

Disclosure : I used to (indirectly) work in Dan’l Lewin’s organization on BizSpark till about 2 weeks ago.

Dave McClure (@ 55:58) : How about Microsoft these days? I was actually surprised that there weren’t that many hands  that were going up about Microsoft being evil, because, … I’d say they’ve had a little of the edge taken off lately. I don’t think they’re as on top of their evil as they used to be.

Guy Kawasaki (@ 56:12) : You know I think a lot of that is because … well, I think one of the smartest things that Microsoft has ever done is create the Mountain View campus. And at that Mountain View campus which they, you know, you can use that conference facility all the time, it’s really cheap and it’s really convenient [Dave McClure adds, “it’s a lovely facility”]. And so now, rather than think there’s these evil people in Washington, now there are these people in Mountain View, we’re going to a conference there, and they’ only charging us for food, 20 bucks a head, so life is good. Dan’l Lewin single handedly is changing the impression of Microsoft in Silicon Valley because now they’re making sort of warm body contact, it’s not just, oh, Bill Gates is plotting the end of freedom. In Seattle.

At some point this evening, Guy had made a comment that resonated very well with the table that I was sitting at. Guy said that he never consciously says anything bad about a product, a company or a person – it’s just not in his nature to do that. And that really showed this evening. While Calacanis and him were involved in somewhat serious banter, it never occurred to me that Guy was trying to talk anyone down. Even when Ross Mayfield asked a question about what Google and Apple can do to be more open, Guy didn’t really talk either of those companies down – he simply responded by wishing they would be more open, more open like Microsoft:

Guy Kawasaki (@ 01:02:38) : Maybe Dan’l Lewin is the only open guy at Microsoft, and it’s all an illusion, but my impression is that… I have to tell you that in all the dealings I’ve had with Microsoft people, I’ve never thought that they are evil. They were very friendly, they were efficient, more efficient than Apple people, and, they didn’t carry on with this air of superiority.

Here’s the video from the event this evening.

As a Microsoft employee and evangelist, I had a huge grin on my face when I heard these comments. I was surveying the room as Guy was speaking and saying these positive things about us, and I saw a lot of people nodding in agreement, including Jason Calacanis. For the past few years that I’ve worked at Microsoft, I can’t remember when a week has gone by and someone here in the valley didn’t have something positive to say about Dan’l. This social capital that Dan’l has accrued over the years is obviously doing wonders for Microsoft and the way we’re being perceived here.

Thank you, Guy.

“ai”

PS: Some of you may recall that Guy had made similar comments when he interviewed Steve Ballmer at MIX a couple of years ago:

GUY KAWASAKI: I will tell you, you know, Dan’l Lewin and his crew down in Mountain View, I think they’ve done wonders for your image in Silicon Valley. Just having that facility and basically anybody can rent that facility and use it, so now where Microsoft was this Evil Empire up in Washington, now it’s in Mountain View, and you use their facilities, and it’s got great food, cheap, fast, great A/V. It’s a really nice facility. I just hope you have more of those facilities around, because I really think that just letting people use the Microsoft facility and seeing Microsoft employees touching them, has done wonders for you in Silicon Valley. (Laughter.)

The Windows Web Application Gallery

The Windows Web Application Gallery (Gallery) provides a streamlined way for users to explore, discover, install and deploy popular Web applications on the Microsoft Web Platform. The Gallery is a community hub of free and popular .NET and PHP applications, some of which may be Open Source, for you to use as building blocks for creating dynamic Web solutions. Our goal here is to accelerate the speed of developing Web solutions for your business – as well as provide all the guidance, building blocks, and products you’ll need to be successful. We will not be storing snapshots of code on Microsoft servers, instead, we point to community servers for the packages which is maintained and supported as part of the community app package. All applications in the Gallery live in an XML feed that is consumed by Web Platform Installer, participating control panel vendors, and any site that wants to integrate with the feed. If you have a free Web application you’d like to add to the Windows Web App Gallery – you can do so – and we’ll market & distribute these apps – your apps – to millions of Windows developers worldwide. Read about the process and documentation for submitting an application to be included in the Windows Web Application Gallery.

The Web Platform Installer (WebPI) 2.0 Beta

The Web Platform Installer (WebPI) 2.0 Beta is a simplified download and install experience for all of Microsoft’s free Web products. With this release you can install and configure community ASP.NET and PHP applications that have been made available through the Windows Web Application Gallery. It includes everything that you need to get up and running to build your Web solutions – from servers, tools, and technologies to the most recently updated products. Also new with this release of the WebPI 2.0 Beta is the ability to install free community applications available in the new Windows Web Application Gallery. The Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 Beta will even install required dependencies for applications, such as community PHP 5.2.9-1. The WebPI can discover and install the latest IIS Extensions to keep your IIS Web Server features up to date. The WebPI Includes:

• Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.1 on Windows XP SP3
• IIS 6.0 on Windows Server 2003 SP2
• IIS 7.0 on Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008
• SQL Server 2008 Express
• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition
• IIS Extensions including:
  • IIS 7 Media Services 3.0
  • IIS7 Administration Pack
  • Database Manager for IIS7
  • WebDav 7.5
  • FTP 7.5
  • FastCGI for PHP support on IIS6
  • URL Rewriter
  • IIS 7 Application Routing
  • Web Deployment Tool for IIS
• ASP.NET and features such as ASP.NET MVC
• Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio
• The Community Version of PHP v5.2.9

The Microsoft Web Platform will run on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. The WebPI itself requires .NET 2.0 to be installed. With the WebPI, you will no longer be asked to go to several different Web sites to get your products – you can do this all through one integrated experience all on one Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/web

Congratulations to Lauren Cooney and Mark Brown for some great work on the WebPI and the Gallery!

“ai“

I had my first MYCD a month after I’d joined Microsoft (Feb 2005). Obviously back then, my efforts were focused on simply doing my job and doing it well. And I was coming from a company culture that didn’t really pay as much heed to an employee’s career. It’s not till Feb ’08 that I took the MYCD seriously. For the first time last year, I spent more time on the career portion of the MYCD than I did the commitments check-in. My reason for writing this post is to be transparent about Microsoft career discussion process. I’m incredibly proud of Microsoft, our HR team and the executive team for how seriously they take every individual’s career at Microsoft.

The goal behind the career portion of the MYCD is to really help you answer the questions “what do you want to do at Microsoft” and “what kind of a career path do you see yourself following“. We get so tied up in our daily work (which is based on our yearly goals) that we often stop looking at the big picture. Let me give you an example – I’m ridiculously happy with what I do, and I could be happy doing this forever. (without sounding like I’m gloating too much) I’d like to think that I’m doing well on the job, but the reason I’ve been doing well is because of the outside (valley) perspective that I’ve been able to bring into the company. It’s likely that in a few years, my perspective may not be as fresh anymore. There maybe someone better suited for the job, someone with a fresher perspective. And not knowing what you don’t know, can be dangerous. I’m one of those people who feels like he should retool and learn new things every couple of years. I feel learning new things will challenge me, help me grow and keep my skills sharp. That said, for the better of the company (fresher, newer perspective) and for my sake (learning, retooling), a career move every few years is absolutely warranted. The company believes that certain individuals will want to grow out of their role, learn new things and consequently they will contribute better to the company.

Step 1 – The “Career Compass” is a tool that our HR team has put together (with the help of external consultants) to help guide us. One of the first things you do in this tool as you kick off your MYCD is assess yourself. The Career Stage Profiles are specific to disciplines within a profession and describe results and expectations for roles within a career stage.

Given where you are in your career and your current role, how would you rate your skills in these areas?

• Business/Partner Engagement
• Customer/Partner
• Integration
• Leadership 

What skills would you need to help you get to the goal and assess your development needs?

How do you rate yourself against these competencies?

• Cross-Boundary Collaboration
• Impact and Influence
• Conversion
• Customer Advocacy
• Passionate Communication
• Pioneering
• Strategic Business Skills
• Synthesizing and Simplifying
• Product & Technology Expertise
• Interpersonal Awareness 

Step 2 – Your manager then assesses you against those competencies. Based on your role and where you are in your career profile, the tool gives you a baseline of where it thinks you should be. How your manager assesses you can get a little hairy. It is your job to keep him or her informed about what you do and how you perform those tasks. In my case, I felt there were a couple of competencies that I felt I was more skilled at than others, but that wasn’t necessarily how my manager saw things. We had a hearty two hour discussion and we eventually came to a mutual agreement about my assessment. We learned a lot about each other, and it gave me the opportunity to bring him up to speed.

Step 3 – You specify up to 3 jobs you would like to see yourself growing into and you create a development plan based on those aspirations and your competencies. There maybe some areas you’d need to get better at for where you want to go.

Throughout this process, I kept thinking to myself that I would’ve loved to have taken the MYCD more seriously when I first started. In fact, I wish I’d had these tools when I had graduated or even during my senior year in college. If you are ambitious and serious about your career, I strongly encourage you to go through this exercise.

“ai“

Ballmer is not the technical powerhouse of Microsoft – in fact he acknowledged that when Guy asked him about Bill Gates’ plans come June this year. But the articulate, concise, amiable, humorous and yet PR-friendly way in which Ballmer answered all of Guy’s questions was just plain freaking amazing. He even took questions from a technical audience and answered each and every one of them brilliantly and most importantly, factually (which is Ballmer’s way of handling any question – factually). Did you notice how he was quoting market share and revenue numbers off the top of his head? Guy took several several jabs at Ballmer, he knew he was in a position to do so, that this was his chance to say whatever he wanted. But Ballmer maintained his cool and didn’t take the bait once.

I was sitting next to Dave McClure watching the interview for a while, and McClure posted this tweet :

"listening to Guy Kawasaki kiss Ballmer’s ass about MSFT in Silicon Valley… i smell an MS-dependent startup in Guy’s portfolio."

I think McClure is an awesome and intelligent guy who speaks and writes extremely well. But this tweet was a classic example of needless negativity. Up till the point when Guy made this comment about how he loves working with Dan’l Lewin‘s team and Microsoft in the Silicon Valley (ahem ahem ;), Guy had taken numerous numerous jabs at Ballmer and Microsoft. In fact, in the beginning, every other comment was a shot at Ballmer, like, "don’t throw your chair at me", "dont go monkey on me" etc. Guy makes *one* pro comment… I get that Dave wasn’t taking a shot at MS or Ballmer but more-so at Guy but it’s funny how even a positive comment can get construed negatively.

For the most part of the interview, I was standing next next to Walid Abu-Hadba, our new corp vice-president. I couldn’t contain the excitement and I needed to talk to someone about what I was seeing. Here are some more reasons why I think this Ballmer-propoganda that floats around can come to an end :

• from Ballmer skewered at Mix : "Apple does a pretty good job," Ballmer said. "I’m not going to take anything away from them. "At the end of the day, we have a much bigger footprint." That is a HUGE statement by Ballmer. People are so quick to point out negatives, but Ballmer realizes and calls out greatness when he sees it. And he did. Apple does a pretty good job.
• An audience member asked Ballmer about the iPhone-Exchange announcement that happened earlier today. Ballmer is the head of one of the biggest companies in the world. He looks over a ridiculously large number of products. He sleeps for maybe 3 or 4 hours a night. He spends almost all his time with customers. In spite of that, being this busy guy, Ballmer was already up on Apple’s iPhone announcement. In fact he even quoted some facts about the announcement. And the facts were on the nose.
• Ballmer did an impromptu "monkey dance" (watch the video here : http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080307/steve-ballmer-screams-web-developers/). I knew he didn’t care what other people thought. But to be ok with being called the "monkey boy" and screaming out "web developers! web developers!" just because some attendee asked him to do – that is mind-blowing!
• Ballmer openly shares his email address. He’s done it in the past, and he did it again today. Arguably one of the most powerful people on the planet is ok with people sending him email directly. And he also publicly stated today that he has no email assistants and he manages his own email.

I heart Ballmer.

"ai"

I know, I know, I’ve seen the videos. I’ve heard about the Lucovsky incident. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened. But I don’t think people give Ballmer enough credit. I think people have to realize that this man sleeps like 4 hours a day, if that. Every word coming out of his mouth has the potential to change the world in some way. It’d be ridiculous to think that everything he says out loud hasn’t been planned or rehearsed multiple multiple times (some people think he just mouths off). Take this video for example :

I know it sounds like he’s just saying things for the sake of saying things, but, would this video have made YouTube otherwise? If I had to guess, he was trying to send a strong message subtly (and humorously).

In trying to deal with people who think Ballmer is a psycho, I’ve found that personal experiences don’t work so well. So, I’m going to quote John Wood from Room to Read who wrote "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World". Please take some time to read this, it’ll help you understand Ballmer a LOT LOT better (please also buy Wood’s book – the proceeds go to a great cause) :

Chapter 15, BUILDING "THE MICROSOFT OF NONPROFITS", Pg 146 :

Here was a guy worth over $10 billion, but he had not lost his human element or his willingness to look out for his team members. He’s a man who demands intense loyalty from his team. He more than reciprocates.

Pg 147-148 :

The next time I saw Steve was the day after the Boston marathon.

…

I rushed from the Seattle airport to the downtown Sheraton and walked into the meeting ten minutes into Steve’s presentation. Over 1,000 people were in the room, so I was not worried about anyone noticing my late arrival.

…

As I was talking to colleagues, I noticed out of the corner of my eye an entourage moving at warp speed in our direction. It was Steve, with twelve disciples trailing in his wake. As he passed us, he stopped, spun 90 degrees on his heels, and stared me in the eye. Holy shit, I thought, did he actually notice me walk in late? A maniacal grin crossed his face, he raised his right arm (to hit me?), and bellowed out in his inimitable style: "Three hours and four minutes in the Boston Marathon. Great time! Well run!"

…

"Wait. Stop! How did you know that?" Another abrupt halt. He grinned and with gusto boomed, "I know everything about my people!" That loyalty, more than anything else, explains why so many people who have worked for Steve are, to this day, intensely loyal to him.

Tell me that didn’t just give you goose bumps.

From Bad Boy Ballmer :

Ballmer adjectives abound. Steve’s described as "richly experienced." "hyper-competitive," "hardworking," "relentless," "a bully," "Mr. Loud," "quick-witted," "impatient with fools," and "sharply critical." He’s Microsoft’s "chief coach, cheerleader, and hatchet man" who "focuses with laser intensity."

Ballmer is Microsoft. Ballmer comes across as a mean bully, but I can only guess that this persona he carries around is for good reason. And he says what he says for good reason. What I like about him the most, is that he doesn’t care what anyone thinks. He’s trying to do his job and keep the company successful no matter what it takes, and for that, I totally respect the man.

"ai"

There have definitely been a lot of positives from a work perspective – I’ve learned a tremendous lot on the job, I’ve been able to meet a lot of people, I’ve been able to watch some of the best, most talented speakers (like Chris Capossela) speak live. But what’s amazing is how much the job has helped me personally as well. I can’t even start to enumerate some of these personal things I’ve been able to accomplish. Not that it hasn’t come at a cost, but overall it’s been really worth it. I am really very grateful.

Now time for my Oscar-acceptance-style-thank-yous :

Paul Murphy – for believing in me and hiring me. I don’t know why Paul hired me. He took a huge risk with me, one I wouldn’t have taken (with someone like me).

Jas Sandhu – for being my surrogate manager for a while, then my real manager, mentor, friend, and much more. I can’t ever remember having a dull conversation with Jas. I don’t think there’s much that escapes Jas which means you can talk to him about pretty much anything.

Ash Pal, Adam Seligman and Dan’l Lewin – for being great mentors, for listening and providing feedback when you really didn’t have to :) Thank you so much for caring.

Rory Blyth, Jeff Lin – for all the times we’ve hung out and done geeky, but, non-geeky things.

I started 3 years ago yesterday on the MSDN events team. Ironically, I delivered my last MSDN event yesterday as I move in to a new-ish role.

For anyone considering working here, if you’re having second thoughts, chat with me.

Thank you, Microsoft, for a great 3 years and many more.

"ai"