Artificial ignorance

At a BarCamp a couple of years ago, I heard Tara Hunt speak about Social Capital (more about Tara and ‘Whuffie’ here). It was the first time I’d tried to associate and quantify social worthiness (in my sort of layman’s interpretation) or social standing or capital with a human being. Tara’s talk, and consequently being friends with her, helped me understand the concept a lot better.

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.)

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