>X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.04 (Win16; I) >X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by list.uvm.edu id > g2SF3JY217138 >Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 10:02:28 -0500 >Reply-To: Community and Civic Network discussion list > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sender: Community and Civic Network discussion list > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >From: "W. Curtiss Priest" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Organization: Center for Information, Technology & Society >Subject: Advertisement of Microsoft's Aging Work Force >Comments: To: "List, Cyberspace Society" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > "List, Telecom Policy - NorthEast list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > "List,Telecom Roundtable list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > Barbara O'Connor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Don Vial <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > Gerry Depot <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > Mary Gardner Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Sam Simon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > Sylvia Rosenthal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Comments: cc: "List, Consortium for School Networking" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > "list, LINCT egroup" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > David Warsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Hiawatha Bray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >CITS NET WATCH >Dr. W. Curtiss Priest, Commentator >March 3rd, 2002 > >First a local Cambridge story. A bright guy, lecturer at MIT, >Greenspun, learns how to create code for commercial clients >in weeks or days. How? He holds boot camps at MIT where he >gives away whole weeks of training. Why? Once in a while he'd >latch onto what I call an "order of magnitude" programmer. > >These rare, young folk can instantly assimulate new programming >tools and/or platforms, and can turn out products at a rate >that a company with a whole team of programmers couldn't match. > >How does that story end? Predictably. Greenspun sells company >to venture capitalists who see the success but don't know how >it was done. They immediately kick Greenspun out, as venture >capitalists do to replace the "tech" CEO with a "business" CEO. > >They then find themselves in a law suit with Greenspun, and >eventually find they have nothing for their venture capital, >and finally, certain "open source" components called ACS end >up with RedHat, the open source company promoting Linux. >Greenspun returns to teaching at MIT, $5 million richer. > >*** > >Now. Fast forward a few weeks to today. We hear that Microsoft, >"Software giant courts young programmers." > >Why? > >1. They have an aging workforce, many who may have been > order of magnitude programmers, but are no longer > >2. Microsoft has purchased almost all of the innovation "out > there." Their ruthless monopolistic domination of > the market has quashed any more opportunities to > buy outside innovation. Why? There isn't any, anymore > (well, almost). > >*** > >But, Microsoft always gets an "A" for cunning. > >*** > >So, how does Microsoft tap into the new crop of "order of >magnitude" programmers? How do they find them? > >They announce they "will share with students more than a million >lines of source code -- the underlying software blueprint -- >for its .Net Internet initiative." > >Here's the full story: > >["fair use," "teachable moment," "archival," Section 107(a), 1976 >Copyright Act and 1998 Digital Millennium Act] > >Software giant courts young programmers > >By Tiffany Kary , News.Com, 3/28/2002 > >Spooked by the growing popularity of Linux and Java software, Microsoft >is opening up its source code to up-and-coming programmers on college >campuses. > > > >Microsoft said yesterday that it will share with students more than a >million lines of source code - the underlying software blueprint - for >its .Net Internet initiative, including the code for its Shared Source >CLI implementation, which takes aim at rival programming language >Java. The code will be available on the Windows and FreeBSD operating >systems. > >The company, notoriously secretive about its source code, called the >move an initiative to promote programming language innovation and XML >Web services research. > >Observers, however, said Microsoft's move is an effort to thwart the >popularity of Java and the open-source Linux operating system in >computer science departments. > >Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik told CNET News.com on Tuesday night that >Linux is the subject that college-age programmers really want to learn >right now. Szulik was at the Hudson Hotel in New York as his company >unveiled its efforts to target corporations. > >Like any significant paradigm shift, this is going to start in >academia and move into the masses, Szulik said of the spread of Linux. > >And dissatisfaction with the incumbents is going to help it. > >Rob Perry, an analyst at The Yankee Group, said he doesn't think >Microsoft's latest move will be a threat to Linux. First, he said, >this is not an open-source offering; you can't take what you've >learned here and extend it to other applications. Second, he added, >it's not the entire platform; it's only a component of .Net. > >Microsoft is aware of the key place that universities can hold in the >development of an operating system. > >The academic community plays a critical role in the software ecosystem >as the launching pad for the next generation of developers, Eric >Rudder, senior vice president of the Developer Platform and Evangelism >Division at Microsoft, said in yesterday's press release unveiling the >academic initiative. > >Though Microsoft is far from offering an open-source environment such >as Linux, it expects that the shared-source effort will enable >students to study the code and develop more applications for it. The >Shared Source Initiative has already led to collaboration with >Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Intel. > >This story ran on page E6 of the Boston Globe on 3/28/2002. � >Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. > >-- > > > W. Curtiss Priest, Director, CITS > Center for Information, Technology & Society > 466 Pleasant St., Melrose, MA 02176 > Voice: 781-662-4044 [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Fax: 781-662-6882 WWW: http://Cybertrails.org
