"Today, Channel 9 is one of the few things at Microsoft that company image mavens love to talk about. Google is kicking Microsoft's butt in search; Vista, its new operating system, is getting tepid reviews. Zune, its iPod killer, can't kill a flea. And Nintendo's Wii, not the Xbox 360, is the hottest game console in town. Channel 9, on the other hand, makes Microsoft look downright visionary. No large company - with the possible exception of Sun Microsystems - is as far along in understanding how the Internet changes the way employees connect with suppliers, customers, shareholders, and peers. The goal is clear: Reestablish Microsoft as a cool, progressive enterprise that appeals to customers, investors, and top job prospects. While the rest of corporate America is scrambling to figure out whether it wants to allow blogging at all, famously guarded, control-freak Microsoft has embraced the idea of transparency with messianic fervor." ... "But its efforts to be transparent go only so far. Someone at Microsoft unintentionally emailed me the confidential dossier the company keeps on reporters writing stories about it (presumably a common practice among big corporations). My file ran to 5,500 words and included all the angles I had been pursuing (along with suggested responses to my questions), the people outside the company they thought I had talked to, detailed background on Wired and how it has covered Microsoft, and notes on me and my interviewing style. "We need to reinforce with Fred that these efforts [Channels 9 and 10] are a natural extension of the company's DNA," the file reads. "Microsoft has been using a wide variety of communications mechanisms to reach out to developers since the days of yore (to read entire memo click here <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/msftmemo.pdf>). This is simply the latest manifestation of those efforts." The irony is thick. While working with me on a story about its newfound openness, Microsoft and its PR agency were furiously scurrying behind the scenes to control the message. One thing about transparency is clear: It's harder than it looks."
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