Microsoft’s Jihad – Be afraid. Be very afraid…

PJ has done it again…

There is some material she has uncovered from one of the many previous cases against Microshaft that show just what kind of company it really is…

It is really mind boggling the depths to which they stoop to achieve “World Domination”. This is verbatim copy from Microsoft presentations and other internal material. [Emphasis mine]

Evangelism Is War

Our mission is to establish Microsoft’s platforms as the de facto standards throughout the computer industry. Our enemies are the vendors of platforms that compete with ours: Netscape, Sun, IBM, Oracle, Lotus, etc. The field of battle is the software industry. Success is measured in shipping applications. Every line of code that is written to our standards is a small victory; every line of code that is written to any other standard, is a small defeat. Total victory, for DRG, is the universal adoption of our standards by developers, as this is an important step towards total victory for Microsoft itself: “A computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software.”

[DRG = Microsoft’s Developer Relations Group]

5: Jihad

A Jihad is a road trip. in which an evangelist visits a large number of ISVs one-on-one to convince them to take some specific action. The classic Jihad is one focused on getting Tier A ISVs to commit to supporting a given technology by signing the technology’s Letter of Agreement (LOA – see above).

A Jihad focuses on the Travelling Salesman aspect of evangelism. As in sales, the purpose of the exercise is to close – to get the mark the ISV to sign on the dotted line, in pen, irrevocably. Not to get back to us later, not to talk to the wife about it, not to enter a three-day cooling-off period, but to get the ISV to sign, sign, sign.

If the start of the meeting is the first time the ISV has seen the LOA, then he’s not going to sign it at the end of the meeting. Since we’re asking for a very serious commitment, we want the ISV to give their signing serious consideration. If the ISV cannot deliver, then his committing to deliver is worse than useless – the ISV’s participation may occupy one of a limited number of available slots, keeping some other ISV from participating.

  • The ISV has seen the LOA at least a week before the Jihad visit
  • The LOA is very clear about what exactly each side is promising to deliver, and when
  • An Officer of the ISV’s corporation will be attending the meeting
  • Microsoft’s Director of DRG has positioned the LOA with sufficient seriousness, in a cover letter or other communication in advance of the meeting
  • You make it clear from the start that the purpose of your visit is to answer any questions that they might have, preparatory to signing the LOA while you’re there
  • They understand that those who do not sign the LOA, are frozen out of all further information about the techology until it goes into public beta
  • They understand (without being crude about it) that you will be making the same offer to their competitors
  • You have T-shirts or other swag to give to those who sign. lt’s amazing what some people will do for a T-shirt.

This is absolutely Amazing. Not only is it evangelical in the same way Al Q’aeda is, but they also manage to sound like the guys who come into our houses here in the UK and try to sell double glazing or a new conservatory.

The elements of the evangelical infrastructure – conference presentations, courses, seminars, books, magazine articles, whitepapers, etc. – should start hitting the street at the start of the Slog. They should be so numerous as to push all other books off the shelf, courses out of catalogs, and presentations off the stage.

Working behind the scenes to orchestrate “independent” praise of our technology, and damnation of the enemy’s, is a key evangelism function during the Slog. “Independent” analyst’s report should be issued, praising your technology and damning the competitors (or ignoring them). “Independent” consultants should write columns and articles, give conference presentations and moderate stacked panels, all on our behalf (and setting them up as experts in the new technology, available for just $200/hour). “Independent” academic sources should be cultivated and quoted (and research money granted). “Independent” courseware providers should start profiting from their early involvement in our technology. Every possible source of leverage should be sought and turned to our advantage…

…A stacked panel, on the other hand, is like a stacked deck: it is packed with people who, on the face of things, should be neutral, but who are in fact strong supporters of our technology. The key to stacking a panel is being able to choose the moderator. Most conference organizers allow the moderator to select the panel, so if you can pick the moderator, you win. Since you can’t expect representatives of our competitors to speak on your behalf, you have to get the moderator to agree to having only “independent ISVs” on the panel. No one from Microsoft or any other formal backer of the competing technologies would be allowed – just ISVs who have to use this stuff in the “real world.” Sounds marvellously independent doesn’t it? In fact, it allows us to stack the panel with ISVs that back our cause. Thus, the “independent” panel ends up telling the audience that our technology beats the others hands down. Get the press to cover this panel, and you’ve got a major win on your hands.

Microsoft’s opinion of their ISVsHere’s what they think of you if you are one of Microshafts ISVs.

Now call me old fashioned if you will, but the fact that they actually wrote this stuff down is beyond me.

Thanks to Groklaw, you can download the complete documents from here: http://www.groklaw.net/pdf/Comes-3096.pdf in ISO-32000 (PDF) format. Yes that’s right; PDF went through ISO very smoothly last December with barely a murmur. Funny how OOXML hasn’t. Well, actually, perhaps after reading the crap that spews forth from Microsoft it isn’t…

Do you really want them to own an International Standard? If DIS29500 does get approved next month, the ISO will become just another “trophy” of their war machine. No corporation, however big or powerful should be able to corrupt the global standards process as Microsoft have tried to do.

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