Bill Gates unplugged

Oh how times have changed. It used to be said some years ago that Bill Gates would not do an interview with a media outlet unless it had a circulation of more than 1 million readers/viewer. Fast forward to 2005 and now we can be a fly on the wall as he casually does an interview with Microsoft's #1 blogger Robert Scoble, on Microsoft's developer site, Channel 9.

Frank Arrigo, the Robert Scoble of Microsoft Australia, links to this interview. It's a great example of how Microsoft markets to its own. If there's one thing Microsoft does well, it's love developers. Why? As Gates says, "software geeks" will be responsible for the next generation of tech breakthroughs such as machine learning, digital entertainment, and collaboration tools.

But his message is far from being a news flash. I'm second guessing here, but one of Gates' motivations for the Channel 9 interview surely must be to reinforce the 'importance of the Microsoft developer' message at a time when Google and Yahoo are scrambling to get their hands on Microsoft engineers. And the media is full of stories about Microsoft trying to stop them going. My current favourite is the chair-throwing denials by Steve Ballmer.

Oh, and yes, this sort of reporting on Channel 9 is a must-watch by the likes of yours truly in the traditional media. You never know when it might uncover a nugget of news. There's no reason why Gates could not use Channel 9 to get more overt messages out to the public in the future.

Comments

[Brendon Chase]

Part of the reason Microsoft have become so successful has been on the backs of software developers making apps for the Windows/Office/Exchange platform(s).

The market has this idea that developers are just geeks locked away in the basement, but they are in fact making some of the key platform and technology decisions within organisations. I'd argue more important than those CIOs who spend their time making up new fluffy terms for offshoring, like "rightshoring".

Gates is right in the statement above. However, it's not a new strategy by the company. If anything they are ramping up their efforts because of the threat of losing developers to say Google, free and open source software, Java, and so on. It has also been a slow few years for Microsoft as they have been slow to release a new OS, an upgraded .NET platform, a new database since 2000, and developer tools so they've had to keep the hype engine running.

However just a note on this interview: Scoble isn't going to ask any hard or tricky questions if he wants to keep his job at Microsoft is he?

I find Channel 9 more useful when they interview the developers behind projects, give demos, and of course show the code.