14 DAY TRIAL // The guys over at the Microsoft Exchange Server team got screwed and got screwed bad by one of their own. Well, technically from another continent, but still a Microsoft collaborator. While Microsoft has struggled high and low to keep all details related to the first service pack for Exchange server hush-hush, a member from the evangelist team over in Latin America has blown the whistle on the whole deal early. This is apparently a case of unspeakable blogger indiscipline, and has impacted the exchange team the most.
"So we've been trying to keep this confidential for a while. unfortunately one of my colleagues in the world wide Evangelist team (over in Latin America) leaked the information" early. So the Exchange team have been forced to talk about what's in Exchange 2007 SP1 earlier than they wanted to. Why do we keep things confidential you ask? Well, it's actually for a reason. SP1 will not be available to you for quite a while yet. Heck, we've only just released Exchange 2007," commented Eileen Brown, Microsoft Manager of the IT Professional Evangelist Team.
"Someone ... and I don't know his name ... leaked some information about Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 on a blog. Eileen mentioned this on her blog and the Exchange team have gone on record with information about their plans. The individual concerned is probably feeling some discomfort right now, and rightly so. Our blogging policy here is two words. "BLOG SMART". Blog smart means keeping our personal honesty and integrity and if that comes into conflict with some standard corporate message we have to manage our own way through. Sometimes it's valid to say that if a particular decision was ours to make we'd have done it differently, or that we hope to see a feature change in the future because we share customer frustration with it, but not always," explained IT Pro Evangelist James o'Neill.
I approve only in part with Microsoft coming down on the evangelist which has leaked the information about Exchange Server SP1. Releasing information about a project in such an early stage is a proof of irresponsibility toward the end-user. This because customers will have certain expectation from the final product correlated with the initial plans. But Microsoft functions based on a dynamic business strategy. And in this context, the final product will differ from the one announced initially.
However, I did say that I agree only in part. This because I work with information. And because I understand the power and value that information has. Microsoft needs to develop a strategy that will permit them to keep customers up to date on their projects as opposite to revealing everything when they are good and ready while keeping the rest of us in the dark. Does the Redmond Company need to rethink the way it serves information to customers? What do you think?