[Linux-aus] [Osia-discuss] Re: If you could ask Microsoft a question, what would it be?

[Brent Wallis]

Hi,


On Jan 12, 2008 10:47 PM, Sridhar Dhanapalan <sridhar at dhanapalan.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 12 Jan 2008, "Brent Wallis" <brent.wallis at gmail.com> wrote:

> > K...so they asked to come along or did someone invite them?
>
> They offered, and we treated them with even more scepticism and conditions
> than we would an offer from anyone else.
>
>
> > The big 2 questions I have in my head is "why" this MS visit, and,
> > what the SLUG and MS want to get out of it.
>
> Those questions are key. I have added them to the wiki page[1].

Excellent....but I would like to suggest that it is very important
that MS state their reasons for attendance _before_ the event.

A large corp such as MS does not decide one day to attend LUGs without
having a really good reason.
A large corp's reasons for doing anything are generally self serving
first and foremost.

That's not an observation on "evil" intent; a public company like MS
are expected to act this way on behalf of their shareholders.

No matter what you do to control emotional responses from the
community, it would not be very difficult at all for them to ignite
ill feeling in the meeting.

Beware the tar baby......:-)

Rgds
BW