Windows 7 32 Bit Microsoft IP Chief's new tell-all

Allow me commence this post having a caveat or two. I published my very first (and possibly last) book final 12 months. It absolutely was an unauthorized account of what could be next for Microsoft right after Chairman Bill Gates relinquished his day-to-day duties at the firm. I understand what it;s like to do a book about a enterprise without having the provider;s cooperation, and it;s not hassle-free.That brings me to Burning the Ships (John Wiley & Sons, 2009). The authors — Microsoft IP chief Marshall Phelps and journalist/IP consultant (and former Microsoft employee) David Kline — are promoting the book as an “unauthorized” look at the role of intellectual property on the “transformation of Microsoft.”While Microsoft will probably not have directly funded this book, it gave the authors access to its execs — everyone from Gates to Senior VP and General Counsel Brad Smith, to a number of Microsoft public-relations folks. Phelps still works at Microsoft as Corporate Vice President for IP Policy. So calling this guide “unauthorized” is quite a stretch.(Meanwhile, there are a number of characters whose omission from this guide are surprising. Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie — who is widely seen as leading Microsoft;s charge toward working more cooperatively with the open-source community — is not mentioned at all. Nor is Sam Ramji, Microsoft;s Director of Platform Strategy — Microsoft;s lead in-the-trenches open-source negotiator.)If you want more details of the long career of Phelps,Office 2010 Professional Plus Key, who was instrumental in creating IBM;s patent war chest, there;s plenty (32-plus pages worth) here. Phelps and Kline do provide some behind-the-scenes views of what led up to Microsoft patent agreements with Novell,Office 2007, Toshiba and other companies. (News.com;s Ina Fried has provided a synopsis of the Novell background and Toshiba information from the book.) The authors even offer some background about Red Hat, which decided soon after a year and a half of talks, against signing any kind of patent protection deal with Microsoft. But no further details are provided by the authors as to what scuttled those Microsoft-Red Hat negotiations.The authors portray Phelps; role at Microsoft as “infinitely more challenging than simply making money from IP” — instead, helping “reform Microsoft;s ‘man the barricades; culture, encourage the firm to abandon its fortress mentality around its technology and share it with others for mutual benefit.”I;d argue Phelps saw the same opportunity for Microsoft as he saw when he was at IBM. Licensing IP is big business enterprise and can help stave off lawsuits, saving companies multi-millions.As Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has made clear repeatedly, Microsoft is a proprietary software vendor that currently makes and plans to make its money by selling software and services. To Ballmer,Office 2010 Product Key, “sharing technology” means requiring others to license its patents. The more than 500 “collaboration deals” Microsoft has forged with other companies isn;t evidence that Microsoft is tearing down the fortress walls. I;d argue it;s simply Microsoft driving hard bargains whose terms remain covered by non-disclosure agreements.That said,Office 2007 Enterprise Key, there is nothing wrong with Microsoft sticking to its closed-source,Windows 7 32 Bit, capitalist guns. In cases where Microsoft has reached out to the open-source community, it has done so in a “we;ll scratch your back if you scratch ours” way.I haven;t read the full 186 pages of The Ships yet. But what I;ve skimmed so far makes me feel like I;m reading yet another Microsoft white paper or press release, not any kind of a behind-the-scenes tell-all. I;d be interested in hearing how some of the OEMs and other licensees of Microsoft;s patents feel about the way the authors characterize the IP licensing deals mentioned with the book….