Who's strong enough to make Microsoft keep a secret?


http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/w...
From comments:

portuno_diamo :

These are from a "cloud manifesto" on wikipedia:

1. User centric systems enrich the lives of individuals; education, communication, collaboration, business, entertainment and society as a whole.

2. Philanthropic initiatives can greatly increase the well-being of mankind.

3. Openness of standards, systems and software empowers and protects users.

4. Transparency fosters trust and accountability; decisions should be open to public collaboration and scrutiny and never be made "behind closed doors".

5. Interoperability ensures effectiveness of cloud computing as a public resource; systems must be interoperable.

6. Representation of all stakeholders is essential; interoperability and standards efforts should not be dominated by vendor(s).

7. Discrimination against any party for any reason is unacceptable.

8. Evolution is an ongoing process in an immature market; standards may take some time to develop and coalesce.

9. Balance of commercial and consumer interests is paramount.

10. Security is fundamental, not optional.

As reported by Mary Jo Foley, a Microsoft representative won't comment on whether these points are in the top-secret "cloud manifesto" Microsoft has been asked to sign.

I thought everybody said nobody can keep a secret?

What kind of power is behind a document that prevents Microsoft’s Senior Director of Development Platform Management Steven Martin from speaking?

One would have to ask Steve Ballmer which of these 10 tenets Microsoft finds so onerous. There seem to be quite a few in there that have run counter to Microsoft's demonstrated way of doing things, so I would have to say "all the above".

I would caution Mister Ballmer to use a rare better judgment and sign what he can see.

It's the things one can't see that end up bringing nightmares into the barn.

Posted by portuno_diamo | March 27, 2009 7:56 AM