Next week, Microsoft's Channel 9 video blogsite celebrates its third anniversary. Channel 9's creators, three of whom have left Microsoft, positioned the blogsite as a "a way to listen in to the cockpit" of the company. Is it still? Was it ever? Channel 9 was a radical development for Microsoft, because it sought to provide developers with an unfiltered inside view. The rawness of the early videos contributed to that sense of being inside the company.
Lenn Pryor, then Microsoft's director of Platform Evangelism, was the mastermind behind Channel 9. In the year before he left Microsoft, Channel 9 certainly offered more view inside the company, but it's debatable how unfiltered. In past conversations with Pryor, he indicated the site worked largely independent of public relations influence. The Channel 9 Doctrine makes a similar position. However, some developers see the video blogsite differently. "Channel 9 is little more than a PR machine," said Chris Martindale, a developer with Interactive Business Systems, in Oak Brook, Ill. "I haven't really found much use for that site since it was first announced. Same with their Channel 10 site." Marindale emphasized, "I absolutely love Microsoft products, but I feel the Channel 9 site is more of a way for them to play at being hip and cool as well as show off their products and only give their view on them."
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News source: MS-Watch
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