It was indeed an interesting keynote. It was not as I had feared it would be. Brad Smith did an excellent job of engaging the audience, explaining the Microsoft position, and encouraging discussion. Smith focused a lot on the diversity in the market of business and licensing models, not claiming a financial high ground (which is a first), and emphasizing shared values (pride of creation of software and what we have collectively accomplished).
The panellists did a fine job, and the audience was also engaged. (It only felt like Smith was filibustering a little in the end, burning the clock, but then he'd had a long time in front of the audience at that point being on the receiving end of the Q&A.) The mini-survey off the previous blog post did correctly predict where most of the discussion was going to be on patents and Linux.
Key points for me:
- "I appreciate that respect for intellectual property is I believe a shared value across our industry." Smith made this statement midway through the panellist Q&A. This to my knowledge is the first public statement by a Microsoft executive that did not label the free and open source community as IP hostile. It is a significant public statement.
- Bottomley and Updegrove did actually catch Smith out in the Q&A. I wouldn't have thought it possible, considering Smith's background as a lawyer and public spokesperson for Microsoft. Smith claims Microsoft wants its property respected, and that patent licensing is not about the relatively small revenue. He was neatly and visibly cornered at one point (to audience chuckles) because the Linux community is willing to respect Microsoft's property and actively work on a solution that avoids it.
- Based on statements made in Sam Ramji's presentation the previous day, and in Brad's keynote and the answers to questions, Microsoft is trying to find solutions to the patent problems. This does not simply mean giving up the property from a Microsoft perspective, as enabling as this might be for the community at large. Smith is all too familiar with other large vendors chasing Microsoft for patent licensing revenues (and he used the Sun US$900M licensing settlement as an example on stage) to be able to understand why Microsoft should just roll over on the patents they allege Linux infringes. For Microsoft it seems it's difficult to take a step that does not appear to be reciprocal in nature.
- There was an interesting discussion about Cathedrals and Bazaars at one point. Smith (Microsoft) is very comfortable having discussions about Cathedrals having licensing discussions with other Cathedrals. But that analogy (historical, relevant, and useful as it has been) also limits their thinking. They seem to only think in terms of Microsoft as a cathedral that can license to other cathedrals. They believe they've enabled the Bazaar in recent licensing statements. It seems they are still trying to understand the actual ecosystem and have been perhaps using the wrong analogy as a lens. Maybe it's time to evolve the Cathedral and the Bazaar.
At one point Smith observed that what the world wants to see is deeds not words — but that words also matter because it sets the bar against which they will be judged. There was lots of interesting things said and debated over the 90 minutes. Smith has set a high very public bar against which Microsoft will be judged. I'm hoping IT Conversations gets this recording up soon so everyone can hear what was said. [My recording is noisy and missing the first few minutes.] Congratulations to Brad Smith, and the panellists (O'Grady, Updegrove, Bottomley, Shuttleworth) for an excellent session, and of course to Matt Asay for pulling it together.
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