ISV Buddies: towards a more open Microsoft

Earlier in the summer, Microsoft launched ISV Buddy Program – that is, a program that allows Independent Software Vendors to get a contact person inside Microsoft. The contact person is an "insider", providing the ISV a quick access to resources and inside information. For Microsoft, it's a sort of extended support and of course, good publicity. And of course, it gives them plenty of information about their customers – a valuable asset indeed. Somasegar's blog entry gives some additional views on the subject (from a MS perspective).
Again, Microsoft deserves some praise on this move. Although there is fairly limited experience of the program so far, the concept is pure gold. Even without a formal program, many of us have built good person-level contacts with employees at clients, subcontractors, administration – and even big software corporations like Microsoft. And all of us probably understand the importance of such relations – or at least you'll do once you've received some help for solving your tough problems.
Another view of this is "In Open source projects, you don't have to find yourself an insider – you can be one yourself". That's true, and a really good point. For some tools, becoming the insider and the professional yourself is the best solution. However, for other pieces of software, you just can't invest the time to get yourself all that knowledge by yourself. For many pieces of open source software you can find decent support, but for most of them, you can't find reliable support. At least for free.
The debate between open and closed source aside, any step Microsoft takes towards personal contacts and responsible customer support is good. Even though the issues with closed source remain, it's another step towards a much more open approach. And to sum it up, I'll make a bold claim: for most developers, the key benefits of open source lie more in the open development process than the availability of the source itself.

August 7, 2004 · Jouni Heikniemi · One Comment
Posted in: .NET