So Bill had a good rant yesterday
And few people can rival Mr Buchan in a fair ranting contest, so I won’t comment much other than here it is, and he is mostly right.
This did put me in mind of something I have been pondering for a while. You see IBM business partners do have several ways to say things to IBM. We can email folk we know directly, as Bill was doing. In theory we can use Sametime but in practice not really because the gateway is still on a somewhat broken Sametime 3.1 server until the IBM change freeze ends (ever known an organisation with a change freeze that lasts four years solid?) We can also post in a private Notes discussion database called the Partner Forum. In this forum there are special forms for reporting possible bugs, and there are ways to report suggestions for improvement. The rants in the partner forum over the years have been on occasion rivalled any seen in the blogosphere. The good ideas for improvement have been more numerous and detailed than those in (the excellent) IdeaJam. Some partners are brought in a little closer as design partners, ostensibly to be listened to, but in practice just to be told what IBM are doing a few days before Vowe finds out. The rants here are even more juicy. All jolly good, but not very effective.
So does a public rant work then? Well I used to think so but I am not so sure now. It certainly feels better, but is probably going to be ignored too, just like that rude Mac blogger who ripped into the rather pathetic IMAP support in the Notes client.
So polite constructive words or flaming rants in private or public don’t work. So who is in control of this relationship then? Who is out of control? Who has the freedom to make improvements? Who hasn’t got freedom? How does it feel?
- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
The software I like to work with gives me Freedom. It gives my customers Freedom too. It frees up some of their budget too, which is never a bad thing. Yes I still use Domino from time to time, because some of my customers still have it. There are still a few things that Domino does quite well, but there are more and more things these days where there is just no need whatsoever to be using proprietary software.
So as I continue to ease my way out of the yellow bubble I think I will share some of the things I have previously posted in the partner forum, not that I expect IBM to pay any more attention to them here than they have already, but to just throw them out for comment and perhaps to save anyone else the bother of wishing for them.
I agree with you although I think for a big software vendor you loose a lot (of money) if you really play the open game. Proprietary as a business model still is a comfortable way to make money. That is what I really like about Google. They were able to establish alternative methods of making money and therefore were able to really play open. They do not need to reinvent the wheel with each version because their fee based models works as long as the user keeps using their software. I think it is a huge burden for many vendors to further improve their products so that people buy updates. I have not given up on IBM and I see areas where they are really getting better and to be honest vendor lock in works for me too .
You are right, it may be a bit of a struggle for a big vendor to figure out a viable business model. As luck would have it I am not a big vendor (although I could loose a few kilos)
Some partners are brought in a little closer as design partners, ostensibly to be listened to, but in practice just to be told what IBM are doing a few days before Vowe finds out.
Alan, the only way in which that statement is true is that Vowe tends to find out stuff a few days after it’s presented to the Design Partners — probably due to a number of partners not taking their non-disclosure agreements seriously. Not every suggestion from the DPs can be acted upon immediately, but the program has had a substantial impact on the real outcome of the last two versions.
Well the comment about Volker finding stuff out wasn’t really relevant to my core point. I have no idea what his sources are and neither do I care. I don’t really want to go down a discussion on the effectiveness of design partner programme, but I am glad you feel it made a difference, I am unable to contradict you.
Open source is good stuff — its been good for the industry and its been good for the user population. That doesn’t mean that everything closed is bad. Some things are worth paying for by making donations. Some things are worth paying for by participating in their development. Some things are worth paying cash for.
I am in favor of people earning a living. Closed software has to compete against open software. That’s a good thing. For now anyway, the IBM stuff competes very successfully against it. That makes me happy as it employs several of my friends.
Open Source vs. Closed doesn’t need to be a religious war.
Paying for things isn’t the point. Earning a living isn’t the point either. Both are totally acceptable with Free software. It is about freedom. Proprietary software just isn’t something I want to be involved with any more.
I don’t wish to go off on too much of a tangent (this is an interesting topic!), but AFAIK no-one—vowe included—has ever written about stuff under Design Partner NDA so I’m a little puzzled by these comments.
The only thing that’s been heavily discussed is the missing Lotusscript editor in DDE: anyone with more than a passing interest knows about this (i.e. download 8.5 Gold and observe that it isn’t there).
Of course, I’m happy to be corrected, but as a DP myself, I take exception to Nathan’s assertion that some DPs aren’t playing right.
It probably wasn’t a useful thing for me to say and I can’t really articulate what I meant without going close to NDA. I certainly never intended to imply anyone leaked anything under NDA.