Hell freezes over…kinda but not really
Ok, in light of my last 2 posts, I just have to post this. Verizon Wireless has announced they are opening up their network (I’m not sure if this means they’re withdrawing their lawsuit against open access from 2 months ago). Something everyone else except for AT&T has already agreed to and T-Mobile and others have done for years. Regardless, this is the funniest part of the article:
Regardless of Verizon’s ultimate strategy, Tuesday’s surprise announcement drew a good deal of praise from some unlikely candidates. One of them happened to be FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who reiterated that more openness at the network, service and application level will ultimately help foster innovation in the industry. Microsoft chimed in as well, saying that it was glad to see “such a bold move” from Verizon.
Wait. Let me read that again. Yep, it’s there. Microsoft congratulated Verizon on becoming more open. MICROSOFT. The same Microsoft that says things like this:
“A common trait of many of the companies that failed is that they gave away for free or at a loss the very thing they produced that was of greatest value–in the hope that somehow they’d make money selling something else,” according to a white paper authored by Senior Vice President Craig Mundie.
In the paper, which accompanied remarks Mundie made to an audience at New York University’s School of Business, he argues that releasing source code into the public domain is “unhealthy”, causes security risks and “as history has shown, while this type of model may have a place, it isn’t successful in building a mass market and making powerful, easy-to-use software broadly accessible to consumers.”
Of course, that was back in 2001. Microsoft has opened up to open source recently (even Bill has–even requiring it for grants from his foundation). Mainly because they have to. Because their customers demand it.
Anyways, I love ranting about this stuff.
