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Hello, Microsoft Callingby Mitch Stone, Editor/Publisher Monday, October 7, 1996. Midday. The phone rings in my office. My partner picks it up. "No," I hear her say, "I don't take care of the company's web site." Placing the call on hold, she informs me that somebody at Microsoft is on the line. He wants to talk to the company webmaster about the Boycott Microsoft web site. I picked up the line. "Hello?" Bill Gates? Steve Ballmer? No -- just some drone from the Denver sales office. Did I realize, he asked leadingly, that someone from our company had posted a Boycott Microsoft web site? "Yes," I replied, "I know all about the site." What exactly, I asked him point blank, is the purpose of this call? Somewhat nervously he attempted an explanation: Did I realize, he asked, that people sometimes post web pages to a company web site without the owner of the site knowing about it? Do they really? Now I'm asking myself, how does this Microsoft employee come to be calling my place of business? I certainly don't post my company phone number on the Boycott Microsoft site. Simple really -- he's noticed that the Boycott Microsoft directory is set up as a subdirectory to another web site. "Ah-ha," he's probably thinking, "this account belongs to a business. I'll bet some employee of this company is camping out on this account without the boss knowing about it!" So he follows the directory backwards, finds the company phone number, and calls asking for the webmaster. He was just "letting me know." Just being helpful, you understand. I promptly informed him that, as a partner in the firm, I decided what went on the web site. That really took him aback. His bravado deflated, he now seemed quite anxious to get off the phone. But while was dangling on the hook, I had to ask: "who sent you?" He offered that an Internet Service Provider in the Denver area had received a letter protesting their endorsement of Internet Explorer -- a consumer expressing his opinion. The letter referred to the Boycott Microsoft site. Loyal Microsoft employee that he is, he decided to check it out. At first, this entire incident made me furious. How on earth could this be any of Microsoft's business? And what astonishing insolence to call a place of business with the confidence that, on Microsoft's tip-off, we would take some sort of action against one of our employees. Good Lord, who do these people think they are? Does this kind of petty harassment of critics constitute official Microsoft policy? That's doubtful. But would an employee of any other company even consider taking unilateral action to silence a critic by tattling to his boss? Official policy or not, this employee thought it was the right thing to do, and that alone is telling. So in retrospect, infuriating as this incident was, I did learn something useful about the corporate culture at Microsoft. Unfortunately, it confirmed my worst suspicions: intimidating, meddlesome and arrogant activities in the service of the company are entirely legitimate. In fact, as this episode suggests, the it's very essence of Microsoft's business style, from the top on down. Postscript: Thanks to my ISP, the Boycott Microsoft site was quickly moved into a web directory of its own. Published: 7 October 1996; Last revised: 28 March 1999 |
[Bill] Gates is trying to make sure that he has a
proprietary position in controlling the tools that allow you
and me to access information. And that's profitable by
definition. How would you like to own the printing press?
CHRISTOPHER DIXON,
PaineWebber media analyst |
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