Deja vu all over again, people.
On Friday, May 13 Sun and Microsoft sat together to talk to the world about the next phase of our collaboration.
So as you might recall (and as we reported extensively in this blog), On April 2 of last year, Sun and Microsoft announced a broad technology collaboration agreement which ended all litigation, resulted in patent sharing and all kinds of good stuff.
(Urban legend has it that The Big Boss and Mr. Balmer held hands and sang Koom-Ba-Ya, but I tend not to believe this.)
Editor's note: Just a little humor there, people. Let's not go shooting off the email: "Mary said..." OK? We're safe because this blog doesn't boast these two giants of corporate America as readers. So we're safe as long as you don't go blabbing.
We digress.
As a result of last year's collaboration the following things have happened (no particular order):
- I passed a note across the aisle to Scoble, a big time blogger at Microsoft. We were both mentioned in a Fortune magazine piece on blogging and I figured I should introduce myself. He hit the reply button, triggering all kinds of email inbox excitement over here. (full story.)
- The two companies are collaborating on customer driven priorities especially work on security, digital rights management and Web Services.
- I have personally, with my own ears, heard The Big Boss say that Sun CTO Greg Papadopoulos (with whom I share a heritage and a passion for blogging) spends more time with Bill Gates than he does with him. (Which some alert readers might consider a proof point to #2; there's an interesting Q&A on the whole topic here. )
- Sun and Microsoft are working to improve interoperability between Java and .Net through web services standards development and support. (more proof points for alert readers.)
- I have personally spent time with -- and participate in regular
dialogue with -- some of the hottest of hot-shots in the ranks of
Techno Celeb Extraordinaries who earn their living from Microsoft. I'm
throughouly impressed by their talents and passion. I love working with
them. I respect and admire them. I get along with them great.
<pause button>
Tap-tap-tap.
Is this thing on?
So the story here, people, is that today the Big Boss
and Mr. Balmer gave an update of what's going on. They talked about
the fact that everything we're doing together is revolving around
customer requirements and the customers are setting the priorities for
our technical collaborations. Tap-tap-tap.
Is this thing on?
I need your attention here, people. We are partners. We work
together -- at every level of our organizations. It's not just Greg and
Bill; The Big Boss and Mr. Balmer... it's all over the organizations. I
have regular communications with people at Microsoft. I even count two
Microsoft employees as close personal friends. (One of them just bought
a really neat house on the lake which I intend to go see next time I'm
up there; and he's going to come over for dinner next time he comes out
here.)
</pause button>
Beyond that, some of our key partners (and Microsoft's) including system integrators such as Accenture, EDS and NEC are delivering Sun/Microsoft interoperability products that simply didn't even exist a year ago. (That one's for free for all those alert readers out there.)
that's the story.
And speaking of free...
Time for Friday Free Stuff!! (as if that all-you-can-eat buffet weren't enough for you ;-)
While supplies last, I'm going to give every single person who posts what their favorite thing about the McNealy/Balmer webcast this...
.. genuine leather case containing all kinds of USB/Gadgets/Thing-a-ma-bobs.
That's right. Every single person who posts (while supplies last).
You gotta watch the webcast to play. And you gotta give me enough detail to make be believe that you really did watch it. No repeats. So if somebody posts a comment containing a detail to prove they really watched it, you can't repeat that one.
Get it?
Enter* to win* by posting a comment to this blog entry.
Kiss, kiss!
mary
*This is not a contest. I'm just having a little fun giving away stuff that I personally own to people who play along with me.