Jason Matusow continues to prove that a monolithic view of Microsoft is as inaccurate as it is useless. He delivered one of the best keynotes/sessions of OSBC Boston, and the best presentation I've yet heard him give (and I always think he's interesting). Less sophistry, more rigorous analysis. It was Jason, and Microsoft, at his/its best.
IT Conversations will carry the MP3 in the next few weeks. Till then, you can download the file here (.ppt). We'll also have it up on the OSBC website under Jason's name soon, as well as the other presentations.
In this presentation, Jason largely debunks the popular (but, I largely concur, erroneous) belief that open source (and the web) enable true "Long Tail" distribution strategies. True enough that the Long Tail can deliver its onesies-twosies for...onesie-twosie customers/developers, but the real profit and growth comes from serving Kraus' 3%. In other words, there may be millions of markets of dozens, but who wants those markets? Not Red Hat. Not IBM. Not Novell. Not JBoss. Etc.
He also argued convincingly that Microsoft is starting to understand and apply (at a pace faster than most of us would have thought possible) the lessons of open source. 
This is not a stupid company. While I still believe Microsoft will have difficulty separating itself from the Office and Windows umbilical cords, and that these will ultimately strangle its opportunities for growth ("Live" notwithstanding), I no longer think it's taking a passive-aggressive approach to open source. The company is studying the phenomenon very closely. Don't believe me? Take a look at some of the lessons Jason et al. have pulled from the community (at left).
Take a spin through the presentation. It's an excellent piece of (business) scholarship.
Posted by Matt Asay on November 4, 2005 09:30 PM
