MAPS: The big picture question (and transcript)

I’m sorry Amy.. I really am, but someone has to say it even if its not pretty.

The big picture question is why do my peers, and I use that term loosely, do not understand the concept of edge case? How many times does one have to hear “we base our decisions on the input and needs of the majority” before they realize that as the extreme exceptions to the spirit of the project, their needs will not be met. Why is that such a hard concept to grasp?

This was the most painful Q&A ever. Several questions on how to get a transcript of the Q&A text – For the love of god, you people are computer consultants and still haven’t mastered the art of copy and paste? Open up notepad. Highlight the entire Q&A session, press ctrl+c, alt tab to notepad, ctrl+v. Done.

The transcript is available here for download, unedited.

This is the first time I’ve heard Eric pick up the pitch in his voice, slow down his explanation and start to annunciate. Chris suggests that he needs to get double hazard pay for the explanations.

To be fair, there were a handful of legitimate questions. But the remainder of the transcript stands as the evidence (mind you that 50% of the audience were SBSCs) that our profession, at least as evidenced by the Q&A in this webcast, is so uninformed that they should not be anyones advisor, on any subject. How can we expect Microsoft to take us seriously when the majority of our peers does not know the basics of the technology they sell, benefits they receive, newsgroup addresses…. It feels like some of these people were in an online presentation for the very first time.

So why do the needs of higher profile partners seem ignored? Because the majority of the people out there ask the types of questions that you see in this webcast – like it or not, those are our peers. And that my friends is the problem.