B. Mann Consulting

I'm going to be on Business News Network this afternoon, 4pm PST / 7pm EST, talking about if Microsoft is still innovating? This is, of course, related in part to earnings announcements from a bunch of companies, and more directly, the Microsoft investment in Facebook. I'll be on a mini-panel with Fred Vogelstein.

Some related links / thoughts below, I'll clean this up after the interview:

• John Battelle on Facebook and Microsoft
• Paul Kedrosky on Facebook and the Microsoft Curse:
  

  Do you believe that Microsoft knows its own strategic interests, and that it can act rationally and appropriately in their defense? Ten years ago I might have said yes, but today I have a much harder time. So when it comes to defending a large strategic premium over a credible competitor with a better basis for economic valuation, I have a hard time.

• Recent interview with Steve Ballmer at the Web 2.0 Summit -- from Ballmer on Windows Live search, "it's like a 6 year old playing hoops with the 12 year olds"
• Did Microsoft pay too much for Facebook? Well, Facebook might be overvalued, but it's small dollars for Microsoft and gives them potential insite into profile / social based advertising
• MSFT failures -- Zune, Windows Mobile (failure outside of the US), search
• MSFT wins and/or in progress -- Silverlight, an Adobe Flash competitor, casual gaming and home based social networks (XBox Live Arcade, Windows Media Center, etc.)
• innovation? Microsoft Research (PhotoSynth), new offices and working environments down in Redmond and elsewhere
• closing thought: competition is good, Microsoft isn't going anywhere; they *should* compete more on innovation rather than dollars and marketing

So, my phone was ringing off the hook this morning with people wanting feedback on the announcement that Microsoft Canada is opening a software development center here in Vancouver.

What's my reaction? It's great! Microsoft Canada has been taking some interesting steps lately, like hiring David Crow, who kick started the Toronto tech scene over the past few years. It was great to catch up with him at the Microsoft Expression launch event I attended a couple of weeks back.

Yahoo missed the chance to have an engineering team here when they moved the entire Flickr team down to San Francisco (the last big tech acquisition here in town, rumoured to be around $40M). Google has spoken with some local universities, but they tend to be computer science snobs, so they went for the more well known Waterloo (also to keep an eye on RIM, which being in the mobile space is going to become increasingly important).

I see the Microsoft lab here in Vancouver as an increasing acknowledgment that "stuff is happening" here. We've got a unique mix of creative and tech people, big companies and start ups, and world events like the 2010 Olympics that are going to put us at center stage.

So...Yahoo and Google...when are the labs coming to town? And, unlike Microsoft who are rumoured to be going to boring Burnaby or Richmond -- stick a center downtown somewhere. Gastown and Yaletown still have lots of room for you!

If you tune to Global TV for the noon show, I may be on there. I've also briefly talked to Business News Network, so we'll see if that's a go for the evening slot. Busy day....

Update: I got a small clip on Global TV in the noon show, which re-aired at 5pm and 6pm. I didn't manage to get the digital version of that clip, I'll update again if I can get a copy. I did end up getting interviewed by Howard Green from BNN (was formally Report on Business TV). It was myself and Bernie Magnan, Chief Economist for the Vancouver Board of Trade. The clip was up about an hour after the show, and I managed to find this direct link to the episode. I'm about 5 - 7 minutes in, and unfortunately it will only play on Windows as far as I can see.