No rubber chicken
November 21, 2006I forgot to write-up how the presentation went. Much to my surprise, it wasn’t an overt attempt by either IBM or ISW to shill their products to a sceptical audience. There was actually a good focus on the technical side of the applications in the latter half of the presentation - for which I was extremely grateful. They certainly did a good job of getting hardened IT Developers moderately interested in their product. I think the presenters can go home after last Tuesday knowing they did a good job.
These types of presentations are important because Tasmania is such a geographically isolated place. We don’t get regular exposure or access to the latest technology all that easily. So presentations like these are incredibly important in guaging what other International companies are doing.
What was most interesting is to see IBM’s Championing of Open-Source finally trickling down to their marketing department. As a result, there’s been a huge 180-degree change to their approach. They’ve gone from publicising the benefits of a closed-proprietary IT environment, to selling the benefits of integrating multiple applications. And if you were a Microsoft-hater, you would’ve loved the 30-minute long demolition of Microsoft products that one of the presenters did.
They’re still marketers selling a product, and I honestly don’t think that they personally give a damn either way, providing the thing works and they get paid. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see such a positive change in attitude…for however long it lasts.
