Quoted in Microsoft-Watch

Microsoft-Watch jumped on the blog bandwagon by creating a list of MSFT bloggers. It’s been very popular – I’ve had 467 referrals from them since they posted the list. Apparently, there’s also a newsletter, which had its latest issue come out on this past Friday. A friend sent me a copy indicating that “Dude, you’re famous”. They quoted my recent blog entry regarding InfoPath as a developer tool almost entirely. They mention Chris, Dare and Don and the work they’ve been doing in blogspace, but don’t quote any of them. They only quoted the guy with something slightly negative to say.

In a way, this is to be expected. I mean, I’m following Rule #1 of Robert Scoble’s Corporate Weblog Manifesto: Tell The Truth. And nobody reads a news letter like Microsoft-Watch to only hear how great things are going for Microsoft. I shouldn’t be surprised that they quoted me. (I am, however, surprised at the turnaround performance – I only posted the entry about 24 hours before it ended up in the newsletter.) And certainly, if I’m going to keep a blog like this, the press should be allowed to quote from it. However, I feel that should have received a heads up email to let me know I was being quoted out of context with the rest of the blog-thread in a newsletter that people pay for. Unlike many of the other MSFT bloggers, I work in the field directly with customers every day. I’m sure I’ve got a customer or two who will see this. If my friend hadn’t clued me in, I might have been in for a nasty surprise when I return from Infant Care Leave this coming week.