Adriaans response was completely inadequate - he complained that when he wrote 'fact', people thought he meant a 'fact' when actually he didn't. Then his colleague wrote a weasel word retraction claiming that Adriaan 'mis-spoke' when the truth was that Adriaan just didn't bother to check the truth. Now (in comment 13 of Carl's original post) Adriaan is asking if he can borrow a VM Image of Notes to get some experience with the product.
So how can CMSWatch consider themselves competent to write and sell IT industry reports when they have such an enormous chasm in their staff's education. These guys position themselves as vendor-neutral technology experts (I quote from their website: "CMS Watch™ evaluates content-oriented technologies, publishing head-to-head comparative reviews of leading solutions."), yet they seem to have paper-thin technical expertise with regard to Sharepoint's biggest competitor and (apparently) don't have any in-house Notes resources who can help sort out Adriaan's confusion.
So well done Carl for putting CMSWatch on the spot so they could get the caning they so richly deserved. It may not change their product bias but it will make them think twice the next time they want to regurgitate the old Microsoft mantras. I suggest the same 'Boots And All' treatment is applied to any other professional publishers who take the same shortcuts. NOTE: I do not condone abuse or other unprofessional behavior - I am talking about flooding offenders with accurate comments to show where they are wrong and not putting up with weasel word replies.
No more Mister Nice Guy!
OK... OK... the Horse is dead. I'll stop flogging it.
EDIT: The intrepid Michael Sampson has pointed out to me the difference between CMSWire and CMSWatch.
- CMSwatch is the analyst house who penned the Sharepoint Report and also hosted the writings of Adriaan Bloem.
- CMSWire is a totally different organization founded by Brice Dunwoodie.
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4 comments:
Hi Chad,
I don't mind criticism, however vehement it is (if you've read my post all the way to the end, you may have noticed I was actually asking for additions and corrections on the subject.) But I do appreciate it when there's actual substance to it. I see precious little of that here.
Of course, that's all good and well when you're preaching to the choir, but you may want to ask yourself how many people outside of the Notes/Domino community are going to be won over by this. Drowning out critical voices isn't particularly going to help, I think.
Sorry I seem to have made you so angry. But maybe it would be more useful if you think of it this way: what would you tell the CIO that has to decide between going with Notes/Domino or SharePoint?
Hi Adriaan,
First, my name is Graham, not Chad. It is spelled that way on my blog and all of the posts I make on other people's blogs. If you're not sure of the difference between the two names then I can send you some crayons and you can practice by writing them out 100 times.
Second, I am not so much angry as amazed that you still don't understand why there is such a strong reaction against your writings. You may consider yourself a 'critical voice' but I think a more appropriate adjective is 'uninformed' or 'illiterate' (in the technical sense). My desire is not to drown you out so much as to hold your errors up for public inspection so that people understand that they need to double check your 'facts' before they believe what you say. Hence the title of my blog post about the CMSWatch Emperor not having any clothes. (Please tell me that you do understand that literary reference).
Third, the issue at hand is not positioning Sharepoint v. Notes for a CIO but rather the thinness of YOUR technical education on an area where YOU are making public pontifications. The ongoing battle between Sharepoint and Notes for mind and marketshare is a completely separate topic.
Adriaan, you might be a really nice guy and a credit to your local community but from what I can see you're completely out of your depth in pretending to be an industry analyst. You could have defused this situation right at the start by PERSONALLY offering an appropriate apology to IBM and an acknowlegement in your blog that you screwed up, but that level of professional responsibility seems beyond you.
So be careful what you say in the future... Lotus Knows that you are being watched.
'mis-spoke'... good grief
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Hi Graham,
Yes, I noticed I mistook your name. Unfortunately, Blogger comments aren't editable. (It wasn't intended as a come-back on you mixing up CMS Watch with CMSWire.)
Still not quite sure why you'd rather write about crayons or children's tales than actual substance, but I'll just leave it at that.
Amazing... you're like the little boy with a half-eaten candy bar who wants to talk about anything except the fact that he stole the candy. Well, if your personal ethics won't extend to acknowledging and apologizing to IBM for your own inadequate research, then I don't see the point of continuing the conversation. There's not much point in debating with someone who can't admit when he's wrong.
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