CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Innovation Monopoly Buys-off Mistakes
Microsoft Anti-trust Lawsuit

0704 -    ..
0705 - Summary/Objective
0706 -
070601 - Follow up ref SDS 47 0000, ref SDS 44 0000.
070602 -
070603 - Received findings of fact in the Microsoft case, ref OF 8 0001, which
070604 - includes an index to locate issues in the approximate 200 page
070605 - opinion.
070606 -
070607 -    [On 000427 California Attorney General solicits public comments on
070608 -    remedy and solution to Microsoft anti-trust case. ref SDS 56 0001
070609 -
070610 -
070611 -
070612 -  ..
0707 -
0708 -
0709 - Progress
0710 -
071001 - Microsoft Impeded Competion Rather than Compete with Great Software
071002 -
071003 - Follow up ref SDS 47 6722.
071004 -
071005 - Federal District Judge Thomas Jackson said in a landmark decision on
071006 - 991105, ref OF 8 0001, that Microsoft wielded monopoly power in
071007 - personal computer operating systems, and consumers and competitors had
071008 - suffered as a result. ref OF 6 6059
071009 - ..
071010 - The judge found, citing prodigious email traffic, that Microsoft
071011 - stopped innovation by others, rather than innovate to create great
071012 - software, contrary to Gate's publicly stated objective.
071013 -
071014 - At best, the record shows that, even if Microsoft is trying to create
071015 - great software, if someone else creates better software, then
071016 - Microsoft weilds monopoly power to quash competition, rather than
071017 - compete for customers by improving the performance of Microsoft's
071018 - software within the intent of free enterprise markets to spawn
071019 - innovation.
071020 - ..
071021 - The judge concluded...
071022 -
071023 -        Microsoft engaged in .. actions designed to protect the
071024 -        applications barrier to entry, and hence its monopoly power,
071025 -        They have ...caused... serious and far-reaching, consumer harm
071026 -        by distorting competition. ref OF 12 0409
071027 -
071028 -        [Microsoft gave buyers and computer users]... a Hobson's choice
071029 -        of both browser products [Navigator and Internet Explorer] at
071030 -        the cost of increased confusion, degraded system performance,
071031 -        and restricted memory. By ensuring that Internet Explorer would
071032 -        launch in certain circumstances in Windows 98 even if Navigator
071033 -        were set as the default, and even if the consumer had removed
071034 -        all conspicuous means of invoking Internet Explorer, Microsoft
071035 -        created confusion and frustration for consumers, and increased
071036 -        technical support costs for business customers. ref OF 12 0410
071037 -
071038 -        412. Most harmful of all is the message that Microsoft's
071039 -        actions have conveyed to every enterprise with the potential to
071040 -        innovate in the computer industry. Through its conduct toward
071041 -        Netscape, IBM, Compaq, Intel, and others, Microsoft has
071042 -        demonstrated that it will use its prodigious market power and
071043 -        immense profits to harm any firm that insists on pursuing
071044 -        initiatives that could intensify competition against one of
071045 -        Microsoft's core products. Microsoft's past success in hurting
071046 -        such companies and stifling innovation deters investment in
071047 -        technologies and businesses that exhibit the potential to
071048 -        threaten Microsoft. The ultimate result is that some
071049 -        innovations that would truly benefit consumers never occur for
071050 -        the sole reason that they do not coincide with Microsoft's
071051 -        self-interest. ref OF 12 0412
071052 -
071053 -
071054 -  ..
071055 - A curious aspect of the findings is that there  are no citations to
071056 - the record.
071057 -
071058 - Neither are there any pictures, under reasoning on 940609 that better
071059 - understanding emerges from constructing meaning with written analysis,
071060 - rather than relying on impulse derived from images. ref SDS 12 3399
071061 -
071062 - An article today by Reuters in Yahoo on the Internet cites an article
071063 - in the New York Times that U.S. officials are considering splitting up
071064 - Microsoft as one of several possible remedies. ref OF 6 0001
071065 -
071066 - The aim will be to break the company's monopoly in personal-computer
071067 - operating systems, or limit its ability to wield monopoly power. U.S.
071068 - Justice Department officials and state attorneys general have not
071069 - decided how that should be done. ref OF 6 7120
071070 - ..
071071 - Eliot Spitzer, attorney general of New York, which is the lead
071072 - plaintiff of the 19 states in the case, told the Times. "We are now in
071073 - a position to get a rather dramatic remedy," ref OF 6 8428,
071074 -
071075 -    Question -- what team is working on figuring out a constructive
071076 -                remedy, one that would maintain progress of innovation?
071077 -
071078 -
071079 -     ..
071080 -    Single Source for Operating System Spurs Applications Progress
071081 -
071082 -    As with the history of the alphabet, reviewed on 991108, which has
071083 -    been a stable operating system for civilization for 2000 years,
071084 -    ref SDS 55 5628, there are very important commercial and societel
071085 -    advantages for having a single operating system for computers.
071086 -    Indeed those inherent market dynamics may be the larger explanation
071087 -    for Microsoft's success, rather than any identifiable innovation of
071088 -    Microsoft. which now requires a remedy.
071089 -
071090 -
071091 -
071092 -  ..
071093 - Four Remedies are Under Consideration
071094 -
071095 -
071096 -   1.  Microsoft publish proprietary source code that makes up the
071097 -       Windows operating system. ref OF 6 5265
071098 -
071099 -   2.  Microsoft auction the Windows source code so that two or three
071100 -       other companies could sell competing systems. ref OF 6 8036
071101 -
071102 -   3.  Split Microsoft into several parts, each holding all the
071103 -       software code and intellectual property from Microsoft products,
071104 -       but in competition. ref OF 6 6900
071105 -
071106 -   4.  Split Microsoft into three companies, one controlling the
071107 -       operating system, one its applications programmes like Word and
071108 -       Excel, and the third with the Internet and related businesses.
071109 -       ref OF 6 8858
071110 -
071111 - ..
071112 - In November 1994 Gates met with IBM at COMDEX in Las Vegas to
071113 - resolve tensions between competing and cooperating. ref OF 9 0119
071114 -
071115 - It is curious that Welch also met with IBM a Comdex on 941114, and IBM
071116 - reps found that SDS integrates a number of initiatves IBM was trying
071117 - to develop. ref SDS 14 5380
071118 -
071119 - IBM later elected to buy Lotus for $4B, as reported on 950607.
071120 - ref SDS 20 6006
071121 -
071122 - The judge found that aquisition of Lotus Notes was aimed at competing
071123 - with Microsoft on applications. ref OF 9 0120
071124 -
071125 - Today, however, Lotus Notes is little more than an email program,
071126 - which is the weakest use of technology for management, as explained in
071127 - the analysis on the high cost of medical mistakes, ref DIP 1 1045,
071128 - developed on 990924. ref SDS 52 0899
071129 -
071130 -
071131 -
071132 -
0712 -

SUBJECTS
Align Link Communication Objectives Requirements Commitments Working
Microsoft Litigation Established Email Requires Accuracy Alignment Ob
Microsoft Litigation Established Email Accuracy Alignment Critical Ch
Email Like Conversation Informal Communication Expedite Avoid Cost Sc
Attractive Fools Gold Action Item System Comes to You Like One Stop S
Email Fast Easy Like Talking, Fools Gold, Unorganized, Unconnected

2909 -
290901 -  ..
290902 - Communication Biggest Risk in Enterprise Email Requires Alignment
290903 - Email Major Evidentiary Record Requires Care and Alignment
290904 -
290905 - The court's reliance on email to make findings agains Microsoft, noted
290906 - above, ref SDS 0 6722, indicates that Microsoft executives may have
290907 - prepared email that failed to align communication with objectives,
290908 - requirements and commitments, established intent and propensity to
290909 - take improper conduct and disregard for requirements and commitments,
290910 - under the general rule that communication is a predicate to action,
290911 - explained in POIMS, ref OF 2 IE6L, and in NWO, ref OF 3 MY6H
290912 -
290913 -  ..
290914 - The court's findings today disturb the common perspective that email
290915 - is attractive for avoiding accountability as an informal communication
290916 - method like conversation, chatting in the hallway, talking on the
290917 - phone and meeting for discussion where people believe the standard for
290918 - accuracy and alignment is lower than for formal communciation in
290919 - documents, memos, reports and correspondence.
290920 -
290921 -    Email different from forma. document....... 990202, ref SDS 39 3857
290922 -    Email different from memo.................. 990510, ref SDS 43 8064
290923 -
290924 - Findings reported today indicate that greater attention to accuracy by
290925 - aligning email and other stream-of-conscious communication with
290926 - objectives, requirements and commitments can greatly reduce mistakes
290927 - that lower productivity, earnings and stock prices, as shown by
290928 - analysis on high cost of medical mistakes, ref DIP 1 1045, developed
290929 - on 990924. ref SDS 52 0715,
290930 -
290931 -
290932 -
290933 -
290934 -
290935 -
290936 -
290937 -
290938 -
290939 -
2910 -