Open Letter to Microsoft

October 22, 1999

Mr. Joseph Lindstrom
Microsoft Corporation

Re: Termination of MVP Program

Dear Mr. Lindstrom,

I have recently learned that the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional ("MVP") program is about to be terminated by Microsoft. I have also been led to believe that you, sir, are the individual that has made the final decision regarding the future of this program. If this is not so then would you kindly forward this message on to that individual please?

My name is Doug Dodge and I have been making a (good) full-time living creating business solutions with Fox products since 1987. I created and helped create these solutions for private businesses in the craft, urology, real estate, personal finance and other industries. Additionally I have performed work in the California University system, IBM, and other industries as well. My skill set is neither superior nor inferior to most programmers but is sufficient to accomplish the tasks as needed.

One of the most striking features that I have come to love regarding the FoxPro product line is the community of developers that has arisen around the actual product. Perhaps you may not be aware of the tremendous legacy of good will that this community has provided, first to Fox Software and now Microsoft, with respect to the dissemination and promotion of these products. If you will permit me a few personal observations I would very much like to attempt to convey to you a "sense" of this community's reaction to this apparent decision. Perhaps we in the community will be able to prevail upon you to respond in such a manner that will be beneficial to this community as well.

I'll never forget attending a conference in late 1991-early 1992 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco where I had the priviledge of meeting Tom Rettig, Sheri Bruhn (now Kennamer) and many many others. It was like meeting a long lost relative, particularly with Tom and Sherri. Everyone was so open and giving and ready to share with each others some new "trick" or technique. There was no sense whatsoever that I could see of the paranoia I'd seen in some other programmers who used other languages. This has turned out to be an exceedingly consistent pattern withing the xBase community. I count some of them as my closest friends.

When Tom and some others jumped the Clipper ship Fox Software gained tremendously as a result. I would dare say that this was one of the seminal reasons that Microsoft now owns the FoxPro line as opposed to the dBase or Clipper line of products. It was the incredible talent of the development team Dr. Fulton assembled followed closely by the equally incredible talent the FoxPro community provides that you, I suppose, and others benefit as stockholders of Microsoft. You folks provide the product and we evangelize ourselves and your product line to the client. It has worked well.

You really need to know, if you do not already, just how deeply this sense of community runs, and I dare say how dismayed so many will be over this decison. I suppose we will all now, once again, have to constantly answer the "Is Microsoft Killing FoxPro" questions again. Please bear with me as I attempt to convey this to you.

I was one of the group of first MVPs that Microsoft recognized. I was also grandfathered in as a Microsoft Solution Providor when the program was first initiated. To be honest, I have often felt that many others deserved this recognition much more than myself. It was as a result of a personal tragedy that I discovered just how deeply this community is bound together. Imagine if you will, kneeling on the ground as you watch your only child gasp his last breath. I did and let me tell you THAT is a life changing experience! One ot THE FIRST actions I took (out of shock I suppose) was to post a message on CompuServe letting my FoxPro 'family' know. I have, to this day, not been able to fully assimilate the outpouring of affection, all undeserved, that I have received as a result. To this very day, as I have very publicly worked through my thinking process (much to the chagrin of my online 'adversaries' I might add <g>) the community has allowed me the freedom to abuse it as I worked through some very deep issues regarding life and death. I've made people very angry at me and I suppose one of the reasons I'm no longer a MVP is that I needed to get my own house in order first and that I neglected FoxPro.

That is now done.

Now as I turn to my attention back to FoxPro with the anticipation of re-earning my former status I discover that the program whereby I might be encouraged to return to the community IN PARTNERSHIP with Microsoft has precipitously and suddenly been terminated.

I think to myself, Why?

I can certainly understand that there might be, as has been suggested, many good legal reasons for making this change. I can live with that. There may indeed be other, unknown, issues that are financial in nature that are driving this decision, and I suppose I could live with that. What I cannot tolerate would be the notion that this is an arbitrary decision that has perhaps been made without an historical perspective, by someone who may or may not have the true "sense" of this community.

I would invite you, or whoever IS responsible for making this decision to fully and forthrightly communicate to this community all of the various reasoning that has gone into this decision. I would think and hope that you would have the moral character to do this. It is my expectation that this will be the case.

As far as the future goes, well, I will still use this product, as it is still the "best of breed". I will still give back to this community a small small portion of what I have received. (I will still argue with Ed. ) I will still commit to the advancement of my own personal skill set in order to more fully provide good, reliable solutions for my customers, whether as a W-2 or 1099. I will, also, sadly continue to think that Microsoft, in a legitimate pursuit of the benefit of its stockholdres, often very clumsily handles those who are NOT employees and who do NOT get that 15% stock option each year but who DO work their craft often out of the sheer joy of the creative process.

The community will survive Microsoft as it has survived Ashton-Tate, Nantucket and all the others. My fear is that Microsoft may be committing the very same types of mistakes that its predecessors have made, to its ultimate folly.

There does come a point in time where competeing products become sufficiently robust as to challenge the status quo. Should that day ever arrive it will be at that point that the memory of past relations will count the most. Does it cost now? You bet it does. Are the payoffs within the quarterly profit cycle of the corporation? Nope, but they are every bit as real.

We are receiving mixed signals once again. Surely SOMEONE at Microsoft knows the truth as to these matters?

Please do yourself, Microsoft and this community a HUGE service and come, sit and talk with us.

Warmest regards,

Doug Dodge

Best,


DD

A man is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep for that which he cannot lose.
Everything I don't understand must be easy!
The difficulty of any task is measured by the capacity of the agent performing the work.