Brought by a few sources, I would like to get the feedback of the communities in regards to a very special issue in Montreal.

I don't know how some would react to this but this, IMHO, or should we say in our honest opinion, goes against the community wave that Microsoft is so promoting since a while.

With experience in user group structure, for having been involved in it for a while, for having presented for various entities, for having built a product such as the Universal Thread to help the developers' community (and thanks to all who have been involved in helping in that direction) and for general feedback collected over the year, here's a little something.

Microsoft is promoting the community concept a lot since the last year, more than ever before. There's always been that concept but we've seen a big increase in that over the last year. I still remember those famous words: "Communities! Communities! Communities!". It's a new wave to increase actual communities as far as exposure, user groups, sharing of information and related topics. Everything's good in that. There's absolutely no problem in that. I always felt that a bigger presence of the big leader is something that will be greatly welcome by the developers' community. So, well done Microsoft at that level.

But, in Montreal, something different is running. I've collected a few feedback from over the last weeks based on my implication on various activities and there is something I would like to know as to know if a similar situation is happening in your city. At least, I would like to know if a city where a good user group community exist is facing the same situation.

In Montreal, there is the Montreal Visual FoxPro User Group, the Montreal Visual Basic User Group, the Montreal Visual Studio User Group, the Montreal SQL Server User Group and the recent one the Montreal .NET Architecture User Group. The last one, and again based on information collected from various parties, has been formed by the leadership of Microsoft. Microsoft found the resources and helped them to establish the user group structure such as president and vice president. The first user groups mentioned here are non profit organization and they have to find the money to bring big name speakers in town, where usually collected from their budget coming from memberships and other related incomes, if applicable. As for the .NET user group, speakers are being paid by Microsoft. So, they put it all together, decided who should lead the group, probably help them to find speakers and pay for their presentations. Having a big control of that group coming from Microsoft Montreal, they can have a better management, such as holding 3 meetings per months and now just before the meeting dates of the other user groups. Now, the other user groups are facing the situation that Microsoft Montreal is controlling the user group market and, with 3 meetings per month, you can imagine that a decrease of attendees is now expected for the other user groups, especially if the .NET user group is holding meetings just a few days before the other ones.

So, if Microsoft really promotes communities, why is such a situation accepted? Or, is this something Redmond is not aware of? User group leaders in Montreal really do not know what to think presently in regards to this situation. It's a reality here and such a practice has a direct impact on other user groups as it's like applying a monopoly by sponsoring one big user group where the same treatment is not applied to other user groups. So, why can't other user groups benefit of the same treatment? I would be happy to know that Visual FoxPro speakers would be paid as well (or sponsored from the big player) when I attend one of their meetings or another one from the Visual Basic user group for example.

Also, new employees took over certain tasks at that office. So, now, the result is that specific user group leaders are calling them, as it's been the case for a few years for various topics in regards to their user groups, and they don't return the calls anymore. So, even if VB has been dropped by MS or even if VFP does not have the same visibility as .NET, I don't think this is a reason to justify such situation. VB and VFP developers are using MS products, and in most applications, they also make use of various .NET technologies. So, I think there should be a little bit more consideration in here. I personally find this situation completely unnacceptable.

Now, is this something that is only happening here? Is it only an initiative of the local office? Anyone faced a similiar situation in their city? What about Redmond in all that, do they know?