[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: Microsoft's deeply cynical appealto"standards compliance"
[Dennis Sosnoski:] > This isn't exactly encouraging for a site that bills > itself as an ecommerce leader (if they can't get this > straight, I shudder to think what their security is > like on the purchase pages). There is no shortage of organizational incompetence. I'm shocked at how much trouble I've had with my oughta-be-very-simple customer relationship with AT&T Broadband, for example. It shouldn't be necessary to spend man-days wrangling with AT&T just to get a telephone line that does what it's supposed to do. But it does, and consistently. <sermon type="inspirational" fundamentalist="no"> The lesson I'm learning is that the burgeoning complexity of civilization has made it quite fragile and hard to maintain. Right now, we're all very vulnerable to unforeseen situations in which civilization must adapt rapidly or die. Our lives depend on the robustness of the systems that put breakfast on our tables every morning. When a "public" website like MSN.COM is made to exclude popular browsers, it's as though someone has deliberately weakened a part of civilization's brain. Such weakness is bad for everybody, including those who maintain that part of civilization's brain. It's true that Microsoft is not in the habit of offering products and services whose designs demonstrate serious concern for the health and welfare of civilization, humanity, or even its own customers. But, let's be honest: Microsoft is not the real problem; Microsoft's irresponsible behavior is a *symptom* of the *real* problem. The real problem is a spiritual one, and it is inside us, not Microsoft. As we play our business games, we too often lose sight of the fact that the products and services we provide are defining significant details about how many human beings will live. We need to be thinking about the effects of our actions. We need to be hoping for a better future for our planetary civilization. We need to be seeing ourselves and our organizations as the living cells and organs of a living larger body on whose life our own lives depend. When opportunities present themselves, we need to be moving things toward that hoped-for future, rather than just letting things drift in whatever directions they may happen to go, purely in response to the current demands of the marketplace. Hope for a better future is not a luxury; it is a spiritual and physical necessity. It is a deadly error to regard the marketplace (or money itself) as some sort of deity who infallibly knows what's best for us. We will inevitably be disappointed by that deity's wisdom and mercy, regardless of what Louis Rukeyser and the other zealots of capitalist fundamentalism say they believe. (Religious fundamentalism is frequently invoked in order to justify all kinds of irresponsible and stupid behaviors. Even though capitalism is generally beneficial, it can be invoked just as foolishly as any religion can be invoked -- which is pretty damn foolishly.) Hoping, thinking, and acting as individuals on behalf of our planetary civilization will probably not make us rich, but it may well save the human race from extinction. Even if we can't measure the difference between ongoing life and extinction in U.S. dollars, it still counts for *something*, doesn't it? </sermon> -Steve -- Steven R. Newcomb, Consultant srn@c... voice: +1 972 359 8160 fax: +1 972 359 0270 1527 Northaven Drive Allen, Texas 75002-1648 USA
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