17 February 2007

My letter to Jim Louderback… Editor of PC Magazine


I've been a PC Magazine reader for years, but recently I've noticed several reviews of tools and products in which SharePoint could be a contender e.g. Collaboration and Blogging. Unfortunately SharePoint was never included in any of these reviews. So I decided to write Editor Jim Louderback an email to politely point out the omission in hopes that SharePoint might actually get some representation in future reviews. My email to Jim is listed below…

Hey Jim,

I've been a faithful PC Magazine reader for many years, even when I felt "PC" Magazine was starting to become more of a "Mac" Magazine toward the end of Michael Miller's reign as Editor. I really welcomed the new changes in both look and feel as well as content that you brought to the table for PC Magazine as Editor.
Recently however, I've noticed more and more articles in PC Magazine citing certain types of tools, but not including the obvious in your comparison. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a Microsoft MVP in the SharePoint space.) One such comparison a couple of issues ago was on "Collaboration Tools" yet the article failed to list SharePoint, and in particular Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (which is free) as one of the options.
I thought about responding at the time, but didn't. Now, in the latest issue (March 6, 2007) on page 38 you give the rundown on some free blogging tools. Blogger was listed as one of the tools as well as LiveJournal and Vox, but again, SharePoint was not noted. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 includes a site template specifically designed for blogging. In fact, my blog (http://www.cjvandyk.com/blog) is a SharePoint blog. I started my blogging career on Blogger, then moved to MSN Spaces, but finally went SharePoint because of the freedom and control it allowed me.
I was wondering if it was possible for the PC Magazine crew to include SharePoint in their review cycles. Microsoft has done a LOT with SharePoint especially in the latest iteration and both Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) have made huge amounts of progress in many areas. I just don't think it would be prudent to do comparisons on tools and then leave Microsoft off the comparison chart. Certainly Microsoft plays a huge role in most software on the PC.
I trust that you'll be able to find the time to evaluate some of SharePoint's features and include those in future comparative publications listed in PC Magazine.

Sincerely
Cornelius J. van Dyk
Blog: http://www.cjvandyk.com/blog
RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/cjvandyk

Let's hope we see some more SharePoint publicity in PC Magazine in the future! J
Later
C

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