Microsoft Tech Summit Keynote Notes

(This post originally appeared at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/microsoft-tech-summit-keynote-notes-duncan-k-g-campbell )

Today I attended the Microsoft Tech Summit held at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre in Singapore. The Tech Summit stands out compared to the last conference-like event I attended at Marina Bay Sands, unfortunately it does not stand out for the right reasons.

The first thing to stand out was the event’s code of conduct.  This code was displayed at the registration counter and consisted of several paragraphs of good intentions and exhortations that attendees should basically behave themselves like civilized adults.  It is disappointing both that people should be asked to behave civilly and for someone to think that people need to be asked to behave civilly.

The second thing to stand out was the keynote.

If there was ever a keynote to leave me in dread of the rest of event then this was it.  Someone had decided in their wisdom that some level of theatrics was in order:

• thumping music (I hope nobody had come to the event with a sore head)
• coloured spotlights
• ushers with illuminated batons squeezing everyone down into the front so that we might sit like packed sardines (or simply cattle class airline passengers) in the chairs that are always arranged too close together
• once we were all squeezed into our seats the announcement was made that “Our shown is about to begin”, which only caused my heart to sink further.

The “show” started with a ghastly promotional video of carefully selected representatives with their corporate messages booming out over the PA system. Once this was over Mr Jacket-and-Jeans appeared on the stage and spoke at a bearable volume to introduce things and present some meaningless statistics.

Next on the stage was was the main act, Mr Jacket-and-Jeans-2, a marketing person. For a “tech” summit the keynote was pretty low on tech. He even cited Über as an example adopter of Microsoft solutions – does one really want to be associated with Travis Kalanick’s pet and its toxic culture?

Some people with unknown roles were brought up to demonstrate various things. Fortunately amongst them was Mr Jacket-and-Jeans-3 who looked like he’d done this sort of thing before and so did something interesting, despite his talk being replete with marketing buzz-phrases he did at least work through something in front of the audience and interacted with it in an interesting way.

Was the keynote a ploy to make one think that nothing that happened afterwards could be as bad as it?  It was certainly a relief when it ended.

There was no conference booklet with the details of the sessions, so I relented and downloaded the app, resigning myself to not being able to quickly browse the programme of events nor to being able to make notes or other annotations.  Having downloaded the Tech Summit app it took me several attempts before I remembered my LinkedIn password so that I might log in.  Once successfully logged in the app appeared to be stuck on LinkedIn.  Each time I opened the Tech Summit app I was faced with my LinkedIn home page – what to do?  Like all good IT folk I closed the app and started it again.  This time the app decided that it would show the actual event app instead of my LinkedIn home page.

Whoever designed the app likes scrolling.  After spending quite some time scrolling through the programme I tapped the appropriate buttons to add my favoured sessions to my own schedule, but when viewing my own schedule I found none of my selected sessions have been added.  Still, the trusty tactic of closing the app and starting it again solved that problem, where “solve” in this case means scrolling through the list of sessions again whilst trying to remember what caught my eye then adding those that did and checking that they had appeared in my schedule.

Fortunately, the technical talks which followed were well presented by people who knew their subject and those sessions contained interesting material.

I am yet again presented with the question: why do conference name badges on lanyards always reverse themselves? Are they linked somehow to buttered toast (which always lands butter-side-down when dropped) and cats (which always land on their feet)? Would buttered toast attached to the reverse of a conference name badge on a lanyard force the name badge to face forwards? Would a slight spin be induced? Would the propensity for the buttered toast to seek one’s shirt be the stronger force?

 (It was also noteworthy that there are no Microsoft data centres in Africa and only one in South America.)

LinkedIn’s Desktop Doublespeak

(Also posted on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedins-desktop-doublespeak-duncan-k-g-campbell)

I previously wrote a rather general criticism of LinkedIn’s new website design and experience, likening it to Microsoft’s Windows 8 and the attempt to unify the experience of keyboard and mouse-driven interfaces on (primarily) desktop computers with touch-driven interfaces on (primarily) mobile devices. A seamless experience is a noble goal indeed, but there are differences between mobile and desktop devices. Also, the desktop offering is a web site whilst the mobile offering is an app – though it is still possible to access the web site from a mobile device. So, why should someone using one interface be restricted by the limitations of another interface rather than playing to the advantages of each interface?

My previous article also touched on the contrast between the uncritical adulation of the new design by the professional commentariat and the dissatisfaction voiced by individual users of LinkedIn and their own experiences.

I was in two minds over whether to follow up with an article on the same subject, but LinkedIn’s press release is still at the top of their own Newsroom page, so in this article I would like to delve a little deeper into LinkedIn’s own claims and see how those match up to reality as experienced by myself and others.

LinkedIn’s own press release for the new LinkedIn desktop makes a number of claims and gives a number of hints. Let’s examine the main points in this press release in more detail.

“Streamlined navigation: […] With one simple click on the “more” icon on the navigation bar you can also launch into other experiences that matter to you, like LinkedIn Learning.”

The “more” icon was renamed to “Business”, but it now appears as “Apps” – presumably some of the 3-times-a-day updates facilitated by the new technology stack that the press release also mentions? – but are the contents really “apps”? Also, the contents include Groups which was not mentioned in the list of experiences that matter to me and other users – a hint as to what LinkedIn thinks of the Groups feature?

“Smarter messaging that helps you connect and unlock new opportunities: With our new real-time messaging interface, you can message a connection wherever you are on LinkedIn.”

That’s odd because I tried to send a message directly to a contact in response to his status update in my news feed but couldn’t. That’s hardly helpful.

“Richer Feed to keep you informed: With a combination of algorithms and human editors working together, we’ve fine tuned your Feed to surface the most relevant content from people and publishers you care most about. We’ll also be adding new ways for you to dive deep into specific topics relevant to you and follow trending stories.”

This is perhaps my greatest gripe with the new LinkedIn experience: “relevant” content.

The people and publishers I most care about are the ones in my network; can I easily see their content? No. The feed is jumbled up by someone's or something’s own idea as to what might be relevant to me. If I could sort the feed chronologically – like one used to be able to do – then I would be able to easily see the content from the people in my network. LinkedIn is not a newspaper or a magazine where I am quite happy to accept that editors have an editorial line and will decide what gets published in what order, but I also expect the order of articles in a newspaper or magazine to stay the same, except for those “most viewed/commented/shared” lists.

In order for me to be better informed I read from a variety of sources and relish serendipitous discovery of new things. Algorithms (as they are generally designed to behave at the moment) are the enemy of such breadth and variety – watch one video by a crazy conspiracy theorist on YouTube and then see your YouTube recommendations fill up with more crazy conspiracy theorists. Such recommendation lists further funnel people into intellectual silos, a practice which is the antithesis of what it means to be intellectual.

“More intuitive search: You now have one universal search box to easily find people, jobs, companies, groups and schools. You can refine your search by using filter options on the right hand side, with the ability to search posts coming soon. Also, we're investing further to better understand signals on what they searching for? Or who you are searching for so we can bring you the best results for any search query.”

The search functionality appears to be fine, but it was not a major part of my interaction with the LinkedIn website so I cannot really say whether it has improved or not.

“Greater insight into who’s viewing your content: You can now see who’s reading and engaging with the content you share, including the company, job title and location of the people who are interested in your updates.”

I used to be able to see who’d liked my comments in Groups or replied to conversations I’d replied to in Groups, but not now.

I used to be able to see who’d liked or commented on my updates before, so what’s really changed for the better?

“Better suggestions to make your profile stand out: […]”

Those better suggestions include asking me to indicate my location when my location is already part of my profile.

I could also touch on how I now see less news on a single Feed page than before, how it is harder to scroll on the Feed page because of the delayed loading of images causing it to jump, h

ow the faster site is now slower, etc. but perhaps those things will be fixed as part of the 3-times-a-day updates.

I cannot help but think that LinkedIn is now a network that no longer has the benefits of a network, is a news site that lacks the benefits of a news site, and is a forum that lacks the benefits of a forum.