Seriously, you couldn’t make this stuff up.
“The confusion created by Microsoft and its choice of the word ‘Vista’ is an affront to the people who take care of our nation’s veterans,” said Barbara Boykin, Chairman of the VistA Software Alliance. “The VistA software enables these caring professionals to provide our veterans with some of the best healthcare in the nation. Microsoft is demeaning their passion and dedication to our veterans by expropriating the name Vista.”
Silicon Valley Sleuth called it “fake outrage” but I can’t see any obvious irony in the press statement from Vista.
Assuming the Vista Software Alliance statement is real (and I was not previously aware of the organisation), this has to be bad for Microsoft. Unlike an overlap with an IBM product name, it will be hard to call this sour grapes from a competitor.
Never get into a war of words with a non-profit organization that supports military veterans.
That would seem to be an obvious maxim for public relations 101.
I can’t help but think this problem could have been avoided with an msn search and a couple of phone calls. Why didn’t that happen? I keep asking. WaggEd?
SV Sleuth says:
August 2, 2005 at 4:50 pm
Why is this a prank? The phrasing is overly strong for such a press release. They would claim that the product infringes on the blabla, not that it’s an “affront” to doctors and nurses. It really became clear to me when they moved to the “unfortunateness” of the timing in relation to the imminent Vista launch.
Furthermore, there is no claim or demand: they don’t claim a trademark ownership; they don’t ask Microsoft to do a single thing, claim damages, demand that they change the Vista name.
They’re only out to score PR points.
james governor says:
August 2, 2005 at 5:00 pm
You think the tone definitely establishes it as a prank? I appreciate your cynicism, but Americans tend to have a slightly different take on such things that do British folk. Have you not found that in Silicon Valley?
“Only out to score PR points” – that might be true. But if you had a big story coming and someone else started a major conference called Silicon Valley Sleuthing News – you might be slightly concerned.
Anyway – cheers. Give my regards to Briggsy.
Randy Charles Morin says:
August 2, 2005 at 7:27 pm
I don’t know. This sounds like a publicity plow from the VistA software guy. You cannot own a common word like Vista. There’s lots of products called Vista, many of them software. Tough, our language doesn’t scale with product naming.
Jaime Cardoso says:
August 2, 2005 at 9:49 pm
I’m the last guy to defend Microsoft (and I think the name “long horn” has a nice tone to it) but, to think that MS went the effort of deliberatelly upsetting some organization, …
Anyway, it’s standard practice in product launches to see if the product’s name will have any conotation in any language so, finding all this fuss in MS back yard (in the USA) doesn’t say much for MS ‘s marketing.
james governor says:
August 3, 2005 at 8:56 am
i would tend to agree with you randy. but lets face it – MS is more than willing to lay a claim to own Windows, so why should Vista be any different? its a great point about language scaling but unless we do away with trade marks all together… which just ain’t going to happen… then companies do need to worry about these issues.
I am currently working with a friend that wants to set up a bag design and manufacturing company. she is a one person shop. we have spent time worrying about naming and branding, ensuring there are no overlaps here or overseas. maybe its because a small company can’t afford to get threatened or whatever, let alone have to change name or go through a court case. its different for a big firm though, which can roll with the punches and call out the best lawyers.
I know what you mean-Jaime-i always had a sneaking affection for Longhorn.
Gary Edwards says:
August 3, 2005 at 9:06 am
Open Vista is in fact a very comprehensive software system developed by the Veterans Administration, and open sourced under the GPL. As recent as a few weeks ago, Medicare took Open Vista a step further, mandating that participating Medicare hospitals and Doctors use the Open Vista system for patient care and advanced pharmaceutical management.
MedSphere is a company that provides commercial support and services for the Open Vista software. They also manage and maintain a very robust open source community gathered around the Open Vista Software system. MedSphere is heavily funded, and recently Open Source venture capitalist Larry Augustine took over as CEO.
The Veterans Administration spent over $27 Million developing Open Vista.
Prior to the release of Open Vista, and the formation of MedSphere, only a handful of very large hospitals could afford advanced software systems for the care of patients. Which is exactly why the Veterans Administration open sourced the tax payer funded software system in the first place!
It’s not so much that Microsoft poached on a name reserved by an Open Source effort. That’s bound to happen. It’s that they did so with no regard whatsoever. Hey, when a vicious predator steps in it, the first response of any self respecting Open Source community is to bite down hard and not let go. And get ready to do it again next week.
Nobody is going to respect you until you demand it, Especially Microsoft.
~ge~
james governor says:
August 3, 2005 at 9:18 am
thanks for the update gary. do you know what the organizations are actually asking for? the press release wasn’t clear on that score.
the open source angle is *very* interesting as well.
Jaime Cardoso says:
August 3, 2005 at 10:00 am
The thing is, do you believe that Microsoft actually chose the name of the new Windows with the purpose of upseting (and I’m not going to define what upset is) Open Vista?
If your answer is yes, then, by all means, fight them all the way.
My answer is no so, I’ll keep criticising Microsoft where (I believe) it’s due (like, the pour quality of it’s products).
If Microsoft had choosen the name “firefox” to one of it’s products it would, indeed, launch confusion in people’s thoughts but, let’s face it Are you seeing an Hospital Deploying Windows instead of Open Vista on account of a name confusion?
Maybee I’m just naive but, it’s not like one has lack of better things to criticise Microsoft, …
Gary Edwards says:
August 3, 2005 at 10:01 am
Hi James,
Actually i have no idea what the Veterans Administration motivation is. Or who it is that is trying to harvest some political hay. But i do know that the recent endorsement of the Open Vista system by Medicare has really set the wheels in motion. If you get a chance to grab some MedShere stock, i would recommend you grab it.
MedSphere was started by a Doctor who found himself quite by chance working in an Veterans Admin hospital. When he saw the software system he was blown away. He promptly called his geeky but extremely accomplished brother, Steve Shreeve, who found out that the entire system had been open sourced under the GPL. Steve spent over a year working the system, creating an open source community, and adding the spit and polish professional wrapping commonly lacking in newly Open Source systems.
It’s interesting to note that Microsoft has officially complained to the US Federal government that tax payer funded projects should not be open sourced under the GPL. They of course prefer the BSD license. This would include federally funded projects at major Universities like Berkeley, Stanford, MiT, and the NCSA at the University of Illinois Champagne Urbana.
Open Vista is the real deal. It is an extraordinary system that promises greatly improved health care, at greatly reduced costs. Why MedSphere is the only company taking up the grail of vastly improved health care and collaborative medical pharmaceutical research, is beyond me. But it does seem as if someone somewhere has seized the moment, and is trading off of Microsoft’s notoriety to make a case that ultimately will greatly benefit mankind.
~ge~
Gary Edwards says:
August 3, 2005 at 11:01 am
There is no way that Microsoft choose the name “Vista” just to diss the USA Veterans administration. Microsoft choose the name because it worked for their marketing needs. That they blow everyone else off as unimportant and insignificant is the reason why someone is making an issue of the diss.
Well, there’s also the reason that this is a great opportunity for Vista, the Veterans Administration project to trade off of Microsoft’s well deserved notoriety.
According to Steve Shreeve of MedSphere, the developers group that burned $27 million of hard earned tax payer dollars to write this extraordinary patient care system put their heart and soul into it. This isn’t just about the money. Vista is a life time achievement for these guys. Which is perhaps why they choose to open source the system under the GPL rather than the BSD. They put their heart and soul into Vista, hoping that the system would find wide spread adoption and lower the cost of health care while greatly improving the quality.
The difference between the GPL and the BSD licenses is that the GPL absolutely guarantees that the software will forever remain open. The problem with the BSD is that hard earned tax payer dollars can be used to create valuable code that can quickly be converted by proprietary predators into products that are sold back to those same tax payers at even higher prices.
My thinking is that the Open Vista guys simply don’t believe that the tax payers should pay twice for the same code. That’s why they choose to open source under the GPL.
I also think that BSD licensed open source projects are inordinately funded by tax payer money. BSD do gooders have long had the unique luxury of a steady stream of tax payer funding for their favorite projects. Somewhere along the line though the coders at the Veterans Administration decided that they were not going to play that game. Maybe they saw that the stakes were too high? That health care is simply too important to be denied to those who can not afford to pay twice?
Whatever the case, i think were seeing an outbreak of some long smoldering backlash against pillagers and disparager’s of Open Source.
~ge~
James Governor says:
August 3, 2005 at 3:02 pm
while we’re on the subject here is Intel suing Intel Logistics…
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=25105
SV Sleuth says:
August 4, 2005 at 1:26 am
OK…. I finally got a hold of some guys with worldvista (took two days to talk to a life person). They ARE dead serious and I was wrong. They do admit that they should have changed the phrasing of the press release, but are still very much upset with Microsoft and would want the company to change the Vista name.
As good as they are at creating software for electronic health records, their marketing skills need some work.
story’s up on http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2140739/windows-vista-angers-open