The Citrix Virtualization World Does Not Need Twitter and T-Shirts


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I have a rant to get out of me so I hope I don’t offend anyone too bad but I must get this off my chest.

Last week I attended the Citrix Synergy 08 conference and I must admit I had a great time. I’ve been attending these shows for a long time now and it is always a wonderful experience seeing old friends and meeting new ones. The numerous conversations at the bar and the exhibit hall are always priceless. Not to mention the Citrix showcase technologies are awesome and very much worth the price of admission (although, I must admit I don’t think I have ever paid to attend… ;)    Now I have said a few nice things so it is time for me to rant a bit. Oh, one more thing, my complaint did not just come about at Synergy but this is something that has been bothering me for some time, although the Citrix Synergy Conference and the Citrix Underground web site have pushed me over the edge. This problem is not unique to Citrix...

Twittering… At this year’s Citrix Synergy some of the Citrix employees were “Twittering” the event and their “twitters” are now showing up on the main page of the new Citrix Synergy Underground site.

First of all, I must say that I’m a huge fan of what Citrix is trying to do with the “Citrix Underground” site. This is an amazing idea that came out of the mind of a Citrix employee named Barry Flanagan. Barry has been a friend of mine for over nine years and he is one of the four people I wanted to meet when I started at Citrix in 2001.   We don't talk as much as I would like but for over a year now about every time I do talk to Barry he tells me about his idea to get Citrix to create a multimedia site where they have the ability to post videos and host community feedback like Microsoft does with their Channel 9. Finally, Barry got his way but it looks like someone has hijacked it and turned it in to a site that 1) does not currently work 100% of the time and 2) is full of Twitters, annoying and worthless twitters.

For those of us who might not be up on the latest in social networking, or as I like to call it, social annoyance, Twitter allows people to post short little blubs about what they are doing or thinking and then people can sign up to “follow” that person (the Twit ;)

In theory this can be pretty cool.   It would be nice to follow someone’s idea threads, or for people to use Twitter for a global technical support forum where someone asks a questions and anyone who reads it can reply with a quick answer from basically anywhere. I can see that being very useful but this is not what is happening…

What people are really using it for is to tell the world, and in Citrix’s case the Virtualization World, what they are doing at any given point of time.    This is where the problem starts as I really don’t care one bit about what someone is doing at any given point and if I did I would visit TMZ.com not Citrix.com

To further my point, one of the “twitters” that sent me over the top was posted by Matt Lesak, who by the way is a brilliant engineer, and all around great guy, but again, I don’t give a rat’s #$@$ about what he is doing at any given point of his life…

“At boys’ karate dojo” – Matt Lesak

OH MY GOD… Does anyone, other that maybe Matt followers or his family and close friends, care about this? I sure don’t and to find it on the top page of a Citrix.com web page blows my mind. At what point did Citrix.com replace the IBM blue suit and tie, or even nice pair of slacks and a perfectly pressed button down shirt in place for “At boy’s karate dojo”…

Again, I really like Matt and I don’t want to pick on the poor boy so I will pull from some of the more brilliant words of wisdom from the folks at Citrix.com.

“At my nephew’s ‘half-birthday’ party… lol” – Gus Pinto

Why is this funny?   The funny part is that this was posted on a Citrix.com web page. It makes my Citrix blood boil and my IBM soul cry.

“Going home… Will keep working on my couch! – Gus Pinto

Now that is a great work ethic Gus but if when you get to your couch you start to type more mindless drivel as the two twitters out of you so far then maybe on your way home you can drive to my house and put me out of my misery…

“Working on blog…” – Matt Lesak

WHO CARES… Maybe I should sign up for Twitter RIGHT NOW and Twitter that I’m working on my blog rant about a guy working on his blog……

“Getting breakfast out of the way and jumping in the pool with the kids!” – Gus Pinto

RRRRRR… Can you see the steam coming out of me? Or is it all of the amazing knowledge I’m learning from Citrix.com right now that is clouding my judgment?   I don’t think so. I think it is all the real knowledge I’m losing as it is being replaced with the knowledge that Gus would have the gull to eat breakfast before going swimming without letting his stomach settle.   And we are expected to trust this guy to teach us something?   Heck, everyone knows you need to wait 30 minutes after eating before you get in the water.

But wait there is more and no this is not a Ginsu commercial where it only gets better and better...

“Watching Stardust at friend house” – Gus Pinto

Oh my, that is amazing… I bet that will help me sale or support more Citrix technologies. I bet it will help me solve one of my customer’s major business hurdles. I bet “Stardust” will teach me what I need to know to build a high available, end-to-end solution and save me money.    NO IT WILL NOT! It will do nothing for me related to anything I came to Citrix.com to learn. Why is it there?

As you can probably tell, I’m not really enjoying this and at this point of time I feel I would like to take this Mac Book, I'm typing on, and break it in to tiny little pieces and then stab those pieces in to my eyes over and over so I don’t have to read another post such as:

“Prepairing for tomorrow. A lot of work to be done in the next three days” - Matt Lesak

I just so want to email Matt and say, “Is there anything I can do to ease your pain and have you stop posting these annoying and pointless messages?”

OK, I think I’ve driven this point home. Twitter, the way it is being used, has absolutely no place on a site like Citrix.com.   If Gus and Matt and the rest want to Twitter, and I hope they continue spewing their amazing insights on life, then please do it on their own sites or on Twitter.com where people who give a crap about Matt's future workload can sign up to follow them.   (In case you care about mine, I have a lot to do and it is not getting done as I’m spending my time ranting about “watching kids do karate at a dojo” and a “half-birthday” which, no matter how nice it might sound, makes me no better off or even amuses me. It just wasted my time in reading it.)

Well, I guess I will bury that rant for now and move to the next item up for sale on Doug’s Rant is Right…    What do you have for us today, Doug?

T-Shirts… Yah, T-Shirts.   Just as with posts about dojos having nothing to do with a company looking to define itself in the business world as a company closer to an IBM than a Bob & Dave’s Software Solutions, T-Shirts worn during conference hours and while presenting is anything but professional and at this year's Synergy I saw it and I see it creeping more and more in to professional IT, not just Citrix.

I understand that the “open source” world is all about open ideas, open software, free this and free that but that does not mean we have a free ticket to a Grateful Dead concert or a Beer Hall where it is always 5:00 somewhere.. I’m not saying I’m not a fan of a Grateful Dead concert, I’ve been to my share and loved every second of them but that is not business. Dead show’s are parties you tend to not remember with a slew of people that need to shower really bad.

That is not what I want from the company I do business with.

I just don’t understand when I became the one complaining about dress code and or what get’s posted on a web page but at some point I think we need to look at things and see if we are moving up or if we are really moving down.   Openness is great but I don’t want anything to do with being so open that I know when someone, other than my wife, is taking the kids to the dojo and/or their breakfast and swimming habits.   I also don’t feel comfortable working with someone who is dressed as if they don’t care to look good. If they don’t care to look good why should I expect them to care to work good. Maybe I’m just getting old as I know I sound like my Mom.   I don’t know… What do you think? Do you really want to know about where some Citrix employee is eating dinner or if their second cousins having a “half-birthday” party. Since I now know about the birthday am I remiss for not sending a card or a gift? Maybe I’m just trying to get out of buying a gift… Maybe I'm not only getting grumpy but I'm getting cheap too... Citrix.com what are you doing to me???? Somebody please help me… Somebody please stop this pain…

Written by: Douglas A. Brown, MVP, CTP

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