The OS/2 team is an advocacy group established to promote the IBM OS/2 operating system. Originally internal to IBM without official IBM support, Team OS/2 was successfully converted into a formally backed (but not geared) grassroots grassroots movement - comprising more than ten thousand OS/2 fans inside and outside IBM. This is one of the earliest examples of both online viral phenomena and the causes of attracting supporters primarily through online communication.
The downgrade of the OS/2 Team mostly coincided with IBM's negligence of OS/2 by IBM and the precursor to which Microsoft was mastered on OS/2, the OS/2 Team, and IBM's initial effort in online evangelism.
Video Team OS/2
History
Beginner
The OS/2 team was a significant factor in OS/2 deployment and acceptance. Formed in February 1992, OS/2 team started when IBM employee Dave Whittle, recently appointed by IBM to evangelize OS/2 online, IBM's internationally titled TEAMOS2 FORUM on IBM's worldwide network, which at the time, served more individuals than did the more academic Internet.
The forum header states that the goal is
The forum became viral as more and more number of IBM around the world began to contribute various ideas on how IBM can compete effectively with Microsoft to establish OS/2 as an industry standard desktop operating system. In a short time, thousands of IBM employees have added the word TEAMOS2 to their list of internet phone directories, allowing anyone in IBM to find a company-minded OS/2 fan and work together to overcome the challenges posed by IBM's size, shortsight, and style top-down marketing. TEAMOS2 FORUM quickly attracted the attention of several IBM executives, including Lee Reiswig and Lucy Baney, who, after initial skepticism, offered moral and financial support to Whittle's grassroots and online marketing efforts. IBM's official program for generating mouth-to-mouth enthusiasm is called "OS/2 Ambassador Program", where OS/2 enthusiasts across the company can win the Golden, Silver, and Bronze pins of the Ambassador and the recognition of companies with varying levels of structured achievement. Both the OS/2 Ambassador Program and Team OS/2 are effective in OS/2 evangelism within IBM, but only Team OS/2 are effective in generating support for OS/2 promotions outside of IBM.
Externalization
Whittle began expanding the OS/2 Team effort beyond IBM with various posts on CompuServe, Prodigy, bulletin boards, newsgroups, and other places. He also made a proposal for IBM executives, which they finally implemented when the IBM Personal Software Items moved to Austin, Texas, that they formed the "Marketing Department of Grass Roots".
The OS/2 team went out that spring, when the first OS/2 Team Feast was held in Chicago. The IBM Marketing Office in Chicago made huge banners visible from the streets. Microsoft reacted when Steve Ballmer roamed the floor with apps on disks that had been programmed specifically to crash OS/2; and OS/2 fans gathered for a night of excitement at the first OS/2 Team party. Tickets are limited to those who ask them in one of the online discussion groups. Participants are asked to nominate their favorite "Teamer" for "Team OS/2 Hall of Fame", and those whose names are drawn forward to tell the story of their candidate - what sacrifices they make to promote OS/2 and why they deserve recognition. The prizes included the limo rides that night. In the end, all participants received the first TEAM OS/2 T-shirt, which included the first OS/2 Team logo on the front and the blue-backed IBM logo on the back - except in lowercase: "ibm/2" to represent the new IBM. Even the lead singer in the Chicago band who has provided music for the event asked if they could have a T-shirt for every band member. One IBM executive who attended said it was the first IBM event that had made her goosebumps.
After that, the word about the OS/2 team phenomenon spreads faster, both inside IBM and without. OS/2 fans spread the word to computer user groups across the United States, then eventually around the world, regardless of IBM's marketing efforts. Specify some localized localized forums at IBM, such as TEAMNY, TEAMDC, TEAMFL, TEAMTX, and TEAMCA, which attract new supporters and enable enthusiastic followers to share ideas and success stories, plan events, and creatively apply what they learn from one to another.
The "Teamer Invasion" from COMDEX in the fall of 1993 is probably a high watermark for Team OS/2. COMDEX was, at that time, the most important computer and electronic trade fair, held in Las Vegas. Wearing a salmon-colored shirt that became associated with Team OS/2, group members, led by Doug Azzarito, Keith Wood, Mike Kogan, IBM User Group Manager Gene Barlow, and others roam the convention floor, promote OS/2 and give demo discs to the vendor and offer to install the distributed OS/2 version on the display computer. Many OS/2 team volunteers have traveled to their own conventions, including some from abroad; so their independence and their grassroots spirit attracted significant attention in the media and among exhibitors.
Very little funds are provided by IBM to provide shirts, "knick-knacks and garbage", and headquarters at work for Timers to coordinate their efforts and collect items to be provided to vendors. IBM has established the previously proposed Root Grass Marketing department, and even tapped Vicci Conway and Janet Gobeille to provide support and guidance for Team OS/2 with Whittle voluntarily stepping aside from the previous day's focus to support and monitor OS Team 2 activities. Janet was nicknamed "Team Godmother", but everyone at IBM, especially Whittle, was wary of trying to steer volunteers or make Team OS/2 too structured or formal, to avoid "breaking something that worked".
According to the OS/2 Team Document Frequently Asked Questions, OS/2 Team at one point had a presence (sponsoring members willing to publish their e-mail address as a point of contact) in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany , Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom; and online at America Online, CompuServe, Delphi, FidoNet, Genie, Internet/Usenet/mail servers, Prodigy, and WWIVNet.
Analysis
In an article analyzing the OS/2 Team and its meaning and context, Robert L. Scheier lists several factors that drive the group's success. These include the creation of a strong group identity with a strong name, corporate support without company direction, the ability of volunteer members to do things the company can not do, keeping it "loose" and relatively unstructured, giving a lot of smaller material rewards. without compensation, and listening to team members as if they were "people's eyes and ears."
However, it is lacking the Team OS/2 structure that makes it vulnerable. Various journalists have documented Microsoft's "dirty tricks" campaign. Online, many individuals (nicknamed "Microsoft Munchkins" by John C. Dvorak) use pseudonyms to attack OS/2 and manipulate online discussions. Whittle is the target of a widespread online character assassination campaign.
Some of the less enthusiastic journalists about OS/2 received death threats and other malicious emails from various sources, identified in the slogan as "OS/2 Team" without a name. Whether this attack pattern is part of Microsoft's efforts or from Team OS/2, that identity is never proven. In the end, at least some of Microsoft's efforts are exposed in the Canopus forum of Will Zachmann in CompuServe, where the owner of a particular account, as if it belonged to "Steve Barkto", (who attacked OS/2, David Barnes, Whittle, and others). OS/2 fans) is funded by Rick Segal credit cards, high-level Microsoft employees and evangelists, who are also active in the forum. James Fallows, a nationally renowned journalist, weighs to argue that the fingerprints of the style found in Barkto's outposts almost certainly match the style fingerprints in Microsoft's evangelist post. Will Zachmann sent an open letter to Steve Ballmer, who in vain demands a public inquiry into Microsoft's publicly traded business practices.
Decline
At the peak of marketing efforts, the OS/2 Team made up of more than ten thousand known members, and countless unrecorded members. IBM acknowledges publicly that without OS/2 team, there may not be a fourth generation ("Warp 4") of the operating system. However, IBM's Marketing Director of the Grassroots Marketing Department made the decision to meet the target of cutting the number of its employees by eliminating the entire department - one week before 1995 Fall Comdex. Microsoft executives are said to be happy and OS/2 members around the world are said to be incredulous.
Within months, Whittle and Barlow had left IBM, Conway and Gobeille moved inside IBM, and Teamers were destroyed by IBM's announcement that individual desktop version marketing would end. Most of the team members eventually migrated from OS/2 to Linux, which offered the power and stability they expect from OS/2, and where much of what is learned with Team OS/2 inspires at least a few in Linux and the Open Source Movement.
Maps Team OS/2
Legacy
Microsoft attempted to create a "Team NT" for COMDEX Fall 1995, but this is widely mocked as a conspicuous impersonation attempt. Team NT members are Microsoft employees, and are called "Nice Try Team" by industry experts like Spencer F. Katt (pen name with various contributors, such as Paul Connolly), at PCWeek Magazine.
When Microsoft prepared the first version of Windows NT (set up "Version 3.1") in 1993, a group of Texas computer users (HAL-PC) invited IBM and Microsoft to "shoot" the public between the two operating systems. The videotapes of the two demonstrations were then distributed by IBM and Team OS/2 members. Compared to the dynamic presentation provided by David Barnes when he put OS/2 through his steps, Microsoft and NT presenters showed so badly that Microsoft demanded that all part of the PB presentation is cut from the video cassette distributed by IBM from the event.. This results in publishing an edited version of the recording, but hundreds of original (full) copies have been released. The cut version of "OS/2 - NT Shootout" tape has been dubbed "OS/2 - NT Shootdown" or "The Shootdown of Flight 31". The tape has been used to train professional software and hardware presenters who may face user groups.
See also
- Operating system advocacy
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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