Microsoft to Staff: Make WP7 Apps On Own Time

Knew there had to be a catch. Microsoft needs apps, and considering Windows Phone 7 uses Silverlight and XNA (and not JRE like iPhone and Android), its gonna be hard convincing 3rd-party developers to re-code their apps.

I also like how this is on their own "spare" time. Microsoft is asking its employees to develop apps, without pay, and you know they won't be allowed to charge anything for them either. Sure, some devs would have done this anyway, but it creates a bad precedent when you expect everyone to do it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_G [...] ientist%29

MSFT employees already do lots of stuff in their spare time like create troubleshooting tools etc. They have internal spaces similar to sourceforge where thousands of apps live.

This is just a push to get all these "hobby programmers" to devote their attention to one particular focus.

This isn't setting any precedent. The precedent is already set. And yes employees would get paid for apps they develop on their own. There are standard NDA, Noncompete and other agreements in place but it's not exactly a slave labor shop.

It may sound funny but I bet they have incentives for doing it on your own time. Microsoft is smart to get their workforce behind the phone to really iron it out and have all kinds of nifty unique apps out launch day. It is not something you see every day in a corporation which is neat.

Really what I'm glad to see:

MSFT tapping into this talent pool like this. It's 90,000 people who are 1) Smart 2) heavy into tech 3) Stockholders 4) Fans.

There has been this collective roar of "we told you so" from employees to management for a long time and it appears to be changing.

I don't think they do expect everyone to do it. They already have a healthy number of developers developing apps for them. As a web developer I could honestly say that the tools that MS provides for wp7 app makers makes it so that developing apps for wp7 can be done in a fraction of the time that it would take to develop for any other platform. I think people are going to be surprised by the amount of apps the wp7 is going to have to start with. You could already view hundreds of youtube videos of apps developed by people like myself for the platform. Ironically enough Developers are going to be wp7s saving grace.

meh..glad i don't work there, i'm pretty sure i already have aland line phone at my desk if i did work there, not to mention the fact i'd be staring right at a giant computer monitor connected to the entire microsoft network.
manager: soooooooo did youget the memo about your new phone yet?
me:uhm about the cellphone?
manager:yaaaaa we need you to work out the bugs for it.
me: i see.
me: and i'm supposed to work on apps for it on my spare time?
manager:yaaaaaa
me: do i get to patent and own all the rights to the app i make?
manager: uhmmmm about that, you see we feel you'd like to get paid for that with a small percentage from the lisc.'ing royalties.
me: oh?
manager: yaaaaa think of it as a 'bonus'.
me: you mean like the deal with activision and infinityward?
manager: uhhhmmmm if you could just get that done before the release date, that'd be greeaaaaaat

If they are allowed to sell the apps and make a profit I think it's a great thing, otherwise F**K M$, that's just stupid.

spare time != time off

I hope the Xbox guys do so and get a lot of games up and running.

Dude, nobody is asking employees to work for free.
Nobody is asking them to fix bugs. They have internal dogfood programs for that and this is for a *released* product.
Nobody is asking them to develop an app on their own time then give up the profits.

People are so jaded.

Yea do that so we don't have to pay you, mmmkay?

I'm a programmer. When I go home from my job, it doesn't end. That's life as a programmer. You live your job. For the company I am employed in, we have a huge meeting with a large corperation in the upcoming weeks, and I have a large platform to create for it. I'll be working overtime and weekends, unpaid, to meet it I expect.

I just care about my job.

Everyone! They got FREE Phones! Remember? And as it was pointed out, they are free to profit from what they develop.

I guess you don't have kids. If you do, I feel sorry for them.

Please, just don't tell me you're doing it purely for love of your company. Even if it doesn't immediately translate to your paycheck/promotion, you know you will benefit from it in the end... That's why you're doing it, right?
But this does not have anything to do with you being a programmer, I'm a programmer myself and I also think about my work after I leave the place... and so do medics, scientists, managers etc.

While a sound initiative, I'm not sure just how much extra time most of the employees have, especially considering their workload and the non-compensated nature of developing for W7P.

Yet another reason why im looking forward to WP7, cant wait!

Why not? Say what you want about Microsoft they obviously have some very talented people. I'm sure they have programmers that aren't even employed as programmers so why not let them loose?

People that say why do work when you're not getting paid? I bet those 90,000 people own a whole ton of Microsoft stock. Believe me they are getting paid when that stock keep going up.

That's cause you're being abused. I used to be a programmer and I can tell you that at NO TIME did I ever break more that 50hrs/week - NEVER. Now that I have engineers working for me, I return the favor - I expect them to work 40-45hrs/week and then go HOME and spend quality time with their families. Will there be occasions that they may have to work longer hours? Sure - but I can tell you that's the rare exception, not the rule.

MSFT has adopted the "We eat our own dog food". Give the phones to the employees, let them iron out the kinks. There's few better ways to do this and I'd challenge a more cost effective way of doing it.

Google is doing the same thing... Having everyone to adopt Google apps and OS will spur the need to innovate and ultimatly compete.

I remember back in the DOS days, I had to learn programming to do certain tasks because there were no apps. Either it be batch file processing or full C programs, it incentivized me to learn and innovate.

Will everyone please just take a deep breath?!

Microsoft is *not* saying with this memo that employees have to develop apps for Microsoft during their spare time. Rather, Microsoft is saying that developers who develop apps in their spare time get to *own* those apps, and make the money from them.
The previous employee development program -- in conjunction with its moonlighting policy -- made it so that Microsoft owned what its developers made, unless they could prove that they hadn't done it with MS-owned/subsidized tools or on MS time (hard to do on salary)... with the unintended consequence being that developers were disinclined to develop apps on their own time.

This updated policy is intended to *encourage* developers to develop their own apps. Microsoft will still reap benefits -- even if not directly from the apps themselves -- because its new platform needs an ecosystem.

...and yes, I do know whereof I speak, because I work there. No evil to see here; please move along.

Like being creative ...

communist.

ok seriously, I'm a programmer, I love programming, do it often in my free time despite doing it at work all day. but I like the FREEDOM to CHOOSE for MYSELF. I don't even want some subtle obligation. I would consider what you are describing as a POOR work ethic, just leads to people taking advantage of you, undue stress and everything else. YOU DESERVE TO BE PAID!, now, if I happen to be genuinely INTERESTED in what I'm doing at work, then sure I'll happily do it in my free time! but I want the complete freedom to choose for my self! (p.s. you can't just be 'interested in programming' hence, love every aspect of the job equally. there are some parts I love doing more than anything else, and there are other parts where I would rather be down a coal mine!)

one of the parts I hate is MINDLESSLY CONVERTING AN ENTIRE CODE BASE just because some LAME company decided to force everyone to code in a different language just for their platform! FU MS! I agree with hellwig! devs aren't gonna like porting to your platform!

I know very little about this MS internal politic. But my question is for a huge or the biggest software company wouldn't be a most to have a 24/7 talented team working on this app development. Or is it implied and the news is MS just wants to push or open the door to their willing workforce?.

MAJOR OMISSION
Msft changed the moonlighting policy, so if we develop Apps on our own time, we get paid for it.
Not exactly free.

Half of us will probably be developing apps at work and getting rich doing it.

Windows Mobile 7 = Kin version 2. No thanks, Microsoft, keep your garbage to yourself.

Windows Mobile 7 = Kin version 2. Awesome Microsoft lets have em!

I laughed... then i felt bad for jim lost @ sea.