• Vista Wallpapers
• Windows Wallpapers

Channel 9 was a radical development for Microsoft, because it sought to provide developers with an unfiltered inside view. The rawness of the early videos contributed to that sense of being inside the company.

Lenn Pryor, then Microsoft's director of Platform Evangelism, was the mastermind behind Channel 9. In the year before he left Microsoft, Channel 9 certainly offered more view inside the company, but it's debatable how unfiltered. In past conversations with Pryor, he indicated the site worked largely independent of public relations influence. The Channel 9 Doctrine makes a similar position.

However, some developers see the video blogsite differently.

"Channel 9 is little more than a PR machine," said Chris Martindale, a developer with Interactive Business Systems, in Oak Brook, Ill. "I haven't really found much use for that site since it was first announced. Same with their Channel 10 site."

Marindale emphasized, "I absolutely love Microsoft products, but I feel the Channel 9 site is more of a way for them to play at being hip and cool as well as show off their products and only give their view on them."

Jurgen Altziebler, interactive experience director at branding agency Corebrand, Stamford, Conn., finds more value in Channel 9.

"I think it's great resource [that] gives me 'backstage access.'" But he cautioned, "I just really hope it stays that way and it won't become a fake reality show."

Yes, It's About Marketing As a marketing concept, Channel 9 is brilliant. But marketing is the key descriptor. The site is run by people paid to evangelize Microsoft products. Their job is to win over developers to Microsoft products.

Channel 9 is not today what its creators professed three years ago. Many videos are now coordinated with Microsoft announcements. If Microsoft releases a new product or technology, Channel 9 often has the inside view—Microsoft's perspective—which is very much about marketing the products to developers or other customers.