You know when you forget to wish someone a happy birthday and aren’t sure if you should still bring it up when you remember later? Well, that’s the boat I’m in, but I’m going to swallow my pride and do it anyway: Happy Birthday, Channel 9.   (If you aren’t familiar with Channel 9, read about it here.)

It’s interesting watching the video with Anders Heljsberg and his comment that we now take Channel 9 for granted, but in its early days it was somewhat controversial and out-of-the-box for Microsoft.  I think back to my perception of Microsoft before joining the company and before Channel 9, and it really did feel like a faceless company.  Things have changed dramatically on that front. Between the various bloggers at Microsoft as well as all of the videos and conversations on Channel 9, the company is hardly faceless any more.   The whole origin of the name Channel 9 – the channel on an airplane in which you can listen to the conversations happening in air traffic control – speaks well to its goal of providing a window (no pun intended) into what’s happening inside the company.  And it was really Channel 9 that helped jump start that for Microsoft.

I want to give a particular shout out to the work of Charles on Channel 9. The guy is intrepid. He produces so many amazing interviews about things happening at Microsoft that would otherwise go completely under the radar. It’s not like they always come to him either: he’s out digging up interesting technical things that are happening, like a good journalist.  And, if you get to know his interview style, he turns out to be a great journalist, asking the right questions, sometimes the hard questions, but also always letting the interviewee have space to respond.  If you look at the Going Deep show he’s done, you’ll find simply an amazing array of truly “deep” technical interviews with people that know their stuff.  And, he’s been doing it for 5 years. Nice work, Charles!

Go Channel 9!