The blogger known as Mini-Microsoft will take a break from the anonymous posting on Microsoft’s internal operations now that the company has revamped its internal review processes.
Microsoft’s best known blogger is Robert Scoble, but Mini-Microsoft may have a claim on second place. His influence on the company received Scoble’s imprimatur after a company-wide change in a number of Microsoft’s internal processes became publicly known.
From Scoble’s post after the announcements: “Is Lisa reading Mini? Damn straight she is. This is the “Mini-smackdown” I wanted to see. Hopefully these changes will get us on a more customer-centric path.”
Danny Westneat at the Seattle Times interviewed the Microsoft insider better known as Mini, a blogger who has managed to keep his blogging like secret from his wife and his co-workers, save one who figured out his secret and chose to keep it under wraps.
Westneat knows Mini’s first name, since Mini slipped up and signed it to an email he exchanged with the journalist. That was one of many little mistakes Mini has made, ones that could lead to his outing, and who knows what kind of reprisals he would face if that happened.
In the article, Westneat related one particular exchange with the blogger:
I ask him what he considers his biggest success. His answer: increased transparency, a sense that Microsoft management now has to be more open with its workers.
How many people can claim to have taken on the world’s biggest tech company run by the world’s richest man, and eked out a victory against it? At least one, now.
On his blog, Mini posted on the changes to the review process that he had loathed in a number of blog entries, and how it was time to take a break:
A stark realization came to me when the review performance model changed. The dreaded trended 3.0 is finally gone! Finally. Gone. Why wasn’t I shaking my boo-tay and dancing around like Tony Manero? Amidst all of the great changes and the cheering, my heart felt heavy. Something’s not right, and I don’t feel right with myself….
So does this mean that this is the end of Mini-Microsoft? For now, yes, but only my end of it. The rest is up to you.
—
Add to 
Bookmark Murdok: 
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
