Most popular giveawy were pens and candy; T-shirts were hard to come by. Several vendors -- SoftSource, Intergraph, Bentley -- gave away CD-ROMs of demo software.
Irritatingly enough, the phrase "object oriented" was on the lips of every CAD hawker. If their software wasn't object-oriented, then it would be in the foreseeable future. In her keynote, Carol Bartz hit the nail on the head: "I can see your eyes glazing over when I say object-oriented and interoperability." Still, OO is where CAD is desparately headed this year and our July issue of the CAD++ Newsletter will examine the OO offerings from a half-dozen vendors, plus an in-depth look at Visio Technical, the first OO-sort-of CAD package.
This message is distributed to all collegues I know of who regularly write about Autodesk products and who earn more than a minimal percentage of their income from doing so. I want to tell you a little story about what can happen when you deal with a monopolist. And I want to warn you to be *very* careful selecting your business directions.
Since 1986, I am a part of the so-called "Autodesk Virtual Corporation." As part of my business, I have written hundreds of articles plus two dozen books about Autodesk products. In that way I have generated a lot of "good press" for Autodesk and IMHO I thought I was of use for the "Virtual Corporation."
I have not, however, blindly followed the company line. When things are wrong with the product or the company, I have said so. You don't make friends doing so. Since the founding of the Autodesk Germany office, I have been called "sarcastic" or "cynical" with every article I wrote in Germany (whether it was positive or not). As an example, a recent review of CADKEY LISP was deeply criticised even though I found *nothing* positive about CKLISP over AutoLISP.
Over the last year, Autodesk Germany has more or less ignored me. They did not send any press releases, nor invitations to press events, nor send software to write about. I accepted this as some kind of game they wanted to play. Maybe they thought this would get me to be quiet. But since there are many other Autodesk offices and since I have many long-time friends, I kept on doing business as usual, getting all I need from other sources.
I don't want to have a bad relationship and tried over and over to keep at least a formal, if not friendly, relationship with Autodesk Germany. On May 15, I requested by letter a review copy of AutoCAD LT Release 2. Here's Autodesk response (translated from German and comments in italics added by me):
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"Dear Mr. Rudolph
"Since 1991, when Autodesk GmbH began its operations in Germany, we have tried to have constructive cooperation with you.
(I worked with both Autodesk Europe and Autodesk Germany (which existed as a technical office many years before 1991) since 1986. 1991 was the year when the operation was overtaken by box-pushers and relocated to Munich.)
"After receiving your letter of May 15 (my formal request for a US copy of LT2) we thought over the situation. Consequently, we decided to no longer support this cooperation with your work in this form.
"How did this come about? Despite our many attempts to view the cooperation as a constructive joint interest, we do not see any ambition or attempt from your side. You never visit our events.
(These are press conferences where technically-incompetent people read the German translation of weeks-old USA press releases; attending these costs me more than US$600 in travel expenses plus a work day. I can never tell how much money I'll make from writing an article about Multimedia Explorer.)
"You never request the information we supply.
(I always requested this until they stopped informing me about their existence.)
"And you are not interested in a dialogue with us.
(This depends on with whom you "dialogue".)
"Our background material and commentaries on your artivles seem to have no priority for you.
(I have *never* received commentaries; rather, it was the publishers I write for who received phone calls: "How could you have Rudolph write this?")
"The tenor of your reviews is always negative and concentrates on the weaknesses of our software products, not on their strengths.
(Dietmar's Rule #1: "If it's good, tell the people; if it's not, tell them as well.)
"Of course, we do not want pure promotion of our company. (No comment.) Other writers also display criticism. Cooperation, however, should be valuable for both sides. Partners in our Virtual Corporation need to see and follow the company's interests.
"Due to these reasons it is not possible to send you an English-language review copies of our products. Also, we request that you return all evaluation copies of our software ever sent to you for your work on books or software reviews by one month from now.
"Signed:
Bettina Mueller (Press Relations)
Robert Gatz (Director of Marketing)"
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I must say that *this* is far beyond fun. This is an attempt to prohibit journalists doing their job. It is censorship in its rudest form and it reminds me of very difficult times both in the USA (McCarthy-ism during the 50s) and in Germany during the 30s.
The reason for my letter is to warn you. If you are doing business in the Autodesk field, do so. But always beware not to base *all* your business with Autodesk.
Think about it: How would such a cut-off by Autodesk affect you? For me, the only consequence is that I might need to *buy* a copy of AutoCAD to continue with my daily work. But for some of you, such a decision by TPTB (the powers that be) at Autodesk might ruin your business.
If you have had a similar (or completely different) experience with Autodesk Author Support, I'll be glad to hear. Would make a good topic for an article.
Dietmar Rudolph 100015.1632@compuserve.com
CR/LF GmbH, Obere Fuhr 27, D-45136 Essen, Germany
Tel.: +49 201 254566, Fax: +49 201 256669
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