http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/storage-soup/the-power-of-the-web-in-dealing-with-vendors/ A SearchStorage.com blog. Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:05:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/storage-soup/the-power-of-the-web-in-dealing-with-vendors/#comment-7232 James Orlean Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:26:37 +0000 http://storage.blogs.techtarget.com/2008/08/11/the-power-of-the-web-in-dealing-with-vendors/#comment-7232 Beth: I think you are right - I think there's a natural reluctance to air dirty laundry in a plainly visable and public way when you are still counting on your vendor for ongoing support - no matter how bad it might be. A web site that other end users and myself put together might open the door for *constructive* criticism of vendors. At Storage Monkeys (a social network for storage end users - http://www.storagemonkeys.com), we require a corporate email address and full names for registration on the site although only the selected user name is connected to any post. This gives both freedom of expression and privacy with a sense of responsibility since the site admins know who is speaking. So far, no one has come unglued over a vendor and discussion has generally revolved around technologies, not specific vendors... but the site is still new and in beta. Eventually we will probably have vendor-specific forums where both end-user and vendor can engage each other on challenging issues. Beth: I think you are right - I think there’s a natural reluctance to air dirty laundry in a plainly visable and public way when you are still counting on your vendor for ongoing support - no matter how bad it might be. A web site that other end users and myself put together might open the door for *constructive* criticism of vendors. At Storage Monkeys (a social network for storage end users - <a href="http://www.storagemonkeys.com" title="http://www.storagemonkeys.com" target="_blank">http://www.storagemonkeys.com</a>), we require a corporate email address and full names for registration on the site although only the selected user name is connected to any post. This gives both freedom of expression and privacy with a sense of responsibility since the site admins know who is speaking. So far, no one has come unglued over a vendor and discussion has generally revolved around technologies, not specific vendors… but the site is still new and in beta. Eventually we will probably have vendor-specific forums where both end-user and vendor can engage each other on challenging issues.

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