Why Microsoft is more like Apple: @JoeMarini

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has accepted the resignation of a fairly-senior manager who "leaked" information via Twitter. Joe Marini, a Principal Program Manager on Windows Phone, is out after tweeting information about an upcoming Nokia (NYSE:NOK) (HEL:NOK1V) phone, running Windows Phone 7.5. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder what all the fuss is about.

Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: You gotta know when to switch off the auto-pilot...
 
 
Todd Bishop moves sideways:

A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed this morning that Joe Marini...no longer works for the company. ... Marini resigned after learning that he would be let go for...disclosure of confidential information.
...
Microsoft’s social media and blogging policy calls on its employees to...not disclose information in tweets or posts that [are] confidential. ... The company has been taking harder line on leaks in general recently.   

  
Gareth Halfacree sees no ships:

Marini was responsible for the first confirmed details on the...device which represents Nokia's first attempt at competing on a level playing field. ... "I just got a chance to try out one of the slickest looking Nokia phones I have ever seen. Soon, you will too!"
...
[B]oth companies are interested in keeping details of the device under wraps until its official launch. Apparently, nobody thought to tell Marini that...[which] has cost him his job.   

 
Ina Fried has the rest of the story:

He then followed up with tweets giving the phone a rating of “8,”...adding that “the camera was good, but I didn’t have optimal lighting. ... I’d like a larger screen too.”
...
Hint: If you are going to tweet about...unreleased products, you might want to give them a “9” or a “10.”   

Is that really grounds for divorce? Chris Velazco has more:

[T]he tweets themselves are hardly what one would call juicy...hardly anything groundbreaking.
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Joe, however, isn’t exactly a first time offender. Back in March, Joe tweeted that he would be showing off an unreleased version of IE9 for Windows Phone. ... [T]his new set of tweets could have been the straws that broke the camel’s back.
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Call me naive, but I think Microsoft and Windows Phone need more people like Joe. ... The offending tweets gave people just enough to whet their interest, and left it at that. ... [At] what point is a leak really a leak?.   

Alex Wilhelm knows what it's like to work for technology companies:

Microsoft is actually famous for being hard to be fired from, but Marini seems to have found a recipe that works.   

  
And Finally...
You gotta know when to switch off the auto-pilot
         
 
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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. He's the creator and main author of Computerworld's IT Blogwatch -- for which he has won American Society of Business Publication Editors and Jesse H. Neal awards on behalf of Computerworld. He also writes The Long View for IDG Enterprise. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itbw@richij.com. You can also read Richi's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.