So here's the real question... can this foundation be used by external collaborators to start driving the process of cultural change inside Microsoft with regard to patents?

People interested in seeing MS step away from the patent litigation strategy its been using lately have two options really. One they can hold their breath and continue to encourage people to not participate in Microsoft community efforts until this changes. This is a boycott approach to forcing change by setting up an us versus them dialog.

Or people who want to see Microsoft's patent litigation culture change can engage and participate in something like this foundation and try to drive a cultural change from inside Microsoft's own ecosystem.

I think ultimately we are going to need both...both the carrot and the stick. We've gotten a good handle on hold to wield the stick. I'm not so sure we know how to comfortably hold the carrot without risking our fingers getting bitten off.

Corporate culture is always multi-faceted. What we have to figure out how to do is lift up the individuals and teams who are trying to spread a more open business culture..even when their views are not yet the dominate business in the corporate entity.

It's going to be tough to do in Microsoft's case, but we have to figure out how to do it. Cultural revolutions are not imposed from the outside...not even a business cultural revolution. The seeds of a Microsoft transition into a community friendly business that is willing to voluntarily dismantle its own patent litigation apparatus must be sown inside their own ecosystem.

I'm sure this is all very serious, Microsoft sees all the benefits of open source software and all that, and it's not their official opinion that it is all an unamerican cancer anymore, but what's Miguel de Icaza got to do with this? Why would be Microsofts puppet again?

While open source developers usually welcome any company willing to further the cause of open source, developers should be very cautious about any Microsoft open source contribution.
Microsoft do not understand open source software and continue to pursue indirect attacks upon open source software distributors and developers.

This is a bad show by Microsoft. They only need join OSI :
http://www.opensource.org/
and stop attacking open source.
OSI is the only initiative open source developers need.
Open source developers neither need policy dictated to them by Microsoft, nor do open source developers need the open source definition re-defined by Microsoft.
A Microsoft open source foundation contradicts the OSI and is a form of attack because Microsoft is not a member of the OSI.

Open source is open source. It has absolutely no need to be masqueraded under any Microsoft "Umbrella." Nor do open source developers need any help from Microsoft.
Microsoft can contribute open source code and that's fine but they have a very long wait ahead of them before they can try any thing similar to this and gain any kind thrust from the open source development community.

Yet another crack in the armour of MS. If you can't beat em join em? Of course. They're not trying to join, but in typical fashion of everything they have ever done they're trying to re-invent the wheel to an MS labelled one. It won't work. 25 years of being the devil does not make one trustworthy overnight.

Realising their business model is dead as a result of FOSS is one thing. Participating in FOSS in any meaningful way is another. I don't believe they have the knowledge or understanding to do it and personally, I wish they'd just roll over and die. The have brought nothing good to the IT world and their stench will permeate the industry for years to come. At least in terms of FOSS the people can choose not to participate. As I hope they all do. There are more than enough genuine FOSS projects and foundations with proven morals and goals. MS can never be trusted to treat anyone with even the slightest ounce of respect and anything offered will be used against you as soon as it is commercially viable for MS to turn the tables.

Gee according to Micro$oft Linux was a virus !
my oh my have times have changed !

First they spread more lies and FUD regarding Linux and open-source and now they want open-source developers to contribute to a foundation created by Microsoft? I wonder how long it will be before this new foundation turns out to be yet another tool used against Linux.

Microsoft isn't doing anybody any favors. They don't care about open source. They only care about MONEY and how FAT they can make their pockets by putting out shotty OS after shotty OS.

Microsoft are trying to own the name Open Source. This is marketing pure and simple. They will use the name to tell businesses, legislators and governments that they are an Open Source company with their own open source foundation.

This is typical MS fashion, to copy what they can not directly compete with, than try to assimilate.

But, you can not assimilate Open Source, so all they are hoping to do is follow the industry, and see where it takes them. They know, (the executives) can not beat Open Source and all the foundations and companies supporting it, so they might as well be another one to support it.

In the end, it does not really matter.

It seems quite simple to me; Microsoft wants to control the dialog on open source software. If there is open source software, they want it on Windows or other MS technology bases. If corporations contribute to open source solutions, MS wants them to be on MS/Windows/IIS-centric open sourced projects. If people or companies go searching for info on open source philosophies or information, MS wants them to land on their foundation's page rather than OSI, EFF, FSF, or gnu.org. I'm betting CodePlex shows up a whole lot more often on Bing than the other foundations or organizations.

People won't want what they don't know about.

Don't trust Microsoft for a moment when it comes to open source, they have something up their sleeve. If they are TRULY forming a open source foundation, they should release (open source) Windows 95, 98, Win 2K & 2K Pro, XP (home & pro). That would at least make them appear to be open source. But it would be fantasy to see the above happen. Somehow, one way or the other, they are going to at the very least try to get Mozilla and Linux to "merge" with them, then take total control. Microsoft has no place in the open source market. They are clearly a for profit corporation and the open source world would be better off without them.