Questions and Comments for Symantec’s CEO

Chuck Talk writes “Last week, John Thompson, CEO of Symantec Corp., gave a keynote address at Comdex as reported by eWeek magazine. That address warned manufacturers that unless they got their collective act together and provide more secure products, users will drop their usage of the Internet out of sheer frustration.

I think his sentiment is prescient, but I have questions I would like to see Symantec address. I will try to explain my position and the reasons for that opinion in a manner which is hopefully fair to Mr. Thompson, because I obviously have only the tiniest bits of his speech available to me from which to guide my statements here. I did not have the luxury of attending Comdex, nor his speech directly, so I can only speak to the snippets of his speech that were reported.

That is my disclosure about the following opinion. It would be nice if transcripts were generally available, but a lot of times, people do not have access to such in the publicly reported media. It is problematic for the industry, for we do not know who is actually setting the tone of the message being conveyed. Is it the reporters bias, or is it the actual message that was intended to be conveyed to the audience by the speaker?

Generally, I find eWeek to be a far better source of reporting than their colleagues in the trade media at ZDNet or C|Net, even though they are all a part of the same Ziff Davis Media Group of companies. At least at eWeek, you tend to be better informed of the events that occur, rather than receive wild reporting. They have proven to be a better source of truth in media, by reporting the facts and performing honest disclosure on their sources.