Microsoft are well known for their product evangelists, epitomised by the infamous video of Steve Ballmer "dancing". Europe, however, seems to be lacking product evangelists.

Why is this? Are European developers too cynical to get excited about software? Those of us who fit the geek stereotype get excited about t-shirts, desk weights and squishy "thingies", so why won't Microsoft provide us with product evangelists?

I must admit I'm biased. Having spent 1.5 years in a vertical market, video and audio streaming, we usually had problems getting any backing or support from Microsoft when things went wrong or questions needed answered. I'm loathe to throw away the skills gained in streaming and Windows media (such as the amazing WMCupholder), but as the market in the UK consists of 2-3 players and my contract says I cannot work for any provider in the same space, the only way I could continue was to offer my services to MS.

I'd love to get back into the Microsoft bosom, even if it does mean being borgified at Reading, but without any evangelism roles, the only other role would be support. As Windows Media is "free", excluding the Win2k or Win2003 license you need, it appeared to me to be low down in Redmond's list of priorities. It's a shame, if someone had danced for the likes of EMI 2 years ago, we'd have their back catalogue on-line already.

Perhaps one day, MS might wake up and decide Europe needs the dancing developers. In the mean time we end up with independants flying the flag.

Now can some nice .net evangelist mail me and give me some ideas about rolling a calendar control which only allows clicks on dates I specify ...