An operating system, a horse, and transparency

Catching up on my Microsoft-related blog feeds this morning, I counted at least a dozen blogs announcing the new Windows 7 blog -- some rah-rah posts, some just passing it on, some speculating as to how much information the blog will actually provide, plus some conversations on the pros and cons of transparency.

Coincidentally, last night I came across an example that illustrates when transparency is the best solution for a situation.

You see, the town of Hickman, Nebraska has made national news because they want to evict an old horse from city limits. I'm guessing that they've been inundated with queries, complaints, and accusations as a result. So, they turned their city's homepage into a timeline of events to explain the situation to all of us who probably couldn't find Hickman on a map and have no intention of moving there but feel it's our business whether the horse stays or goes. (You can probably tell that my sympathy has shifted toward the town's side...)

In my aspect as a customer, I'd be fascinated by similar disclosure about a product in development. But I can also imagine reading "Discussed flippeting the gibbet. Decided it wasn't feasible in this timeline." and being disappointed, because although I'd never had cause to flippet a gibbet before, now that it had been suggested and taken away, I wanted that feature back!