**FIRST EMAIL**/Looking for Beta Test Teams

[Jack Jones]

If there was no advantage to knowing beforehand, then why did they need an NDA? Some make it sound like knowing early was a disadvantage. Was the NDA in place to keep them from misinforming the rest? Was the “when” in the NDA an arbitrary date, or was it when the test team demonstrated proficiency? Saying that the test teams had more problems than others suggests it was the former, and is not much of an endorsement for beta testing.

In my opinion, information delayed is information denied. But giving select teams the system early is not the only reason I’m against it. I’m against it because it’s a very poor replacement for having the right information provided by the experts who designed the system and who’ve work out the bugs in the actual environment.

I’m not saying that the beta test was worthless. Who knows, maybe we’d still be trying to finish week one with out it? What I am saying is that should not be unnecessary. Give us a good system and we’re capable of figuring it out. We do it with the game design, the KoP, and all the rest without knowing before kick-off. The control system should be no different.

OAO