Channel 9 is a Microsoft community site for Microsoft customers created in 2004. It hosts video channels, discussions, podcasts, screencasts and interviews. Channel 9, launched in 2004 when Microsoft's corporate reputation was at a low, was the company's first blog. It was named after the United Airlines audio channel that lets airplane passengers listen in on unfiltered conversation in the cockpit, to reflect its strategy of publishing conversations among Microsoft developers, rather than its chairman Bill Gates who had previously been the "face" of Microsoft.This made it an inexpensive alternative to Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference, then the main public platform where customers and outside developers could speak to Microsoft employees without the intervention of the compan