Month: June 2008

Mix08 Notes: Keynote #1 – Ray Ozzie

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Mix08 in Las Vegas  (5-7 Mar 2008)

Ray Ozzie
[KYN0801, 0:00]

– Lots of great products during past year
– Many software projects finally coming to fruition this coming year
– Mix ’08 is 1st of key launch milestones this year, culminating at PDC in October
– Many key elements of Software+Services will be released this year
– Let’s look at big picture, put various products into context

– Two distinct aspects of Microsoft’s services strategy
– Things that we do to deeply embrace advertising, which is economic engine that powers the web
– Internet is reshaping & transforming Microsoft’s existing products and services

– Advertising
– Innovation in the experiences on the web provides fuel for ad-based economic engine

– Content, Commerce, Community web properties–key drivers of user engagement
– Innovation in community area transforms the other properties (content/commerce) on the web
– E.g. blogs, social networks, etc.
– Greater and greater user engagement
– This user engagement is why advertising is now huge economic force on the web
– Online ads projected to grow from $40 billion to $80 billion over next 3 yrs
– Advertising is going to be the primary way that we all monetize services/apps on the web

– Aspect 1:  What is Microsoft’s role in advertising on the web?
– Ensure that there is vibrant advertising ecosystem on the web
– Based on highly competitive ad platform
– Significantly investing in search and in content/commerce/community innovation
– Goal: highly engaged, well-targeted audience

– Aspect 2:  How is the web impacting Microsoft’s products/services?
– Look at 3 core principles that MS is using to drive reconceptualization of its software, to embrace world of services

– 3 core principles
– People — Think of the web as a hub — of social & technology experiences — our “social mesh” and “device mesh”
– (Fundamental changes impacting the individual)
– Business — provide power of choice as enterprise moves to embrace the cloud
– Developers — We need to embrace a world of “small pieces, loosely joined”

– Principle 1 — Think of web as a hub / mesh
– Social mesh — interpersonal nature of web will impact everything that MS does
– All applications will incorporate the “group forming” aspects of the web   (linking, sharing, ranking, tagging)
– Device mesh — number & diversity of our devices is on the rise  (phones, PCs, smart TVs, DVRs, media centers, game consoles, car nav systems, etc)
– Idea of “My computer”, single PC, is dated, quaint
– Give way to personal collection of connected devices, brought together by the web
– Web serves as hub for these meshes

– Principle 2: Power of choice in the enterprise
– Most enterprises are in early stages, transition from dedicated application servers to virtualization and consolidating apps on computing grids
– “Virtualization powered utility computing model”
– Spans from enterprise data center, to cloud
– Utility computing model will reshape enterprise applications
– All of Microsoft’s software will be re-factored to have symmetry between
– Enterprise-based software
– Partner-hosted services
– Services in the cloud
– Power of server-service symmetry, allows IT to choose
– Systems are distributed, and federated

– Principle 3: Small pieces loosely joined
– Fabric of software & service componentry, spans from cloud to to world of devices
– Applications are trending towards loosely-coupled compositions
– Cooperating systems
– Transparency, standards, interoperability are key
– Lightweight APIs ubiquitous, e.g. REST, RSS, between services across the web
– XAML allows repurposing UI components
– New apps needing to extend beyond the browser, beyond the PC
– Users expecting rich, seamless experiences, delivered across all of their devices
– Applications take advantage of unique strengths of each platform
– Multi-device UI environment
– At back-end, new design models, more appropriate for cloud
– Vast arrays of commodity computing resources–storage & software
– Need new skills to: write code on back-end; deploy across grid; debug remotely
– Developer skills changed by shift to utility computing model

– How will Microsoft products be impacted by these principles?
– Will talk about specific offerings in 5 major groupings
– Connected devices, connected entertainment, connected productivity, connected business, connected development

– Connected devices
– We’re juggling/managing more and more interconnected devices
– Many of them are internet-aware at birth
– Use software to bring them all together into your own personal device mesh with web as hub
– Devices report into central server for status, health, location
– Remote control of all your devices, from anywhere
– Transparent synchronization of data across all devices
– Bi-directional synch of arbitrary feeds
– Application mgmt–centralized web-based deployment of device-based applications
– App platform that is cognizant of all of your devices
– MS has been working on this already
– For starters, looking at PCs, bringing all your machines into single seamless mesh
– Using web as hub
– Live Mesh tech preview

– Connected entertainment
– Only license your media once
– Organized collections/subscriptions once
– Use any of your devices to access/enjoy your media
– On portable device, in living room, on desktop
– Each person has “media-centric web presence” — express your tastes, interact w/others
– Microsoft entertainment products/services will be progressively transformed by this connected entertainment vision

– Connected productivity
– Productivity (for MS) =
– Office for PC
– Office Mobile for phone
– Office Live for web
– Seamlessly enjoy
– Rich dynamic benefits of working on PC
– Mobility, capture capabilities of phone
– Work-anywhere ubiquity of Internet
– Devices seamlessly connected, using web as “experience hub”
– Office live extends productivity into social mesh, sharing/tagging, etc.
– Office Live Workspace — in beta, Mar08
– Focus on servicing individual’s productivity needs
– Also deliver connected productivity to people in enterprise  (e.g. Sharepoint, Exchange)

– Connected business (enterprise)
– Services, e.g. CRM, CRM Live
– Well received by small businesses
– Biggest impact of services on business — will come from shift to utility computing within enterprise
– During past year:
– Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V
– System Center products, e.g. Virtual Machine Manager
– “Embrace utility computing in the cloud”
– Now releasing:
– Online business services, beta in Mar08
– Run Exchange, Sharepoint, Office Communications as either local servers or as services in the cloud
– Beta for SQL Server Data Services — API for online data storage; high-scale database services

– Connected development
– Realizing connected development environment through:
– .NET Framework
– Silverlight
– Expression Studio  (designers)
– Visual Studio  (developers)

– This year, delivering on potential promised w/Silverlight
– Devs have many amazing technology choices to pick from
– You should “bet on Microsoft” — can create extraordinary experiences across world of devices

Why Blog?

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Ok, here we go–first post in a brand new blog!  What to say?  Oh, the intimidation factor of the blank page.. Though I’ve been journaling compulsively for years and I’m a fairly avid writer, there is an odd feeling to the idea of a public blog.  I realize that blogs are primarily an ego-boosting activity for most people and likely to be unread by all but the author and maybe some family members.  So I’m under no illusions that my ramblings will be read by anyone but me.  But still–writing a blog feels like stepping up to a microphone in some huge auditorium.  Granted, the auditorium is empty at the moment, but it’s still a tiny bit intimidating.

When it comes to blogging, I’m still also suffering to some extent from what my wife and I refer to as a strong case of “disdainium”.  When I first heard about people blogging, or touting their blogs, I scoffed at what I felt was just a fancy new name for plain old ego-laden personal web pages.  Okay, the typography and layout was clearly superior, based on some very nice templates.  But that only served to make the trite content more painful to read because it looked so nice.

So what is the deal with blogs?  Are they really worth writing?  Worth reading?  The answer is, for some authors, absolutely.  Reading content written by the likes of Steve McConnell, Joel Spolsky, Jeff Atwood, or Mary Jo Foley is always time well spent.  These are people who would be writing good books or good technical articles if they weren’t blogging.  Actually, these are people who DO write good books and good technical articles.  A blog is nothing more than a low-energy mechanism for good authors like this to share miscellaneous thoughts with us.  And blogging lets us enjoy them in many tiny little doses, rather than waiting for months to read the next article or for years to digest the next big book.

So we should, indeed, thank the original authors of the blog tools that came up with the now familiar reverse chronological format.  Sure, our favorite bloggers could easily be publishing static web content every week, dishing up plain old HTML.  But the rise of blogging as a well-known cultural phenomenon just lowers the barriers to publishing one’s own content.  And so, for authors of engaging content, blogging is truly a no-brainer.

And what about the rest of us?  Just because we can say something, should we?  If the band leaves the microphone on while they go on break, should the rowdy at the front table walk up there and start babbling to the crowd?  Well, that depends on who the audience is.  At the bar, if the audience is mainly the rowdy’s frat buddies, he should absolutely step up–he’ll be well received.  At orchestra hall, or a coffee shop, well–probably not so much.

When it comes to blogging, the same holds true.  It all depends on the audience.  If my audience is my wife and my mother-in-law, then blogging about my daughter’s latest potty-training escapade will be much appreciated.  And I won’t truly be that heartbroken when Joel Spolsky doesn’t read my blog.  But the beauty of the web is that it’s truly democratic.  Though we basically have one microphone, we’re not all forced to sit in this room and listen to whoever is talking.  For the most part, natural selection will prevail and the people who are the most interested in what we have to say will end up reading what we write.

So that brings me to the critical first-post question–why am I blogging?  This is the same as asking–what do I want to say and who do I want to say it to?  The obvious follow-on question is then–is blogging the best way to communicate with this audience?

For me, it turns out that I’ve thought about blogging for a number of years and managed to resist the temptation until now.  I always ended up concluding that it would just be an ego-feeding activity with not much real value.  Although I love to write and I’ve always written for myself recreationally, I’ve never had much of a desire to write for other people.  And given the cacophony of blogging going on right now on the web, I honestly don’t feel that I have much to add that is of value–or that anyone else would care to read.  I’m also the kind of person who always has about a hundred personal projects that I’m working on concurrently, so I really don’t need to add what I figured was a low-value project like blogging to the list.

But in the end, I come back to the core idea of blogging–it really doesn’t matter if anyone else reads this stuff.  If I have some topic that I’ve invested enough thought into to write it down anyway, why not use blogging as a vehicle for my writing?  That way, I end up with all my ramblings and notes in a central place where I can get at them.  And if there’s someone else out there that gets a little bit of value from what I’m rambling on about, that’s fine too.

As it turns out, I’ve been journaling at a pretty good clip for years.  And, like most diarists, I guess I have a couple of audiences in mind as I write.  My first audience is myself.  Writing about daily life, experiences, or people I interact with is just a great way for me to process everything.

But as I write, I’m also always thinking about my second audience–posterity.  For me, this mainly means–my kids reading my journals at some distant point in the future, after I’ve gone.  I’m sure I’ll write a lot more on this in the future, but this ties in with my passion for family history and capturing personal and family experiences.  I would give anything to have more snippets of writing from my Dad or other family members who are no longer with us.

So that brings my back to blogging.  I’ll never publicly publish any of my journaling on the web.  That’s far too exhibitionist for my taste.  But aside from journaling, there are plenty of miscellaneous thoughts and ramblings that I wouldn’t mind capturing–for myself and in a format that I can pass on to my kids.  I’m under no illusions that I have anything all that mind-bending to say.  But it is what it is and a blog isn’t a half bad place to keep this stuff.  It’s a place that I can come back to myself, for reference.  And if someone else stumbles on my collection of mental trinkets and finds something of value in one of them, then it will have been well worth the effort.