Amazing and hopeful Day 2 of Microsoft PDC09

 

Despite interspersed humor, Day 2 at PDC09 was seriously about a huge push within MS to engage developers to create apps that will push their SaaS and cloud computing agendas forward and ahead of the competition. Sinofsky admitted to old MS codes and behaviors that had a lot of developers in the past turning away in disgust. I particularly liked his reference to the old “testosterone based bug-fixing” practices formerly employed at MS; the methodology included attending bug-fixing meetings and deciding which of the many bugs was to be fixed by the “guy who could yell the loudest.” He quickly assured that those previous practices were now laughable with the introduction of frequency charting and tracking to determine bug-fix prioritization and selections.

 

Still, you can easily read between the lines and the pleas issued to developers when the slideshow and dialog presented the same list of developer opportunities that were presented last year. Clearly, Microsoft is pleading with developers to get on the bandwagon with their new applications. If you doubt me, you should know that registered conference attendees received a brand new and very cool Windows 7 PDC09 laptop free (with a couple of undisclosed “conditions”) in order to provide developers with a suitable and whiz-bang environment to go forth and develop. Keynotes also spent a lot of keynote time cleverly apologizing for the shortcomings and the arrogance of Microsoft designers and engineers in the past few years. They were quick and adamant in their assurances that things have changed because of the “new Windows management team”, and are definitely changing, with the 2010, Azure, and Windows 7 releases next year.

 

So, what’s new with Office? Well, I covered the changes in the original beta release of Office 2010 several months ago. Since code lockdown happened around that time, you can find out more about actual Office performance and feature changes in my previous columns. From the perspective of this conference, Microsoft is making the Windows 7 (and Office) Ribbons User Interface available to developers so they will hopefully start insinuating this into enough new apps to encourage a Ribbons UI entrenchment, if not a UI standard (see Day 1 references to MS strategy and standards goals). After seeing Scott Guthrie’s (and others’) fascinating Silverlight demos, the Ribbon interface surely provides a compelling advantage when considered with touch-screen and other innovative hardware technologies.

 

By the time Kurt del Bene took the stage, most of the audience was in the materials management booth picking up their new laptops. Still, Kurt had a lot to add to the picture for both developers and users regarding upcoming developments within the Office family. Companies like SnapFlow are working within the SharePoint, Windows 7 and Silverlight worlds to bring automated business processes to the mid-market. They demo’d some very impressive workflow and HR products that were internet based applications unlike what’s out there today. 

 

Microsoft and Silverlight developers will also find it much easier to create enhanced internet experiences with Outlook, Facebook, Linked-In and other public apps. Remember those cool crime scene boards in the movie Minority Report? Well, using Silverlight, Sharepoint, and Outlook technologies, those cool technologies are potentially coming soon to a living room or cube farm near you. 

 

With SharePoint and Office 2010, Office is definitely changing. Kurt informed his audience that through these MS applications, the “3-screens in a cloud” concept would be developed into the “best productivity experience available on PC, phone, and browser-driven devices.” Their BPOS beta now has over 1 million users and growing. Using Sharepoint technology, Microsoft will work with developers to create a unifying user experience that will dramatically enhance Lines Of Business applications across markets. They’re working on powerful ways to integrate the desktop experience and power with seamless SaaS and cloud accessibility.

 

If independent and owned developers buy-in to the Microsoft 2010 dream, they predict greater applications and designs in workflow, collaborative engineering and design, financial analysis across desktop and cloud environments, new CRM and XRM data management and usage, and, flat out, better business connectivity services. We can expect more ribbon driven applications and user experiences across the board. There will be better forms development, and powerful new document library capability that includes being able to associate metadata to library components with content and data management. Finally, one of the more down-to-the-earthlings demo’s introduced MS’ new “Outlook Social Connector.” This Outlook improvement uses Linked-In, Outlook and SharePoint technologies to create predefined single-view capability to see a comprehensive contact file that includes attachments, calendar items and meetings, emails, and other info across several applications. They’re working with other open SDK services to expand this fun even more in the future.

 

Finally, a couple of parking lot items: first, if you’ve been having a lot of difficulty with SAP data, in the second half of 2010 you can expect some announcements about a product called Duet Enterprise. This will allow you to access SAP data and use it in a variety of improved cross-application reporting. Second, yes - the public beta of Office and SharePoint are available by download (see the photo), including Office, Project, SharePoint and Visio. If you load this onto your computer while you’re using and depending on your current Office 2007 applications - you will be very, very sorry. Remember you heard it here first! Developers and testers are invited to do so within proper and well-thought-out processes. Third; if you have in-house Office developers, I suggest you send them to watch the keynote addresses and the other resources that are now available on the www.microsoftpdc.com website, and on the other websites listed in the photo. They’ll be delighted and informed at the product improvements and  progress that appears to be at least hoped for at Microsoft.  And finally, if you visit the www.microsoftpdc.com website along with those listed in the photo, you'll be able to download the slides from the live broadcast presentations and more.  Check it out!