So to anyone who's read this blog before, as well as new readers - welcome.  The title of this entry suggests that after a long absence from blogging.... I'm baaack!  Whether this is a good thing or not remains to be seen...   The same title also is more appropriate that might first meet the eye for reasons I'll discuss shortly, because this blog is being 'reconstructed' as an Automotive Technology blog.  Why?  Because my team and I feel that we need an outlet for our ideas as a means of reaching our target community, but also hopefully stimulating some discussion and some feedback from that broader community that will make us and our strategy smarter.  We certainly don't think we have all - or even many - of the answers.  So please, if the topics discussed here are of interest, comment away.  I promise to highlight and discuss further comments that progress the topic, even (or especially) if opinions expressed contradict what I originally wrote.  When I ran Advanced Information Technology at Ford Motor (or AIT - hi, AIT alumni out there!) I kept around a senior architect specifically because he was guaranteed to disagree with me on almost every subject, and I felt this was a good way of keeping me honest.  Whether it worked or not is debatable, but Dan Toth knows who he is :-).

Many of you will have recognized the extended piece of the title as being almost a quote from Henry Ford (the canonical form being in fact "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black".  Some of you might be asking though, what does this have to do with Automotive Technology?  The answer is simple - what might have seemed like a simple cost-cutting measure or capriciousness on the part of the great man was in fact an artifact of a technology issue that was part of Henry's quest to improve efficiency in his manufacturing plant.  It's often reported that the reason for choosing black was that the particular enamel chosen dried faster than other paints, and was only available in black, but this doesn't seem to be borne out by Ford engineering documents from the time.  What does appear to be the case is that 30 different types of paint were used for different components and subassemblies for the model T, each chosen to suit the application and durability requirements for that part of the vehicle.  Managing the complexity of multiple colors under these circumstances would have been a nightmarish logistics issue and would definitely have slowed production, so a single color at that point was a very logical choice.  Why Black?  We don't appear to know, but Ford sources of the time suggest that it was picked as a durable and easy-to-repair color choice.  The interesting point here is that the technology drove what was offered to the marketplace in order to meet Ford's overall strategy and business plan, ie. to provide the first vehicle affordable by a mass market - arguably the 'Tata Nano' of it's day (just to make a secondary point that an affordable vehicle for a new market sector isn't exactly a new idea... the Austin Seven, original Volkswagen ('Beetle'), Citroen 2CV and Austin Mini being later examples).

It's not always the case that technology drives consumer choice, but it does happen from time to time around inflection points, and we appear to be at another major inflection point for the automotive industry.  Viewed on a global scale, this has little to do with the current economic crisis or the relative success/failure of different automakers, but has a lot more to do with a tectonic shift in consumer desires and buying patterns towards 'greener' vehicles.  Combined with a generational shift in demographics, and the availability and maturity of technology to enable connected car experiences, hitherto-surpressed major changes in vehicle platforms, architectures, and development methodologies along with examination and experimentation in business models are going to make the next decade or even half decade a very interesting time in the automotive industry.  I'm personally optimistic that the industry - with new partners and participants from other industries - can rise to the challenge and actually engineer themselves back into prosperity, helping to drive overall worldwide economic recovery, by unleashing the innovation they are capable of and so generating a new market for the new vehicle types and services that result.  Following blog posts will take up this theme more comprehensively.

So just to reset expectations and provide a little context, since starting my prior blog series my responsibilities at Microsoft have changed some.  From focussing mostly on solution architecture for specific projects and customer engagements, I'm now responsible for technology strategy for the automotive industry worldwide for Microsoft, as part of a (great and talented) team that looks after how we address the industry in general, and does the same for other industries and verticals.  As a result, we care deeply about where the industry is going and how Microsoft can help the industry get there.  This blog is intended to be a means of exploring selected areas within this scope.  If you happen to be in the Automotive Industry and are interested in hearing a comprehensive view of Microsoft's Automotive Strategy, please contact your local Microsoft representative - or if you don't know who that is, feel free to contact me via this blog.

For anyone following my original post series describing an IT 'History of the Future' I apologize for not finding the time to continue syndicating this content.  It's my intent to update and republish this content elsewhere when I can find some time to do so, and when I do I will cross-reference it from this site so that those interested can read the whole thing - no serialization this time, it will all be there at once.  Promise!

John