Loosely Coupled Thinking

3 "Chief" Technology Officers. mmmh

I gues you would have the "Chief" - then the "Cheifier" and then the "Chiefeyist"

Who was the prior CTO?

I guess one could look at it that way if their responsibilities overlapped. Craig, David and Ray all focus on different areas:

Craig Mundie works with government and business leaders to address technology and policy issues related to security, privacy, telecommunications regulation, intellectual property and software procurement standards.

David Vaskevitch focuses on developing a unified strategy and architecture for future Microsoft platforms.

I expect Ray Ozzie will be focusing on communication and collaboration, building on the foundation of Groove.

Stuff like this happens during an acquisition. I once worked as a CTO for a start-up and when we were acquired I wound up with two (sometimes three) titles - none of which could easily fit on a business card (it had two sides!).

To paraphrase the Bard, Titles really mean nothing unless we attach meaning to them. In the end its what you do that matters, regardless of which business card you carry.

It's just coincedent... I came to know about this news today and I wrote this entry yesterday ;)

http://www.shitalshah.com/blog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=ea764760-51bf-48e3-9bc8-78077b620500