Microsoft Team Spirit!
As Microsoft employees, we take great pride in our software products and commitment to customers. Microsoft decided a long time ago that we would take a holistic approach and make sure that all our products talk to each other. The integration you see between Windows, Office, Windows Mobile, SQL Server, Visual Studio etc is not an accident. It is a result of endless discussions and collaboration between teams that are often spread out across the huge Redmond campus and sometimes across the country. Our success really depends on internal teams talking to each other and working closely. Without teamwork, we'd be nowhere!
Now, within Windows Mobile there are 2 distinct teams. There's Windows Devices Core (WDC), which is the team responsible for the Windows Mobile OS. That's the base platform team.
Then there's Mobile Information Worker (MIW), which is the team responsible for Outlook Mobile and other applications that run on top of the base OS.
If you love Outlook Mobile – calendar, contacts, email, tasks, notes – all that information you sync on your Windows Mobile device, it's thanks to the MIW team. Where would Windows Mobile be without Outlook Mobile? Scary thought!
Like any good division at Microsoft, the WDC and MIW teams work very closely together and make sure our technologies are in sync. We sometimes like to go overboard to express our deep and sincere appreciation for the work that our partner teams do. So some folks in WDC spent a lot of time last weekend making MIW feel special. I invite you to view a Flickr slide show of this humble team building exercise.
